the struggle of the Russian Empire for the accession of the North Caucasus to Russia.

The North Caucasus was inhabited by many peoples who differed in language, customs, customs and level of social development. At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. The Russian administration concluded agreements with the ruling elite of the tribes and communities on their entry into the Russian Empire.

As a result of the Russian-Turkish and Russian-Iranian wars of the late 20s. 19th century Russia was joined by Georgia, Eastern Armenia, Northern Azerbaijan. (See the historical map "The territory of the Caucasus, ceded to Russia by the 1830s")

However, the mountainous regions of the North Caucasus remained out of control. Therefore, after joining the Transcaucasus and the Black Sea coast during the wars with Persia (Iran) and Turkey, Russia faced the task of ensuring a stable situation in the North Caucasus. Under Alexander I, General A.P. Yermolov began to advance deep into Chechnya and Dagestan, building military strongholds. The resistance of the mountain peoples resulted in a religious and political movement - muridism, which implies religious fanaticism and an uncompromising struggle against the "infidels", which gave it a nationalist character. In the North Caucasus, it was directed exclusively against Russians and was most widespread in Dagestan. A kind of state on religious grounds, the imamate, has developed here. (See the historical map "Caucasus in 1817 - 1864")

In 1834, Shamil became the imam - the head of state. He created a strong army and concentrated administrative, military and spiritual power in his hands. Under his leadership, the struggle against the Russians intensified in the North Caucasus. It continued with varying success for about 30 years. In the 1840s Shamil managed to expand the territories subject to him, establishing ties with Turkey and some European states.

The conquest of the highlanders of the North Caucasus and the protracted war brought significant human and material losses to Russia. During the whole time, up to 80 thousand soldiers and officers of the Caucasian corps died, were taken prisoner and went missing. The maintenance of the military contingent cost 10-15 million rubles. annually. Undoubtedly, it worsened the financial situation of Russia. However, prolonged resistance undermined the strength of the mountaineers. By the end of the 50s. 19th century the situation worsened for them. The internal decomposition of Shamil's state began. The peasantry and other strata of the population, tortured by the war, countless military exactions, severe religious restrictions, began to move away from Muridism. In August 1859, the last refuge of Shamil, the village of Gunib, fell. The Imamat ceased to exist. In 1863 - 1864. Russians occupied the entire territory along the northern slope of the Caucasus Range and crushed the resistance of the Circassians. The Caucasian war is over.

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CAUCASIAN WAR (1817-1864)

The war of the Russian Empire against the Muslim peoples of the North Caucasus in order to annex this region.

As a result of the Russian-Turkish and Russian-Iranian wars, the North Caucasus was surrounded by Russian territory. However, the imperial government failed to establish effective control over it for many decades. The mountain peoples of Chechnya and Dagestan have long lived to a large extent by raiding the surrounding flat territories, including Russian Cossack settlements and soldier garrisons. In 1819, almost all the rulers of Dagestan united in an alliance to fight against the Russians. In 1823, Kabardian princes rose up against Russian rule, and in 1824 an uprising in Chechnya was raised by Beibulat Taymazov, who had previously served as an officer in the Russian army. In 1828, the struggle of the highlanders was led by the Avar Gazi-Magomed, who received the title of imam (spiritual leader) of Chechnya and Dagestan. He fought against other Avar khans who took the side of Russia, but could not capture the Avar capital Khunzakh, to whose aid Russian troops came. The highlanders acted against them in small cavalry partisan detachments, which quickly dispersed in the mountains if the enemy had a significant superiority in people and artillery.

Until 1827, the fight against the highlanders, who called themselves murids (“those who seek the path of salvation” in the holy war against the infidels - ghazavat), was led by the commander of the Separate Caucasian Corps, General Yermolov, and later by General Paskevich. Yermolov built fortresses, laid roads between them, cut down forests and bit deeper into the mountainous territory. Paskevich began to build a road along the Black Sea coast. Russian troops established control over Pitsunda, Gagra and Sukhumi, but in fact they were blocked in these settlements by detachments of Dzhigets, Ubykhs, Shapsugs and Natukhians. Thousands of Russian soldiers died from malaria and typhus.

On October 17, 1832, in one of the battles near the village of Gimry, Gazi-Magomed was killed. His successor was Gamzat-bek, who two years later was hacked to death by the Avars in a mosque in retaliation for the murder of the Avar khans. In 1834, the closest friend of Gazi-Magomed Shamil was elected imam. He was the first of the imams who managed to organize the highlanders into a regular army, consisting of tens and hundreds. Hundreds, in turn, united into larger detachments of different numbers. He introduced Sharia law in the subject territory and established iron discipline in the army. The slightest disobedience was punishable by corporal punishment or death. Shamil equipped his troops with artillery both from captured cannons and from new ones, which Dagestan masters learned to cast. However, he also experienced some serious setbacks. In 1839, after a three-month siege, the Russians stormed the fortified residence of the imam - the village of Akhulgo. During the assault, the youngest son of Shamil Sagid and many other relatives of the imam died. Shamil was forced to give his younger 7-year-old son Jamalut-din as a hostage to the Russian Tsar. But eight months later, the imam launched a new uprising in Chechnya. His supporters also managed to capture several Russian fortifications on the Black Sea coast in 1840. In 1845, Shamil defeated an expeditionary force led by the governor of the Caucasus himself, Prince Mikhail Vorontsov. The highlanders at the same time captured rich booty.

