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From 1818 to 1864 Russian government waged a protracted and bloody war against a number of mountain peoples of the North Caucasus. The reason for this war was Russia’s desire to annex the lands located in the foothills and mountains of the northern part of the Main Caucasus Range from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea. It became a logical continuation of expansion Russian state on south direction in the XVIII-XIX centuries.
Background to the conflict
It so happened that some small states of Transcaucasia (for example, Kartli and Kakheti) became part of the Russian Empire much earlier than the North Caucasus. From the territory huge Russia they were separated high mountains Dagestan and impenetrable forests Chechnya.
In 1768, Turkey, dissatisfied with the presence of Russian troops in Poland, declared war on Russia. The commander of the Russian army, Gottlieb von Totleben, captured the Georgian city of Kutaisi in 1770. In 1774, the Kuchuk-Kaynarji Peace Treaty was concluded with Turkey; along it the Russian border moved to Kuban. In 1783, the Kakheti king Irakli II signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, according to which a Russian protectorate was established in Kartli and Kakheti. Two Russian battalions under the command of Potemkin, numbering about 1,600 people with four guns, entered Tiflis. However, soon, in February 1784, Russian troops were withdrawn from Tiflis and Vladikavkaz.
In May 1795, the Persian Shah Agha Muhammad invaded Georgia and defeated the small army of Erekle II, who was left without Russian support, near Tiflis. The Shah's soldiers committed a terrible massacre in the city. In response to this, Empress Catherine II declared war on Persia. Russian troops captured Kubakh, Baku and Derbent. After Catherine's death in 1796, Paul I wanted to give up the conquered territories. But in 1799, the new Persian Shah Fet Ali Khan demanded that the Georgian king George XII take his son hostage. George turned to the Russian Emperor Paul I for help, and he sent troops to Kakheti and prevented the Persian invasion. In gratitude for this, in 1800, before his death, the Georgian king turned to the Russian emperor with a request to accept Kartli and Kakheti under the direct rule of Russia. In 1801, these states became part of Russia.
“Annexation of Christian principalities,” wrote a Russian historian of the 19th century. V. O. Klyuchevsky - brought Russia into conflict with Persia, from which it had to conquer numerous khanates dependent on it. But as soon as the Russians stood on the Caspian and Black Sea shores of Transcaucasia, they naturally had to secure their rear by conquering the mountain tribes. Such a complex series of phenomena was caused by the will of George XII of Georgia.”
In 1804, the small western Georgian principalities of Mingrelia, Imereti and Guria voluntarily joined the Russian Empire, and in 1805 the khanates of Karabakh, Shirvan and Sheki. Along with this, in 1803 the Lezgins of Chartalakha and the Eli-su Sultanate were annexed by force of arms, and in 1804 Ganja was taken by storm, then renamed Elizavetpol.
In 1804, Russia went to war with Persia, and in 1807 - with the Ottoman Empire. Despite the fact that they had to fight on two fronts (also in Europe against Napoleon), convincing victories were won in the southern direction. According to the Bucharest Peace Treaty of 1812 with the Ottoman Empire and the Gulistan Treaty of 1813 with Persia, Russia confirmed its rights to Kartli, Kakheti, Imereti, Mingrelia, Abkhazia, the khanates of Ganja, Karabakh, Sheki, Derbent, Qubakh, Baku and part of Talish.
The Caucasian War itself began with the appointment in 1816 of General Alexei Ermolov, hero of the war of 1812, as governor of Georgia. In addition to the governorship, he served as ambassador extraordinary to Persia and commanded the Separate Caucasian Corps. Ermolov insisted on the broadest powers in his actions in relation to the mountaineers. Emperor Alexander I hesitated, since most of the mountain peoples of the North Caucasus by that time had allied relations with Russia, and this, apparently, suited Alexander quite well. By the way, during the war with Napoleon, the highlanders offered their help to the Russian Tsar, which, however, he did not take advantage of.
N. G. Chernetsov. Tiflis. 1830
“Repeated experiments,” wrote the Russian Tsar, “made the rule undeniable that it is not by killing residents and destroying homes that it is possible to establish calm on the Caucasian line, but by treating the mountain peoples kindly and friendly...” Surprisingly accurately noticing one of the reasons that pushed the Russians military to the war in the Caucasus, the emperor noted: “The attacks contain, for the most part, the intention of the military commanders on the line to carry out robbery and receive a share of the looted cattle and other property of imaginary enemies...”.
War
Alexey Petrovich Ermolov (1777-1861), infantry general, commander-in-chief of Georgia, commander of the Separate Caucasian Corps (1816-1827).
Nevertheless, in the end, the “war party” won at court. Through his friend, the chief of the General Staff of His Imperial Majesty, Prince P. Volkonsky, Ermolov managed to prepare a draft imperial decree, giving him carte blanche to “tame the predations of the Chechens and their neighboring peoples.” One of his arguments sounded like this: “Sire! There is no need to fear external war... Internal worries are much more dangerous for us! The mountain peoples, by the example of their independence, give rise to a rebellious spirit and a love of independence in the very subjects of Your Imperial Majesty...” Apparently, this was too much even for the liberal Alexander I. But main reason long and bloody Caucasian War became the desire of the ruling elite to quickly and unconditionally include the North Caucasus into Russia. This desire was reinforced by the result of the recent victorious war with Napoleon, which instilled confidence in the future, as it seemed then, an easy victory over the Caucasian “savages.”
On May 12, 1818, Russian troops crossed the border river Terek at that time, which caused an uprising of the Chechens living beyond the Terek, which General Ermolov brutally suppressed. Here is how the battle for the center of this uprising, the Chechen village of Dada-Yurt, one of the participants and historians of the war, Russian General V.A. Potto, describes: “Each courtyard, surrounded by a high stone fence and representing a kind of small fortress, had to first be shelled with artillery, and then take it by storm. The soldiers carried guns on their hands from one house to another. And as soon as the slightest breach was made, the soldiers rushed into the gaps, and there, in the dark and stuffy huts, there was an invisible bloody massacre with bayonets and daggers.
The bitterness on both sides grew with each new victim. Some Chechens, seeing that they could no longer resist, slaughtered their wives and children in front of the soldiers; many of these women themselves rushed at the soldiers with daggers or, on the contrary, threw themselves from them into burning houses and died alive in the flames... The aul was finally taken only when all its defenders were exterminated without exception, when from the numerous Dada-Yurt population only fourteen people remained, and even then they were seriously wounded.”
To imagine the scale of this massacre alone, we note that the population of a large village ranged from several hundred to several thousand inhabitants. For his cruelty, the highlanders gave Yermolov the nickname Yarmul (“child of a dog”).
Moving through Chechnya, Ermolov founded the fortresses of Groznaya and Vernaya. At the same time, he is trying to win over a number of local tribes to the side of the Russians.
In 1825, an uprising broke out in Chechnya against the policies of Ermolov, who destroyed villages, cut down forests, and burned pastures and vineyards. The Chechens made a series of bold attacks on the Russian fortresses they had built.
Friedrich Bodenstedt, a German researcher, Slavic professor, expert in Russian and some Caucasian languages, who lived for some time in the Caucasus and knew Mikhail Lermontov and Alexander Herzen, describes one of the episodes of this round of war: “The last important action of Ermolov was a devastating campaign against peoples of Chechnya. Encouraged by the murids of Mullah Muhammad, they inflicted many significant losses on the Russians with their bold attacks...”
A group of Chechens united in order to storm the important fortress of Amir-Haji-Yurt. Having learned from a defector about the threat of an attack on the fortress, Brigadier General Grekov sent from the Vakh-Chai fortress, located about 50 miles away, and ordered the commandant of Amir-Hadji-Yurt to make the necessary preparations.
We will remain silent for now about whether the commandant, apparently too careless, followed the order; The Chechens probably received news of the general’s order, but were not afraid, but tried to use it to their advantage. In the silence of the night they made their way through the forest located next to Amir-Haji-Yurt, to the walls of the fortress; one of the Chechens, who knew Russian, shouted to the sentry: “Open the gate! The general is coming with reinforcements."
Soon this order was carried out, and in a moment the entire fortress was filled with the sons of the mountains. The bloody massacre began... In less than a quarter of an hour the entire personnel the fortress was destroyed, and the banner with the crescent was already fluttering over it. Not a single Russian escaped the avenging sabers of the Chechens.
General Grekov, who learned about the daring attack, sent messengers in all directions to receive reinforcements; his brigade immediately set off. Lieutenant General Lisanevich joined him from Georgievsk, and the army thus formed reached the captured fortress in a forced march. A deadly fight ensued. The Chechens stubbornly defended themselves until their gunpowder supplies ran out; then they rushed from the fortress with sabers in their hands, making their way - with wild screams along a bloody path through the dense Russian formation, and rushed into forest shelters, none of them fell into the hands of the attacking enemy. The Russians entered the smoking ruins of Amir-Hadji-Yurt over the corpses of their brothers.
