Last week, Michael Brooks of Historymike published a review of Anatol Lieven's Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power.If you don't have the time or sufficient interest to read the book, Michael's review is a good place to get a feel for the subject.
Of course, I recommend starting with -- or, if you're interested in literature but not history, skipping to -- Tolstoy's great novella, Hadji Murat. It's a fictionalized account of the actual Murat, a leader of the Chechen resistance (though not a Chechen himself), in the Caucasian peoples' campaign against the Russian empire in the early nineteenth century. It's a brilliant story.
--Marshal Zeringue