In 1848, the Trans-Kuban highlanders united around Shamil's colleague Magomed-Emin, who became the ruler of the North-Western Caucasus. During the Crimean War, in the summer of 1854, Shamil's son Gazi-Magomed raided Georgia, hoping to join the Turkish troops. But the Russian Caucasian army did not allow the Turks into Georgia, and the soldiers of Gazi-Magomed were forced to limit themselves to rich booty. They captured about 900 prisoners, among whom were representatives of noble Georgian families. More than a thousand Georgian militias and civilians died. Princesses Chavchavadze and Orbeliani were exchanged for the son of Shamil Jamalutdin, who returned from St. Petersburg, where he served as a lieutenant in the Ulan Guards Regiment. A large ransom was also paid for the rest of the captives. After that, a cash crisis began in Georgia, and in Chechnya and Dagestan, on the contrary, silver coins depreciated.

Oddly enough, a successful raid into Georgia brought the end of the struggle against the highlanders closer. Realizing that they could not capture such booty a second time, the soldiers demanded peace, provided that no one forced them to return the loot. The new governor in the Caucasus, Prince Alexander Baryatinsky, a personal friend of Emperor Alexander II, applied a flexible policy, attracting local feudal lords (naibs) to his side with a promise to keep their possessions and privileges intact.

A three-year offensive in the mountains of southern Chechnya ended with the encirclement of Shamil in the high mountain village of Gunib. The superiority in artillery and small arms affected. The new rifled rifles of the 1856 model of the year surpassed the guns of the highlanders in range and rate of fire. On September 7, 1859, Shamil, at the head of 400 defenders of Gunib, surrendered to the army of Baryatinsky. At the same time, the proud imam told Baryatinsky: “I fought for the faith for thirty years, but now my peoples have betrayed me, and the naibs have fled. I myself am tired. I am sixty-three years old, I am already old and gray, even though my beard is black. the conquest of Dagestan. May the sovereign emperor own the highlanders for their benefit. "

After Shamil, it was the turn of Magomed-Emin. The troops landed from the ships captured Tuapse, the only port through which the highlanders of the North-Western Caucasus were supplied with weapons and ammunition. On December 2, 1859, Magomed Emin and the elders of the Abadzekhs swore allegiance to the Russian Empire. However, the appearance of Russian settlers in the Caucasus led to the discontent of the local population and the uprising in 1862 of the peoples of Abkhazia. It was suppressed only in June 1864. After that, individual partisan detachments in the Caucasus fought against the Russians until 1884, but large-scale hostilities ended 20 years earlier.

During the Caucasian War, the Russian army lost 25 thousand people killed and more than 65 thousand wounded. About 120 thousand soldiers and officers died from diseases. There is no exact data on the losses of the armed highlanders, but there is no doubt that they were several times smaller than the Russians, especially in terms of those who died from diseases. In addition, a number of the civilian mountain population became victims of Russian punitive operations. But even as a result of the mountain raids, there were losses among the peaceful inhabitants of the Cossack villages and fortifications and among the Christian population of Georgia. There is no exact data on this.

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In 1817-1827, General Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov (1777-1861) was the commander of the Separate Caucasian Corps and the chief administrator in Georgia. Yermolov's activities as commander-in-chief were active and quite successful. In 1817, the construction of the Sunzha line of cordons (along the Sunzha River) began. In 1818, the fortresses of Groznaya (modern Grozny) and Nalchik were built on the Sunzha line. Chechen campaigns (1819-1821) with the aim of destroying the Sunzha line were repulsed, Russian troops began to advance into the mountainous regions of Chechnya. In 1827, Yermolov was dismissed for his patronage of the Decembrists. Field Marshal Ivan Fedorovich Paskevich (1782-1856) was appointed to the post of commander in chief, who switched to the tactics of raids and campaigns, which could not always give lasting results. Later, in 1844, the commander-in-chief and viceroy, Prince M.S. Vorontsov (1782-1856), was forced to return to the cordon system. In 1834-1859, the liberation struggle of the Caucasian highlanders, which took place under the flag of the ghazavat, was led by Shamil (1797 - 1871), who created the Muslim-theocratic state - the imamat. Shamil was born in the village of Gimrakh around 1797, and according to other sources, around 1799, from the Avar bridle Dengau Mohammed. Gifted with brilliant natural abilities, he listened to the best teachers of grammar, logic and rhetoric of the Arabic language in Dagestan and soon began to be considered an outstanding scientist. The sermons of Kazi-mullah (or rather, Gazi-Mohammed), the first preacher of ghazavat - a holy war against the Russians, captivated Shamil, who became first his student, and then his friend and ardent supporter. The followers of the new teaching, which sought the salvation of the soul and cleansing from sins through a holy war for the faith against the Russians, were called murids. When the people were sufficiently fanatized and excited by the descriptions of paradise, with its houris, and the promise of complete independence from any authorities other than Allah and his Sharia (the spiritual law set forth in the Koran), Kazi-mullah managed to to carry along Koisuba, Gumbet, Andia and other small communities along the Avar and Andi Kois, most of the Shamkhalate of Tarkovsky, Kumyks and Avaria, except for its capital Khunzakh, where the Avar khans visited. Expecting that his power would only be strong in Dagestan when he finally took possession of Avaria, the center of Dagestan, and its capital Khunzakh, Kazi-mulla gathered 6,000 people and on February 4, 1830 went with them against the khansha Pahu-Bike. On February 12, 1830, he moved to storm Khunzakh, with one half of the militia commanded by Gamzat-bek, his future successor-imam, and the other by Shamil, the future 3rd imam of Dagestan.