Circassian. Watercolor. Mid-19th century
The troops were so mixed up and there were so many soldiers with wounds and injuries that the commanders thirsting for revenge did not dare to take further action. After much hesitation, General Grekov decided to resort to negotiations in order to temporarily end the bloodshed and prepare for new battles. Finally, he called the leaders and elders of the hostile tribes to the Wah-Chai fortress.
About 200 (according to other sources, about 300) Chechens, led by a mullah, came. Grekov wanted to open the gates of the fortress to the envoys, but, remembering the bloody scenes in the Amir-Hadji-Yurt fortress, the alarmed General Lisanevich stubbornly objected and insisted on letting in only the mullah to negotiate on behalf of the entire people.
Soon a fearless Chechen appeared at the house where both generals and their entourage had gathered.
Why did your people, - Grekov began his speech, - having violated the agreement, entered the war again?
Because you were the first to break the treaties and because my people hate you as their oppressor,” answered the mullah.
Shut up, traitor! - the angry general interrupted him. “Don’t you see that your servants have abandoned you and you are in my hands?” I will have you tied up and your lying tongue torn out...
So this is how you honor your guest? - the Chechen shouted angrily, rushed at the general and pierced him with his dagger.
Those present rushed, drawing their swords, at the mullah, screams were heard, several people became victims of the enraged Chechen, until he himself fell, pierced by bullets and bayonets. Among the dead was also Lieutenant General Lisanevich, one colonel and two other officers were wounded.
Russian soldiers killed about 300 people, among whom were not only the elders of the village of Aksai, called by Lisanevich. Several Georgians loyal to Russia and even Cossacks dressed in Circassian style also fell under the hot hand.
In 1826, General Ermolov was removed from his post for excessive independence and on suspicion of connections with the Decembrists.
Tsar Nicholas I admonished the new Caucasian governor, Ivan Paskevich, who replaced him with these words: “You will have to pacify the mountain peoples forever or exterminate the rebellious.”
Forests continued to be cut down, villages were destroyed, Russian fortresses were built everywhere on the lands of the mountaineers. In its operations against them, the tsarist army made extensive use of artillery. But to advance artillery in the mountains of Dagestan and the forests of Chechnya, convoys and pack horses were required. We had to cut down the forest and cut clearings. In the mountains, cannons were rolled by hand, and pack horses were led single file by the bridle. They carried with them a supply of firewood and feed for horses. In the end fighting were carried out by mobile teams of “hunters” and “plastuns”, copying the methods of the mountaineers. The latter, being limited in manpower and having practically no artillery, which appeared to them only during the time of Shamil, resorted to the tactics of surprise raids and guerrilla warfare. In a direct clash, the highlanders, as a rule, could not cope with the organized formations of the Russian troops.
Lezgin (left) and Circassian (right). Colorized engraving. 1822
In Chechnya, the war was fought mainly in winter, when the rivers became shallow and the forests were exposed, in which the mountaineers set up ambushes in the summer. In Dagestan, on the contrary, in winter the mountain passes were practically impassable for heavy convoys, but in spring swollen mountain rivers. Military operations began only in the summer with the advent of pasture for horses. With the first snowfalls they stopped fighting until the next summer.
"Warm Siberia"
To wage war in the Russian army, the Separate Caucasian Corps was formed. It received the ironic name “warm Siberia” because it served as a place of exile. After the defeat of the Decembrist uprising, many of them were sent to the Caucasus as privates. After the Polish uprising, unreliable Poles were sent to the Caucasus. In addition to political ones, duelists, gamblers and other violators of discipline were sent there. In the Caucasus, the Russian army almost never used corporal punishment. Relations between officers and soldiers were more friendly and trusting than in other regions of Russia. The dress code was practically not observed and was often replaced by a local costume (Circassian coat, burka, papakha). Due to the constantly ongoing war, combat training in the Caucasian Corps was higher than in the rest of the Russian land army.
The range of rifle fire among the highlanders reached 600 steps, since they used a double charge of gunpowder prohibited by Russian military regulations, which made it possible to conduct targeted fire at the gun servants. Russian guns and pistols were smooth-bore, with a flintlock. rifled weapons there was little. When new models of rifles and pistols were introduced, old models were not removed from service.
Each soldier had 192 cartridges and 14 flints for his smoothbore gun. The shooter, armed with a rifled rifle, had 180 rounds of ammunition and 25 flints.
In 1828, at a congress of representatives of the peoples of Dagestan in the Avar village of Untsukul, the creation of an imamate - a theocratic state of the mountaineers - was proclaimed.
Theocracy(from the Greek “theos” - “god” and “kratos” - “power”) - a form of government in which the head of state is both its secular and spiritual leader. The norms of life and laws of such a state are regulated by the prescriptions of the dominant religion.
Gazi-Magomed, who came from free Avar peasants, was appointed the first imam (secular and spiritual ruler) of Dagestan (and later Chechnya).
The high-mountainous Avar Khanate was that part of Dagestan that was under Russian protectorate. Supporters of Gazi-Magomed waged a merciless struggle against the Avar khans, who did not want to enter the Imamate and live according to Sharia law.
Sharia(from Arabic, “sharia” - literally “the right path”) - a set of laws and religious and ethical norms based on the holy book of Muslims, the Koran, the Sunnah (traditions about the instructions of Muhammad) and fatwas (decisions of authoritative Muslim jurists).
When Russian troops came to the defense of the Avar rulers, Gazi-Magomed began to fight against Russia under the slogans of a holy war against the infidels - jihad.
A. S. Pushkin, who visited the Caucasus in 1829, wrote: “Neither peace nor prosperity is observed under the shadow of the double-headed eagle! Moreover, traveling around the Caucasus is unsafe... The Circassians hate us. We drove them out of free pastures; their villages were destroyed, entire tribes were destroyed. Hour by hour they go deeper into the mountains and direct their raids from there.”
In 1830, Paskevich developed a plan for the development of the North-West Caucasus by creating overland communications along the Black Sea coast. As a result, Western transport route between the Azov region and Georgia became another arena of struggle between Russia and the highlanders. Over 500 km from the mouth of the Kuban to Abkhazia under the cover of guns Black Sea Fleet and the landing troops, 17 forts were created, the garrisons of which immediately found themselves under constant siege. Even trips to the forest for firewood turned into military expeditions for them.
Shamil and his state
Since 1830, Gazi-Magomed carried out a number of attacks on Russian fortresses. He died in 1832 in a battle for his native village of Gimry, throwing himself with a naked saber at the bayonets of Russian soldiers from the tower in which he locked himself with the highlanders. Among the latter was his childhood friend, closest ally, the future legendary Imam Shamil (1799-1871).
Shamil himself survived this battle miraculously. Before jumping out of the window of the same tower after Gazi-Magomed, Shamil threw the saddle out of it. Without understanding it, the soldiers standing below began to shoot at the saddle. At that moment, Shamil made an incredible jump, finding himself behind the encirclement. One of the Russians who climbed onto the roof of the tower threw a heavy stone at him, breaking his shoulder. The wounded Shamil cut down the soldier who stood in the way with a saber and tried to escape, but two more people blocked his way. One of them fired a gun almost point-blank - Shamil dodged the bullet and cracked the soldier’s skull. However, the other somehow contrived and plunged a bayonet into the chest of the desperate highlander. In front of the shocked enemies, Shamil pulled him towards him by this bayonet and brought his saber down on the soldier. His next victim was an officer who rushed at him with a saber. Bleeding Shamil knocked the saber out of the officer’s hands. He tried to defend himself with his cloak, but Shamil pierced him with a saber, after which he and one of his murids rushed off the cliff into the deepest abyss.
The enemies decided that he was dead and did not even look for the body. However, during the fall, Shamil and his comrade caught on a thorny bush growing on an almost vertical wall, and thanks to this they remained alive. His powerful body, despite severe wounds, defeated death. The local doctor and Shamil's wife Patimat attended to him. When after some time he appeared before his fellow countrymen, they mistook him for one who had risen from the dead.
The place of the deceased Imam Gazi-Magomed was taken by Gamzat-bek. He destroyed almost the entire family of Avar khans and was killed for this in the mosque according to the law of blood feud. After this, Shamil was proclaimed imam.
