Dzhokhar Musayevich Dudayev (Chechen: Dudin Musa-khant Dzoxar, ????? ????-????? ??????; Russian: ?????´? ????´???? ????´??; US pronunciation ; 15 February 1944 – 21 April 1996) was a Soviet Air Force general and Chechen leader, the first President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, a breakaway region in the North Caucasus, from 1991 to his death in 1996.