The assault was unsuccessful; Shamil, together with Kazi-mullah, returned to Nimry. Accompanying his teacher on his campaigns, in 1832 Shamil was besieged by the Russians, under the command of Baron Rosen, in Gimry. Shamil managed, although terribly wounded, to break through and escape, while Kazi-mulla died, all pierced by bayonets. The death of the latter, the wounds received by Shamil during the siege of Gimr, and the dominance of Gamzat-bek, who declared himself the successor of Kazi-mullah and imam - all this kept Shamil in the background until the death of Gamzat-bek (September 7 or 19, 1834), the main of which he was an employee, gathering troops, obtaining material resources and commanding expeditions against the Russians and the enemies of the Imam. Upon learning of the death of Gamzat-bek, Shamil gathered a party of the most desperate murids, rushed with them to New Gotsatl, seized the wealth looted by Gamzat and ordered the surviving youngest son of Paru-Bike, the only heir to the Avar Khanate, to be killed. With this murder, Shamil finally removed the last obstacle to the spread of the power of the imam, since the khans of Avaria were interested in the fact that there was no single strong power in Dagestan and therefore acted in alliance with the Russians against Kazi-mullah and Gamzat-bek. For 25 years, Shamil ruled over the highlanders of Dagestan and Chechnya, successfully fighting against the huge forces of Russia. Less religious than Kazi-mullah, less hasty and reckless than Gamzat-bek, Shamil possessed military talent, great organizational skills, endurance, perseverance, the ability to choose the time to strike and assistants to fulfill his plans. Distinguished by a firm and unbending will, he knew how to inspire the highlanders, knew how to excite them to self-sacrifice and to obedience to his authority, which was especially difficult and unusual for them.

Exceeding his predecessors in intelligence, he, like them, did not consider the means to achieve his goals. Fear for the future forced the Avars to get closer to the Russians: the Avarian foreman Khalil-bek appeared in Temir-Khan-Shura and asked Colonel Kluki von Klugenau to appoint a legitimate ruler to Avaria so that it would not fall into the hands of the murids. Klugenau moved towards Gotzatl. Shamil, having arranged blockages on the left bank of the Avar Koisu, intended to act on the Russian flank and rear, but Klugenau managed to cross the river, and Shamil had to retreat into Dagestan, where at that time there were hostile clashes between contenders for power. Shamil's position in these early years was very difficult: a series of defeats suffered by the highlanders shook their desire for ghazavat and their faith in the triumph of Islam over the infidels; one by one, the Free Societies submitted and handed over hostages; fearing ruin by the Russians, the mountain auls were reluctant to host the murids. Throughout 1835, Shamil worked in secret, gaining adherents, fanaticizing the crowd and pushing back rivals or putting up with them. The Russians let him get stronger, because they looked at him as an insignificant adventurer. Shamil spread a rumor that he was only working on restoring the purity of the Muslim law between the recalcitrant societies of Dagestan and expressed his readiness to submit to the Russian government with all the Koisu-Bulins if special maintenance was assigned to him. In this way, lulling the Russians, who at that time were especially busy building fortifications along the Black Sea coast in order to cut off the Circassians from communicating with the Turks, Shamil, with the assistance of Tashav-hadji, tried to raise the Chechens and assure them that most of the mountainous Dagestan had already adopted Sharia ( Arabic sharia literally - the proper way) and obeyed the imam. In April 1836, Shamil, with a party of 2,000 people, exhorted and threatened the Koisa Bulins and other neighboring societies to accept his teachings and recognize him as an imam. The commander of the Caucasian Corps, Baron Rosen, wishing to undermine the growing influence of Shamil, in July 1836 sent Major General Reut to occupy Untsukul and, if possible, Ashilta, Shamil's residence. Having occupied Irganai, Major General Reut was met with statements of obedience from Untsukul, whose foremen explained that they accepted Sharia only yielding to the power of Shamil. After that, Reut did not go to Untsukul and returned to Temir-Khan-Shura, and Shamil began to spread the rumor everywhere that the Russians were afraid to go deep into the mountains; then, taking advantage of their inaction, he continued to subjugate the Avar villages to his power. In order to gain more influence among the population of Avaria, Shamil married the widow of the former imam Gamzat-bek and at the end of this year achieved that all free Dagestani societies from Chechnya to Avaria, as well as a significant part of the Avars and societies lying south of Avaria, recognized him power.