He understood that disunity was the main reason hindering the highlanders in the fight against the Russian Empire, and made an attempt to unite the scattered tribes of the North Caucasus into a single state. This task turned out to be very difficult, because it was necessary to reconcile dozens of peoples who spoke different languages and were often at odds with each other. The North Caucasus at that time was a boiling cauldron, where there was a war of all against all. Shamil tried to find something in common that could unite the mountaineers. This common thing was Islam, which, according to the new imam, was supposed to become one religion, and the banner of the struggle against the invaders. With the help of Mohammedanism, he wanted not only to introduce common faith among his fellow countrymen (in many mountain villages there were still very strong remnants of the ancient pagan beliefs), but also set for them general laws, before whom everyone will be equal - both the nobility and ordinary peasants.
The fact is that almost all tribes, and sometimes individual villages, lived according to ordinary laws (adat). This constantly led to clashes, since adat was often interpreted by everyone in their own way. By and large, the rule of the strong triumphed in the mountains. Whoever was stronger, richer, more noble, imposed his own will on his fellow tribesmen. A terrible disaster There was a widespread custom of blood feud, which sometimes destroyed entire villages. In attempts to find at least some protection from the reigning tyranny, local residents often turned to the patronage of Russian generals. They, in turn, transferred all internal affairs to the discretion of the local khans who had transferred to Russian citizenship and turned a blind eye to the monstrous lawlessness committed by the latter.
To put an end to this bacchanalia of lawlessness and violence, according to Shamil, a common law based on Sharia should have been common to all. The state created by Shamil and his predecessors included almost all of Chechnya, part of Dagestan and some regions of the North-West Caucasus. It was divided into administrative units that took into account the settlement of mountain tribes and peoples. At the head of the new provinces, instead of the traditional tribal nobility, naibs (governors) were appointed, personally appointed by Shamil.
However, his idyllic plans for building a just state, where equality and brotherhood would reign for all, failed to be realized. Quite soon, the naibs began to abuse their position no less than the former tribal khans whom they had exterminated. This was one of the reasons for Shamil's defeat. Dissatisfaction with the new government grew among the people; under pressure from Russian troops, former loyal comrades betrayed the imam.
A new round of war has begun. Russian troops organized several expeditions against Shamil. In 1837 and 1839 His residence on Mount Akhulgo was stormed. The authorities hastened to report to St. Petersburg about the complete pacification of the Caucasus. But in 1840, the mountaineers of the North-West Caucasus began decisive actions against Russian fortifications on Black Sea coast, storming and destroying four of them along with their garrisons. While defending the Mikhailovsky fortification, Private Arkhip Osipov blew himself up along with a powder magazine and hundreds of highlanders surrounding him. He became the first Russian soldier to be forever included in the lists of his unit.
F. A. Rubo. Assault on the village of Akhulgo. 1888
In the same 1840, Shamil managed to unite the rebel highlanders of Chechnya with the Dagestanis. Shamil moved away from the practice of head-on collisions and defense of fortified villages to the last. Punitive expeditions government troops began to be ambushed and subjected to unexpected attacks. The biggest defeat for the Russians was the campaign of the new Caucasian governor M.S. Vorontsov to the capital of Shamil - Dargo. This expedition was carried out at the personal request of Nicholas I in 1845. Shamil did not defend Dargo, left it to Vorontsov, but during the withdrawal of the detachment that found itself without food supplies, the highlanders dealt him a number of blows. Russian losses amounted to 4 thousand people; four generals were killed.
However, the imam's attempts to unite the entire North Caucasus against Russia were unsuccessful. The mountaineers saw that the “state of justice” founded by Shamil rested on repression. The crisis in the Imamate was stopped by the Crimean War, when the Turkish Sultan and his European allies promised Shamil support. For the period Crimean War marks the last surge in the military activity of the mountaineers.
Final stage
The final outcome of the fighting in the Caucasus was predetermined by the rearmament of the Russian army with rifled guns. This significantly reduced its losses, since it allowed it to open fire from a longer distance. The highlanders made do with the same weapons.
The new royal governor in the Caucasus, Prince A.I. Baryatinsky, continued the policy begun in the late 40s. XIX century Vorontsov. He abandoned senseless punitive expeditions into the depths of the mountains and began systematic work to build fortresses, cut clearings in the forests and resettle the Cossacks to the occupied territories.
After the surrender of Shamil in 1859, part of the Abadzekhs and the Shapsug and Ubykh tribes continued their resistance. Until 1864, the mountaineers slowly retreated further and further to the southwest: from the plains to the foothills, from the foothills to the mountains, from the mountains to the Black Sea coast. The capitulation of the Ubykhs in the Kbaada tract (now Krasnaya Polyana) on May 21, 1864 is considered the date of the official end of the Caucasian War. Although isolated pockets of resistance persisted until 1884.
The result of the Caucasian War was the annexation of the entire North Caucasus to Russia. Over almost 50 years of hostilities, the population of Chechnya alone, according to some estimates, decreased by 50%. According to Friedrich Bodenstedt, for 80 years of the 19th century. the number of this people decreased from 1.5 million to 400 thousand. At the same time, despite the cruelties and enormous sacrifices suffered by the mountain peoples during the war, their colonization by Russia also had certain positive aspects. Through the Russian language and culture, they became familiar with the achievements of European and world civilization, which contributed to the development of their economy, culture and social consciousness. However, the methods by which the North Caucasus was “civilized” in the 19th century became time bombs that exploded at the end of the 20th century. a new, now Chechen war.
200 years ago, in October 1817, the Russian fortress Pregradny Stan was built on the Sunzha River (now the village of Sernovodskoye in Chechen Republic). This event is considered the beginning of the Caucasian War, which lasted until 1864.
Why did the highlanders of Chechnya and Dagestan declare jihad on Russia in the 19th century? Can the resettlement of Circassians after the Caucasian War be considered genocide? Was the conquest of the Caucasus a colonial war of the Russian Empire? Vladimir Bobrovnikov, candidate of historical sciences, senior researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, spoke about this.
An Atypical Conquest
“Lenta.ru”: How did it happen that first the Russian Empire annexed Transcaucasia and only then the North Caucasus?
Bobrovnikov: Transcaucasia had great geopolitical significance, which is why it was conquered earlier. The principalities and kingdoms of Georgia, the khanates on the territory of Azerbaijan and Armenia became part of Russia at the end of the 18th - first quarter of the 19th century. The Caucasian War was largely caused by the need to establish communications with Transcaucasia, which had already become part of the Russian Empire. Shortly before it began, the Georgian Military Road was built, connecting Tiflis (the name of the city of Tbilisi until 1936 - approx. "Tapes.ru") with a fortress built by the Russians in Vladikavkaz.
Why did Russia need Transcaucasia so much?
This region was very important from a geopolitical point of view, so Persia, the Ottoman and Russian empires fought over it. As a result, Russia won this rivalry, but after the annexation of Transcaucasia, the unreconciled, as they said then, North Caucasus prevented the establishment of communications with the region. Therefore, we had to conquer it too.
Painting by Franz Roubaud
A well-known publicist of the 19th century justified the conquest of the Caucasus by the fact that its inhabitants are “natural predators and robbers who have never left and cannot leave their neighbors alone.” What do you think - was this a typical colonial war or a forced pacification of “wild and aggressive” mountain tribes?
Danilevsky’s opinion is not unique. Great Britain, France, and other European colonial powers described their new colonial subjects in similar ways. Already at a later date Soviet era and in the 1990s, a historian from North Ossetia, Mark Bliev, tried to revive the rationale for the Caucasian War in the fight against mountaineer raids and created an original theory of the raiding system, due to which, in his opinion, mountain society lived. However, his point of view was not accepted in science. It also does not stand up to criticism from the point of view of sources indicating that the mountaineers obtained their livelihood from cattle breeding and agriculture. The Caucasian war for Russia was a colonial war, but not entirely typical.
What does it mean?
It was a colonial war with all the cruelties that accompanied it. It can be compared with the conquest of India by the British Empire or the conquest of Algeria by France, which also dragged on for decades, if not half a century. The participation of Christian and partly Muslim elites of Transcaucasia in the war on the side of Russia was atypical. Famous Russian political figures emerged from them - for example, Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov from the Armenians of Tiflis, who rose to the post of head of the Terek region, later appointed Governor-General of Kharkov and, finally, head of the Russian Empire.
After the end of the Caucasian War, a regime was established in the region that cannot always be described as colonial. Transcaucasia received an all-Russian provincial system of government, and different regimes of military and indirect government were created in the North Caucasus.
The concept of “Caucasian War” is very arbitrary. In fact, it was a series of military campaigns of the Russian Empire against the highlanders, between which there were periods of truce, sometimes long. The term “Caucasian War”, coined by the pre-revolutionary military historian Rostislav Andreevich Fadeev, who wrote the book “Sixty Years of the Caucasian War” at the request of the Caucasian governorship in 1860, became established only in late Soviet literature. Until the mid-twentieth century, historians wrote about the “Caucasian wars.”
From adat to sharia
Was the Sharia movement in Chechnya and Dagestan a reaction of the mountain people to the onslaught of the Russian Empire and the policies of General Ermolov? Or, on the contrary, did Imam Shamil and his murids only spurred Russia to more decisive actions in the Caucasus?
The Sharia movement in the Northeast Caucasus began long before Russia entered the region and was associated with Islamization public life, life and rights of the highlanders in the 17th-18th centuries. Rural communities were increasingly inclined to replace mountain customs (adat) with legal and household standards Sharia. Russian penetration into the Caucasus was initially perceived loyally by the mountaineers. Only the construction of the Caucasian line across the entire North Caucasus, which began from its northwestern part in the last third of the 18th century, led to the displacement of the highlanders from their lands, retaliatory resistance and a protracted war.
Quite soon, resistance to Russian conquest took the form of jihad. Under his slogans, at the end of the 18th century, there was an uprising of the Chechen Sheikh Mansur (Ushurma), which the Russian Empire hardly suppressed. The construction of the Caucasus Line in Chechnya and Dagestan contributed to the beginning of a new jihad, in the wake of which an imamate was created that resisted the empire for more than a quarter of a century. Its most famous leader was Imam Shamil, who ruled the state of jihad from 1834 to 1859.
Why did the war in the northeast Caucasus end earlier than in the northwest?
In the North-Eastern Caucasus, where the center of resistance to Russia was located for a long time (mountainous Chechnya and Dagestan), the war ended thanks to the successful policy of the governor of the Caucasian prince, who blocked and captured Shamil in the Dagestan village of Gunib in 1859. After this, the imamate of Dagestan and Chechnya ceased to exist. But the mountaineers of the North-Western Caucasus (Trans-Kuban Circassia) practically did not obey Shamil and continued to wage partisan warfare against the Caucasian army until 1864. They lived in inaccessible mountain gorges near the Black Sea coast, through which they received help from the Ottoman Empire and Western powers.
Painting by Alexey Kivshenko “Surrender of Imam Shamil”
Tell us about the Circassian Muhajirdom. Was it a voluntary resettlement of the mountaineers or their forced deportation?
The resettlement of the Circassians (or Circassians) from the Russian Caucasus to the territory of the Ottoman Empire was voluntary. It was not for nothing that they likened themselves to the first Muslims, who in 622 voluntarily left with the Prophet Muhammad from pagan Mecca to Yathrib, where they built the first Muslim state. Both of them called themselves muhajirs who migrated (hijra).
No one deported Circassians inside Russia, although entire families were exiled there for criminal offenses and disobedience to authorities. But at the same time, Muhajirism itself was a forced expulsion from the homeland, since its main reason was the expulsion from the mountains to the plain at the end of the Caucasian War and after it. The military authorities of the northwestern part of the Caucasian line saw in the Circassians elements harmful to the Russian government and pushed them to emigrate.
Didn’t the Circassian-Adygs originally live on the plain, around the Kuban River?
During the Russian conquest, which lasted from the late 18th century to the mid-1860s, the place of residence of the Circassians and other indigenous inhabitants of the Northwestern and Central Caucasus changed more than once. The hostilities forced them to seek refuge in the mountains, from where they, in turn, were evicted Russian authorities, forming large settlements from the Circassians on the plain and in the foothills within the Caucasian line.
Caucasian muhajirs
But were there plans to evict the highlanders from the Caucasus? Let us at least recall the project of “Russian Truth” by Pavel Pestel, one of the leaders of the Decembrists.
The first mass migrations took place during the Caucasian War, but they were limited to the North Caucasus and Ciscaucasia. The Russian military authorities resettled entire villages of pacified mountaineers within the Caucasian line. The imams of Dagestan and Chechnya pursued a similar policy, creating villages of their supporters from the plains in the mountains and relocating rebellious villages. The exodus of the highlanders beyond the Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire began at the end of the war and continued until the fall of the tsarist regime, mainly in the second third of the 19th century. It especially affected the North-West Caucasus, the vast majority of the indigenous population of which left for Turkey. The impetus for muhajirism was forced relocations from the mountains to the plain, surrounded by Cossack villages.
Why did Russia drive only Circassians to the plains, and pursue a completely different policy in Chechnya and Dagestan?
Among the Muhajirs there were also Chechens and Dagestanis. There are many documents about this, and I personally know their descendants. But the overwhelming majority of emigrants were from Circassia. This is due to differences in the military administration of the region. Supporters of the eviction of the highlanders to the plain and further to the Ottoman Empire prevailed in the Kuban region, created in 1861 on the territory of the present Krasnodar Territory. The authorities of the Dagestan region opposed the resettlement of the highlanders to Turkey. The heads of the Caucasian Line units, transformed into regions after the war, had broad powers. Supporters of the eviction of the Circassians were able to convince the Caucasian governor in Tiflis that they were right.
Relocations later affected the North-Eastern Caucasus: Chechens were deported from the Caucasus by Stalin in 1944, and the mass resettlement of Dagestanis to the plain occurred in the 1950s-1990s. But this is a completely different story that has nothing to do with muhajirism.
Why was the policy of the Russian Empire regarding the resettlement of highlanders so inconsistent? At first she encouraged the resettlement of the highlanders to Turkey, and then suddenly decided to limit it.
This was due to changes in the Russian administration of the Caucasus region. IN late XIX centuries, opponents of Muhajirism came to power here, considering it inappropriate. But by this time, most of the highlanders of the Northwestern Caucasus had already left for the Ottoman Empire, and their lands were occupied by Cossacks and colonists from Russia. Similar changes in colonization policies can be found among other European powers, notably France in Algeria.
Tragedy of the Circassians
How many Circassians died during their migration to Turkey?
Nobody really counted. Historians from the Circassian diaspora talk about the extermination of entire peoples. This point of view appeared among contemporaries of the Muhajir movement. The expression of the pre-revolutionary Caucasus expert Adolphe Berger that “Circassians... were laid in the cemetery of peoples” became popular. But not everyone agrees with this, and the size of emigration is estimated differently. The famous Turkish explorer Kemal Karpat numbers up to two million Muhajirs, and Russian historians talk about several hundred thousand emigrants.
Why such a difference in numbers?
There were no statistics kept in the North Caucasus before its Russian conquest. The Ottoman side recorded only legal immigrants, but there were also many illegal immigrants. Nobody really counted those who died on the way from mountain villages to the coast or on ships. And there were also muhajirs who died during quarantine in the ports of the Ottoman Empire.
Painting “Storm of the village of Gimry” by Franz Roubaud
In addition, Russia and the Ottoman Empire were not immediately able to agree on joint actions to organize the resettlement. When Muhajirism faded into history, its study in the USSR was under an unspoken ban until late Soviet times. During the Cold War, cooperation between Turkish and Soviet historians in this area was practically impossible. Serious study of muhajirism in the North Caucasus began only at the end of the twentieth century.
So this question still remains poorly understood?
No, quite a lot has already been written about this, and seriously, over the past quarter century. But the field for a comparative study of archival data about the Muhajirs in the Russian and Ottoman empires still remains - no one has yet specifically carried out such a study. Any figures about the number of muhajirs and those killed during emigration that appear in the press and on the Internet must be treated with caution: they are either greatly underestimated, since they do not take into account illegal emigration, or are very overestimated. A small part of the Circassians later returned to the Caucasus, but the Caucasian War and the Muhajir movement completely changed the confessional and ethnic map of the region. The Muhajirs largely shaped the population of the modern Middle East and Turkey.
Before the Olympics in Sochi, they tried to use this topic for political purposes. For example, in 2011, Georgia officially recognized “the mass extermination of the Circassians (Adygs) during the Russian-Caucasian War and their forced expulsion from their historical homeland as an act of genocide.”
Genocide is an anachronistic term for the 19th century and, most importantly, an overly politicized term, associated primarily with the Holocaust. Behind it is a demand for the political rehabilitation of the nation and financial compensation from the legal successors of the perpetrators of the genocide, as was done for the Jewish diaspora in Germany. This was probably the reason for the popularity of this term among activists from the Circassian diaspora and Circassians of the North Caucasus. On the other hand, the organizers of the Olympics in Sochi unforgivably forgot that the place and date of the Olympics are connected historical memory Circassians with the end of the Caucasian War.