At the beginning of 1837, the corps commander instructed Major General Feza to undertake several expeditions to different parts of Chechnya, which was carried out with success, but made an insignificant impression on the highlanders. Shamil's continuous attacks on the Avar villages forced the governor of the Avar Khanate, Akhmet Khan Mekhtulinsky, to offer the Russians to occupy the capital of the Khunzakh Khanate. On May 28, 1837, General Feze entered Khunzakh and then moved to the village of Ashilte, near which, on the impregnable cliff of Akhulga, there was the family and all the property of the imam. Shamil himself, with a large party, was in the village of Talitle and tried to divert the attention of the troops from Ashilta, attacking from different sides. A detachment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Buchkiev was put up against him. Shamil tried to break through this barrier and on the night of June 7-8 attacked Buchkiev's detachment, but after a heated battle he was forced to retreat. On June 9, Ashilta was taken by storm and burned after a desperate battle with 2,000 selected fanatics-murids, who defended every saklya, every street, and then rushed at our troops six times to recapture Ashilta, but in vain. On June 12, Akhulgo was also taken by storm. On July 5, General Feze moved troops to attack Tilitla; all the horrors of the Ashiltipo pogrom were repeated, when some did not ask, while others did not give mercy. Shamil saw that the case was lost, and sent a truce with an expression of humility. General Feze gave in to deceit and entered into negotiations, after which Shamil and his comrades handed over three amanats (hostages), including Shamil's nephew, and swore allegiance to the Russian emperor. Having missed the chance to capture Shamil, General Feze dragged out the war for 22 years, and by making peace with him, as with an equal side, he raised his importance in the eyes of all of Dagestan and Chechnya. Shamil's situation, however, was very difficult: on the one hand, the highlanders were shocked by the appearance of the Russians in the very heart of the most inaccessible part of Dagestan, and on the other hand, the pogrom carried out by the Russians, the death of many brave murids and the loss of property undermined their strength and for some time killed their energy. Soon the circumstances changed. Unrest in the Kuban region and in southern Dagestan diverted most of the government troops to the south, as a result of which Shamil could recover from the blows inflicted on him and again attract some free societies to his side, acting on them either by persuasion or by force (the end of 1838 and the beginning 1839). Near Akhulgo, destroyed by the Avar expedition, he built New Akhulgo, where he moved his residence from Chirkat. In view of the possibility of uniting all the highlanders of Dagestan under the rule of Shamil, the Russians during the winter of 1838-39 prepared troops, convoys and supplies for an expedition deep into Dagestan. It was necessary to restore free communications along all our routes of communication, which Shamil now threatened to such an extent that to cover our transports between Temir-Khan-Shura, Khunzakh and Vnepapnaya, strong columns from all types of weapons had to be assigned. The so-called Chechen detachment of Adjutant General Grabbe was appointed to act against Shamil. Shamil, for his part, in February 1839 gathered an armed mass of 5,000 people in Chirkat, strongly fortified the village of Arguani on the way from Salatavia to Akhulgo, destroyed the descent from the steep mountain Souk-Bulakh, and to divert attention on May 4 attacked the obedient Russia the village of Irganai and took its inhabitants to the mountains. At the same time, Tashav-hadji, who was devoted to Shamil, captured the village of Miskit on the Aksai River and built a fortification near it in the tract of Akhmet-Tala, from which he could at any moment attack the Sunzha line or the Kumyk plane, and then hit the rear when the troops go deep into the mountains when moving to Akhulgo. Adjutant General Grabbe understood this plan and, with a sudden attack, took and burned the fortification near Miskit, destroyed and burned a number of auls in Chechnya, stormed Sayasani, the stronghold of Tashav-hadzhi, and on May 15 returned to Vnezpnaya. On May 21, he again spoke from there.

Near the village of Burtunaya, Shamil took up a flank position on impregnable heights, but the enveloping movement of the Russians forced him to leave for Chirkat, while his militia dispersed in different directions. Developing a road along puzzling steepness, Grabbe climbed the Souk-Bulakh pass and on May 30 approached Arguani, where Shamil sat down with 16 thousand people to delay the movement of the Russians. After a desperate hand-to-hand fight for 12 hours, in which the mountaineers and Russians suffered huge losses (the mountaineers have up to 2 thousand people, we have 641 people), he left the village (June 1) and fled to New Akhulgo, where he locked himself with the most devoted to him murids. Having occupied Chirkat (June 5), General Grabbe approached Akhulgo on June 12. The blockade of Akhulgo continued for ten weeks; Shamil freely communicated with the surrounding communities, again occupied Chirkat and stood on our messages, harassing us from two sides; reinforcements flocked to him from everywhere; the Russians were gradually surrounded by a ring of mountain rubble. Help from the Samur detachment of General Golovin brought them out of this difficulty and allowed them to close the ring of batteries near New Akhulgo. Anticipating the fall of his stronghold, Shamil tried to enter into negotiations with General Grabbe, demanding a free pass from Akhulgo, but was refused. On August 17, an attack occurred, during which Shamil again tried to enter into negotiations, but without success: on August 21, the attack resumed and after a 2-day battle, both Akhulgo were taken, and most of the defenders died. Shamil himself managed to escape, was wounded on the way and disappeared through Salatau to Chechnya, where he settled in the Argun Gorge. The impression of this pogrom was very strong; many societies sent chieftains and expressed their obedience; former associates of Shamil, including Tashav-Hajj, decided to usurp imam power and recruit adherents, but they made a mistake in their calculations: Shamil was reborn from the ashes of a phoenix and already in 1840 he again began the fight against the Russians in Chechnya, taking advantage of the discontent of the mountaineers against our bailiffs and against attempts to take away their weapons. General Grabbe considered Shamil a harmless fugitive and did not care about his pursuit, which he took advantage of, gradually returning the lost influence. Shamil strengthened the dissatisfaction of the Chechens with a deftly spread rumor that the Russians intended to turn the highlanders into peasants and enlist them in military service; the highlanders were worried and remembered Shamil, opposing the justice and wisdom of his decisions to the activities of the Russian bailiffs.

The Chechens offered him to lead the uprising; he agreed to this only after repeated requests, taking an oath from them and hostages from the best families. By his order, the whole of Little Chechnya and the Sunzha auls began to arm themselves. Shamil constantly disturbed the Russian troops with raids of large and small parties, which were transferred from place to place with such speed, avoiding open battle with the Russian troops, that the latter were completely exhausted chasing them, and the imam, taking advantage of this, attacked the obedient Russians who were left without protection society, subjected them to his power and resettled in the mountains. By the end of May, Shamil gathered a significant militia. Little Chechnya is all empty; its population abandoned their homes, rich lands and hid in dense forests beyond the Sunzha and in the Black Mountains. General Galafeev moved (July 6, 1840) to Little Chechnya, had several hot clashes, by the way, on July 11 on the Valerika River (Lermontov participated in this battle, describing it in a wonderful poem), but despite huge losses, especially when Valerika, the Chechens did not back down from Shamil and willingly joined his militia, which he now sent to northern Dagestan. Having won over the Gumbetovtsy, Andians and Salatavs to his side and holding in his hands the exits to the rich Shamkhal plain, Shamil gathered a militia of 10-12 thousand people from Cherkey against 700 people of the Russian army. Having stumbled upon Major General Kluki von Klugenau, Shamil's 9,000-strong militia, after stubborn battles on the 10th and 11th mules, abandoned further movement, returned to Cherkey, and then part of Shamil was disbanded to go home: he was waiting for a wider movement in Dagestan. Evading the battle, he gathered the militia and worried the highlanders with rumors that the Russians would take the mounted highlanders and send them to serve in Warsaw. On September 14, General Kluki von Klugenau managed to call Shamil to fight near Gimry: he was beaten on the head and fled, Avaria and Koysubu were saved from looting and devastation. Despite this defeat, Shamil's power was not shaken in Chechnya; all the tribes between the Sunzha and the Avar Koisu obeyed him, vowing not to enter into any relations with the Russians; Hadji Murad (1852), who had betrayed Russia, went over to his side (November 1840) and agitated Avaria. Shamil settled in the village of Dargo (in Ichkeria, at the headwaters of the Aksai River) and took a number of offensive actions. The equestrian party of the naib of Akhverdy-Magoma appeared on September 29, 1840 near Mozdok and took several people prisoner, including the family of the Armenian merchant Ulukhanov, whose daughter, Anna, became Shamil's beloved wife, under the name Shuanet.

By the end of 1840, Shamil was so strong that the commander of the Caucasian Corps, General Golovin, found it necessary to enter into relations with him, challenging him to reconcile with the Russians. This further raised the importance of the imam among the highlanders. Throughout the winter of 1840-1841, gangs of Circassians and Chechens broke through Sulak and penetrated even to Tarki, stealing cattle and robbing under the Termit-Khan-Shura itself, the communication of which with the line became possible only with a strong convoy. Shamil ruined the villages that tried to oppose his power, took his wives and children with him to the mountains and forced the Chechens to marry their daughters to the Lezgins, and vice versa, in order to connect these tribes with each other. It was especially important for Shamil to acquire such collaborators as Hadji Murad, who attracted Avaria to him, Kibit-Magom in southern Dagestan, a fanatic, brave and capable self-taught engineer, very influential among the highlanders, and Dzhemaya-ed-Din, an outstanding preacher. By April 1841, Shamil commanded almost all the tribes of mountainous Dagestan, except for the Koysubu. Knowing how important the occupation of Cherkey was for the Russians, he fortified all the ways there with blockages and defended them himself with extreme tenacity, but after the Russians bypassed them from both flanks, he retreated deep into Dagestan. On May 15, Cherkey surrendered to General Fese. Seeing that the Russians were engaged in the construction of fortifications and left him alone, Shamil decided to take possession of Andalal, with impregnable Gunib, where he expected to arrange his residence if the Russians forced him out of Dargo. Andalal was also important because its inhabitants made gunpowder. In September 1841, the Andalal people entered into relations with the imam; only a few small auls remained in government hands. At the beginning of winter, Shamil flooded Dagestan with his gangs and cut off communication with the conquered societies and with the Russian fortifications. General Kluki von Klugenau asked the corps commander to send reinforcements, but the latter, hoping that Shamil would stop his activities in the winter, postponed this matter until spring. Meanwhile, Shamil was not at all inactive, but was intensively preparing for the next year's campaign, not giving our exhausted troops a moment's rest. Shamil's fame reached the Ossetians and Circassians, who had high hopes for him. On February 20, 1842, General Fese took Gergebil by storm. Chokh occupied March 2 without a fight and arrived in Khunzakh on March 7. At the end of May 1842, Shamil invaded Kazikumukh with 15 thousand militiamen, but, defeated on June 2 at Kulyuli by Prince Argutinsky-Dolgoruky, he quickly cleared the Kazikumukh Khanate, probably because he received news of the movement of a large detachment of General Grabbe to Dargo. Having traveled only 22 versts in 3 days (May 30 and 31 and June 1) and having lost about 1800 people who were out of action, General Grabbe returned back without doing anything. This failure unusually raised the spirits of the highlanders. On our side, a number of fortifications along the Sunzha, which made it difficult for the Chechens to attack the villages on the left bank of this river, were supplemented by a fortification at Seral-Yurt (1842), and the construction of a fortification on the Asse River marked the beginning of the advanced Chechen line.