Painting by Peter Gruzinsky “Abandonment of the village by the mountaineers”
The trauma inflicted on the Circassians during the Muhajir era cannot be hushed up. I cannot forgive this to the bureaucrats responsible for organizing the Olympics. At the same time, the concept of genocide also disgusts me - it is inconvenient for a historian to work with it, it limits the freedom of research and does not correspond much to the realities of the 19th century - by the way, no less cruel in the attitude of Europeans towards the inhabitants of the colonies. After all, the natives were simply not considered people, which justified any cruelty of conquest and colonial administration. In this regard, Russia behaved in the North Caucasus no worse than the French in Algeria or the Belgians in the Congo. Therefore, the term “muhajirism” seems to me much more adequate.
The Caucasus is ours
Sometimes you hear that the Caucasus has never been completely pacified and has forever remained hostile to Russia. It is known, for example, that even under Soviet rule in the post-war years it was not always calm there, and the last abrek of Chechnya was shot only in 1976. What do you think about this?
The eternal Russian-Caucasian confrontation is not historical fact, but an anachronistic propaganda cliche, again in demand during the two Russian-Chechen campaigns of the 1990-2000s. Yes, the Caucasus survived the conquest of the Russian Empire in the 19th century. Then the Bolsheviks conquered it a second time and no less bloodily in 1918-1921. However, the work of historians today shows that conquest and resistance did not determine the situation in the region. Much higher value there was interaction with Russian society. Even chronologically, the periods of peaceful coexistence were longer.
The modern Caucasus is largely a product of imperial and Soviet history. As a region, it was formed precisely at this time. Already in Soviet era it was modernized and Russified.
It is significant that even Islamic and other radicals opposing Russia often publish their materials in Russian. The words that the North Caucasus did not voluntarily become part of Russia and will not voluntarily leave it seem to me to be more consistent with the truth.
Caucasian War 1817-64, military actions related to the annexation of Chechnya, Mountainous Dagestan and the North-Western Caucasus by Tsarist Russia. After the annexation of Georgia (1801) and Azerbaijan (1803), their territories were separated from Russia by the lands of Chechnya, Mountainous Dagestan (although legally Dagestan was annexed in 1813) and the North-West Caucasus, inhabited by warlike mountain peoples who raided the Caucasian fortified line, interfered with relations with Transcaucasia. After the end of the wars with Napoleonic France, tsarism was able to intensify military operations in this area. General A.P., appointed commander-in-chief in the Caucasus in 1816. Ermolov moved from individual punitive expeditions to a systematic advance into the depths of Chechnya and Mountainous Dagestan by surrounding mountainous areas with a continuous ring of fortifications, cutting clearings in difficult forests, laying roads and destroying “rebellious” villages. This forced the population either to move to the plane (plain) under the supervision of Russian garrisons, or to go into the depths of the mountains. The first period of the Caucasian War began with an order dated May 12, 1818 from General Ermolov to cross the Terek. Ermolov drew up a plan of offensive action, at the forefront of which was the widespread colonization of the region by the Cossacks and the formation of “layers” between hostile tribes by relocating loyal tribes there. In 1817 the left flank of the Caucasian line was moved from the Terek to the river. The Sunzha, in the middle reaches of which the fortification of Pregradny Stan was laid in October 1817, which was the first step in a systematic advance into the territories of the mountain peoples and actually marked the beginning of K.V. In 1818, the Grozny fortress was founded in the lower reaches of the Sunzha. A continuation of the Sunzhenskaya line were the fortresses of Vnezapnaya (1819) and Burnaya (1821). In 1819, the Separate Georgian Corps was renamed the Separate Caucasian Corps and strengthened to 50 thousand people; The Black Sea Cossack army (up to 40 thousand people) in the North-West Caucasus was also subordinated to Ermolov. In 1818, a number of Dagestan feudal lords and tribes united and in 1819 began a campaign against the Sunzha line. But in 1819-21. they suffered a series of defeats, after which the possessions of these feudal lords were either transferred to Russian vassals with subordination to Russian commandants (the lands of the Kazikumukh Khan to the Kurinsky Khan, the Avar Khan to Shamkhal Tarkovsky), or became dependent on Russia (the lands of Utsmiya Karakaitag), or were liquidated with the introduction of Russian administration ( Khanate of Mehtuli, as well as the Azerbaijani Khanates of Sheki, Shirvan and Karabakh). In 1822 26 A number of punitive expeditions were carried out against the Circassians in the Trans-Kuban region.
The result of Ermolov's actions was the subjugation of almost all of Dagestan, Chechnya and Trans-Kubania. General I.F., who replaced Ermolov in March 1827 Paskevich abandoned a systematic advance with the consolidation of occupied territories and returned mainly to the tactics of individual punitive expeditions, although under him the Lezgin Line was created (1830). In 1828, in connection with the construction of the Military-Sukhumi road, the Karachay region was annexed. The expansion of colonization of the North Caucasus and the cruelty of the aggressive policy of Russian tsarism caused spontaneous mass uprisings of the mountaineers. The first of them occurred in Chechnya in July 1825: the highlanders, led by Bey-Bulat, captured the Amiradzhiyurt post, but their attempts to take Gerzel and Grozny failed, and in 1826 the uprising was suppressed. At the end of the 20s. in Chechnya and Dagestan, a movement of mountaineers arose under the religious cover of muridism, integral part which was ghazavat (Jihad) “holy war” against the “infidels” (i.e. Russians). In this movement, the liberation struggle against the colonial expansion of tsarism was combined with opposition to the oppression of local feudal lords. The reactionary side of the movement was the struggle of the top of the Muslim clergy for the creation of a feudal-theocratic state of the imamate. This isolated supporters of Muridism from other peoples, incited fanatical hatred of non-Muslims, and most importantly, preserved backward feudal forms of social structure. The movement of the highlanders under the flag of Muridism was the impetus for expanding the scale of the KV, although some peoples of the North Caucasus and Dagestan (for example, Kumyks, Ossetians, Ingush, Kabardians, etc.) did not join this movement. This was explained, firstly, by the fact that some of these peoples could not be carried away by the slogan of Muridism due to their Christianization (part of the Ossetians) or the weak development of Islam (for example, Kabardians); secondly, the “carrot and stick” policy pursued by tsarism, with the help of which it managed to attract part of the feudal lords and their subjects to its side. These peoples did not oppose Russian rule, but their situation was difficult: they were under the double oppression of tsarism and local feudal lords.
The second period of the Caucasian War represents the bloody and formidable era of Muridism. At the beginning of 1829, Kazi-Mulla (or Gazi-Magomed) arrived in the Tarkov Shankhaldom (a state on the territory of Dagestan in the late 15th - early 19th centuries) with his sermons, while receiving complete freedom of action from the shamkhal. Gathering his comrades, he began to go around aul after aul, calling on “sinners to take the righteous path, instruct the lost and crush the criminal authorities of the auls.” Gazi-Magomed (Kazi-mullah), proclaimed imam in December 1828 and put forward the idea of unifying the peoples of Chechnya and Dagestan. But some feudal lords (Avar Khan, Shamkhal Tarkovsky, etc.), who adhered to the Russian orientation, refused to recognize the authority of the imam. Gazi-Magomed's attempt to capture the capital of Avaria, Khunzakh, in February 1830 was unsuccessful, although the expedition of the tsarist troops in 1830 to Gimry failed and only led to the strengthening of the imam's influence. In 1831, the murids took Tarki and Kizlyar, besieged Burnaya and Vnezapnaya; their detachments also operated in Chechnya, near Vladikavkaz and Grozny, and with the support of the rebel Tabasarans they besieged Derbent. Significant territories (Chechnya and most of Dagestan) came under the authority of the imam. However, from the end of 1831, the uprising began to decline due to the desertion of the peasantry from the murids, dissatisfied with the fact that the imam had not fulfilled his promise to eliminate class inequality. As a result of large expeditions of Russian troops in Chechnya, undertaken by the commander-in-chief in the Caucasus, General G.V., appointed in September 1831. Rosen, the detachments of Gazi-Magomed were pushed back to Mountainous Dagestan. The imam with a handful of murids took refuge in Gimry, where he died on October 17, 1832 during the capture of the village by Russian troops. Gamzat-bek was proclaimed the second imam, whose military successes attracted almost all the peoples of Mountain Dagestan, including some of the Avars, to his side; however, the ruler of Avaria, Hansha Pahu-bike, refused to speak out against Russia. In August 1834, Gamzat-bek captured Khunzakh and exterminated the family of Avar khans, but as a result of a conspiracy by their supporters, he was killed on September 19, 1834. In the same year, Russian troops, in order to stop the relations of the Circassians with Turkey, conducted an expedition to the Trans-Kuban region and laid the fortifications of Abinsk and Nikolaevskoe.