Shamil used the whole spring and summer of 1843 to organize his army; when the highlanders removed the bread, he went on the offensive. August 27, 1843, having made a transition of 70 miles, Shamil suddenly appeared in front of the Untsukul fortification, with 10 thousand people; lieutenant colonel Veselitsky went to help the fortification, with 500 people, but, surrounded by the enemy, he died with the whole detachment; On August 31, Untsukul was taken, destroyed to the ground, many of its inhabitants were executed; from the Russian garrison, the surviving 2 officers and 58 soldiers were taken prisoner. Then Shamil turned against Avaria, where, in Khunzakh, General Kluki von Klugenau sat down. As soon as Shamil entered the Accident, one village after another began to surrender to him; despite the desperate defense of our garrisons, he managed to take the fortification of Belakhany (September 3), the Maksokh tower (September 5), the fortification of Tsatany (September 6 - 8), Akhalchi and Gotsatl; seeing this, Avaria was separated from Russia and the inhabitants of Khunzakh were kept from betrayal only by the presence of troops. Such successes were possible only because the Russian forces were scattered over a large area in small detachments, which were placed in small and poorly constructed fortifications. Shamil was in no hurry to attack Khunzakh, fearing that one failure would ruin what he had gained with victories. Throughout this campaign, Shamil showed the talent of an outstanding commander. Leading crowds of highlanders, still unfamiliar with discipline, self-willed and easily discouraged at the slightest setback, he managed in a short time to subdue them to his will and inspire readiness to go on the most difficult enterprises. After an unsuccessful attack on the fortified village of Andreevka, Shamil turned his attention to Gergebil, which was poorly fortified, but meanwhile was of great importance, protecting access from northern Dagestan to southern Dagestan, and to the Burunduk-kale tower, occupied by only a few soldiers, while she defended plane crash message. On October 28, 1843, crowds of mountaineers, up to 10 thousand in number, surrounded Gergebil, the garrison of which was 306 people of the Tiflis regiment, under the command of Major Shaganov; after a desperate defense, the fortress was taken, the garrison almost all died, only a few were captured (November 8). The fall of Gergebil was a signal for the uprising of the Koisu-Bulinsky auls on the right bank of the Avar Koisu, as a result of which the Russian troops cleared Avaria. Temir-Khan-Shura was now completely isolated; not daring to attack her, Shamil decided to starve her to death and attacked the Nizovoe fortification, where there was a warehouse of food supplies. Despite the desperate attacks of 6000 highlanders, the garrison withstood all their attacks and was released by General Freigat, who burned supplies, riveted cannons and withdrew the garrison to Kazi-Yurt (November 17, 1843). The hostile mood of the population forced the Russians to clear the Miatly blockhouse, then Khunzakh, whose garrison, under the command of Passek, moved to Zirani, where he was besieged by the highlanders. General Gurko moved to help Passek and on December 17 rescued him from the siege.

By the end of 1843, Shamil was the full master of Dagestan and Chechnya; we had to start the work of their conquest from the very beginning. Having taken up the organization of the lands subject to him, Shamil divided Chechnya into 8 naibs and then into thousands, five hundred, hundreds and tens. The duties of the naibs were to order the invasion of small parties into our borders and to monitor all movements of the Russian troops. Significant reinforcements received by the Russians in 1844 gave them the opportunity to take and ravage Cherkey and push Shamil out of the impregnable position at Burtunai (June 1844). On August 22, the construction of the Vozdvizhensky fortification, the future center of the Chechen line, began on the Argun River; the highlanders tried in vain to prevent the construction of the fortress, lost heart and ceased to show themselves. Daniel-bek, the Sultan of Elisu, went over to Shamil's side at that time, but General Schwartz occupied the Elisu Sultanate, and the betrayal of the Sultan did not bring Shamil the benefit he had hoped for. Shamil's power was still very strong in Dagestan, especially in the south and along the left bank of the Sulak and the Avar Koisu. He understood that his main support was the lower class of the people, and therefore he tried by all means to tie him to himself: for this purpose, he established the position of murtazeks, from poor and homeless people, who, having received power and importance from him, were a blind tool in his hands and strictly observed the execution of his instructions. In February 1845, Shamil occupied the trading village of Chokh and forced the neighboring villages into obedience.

Emperor Nicholas I ordered the new governor, Count Vorontsov, to take Shamil's residence, Dargo, although all authoritative Caucasian military generals rebelled against this, as against a useless expedition. The expedition, undertaken on May 31, 1845, occupied Dargo, abandoned and burned by Shamil, and returned on July 20, having lost 3631 people without the slightest benefit. Shamil surrounded the Russian troops during this expedition with such a mass of his troops that they had to conquer every inch of the way at the cost of blood; all the roads were spoiled, dug up and blocked by dozens of blockages and fences; all the villages had to be taken by storm or they got destroyed and burned. The Russians learned from the Dargin expedition that the path to dominion in Dagestan went through Chechnya and that it was necessary to act not by raids, but by cutting roads in the forests, founding fortresses and populating the occupied places with Russian settlers. This was started in the same 1845. In order to divert the attention of the government from the events in Dagestan, Shamil disturbed the Russians at various points along the Lezgin line; but the development and strengthening of the Military Akhtyn road here also gradually limited the field of his actions, bringing the Samur detachment closer to the Lezgin one. Having in mind to recapture the Dargin district, Shamil moved his capital to Vedeno, in Ichkeria. In October 1846, having taken a strong position near the village of Kuteshi, Shamil intended to lure the Russian troops, under the command of Prince Bebutov, into this narrow gorge, surround them here, cut them off from all communications with other detachments and defeat or starve them to death. Russian troops unexpectedly, on the night of October 15, attacked Shamil and, despite stubborn and desperate defense, smashed him on his head: he fled, leaving a lot of badges, one cannon and 21 charging boxes. With the onset of the spring of 1847, the Russians besieged Gergebil, but, defended by desperate murids, skillfully fortified, he fought back, supported in time by Shamil (June 1 - 8, 1847). The outbreak of cholera in the mountains forced both sides to suspend hostilities. On July 25, Prince Vorontsov laid siege to the village of Salty, which was heavily fortified and equipped with a large garrison; Shamil sent his best naibs (Hadji Murad, Kibit-Magoma and Daniel-bek) to the rescue of the besieged, but they were defeated by an unexpected attack by Russian troops and fled with a huge loss (August 7). Shamil tried many times to help the Salts, but had no success; On September 14, the fortress was taken by the Russians. The construction of fortified headquarters in Chiro-Yurt, Ishkarty and Deshlagora, which guarded the plain between the Sulak River, the Caspian Sea and Derbent, and the construction of fortifications at Khojal-Makhi and Tsudahar, which laid the foundation for the line along the Kazikumykh-Koys, the Russians greatly hampered Shamil’s movements, making it difficult him a breakthrough to the plain and locking up the main passages to central Dagestan. To this was added the displeasure of the people, who, starving, grumbled that, as a result of constant war, it was impossible to sow the fields and prepare food for their families for the winter; Naibs quarreled among themselves, accused each other and reached denunciations. In January 1848, Shamil gathered naibs, chief elders and clerics in Vedeno and announced to them that, not seeing help from the people in his enterprises and zeal in military operations against the Russians, he resigned the title of imam. The assembly declared that it would not allow this, because there was no man in the mountains more worthy to bear the title of imam; the people are not only ready to submit to Shamil's demands, but are obligated to obedience to his son, to whom, after the death of his father, the title of imam should pass.

On July 16, 1848, Gergebil was taken by the Russians. Shamil, for his part, attacked the fortification of Akhta, defended by only 400 people under the command of Colonel Rot, and the murids, inspired by the personal presence of the imam, were at least 12 thousand. The garrison defended heroically and was saved by the arrival of Prince Argutinsky, who defeated Shamil's crowd at the village of Meskindzhi on the banks of the Samur River. The Lezgin line was raised to the southern spurs of the Caucasus, which the Russians took away from the highlanders pastures and forced many of them to submit or move to our borders. From the side of Chechnya, we began to push back the societies that were recalcitrant to us, cutting deep into the mountains with the advanced Chechen line, which so far consisted only of the fortifications of Vozdvizhensky and Achtoevsky, with a gap between them of 42 versts. At the end of 1847 and the beginning of 1848, in the middle of Little Chechnya, a fortification was erected on the banks of the Urus-Martan River between the above-mentioned fortifications, 15 versts from Vozdvizhensky and 27 versts from Achtoevsky. By this we took away from the Chechens a rich plain, the breadbasket of the country. The population was discouraged; some submitted to us and moved closer to our fortifications, others went further into the depths of the mountains. From the side of the Kumyk plane, the Russians cordoned off Dagestan with two parallel lines of fortifications. The winter of 1858-49 passed quietly. In April 1849, Hadji Murad launched an unsuccessful attack on Temir-Khan-Shura. In June, Russian troops approached Chokh and, finding it perfectly fortified, led the siege according to all the rules of engineering; but, seeing the enormous forces gathered by Shamil to repel the attack, Prince Argutinsky-Dolgorukov lifted the siege. In the winter of 1849 - 1850, a huge clearing was cut from the Vozdvizhensky fortification to the Shalinskaya glade, the main granary of Greater Chechnya and partly of Nagorno-Dagestan; to provide another way there, a road was cut through from the Kura fortification through the Kachkalykovsky ridge to the descent into the Michika valley. Little Chechnya was covered by us during four summer expeditions. The Chechens were driven to despair, they were indignant at Shamil, did not hide their desire to free themselves from his power, and in 1850, among several thousand, they moved to our borders. The attempts of Shamil and his naibs to penetrate our borders were not successful: they ended in the retreat of the highlanders or even their complete defeat (the cases of Major General Sleptsov near Tsoki-Yurt and Datykh, Colonel Maidel and Baklanov on the Michika River and in the land of the Aukhavians, Colonel Kishinsky on Kuteshinsky heights, etc.). In 1851, the policy of ousting the recalcitrant highlanders from the plains and valleys continued, the ring of fortifications narrowed, and the number of fortified points increased. The expedition of Major General Kozlovsky to Greater Chechnya turned this area, up to the Bassa River, into a treeless plain. In January and February 1852, Prince Baryatinsky made a number of desperate expeditions into the depths of Chechnya before Shamil's eyes. Shamil pulled all his forces to Greater Chechnya, where on the banks of the Gonsaul and Michika rivers he entered into a hot and stubborn battle with Prince Baryatinsky and Colonel Baklanov, but, despite the huge superiority in strength, was defeated several times. In 1852, Shamil, in order to warm up the zeal of the Chechens and dazzle them with a brilliant feat, decided to punish the peaceful Chechens who lived near Groznaya for their departure to the Russians; but his plans were open, he was engulfed from all sides, and out of 2,000 people of his militia, many fell near Grozna, while others drowned in Sunzha (September 17, 1852). Shamil's actions in Dagestan over the years consisted in sending out parties that attacked our troops and mountaineers who were submissive to us, but did not have much success. The hopelessness of the struggle was reflected in numerous migrations to our borders and even the betrayal of the naibs, including Hadji Murad.