Shamil was proclaimed the third imam in 1834. The Russian command sent a large detachment against him, which destroyed the village of Gotsatl (the main residence of the murids) and forced Shamil’s troops to retreat from Avaria. Believing that the movement was largely suppressed, Rosen remained inactive for 2 years. During this time, Shamil, having chosen the village of Akhulgo as his base, subjugated part of the elders and feudal lords of Chechnya and Dagestan, brutally dealing with those feudal lords who did not want to obey him, and won wide support among the masses. In 1837, the detachment of General K.K. Fezi occupied Khunzakh, Untsukul and part of the village of Tilitl, where Shamil’s troops withdrew, but due to big losses and a lack of food, the tsarist troops found themselves in a difficult situation, and on July 3, 1837, Fezi concluded a truce with Shamil. This truce and the withdrawal of the tsarist troops were actually their defeat and strengthened the authority of Shamil. In the North-West Caucasus, Russian troops in 1837 founded the fortifications of the Holy Spirit, Novotroitskoye, Mikhailovskoye. In March 1838, Rosen was replaced by General E.A. Golovin, under whom the fortifications of Navaginskoye, Velyaminovskoye, Tenginskoye and Novorossiysk were created in the North-West Caucasus in 1838. The truce with Shamil turned out to be temporary, and in 1839 hostilities resumed. Detachment of General P.Kh. Grabbe, after an 80-day siege, captured the residence of Shamil Akhulgo on August 22, 1839; The wounded Shamil and his murids broke through to Chechnya. On the Black Sea coast in 1839, the Golovinskoye and Lazarevskoye fortifications were laid and the Black Sea coastline from the mouth of the river was created. Kuban to the borders of Megrelia; in 1840 the Labinsk line was created, but soon the tsarist troops suffered a number of major defeats: the rebel Circassians in February April 1840 captured the fortifications of the Black Sea coastline(Lazarevskoe, Velyaminovskoe, Mikhailovskoe, Nikolaevskoe). In the Eastern Caucasus, the Russian administration's attempt to disarm the Chechens sparked an uprising that spread throughout Chechnya and then spread to Mountainous Dagestan. After stubborn battles in the area of the Gekhinsky forest and on the river. Valerik (July 11, 1840) Russian troops occupied Chechnya, the Chechens went to Shamil’s troops operating in Northwestern Dagestan. In 1840-43, despite the reinforcement of the Caucasian Corps by an infantry division, Shamil won a number of major victories, occupied Avaria and established his power in a large part of Dagestan, expanding the territory of the Imamate by more than doubling and increasing the number of his troops to 20 thousand people. In October 1842, Golovin was replaced by General A.I. Neigardt and 2 more infantry divisions were transferred to the Caucasus, which made it possible to somewhat push back Shamil’s troops. But then Shamil, again seizing the initiative, occupied Gergebil on November 8, 1843 and forced the Russian troops to leave Avaria. In December 1844, Neigardt was replaced by General M.S. Vorontsov, who in 1845 captured and destroyed Shamil’s residence, aul Dargo. However, the highlanders surrounded Vorontsov’s detachment, which barely managed to escape, having lost 1/3 of its personnel, all its guns and convoy. In 1846, Vorontsov returned to Ermolov’s tactics of conquering the Caucasus. Shamil’s attempts to thwart the enemy’s offensive were unsuccessful (in 1846, the failure of the breakthrough into Kabarda, in 1848, the fall of Gergebil, in 1849, the failure of the assault on Temir-Khan-Shura and the breakthrough in Kakheti); in 1849-52 Shamil managed to occupy Kazikumukh, but by the spring of 1853 his troops were finally driven out of Chechnya to Mountainous Dagestan, where the position of the highlanders also became difficult. In the North-West Caucasus, the Urup Line was created in 1850, and in 1851 the uprising of Circassian tribes led by Shamil's governor Muhammad-Emin was suppressed. On the eve of the Crimean War of 1853-56, Shamil, counting on the help of Great Britain and Turkey, intensified his actions and in August 1853 tried to break through the Lezgin line at Zagatala, but failed. In November 1853, Turkish troops were defeated at Bashkadyklar, and Circassian attempts to seize the Black Sea and Labinsk lines were repulsed. In the summer of 1854, Turkish troops launched an attack on Tiflis; At the same time, Shamil’s troops, breaking through the Lezgi line, invaded Kakheti, captured Tsinandali, but were detained by the Georgian militia, and then defeated by Russian troops. Defeat in 1854-55. Turkish army finally dispelled Shamil's hopes for outside help. By this time, what had begun in the late 40s had deepened. internal crisis of the Imamate. The actual transformation of Shamil's governors, the naibs, into self-interested feudal lords, whose cruel rule aroused the indignation of the mountaineers, exacerbated social contradictions, and the peasants began to gradually move away from Shamil's movement (in 1858, an uprising against Shamil's power even broke out in Chechnya in the Vedeno region). The weakening of the Imamate was also facilitated by devastation and heavy casualties in a long, unequal struggle in conditions of shortages of ammunition and food. The conclusion of the Paris Peace Treaty of 1856 allowed tsarism to concentrate significant forces against Shamil: the Caucasian Corps was transformed into an army (up to 200 thousand people). The new commanders-in-chief, General N.N. Muravyov (1854 56) and General A.I. Baryatinsky (1856 60) continued to tighten the blockade ring around the Imamate with a strong consolidation of the occupied territories. In April 1859, Shamil's residence, the village of Vedeno, fell. Shamil with 400 murids fled to the village of Gunib. As a result of the concentric movements of three detachments of Russian troops, Gunib was surrounded and taken by storm on August 25, 1859; Almost all the murids died in battle, and Shamil was forced to surrender. In the Northwestern Caucasus, the disunity of the Circassian and Abkhaz tribes facilitated the actions of the tsarist command, which took away fertile lands from the mountaineers and handed them over to the Cossacks and Russian settlers, carrying out the mass eviction of the mountain peoples. In November 1859, the main forces of the Circassians (up to 2 thousand people) led by Muhammad-Emin capitulated. The lands of the Circassians were cut by the Belorechensk line with the Maykop fortress. In 1859 61 the construction of clearings, roads and the settlement of lands seized from the highlanders were carried out. In mid-1862, resistance to the colonialists intensified. To occupy the territory remaining with the mountaineers with a population of about 200 thousand people. in 1862, up to 60 thousand soldiers were concentrated under the command of General N.I. Evdokimov, who began advancing along the coast and deep into the mountains. In 1863, tsarist troops occupied the territory between the rivers. Belaya and Pshish, and by mid-April 1864 the entire coast to Navaginsky and the territory to the river. Laba (along the northern slope of the Caucasus ridge). Only the mountaineers of the Akhchipsu society and the small tribe of Khakuchi in the valley of the river did not submit. Mzymta. Pushed to the sea or driven into the mountains, the Circassians and Abkhazians were forced either to move to the plain or, under the influence of the Muslim clergy, to emigrate to Turkey. The unpreparedness of the Turkish government to receive, accommodate and feed masses of people (up to 500 thousand people), the arbitrariness and violence of local Turkish authorities and difficult living conditions caused a high mortality rate among the displaced, a small part of whom returned to the Caucasus again. By 1864 it was introduced Russian management in Abkhazia, and on May 21, 1864, tsarist troops occupied the last center of resistance of the Circassian Ubykh tribe, the Kbaadu tract (now Krasnaya Polyana). This day is considered the date of the end of K.V., although in fact military operations continued until the end of 1864, and in the 60-70s. Anti-colonial uprisings took place in Chechnya and Dagestan.
The Caucasian War in the history of Russia refers to the military actions of 1817 - 1864 associated with the annexation of Chechnya, Mountainous Dagestan and the Northwestern Caucasus to Russia.
At the same time as Russia, Turkey and Iran tried to enter this region, encouraged by England, France and other Western powers. After the signing of the manifesto on the annexation of Kartli and Kakheti (1800-1801), Russia became involved in collecting lands in the Caucasus. There was a consistent unification of Georgia (1801 - 1810) and Azerbaijan (1803 - 1813), but their territories turned out to be separated from Russia by the lands of Chechnya, mountainous Dagestan and the North-Western Caucasus, inhabited by militant mountain peoples who raided the Caucasian fortified lines , interfered with connections with Transcaucasia. Therefore, by the beginning of the 19th century, the annexation of these territories became one of the most important tasks for Russia.
Historiography Caucasian War
With all the diversity of literature written about the Caucasian War, several historiographical directions can be distinguished, coming directly from the positions of the participants in the Caucasian War and from the position of the “international community”. It was within the framework of these schools that assessments and traditions were formed that influence not only the development of historical science, but also the development of the modern political situation. Firstly, we can talk about the Russian imperial tradition, represented in the works of pre-revolutionary Russian and some modern historians. These works often talk about the “pacification of the Caucasus”, about “colonization” according to Klyuchevsky, in the Russian sense of the development of territories, the emphasis is on the “predation” of the mountaineers, the religious and militant nature of their movement, the civilizing and reconciling role of Russia is emphasized, even taking into account errors and "excesses". Secondly, it is quite well represented in lately The tradition of supporters of the highlander movement is developing again. The basis here is the antinomy “conquest-resistance” (in Western works - “conquest-resistance”). In Soviet times (with the exception of the period of the late 40s - mid-50s, when the hypertrophied imperial tradition dominated), “tsarism” was declared the conqueror, and “resistance” received the Marxist term “national liberation movement.” Currently, some supporters of this tradition transfer the 20th century term “genocide” (of mountain peoples) to the policy of the Russian Empire or interpret the concept of “colonization” in the Soviet way - as the violent seizure of economically profitable territories. There is also a geopolitical tradition for which the struggle for dominance in the North Caucasus is only part of a more global process, allegedly inherent in Russia’s desire to expand and “enslave” the annexed territories. In Britain of the 19th century (fearing about the approach of Russia to the “jewel of the British crown” of India) and the USA of the 20th century (worried about the approach of the USSR/Russia to Persian Gulf and oil regions of the Middle East) the highlanders (just like, say, Afghanistan) were a “natural barrier” on the way of the Russian Empire to the south. The key terminology of these works is “Russian colonial expansion” and the “North Caucasian shield” or “barrier” opposing it. Each of these three traditions is so established and overgrown with literature that any discussions between representatives of different movements result in the exchange of worked-out concepts and collections of facts and do not lead to any progress in this area of historical science. Rather, we can talk about a “Caucasian war of historiographies,” sometimes reaching the point of personal hostility. Over the past five years, for example, there has never been a serious meeting or scientific discussion between supporters of the “mountain” and “imperial” traditions. Contemporary political problems of the North Caucasus cannot but worry historians of the Caucasus, but they are too strongly reflected in the literature that we, out of habit, continue to consider scientific. Historians cannot agree on the start date of the Caucasian War, just as politicians cannot agree on the date of its end. The very name “Caucasian War” is so broad that it allows one to make shocking statements about its supposedly 400-year or one and a half century history. It’s even surprising that the starting point from Svyatoslav’s campaigns against the Yasses and Kasogs in the 10th century or from the Russian naval raids on Derbent in the 9th century has not yet been adopted. However, even if we discard all these obviously ideological attempts at “periodization,” the number of opinions is very large. That is why many historians now say that in fact there were several Caucasian wars. They were conducted in different years, in different regions of the North Caucasus: in Chechnya, Dagestan, Kabarda, Adygea, etc. (2). They can hardly be called Russian-Caucasian, since the mountaineers participated on both sides. However, the traditional point of view on the period from 1817 (the beginning of an active aggressive policy in the North Caucasus sent there by General A.P. Ermolov) to 1864 (the capitulation of the mountain tribes of the North-West Caucasus) as a period of constant military operations that engulfed most of the North Caucasus. It was then that the question of the actual, and not just formal, entry of the North Caucasus into the Russian Empire was decided. Perhaps, for better mutual understanding, it is worth talking about this period as the Great Caucasian War.
Currently, there are 4 periods in the Caucasian War.
1st period: 1817 –1829–Ermolovsky associated with the activities of General Ermolov in the Caucasus.
2. period 1829-1840–Trans-Kuban after the annexation of the Black Sea coast to Russia, following the results of the Adrianople Peace Treaty, unrest among the Trans-Kuban Circassians intensified. The main arena of action is the Trans-Kuban region.
3rd period: 1840-1853-Muridiz, the unifying force of the mountaineers becomes the ideology of muridism.
4th period: 1854 –1859–European intervention during the Crimean War, increased foreign intervention.
5th period: 1859 – 1864:final.
Features of the Caucasian War.
The combination of different political actions and clashes under the auspices of one war, a combination of different goals. Thus, the peasants of the North Caucasus opposed increased exploitation, the mountain nobility stood for the preservation of their previous position and right, the Muslim clergy is against strengthening the position of Orthodoxy in the Caucasus.
No official date for the start of the war.
Lack of a single theater of military operations.
Lack of a peace treaty to end the war.
Controversial issues in the history of the Caucasian War.
Terminology.
Caucasian War is an extremely complex, multifaceted and contradictory phenomenon. The term itself is used in historical science in different ways; there are different options for determining the chronological framework of the war and its nature .
The term “Caucasian War” is used in historical science in different ways.
In the broad sense of the word, it includes all conflicts in the region of the 18th-19th centuries. with the participation of Russia. In a narrow sense, it is used in historical literature and journalism to refer to events in the North Caucasus associated with the establishment of the Russian administration in the region through the military suppression of the resistance of mountain peoples.
The term was introduced in pre-revolutionary historiography, and in the Soviet period it was either put in quotation marks or completely rejected by many researchers who believed that it creates the appearance of an external war and does not reflect to the fullest essence of the phenomenon. Until the end of the 80s, the term “people's liberation struggle” of the highlanders of the North Caucasus seemed more adequate, but recently the concept of “Caucasian War” has been returned to scientific circulation and is widely used.
As a result of two successful wars with Iran (1804-1813) and Turkey (1806-1812) Russian Empire acquires the Karabakh, Ganja, Sheki, Derbent, and Kuba khanates, seeks recognition of its rights to Guria and Megrelia. New territories mean new subjects, and with them new problems. The Russian military and civil administrations very soon learned what the mountain mentality and Caucasian socio-economic relations were.
Having familiarized himself with Ermolov’s plan, Emperor Alexander gave the order: “Conquer the mountain peoples gradually, but urgently, occupy only what you can keep for yourself, do not distribute otherwise than by standing firm and ensuring the occupied space from the attacks of hostiles.”
100 great commanders
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The inclusion of Georgia, Eastern Armenia and Northern Azerbaijan into Russia raised the question of the annexation of the North Caucasus, which had an important strategic position. The Russian government could not achieve its foreign policy goals in Transcaucasia without gaining a foothold in the North Caucasus. The Russian government was able to deal closely with this problem only after the end of the wars with Napoleon.
In 1816, general, hero of the war of 1812 A.P., was appointed commander of a separate Georgian (from 1820 - Caucasian) corps. Ermolov. Since 1817, he began a systematic attack on the regions of Chechnya and Dagestan, accompanied by the construction of fortified points and the improvement safe roads. Thanks to his activities, the ring of economic and political blockade around this region was shrinking ever tighter. This further aggravated the situation, especially since the advance of the Russian army was accompanied by the destruction of rebellious villages.
In the 20s of the 19th century, a broad anti-Russian movement of the Caucasus mountaineers began. Under these conditions, on the basis of Islam, the ideology of muridism began to take shape, which was based on the postulates of strict observance of Muslim rituals and unconditional submission to leaders and mentors. His followers proclaimed the impossibility of subordinating a legitimate Muslim to a foreign monarch. At the end of the 20s, on the territory of Chechnya and Dagestan, on the basis of this ideology, a military-theocratic state formation of the Imamate was formed, the first imam of which was Gazi-Magomet, who called on the mountaineers to wage a holy war against the Russian troops (Gazavat).
The Russian government decided to decisively suppress this movement. Successor Ermolov I.F. Paskevich in 1830 addressed a “Proclamation to the population of Dagestan and Caucasus mountains”, in which he declared Gazi-Magomed a troublemaker and declared a retaliatory war on him. Soon the first imam died. The second imam was Gamzat-Bek, who died from blood feud.
Russia was firmly drawn into the Caucasian War. The hopes of the Russian ruling circles for a quick victory did not materialize. The unusual conditions of a mountain war, the resistance of the local population, and the lack of a unified strategy and tactics for conducting military operations stretched out this war for more than thirty years.
In 1834, Shamil (1797-1871), the son of an Avar peasant, the most brilliant and talented personality among the leaders of the mountaineers, was proclaimed the new imam. He was distinguished by his wide education, courage, talent as a military leader, as well as religious fanaticism. He managed to concentrate all power in his hands, thereby strengthening statehood and accumulating military forces. The 40s of the 19th century were the time of his greatest successes. Shamil managed to inflict a number of sensitive defeats on the Russian army. In 1843, he launched military operations in Northern Dagestan, which greatly alarmed the Russian government.
In 1845, M.S. was appointed governor of Transcaucasia. Vorontsov, who received emergency powers. However, his punitive expedition ended in failure. In 1846, Shamil invaded Ossetia and Kabarda, intending to push the borders of his state to the West. But Shamil’s global plans did not correspond to the economic and military potential of the Imamate. Since the late 40s of the 19th century, this state began to decline. During the Crimean War, he failed to provide effective assistance to the Turkish army in the Caucasus. The capture of Tsinandali in 1854 was his last major success.
After the Crimean War, the Russian government launched a decisive offensive against Shamil. The size of the Russian army increased significantly. In August 1856, Alexander II appointed Prince A.I. as governor of the Caucasus and the new commander-in-chief of the Caucasian army. Baryatinsky. In 1857-1859, he managed to conquer all of Chechnya and lead an offensive against Dagestan.
In August 1859, after a fierce battle in the village of Gunib, Shamil was captured. The Imamat ceased to exist. The last major center of resistance of the mountaineers - the Kbaade tract - was taken by Russian troops in 1864. The long-term Caucasian war has ended.
"PROCONSUL OF THE CAUCASUS"
In September 1816, Ermolov arrived at the border of the Caucasus province. In October he arrived on the Caucasus Line in the city of Georgievsk. From there he immediately went to Tiflis, where the former Commander-in-Chief, Infantry General Nikolai Rtishchev, was waiting for him. On October 12, 1816, by the highest order, Rtishchev was expelled from the army.
After surveying the border with Persia, he went in 1817 as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the court of the Persian Shah Feth-Ali. Peace was approved, and for the first time consent was expressed to allow the presence of the Russian charge d'affaires and the mission with him. Upon his return from Persia, he was most mercifully awarded the rank of infantry general.
Having familiarized himself with the situation on the Caucasian line, Ermolov outlined a plan of action, which he then adhered to unswervingly. Considering the fanaticism of the mountain tribes, their unbridled willfulness and hostile attitude towards the Russians, as well as the peculiarities of their psychology, the new commander-in-chief decided that it was completely impossible to establish peaceful relations under existing conditions. Ermolov drew up a consistent and systematic plan of offensive action. Ermolov did not leave a single robbery or raid of the mountaineers unpunished. He did not begin decisive actions without first equipping bases and creating offensive bridgeheads. Among the components of Ermolov’s plan were the construction of roads, the creation of clearings, the construction of fortifications, the colonization of the region by Cossacks, the formation of “layers” between tribes hostile to Russia by relocating pro-Russian tribes there.
“The Caucasus,” said Ermolov, “is a huge fortress, defended by a garrison of half a million. We must either storm it or take possession of the trenches. The assault will be expensive. So let’s wage a siege!”
Ermolov moved the left flank of the Caucasian line from the Terek to the Sunzha, where he strengthened the Nazran redoubt and founded the fortification of Pregradny Stan in its middle course in October 1817.
In the fall of 1817, the Caucasian troops were reinforced by the occupation corps of Count Vorontsov, who arrived from France. With the arrival of these forces, Ermolov had a total of about 4 divisions, and he could move on to decisive action.
On the Caucasian line, the state of affairs was as follows: the right flank of the line was threatened by the Trans-Kuban Circassians, the center by the Kabardians, and against the left flank across the Sunzha River lived the Chechens, who enjoyed a high reputation and authority among the mountain tribes. At the same time, the Circassians were weakened by internal strife, the Kabardians were decimated by the plague - the danger threatened primarily from the Chechens. “Now I’ll tell you about the peoples living opposite the Caucasian line. From the tops of the Kuban on the left bank live the peoples subject to the Ottoman Porte under the general name of the Trans-Kubans, famous, warlike, rarely calm... Opposite the center of the line lies Kabarda, once populous, whose inhabitants, revered as the bravest among the mountaineers, often, due to their large numbers, desperately resisted the Russians in bloody battles ... The pestilence was our ally against the Kabardians; for, having completely destroyed the entire population of Little Kabarda and causing devastation in Big Kabarda, she weakened them so much that they could no longer gather in great forces, but made raids in small parties; otherwise our troops, scattered in weak parts over a large area, could be in danger. Quite a few expeditions were undertaken to Kabarda, sometimes they were forced to return or pay for the abductions made.
...Downstream the Terek live the Chechens, the worst of the robbers who attack the line. Their society is very sparsely populated, but has increased enormously in the last few years, for the villains of all other nations who leave their land due to some kind of crime were received in a friendly manner. Here they found accomplices, immediately ready either to avenge them or to participate in robberies, and they served as their faithful guides in lands unknown to them. Chechnya can rightly be called the nest of all robbers...” (From the notes of A.P. Ermolov during the administration of Georgia).
“Sovereign!.. The mountain peoples, by example of their independence, give rise to a rebellious spirit and a love of independence in the very subjects of your Imperial Majesty.” (From the report of A. Ermolov to Emperor Alexander I on February 12, 1819). In the spring of 1818, Ermolov turned to Chechnya. In 1818, the Grozny fortress was founded in the lower reaches of the river. It was believed that this measure put an end to the uprisings of the Chechens living between Sunzha and Terek, but in fact it was the beginning new war with Chechnya.
“It is just as impossible to conquer the Chechens as it is to smooth out the Caucasus. Who, besides us, can boast that he saw Eternal war? General Mikhail Orlov, 1826.
Ermolov moved from individual punitive expeditions to a systematic advance deep into Chechnya and Mountainous Dagestan by surrounding mountainous areas with a continuous ring of fortifications, cutting clearings in difficult forests, building roads and destroying rebellious villages.
In Dagestan, the highlanders who threatened Tarkovsky’s Shamkhalate annexed to the empire were pacified. In 1819, the Vnezapnaya fortress was built to keep the mountaineers submissive. An attempt to attack her by the Avar Khan ended in complete failure.
In Chechnya, Russian forces drove detachments of armed Chechens further into the mountains and resettled the population on the plain under the protection of Russian garrisons. A clearing was cut in the dense forest to the village of Germenchuk, which served as one of the main bases of the Chechens.
In 1820, the Black Sea Cossack Army (up to 40 thousand people) was included in the Separate Georgian Corps, renamed the Separate Caucasian Corps and reinforced. In 1821, on the top of a steep mountain, on the slopes of which the city of Tarki, the capital of the Tarkov Shamkhalate, was located, the Burnaya fortress was built. Moreover, during construction, the troops of the Avar Khan Akhmet, who tried to interfere with the work, were defeated. The possessions of the Dagestan princes, who suffered a series of defeats in 1819-1821, were either transferred to Russian vassals and subordinated to Russian commandants, or liquidated.
On the right flank of the line, the Trans-Kuban Circassians, with the help of the Turks, began to further disturb the border. Their army invaded the lands of the Black Sea Army in October 1821, but was defeated.
In Abkhazia, Major General Prince Gorchakov defeated the rebels near Cape Kodor and brought Prince Dmitry Shervashidze into possession of the country.
To completely pacify Kabarda in 1822, a series of fortifications were built at the foot of the mountains from Vladikavkaz to the upper reaches of the Kuban. Among other things, the Nalchik fortress was founded (1818 or 1822).
In 1823-1824. A number of punitive expeditions were carried out against the Trans-Kuban highlanders. In 1824, the Black Sea Abkhazians, who rebelled against the successor of Prince, were forced to submit. Dmitry Shervashidze, book. Mikhail Shervashidze.
In Dagestan in the 1820s. A new Islamic movement began to spread - muridism. Yermolov, having visited Cuba in 1824, ordered Aslankhan of Kazikumukh to stop the unrest excited by the followers of the new teaching, but, distracted by other matters, could not monitor the execution of this order, as a result of which the main preachers of Muridism, Mulla-Mohammed, and then Kazi-Mulla, continued to inflame the minds of the mountaineers in Dagestan and Chechnya and herald the proximity of Gazavat, the holy war against the infidels. The movement of the mountain people under the flag of Muridism was the impetus for the expansion of the Caucasian War, although some mountain peoples (Kumyks, Ossetians, Ingush, Kabardians) did not join it.
In 1825, a general uprising began in Chechnya. On July 8, the highlanders captured the Amiradzhiyurt post and tried to take the Gerzel fortification. On July 15, Lieutenant General Lisanevich rescued him. The next day, Lisanevich and General Grekov were killed by the Chechen mullah Ochar-Khadzhi during negotiations with the elders. Ochar-Khadzhi attacked General Grekov with a dagger, and also mortally wounded General Lisanevich, who tried to help Grekov. In response to the murder of the two generals, the troops killed all the Chechen and Kumyk elders invited to the negotiations. The uprising was suppressed only in 1826.
The Kuban coast began again to be raided by large parties of Shapsugs and Abadzekhs. The Kabardians became worried. In 1826, a series of campaigns were carried out in Chechnya, with deforestation, clearing, and pacification of villages free from Russian troops. This ended the activities of Ermolov, who was recalled by Nicholas I in 1827 and sent into retirement due to suspicion of connections with the Decembrists.
Its result was the consolidation of Russian power in Kabarda and the Kumyk lands, in the foothills and plains. The Russians advanced gradually, methodically cutting down the forests in which the mountaineers were hiding.
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