A big blow for Shamil in 1853 was the capture by the Russians of the valley of the rivers Michika and its tributary Gonsoli, in which a very numerous and devoted Chechen population lived, feeding not only themselves, but also Dagestan with their bread. He gathered for the defense of this corner about 8 thousand cavalry and about 12 thousand infantry; all the mountains were fortified with innumerable blockages, skillfully arranged and folded, all possible descents and ascents were spoiled to the point of complete unfitness for movement; but the swift actions of Prince Baryatinsky and General Baklanov led to the complete defeat of Shamil. It calmed down until our break with Turkey made all the Muslims of the Caucasus start up. Shamil spread a rumor that the Russians would leave the Caucasus and then he, the imam, remaining a complete master, would severely punish those who now did not go over to his side. On August 10, 1853, he set out from Vedeno, gathered a militia of 15 thousand people on the way, and on August 25 occupied the village of Old Zagatala, but, defeated by Prince Orbeliani, who had only about 2 thousand troops, went into the mountains. Despite this failure, the population of the Caucasus, electrified by the mullahs, was ready to rise against the Russians; but for some reason the imam delayed the whole winter and spring, and only at the end of June 1854 did he descend to Kakhetia. Repulsed from the village of Shildy, he captured the family of General Chavchavadze in Tsinondala and left, robbing several villages. On October 3, 1854, he again appeared in front of the village of Istisu, but the desperate defense of the inhabitants of the village and the tiny garrison of the redoubt delayed him until Baron Nikolai arrived from the Kura fortification; Shamil's troops were utterly defeated and fled to the nearest forests. During 1855 and 1856, Shamil was not very active, and Russia did not have the opportunity to do anything decisive, as it was busy with the Eastern (Crimean) war. With the appointment of Prince A. I. Baryatinsky as commander-in-chief (1856), the Russians began to vigorously move forward, again with the help of clearings and the construction of fortifications. In December 1856, a huge clearing cut through Greater Chechnya in a new location; the Chechens stopped listening to the naibs and moved closer to us.

In March 1857, the Shali fortification was erected on the Basse River, which advanced almost to the foot of the Black Mountains, the last refuge of the recalcitrant Chechens, and opened the shortest route to Dagestan. General Evdokimov penetrated the Argen valley, cut down the forests here, burned the villages, built defensive towers and the Argun fortification and brought the clearing to the top of Dargin-Duk, from which it was not far from Shamil's residence, Veden. Many villages submitted to the Russians. In order to keep at least part of Chechnya in his obedience, Shamil cordoned off the villages that remained loyal to him with his Dagestan paths and drove the inhabitants further into the mountains; but the Chechens had already lost faith in him and were only looking for an opportunity to get rid of his yoke. In July 1858, General Evdokimov took the village of Shatoi and occupied the entire Shatoev plain; another detachment entered Dagestan from the Lezgin line. Shamil was cut off from Kakheti; the Russians stood on the tops of the mountains, from where they could at any moment descend to Dagestan along the Avar Kois. The Chechens, weighed down by Shamil's despotism, asked for help from the Russians, drove out the Murids and overthrew the authorities set by Shamil. The fall of Shatoi so impressed Shamil that he, having a mass of troops under arms, hastily withdrew to Vedeno. The agony of Shamil's power began at the end of 1858. Having allowed the Russians to establish themselves freely on the Chanty-Argun, he concentrated large forces along another source of the Argun, the Sharo-Argun, and demanded that the Chechens and Dagestanis be completely armed. His son Kazi-Magoma occupied the gorge of the Bassy River, but was ousted from there in November 1858. Aul Tauzen, heavily fortified, was bypassed by us from the flanks.

Russian troops did not go, as before, through dense forests, where Shamil was the complete master, but slowly moved forward, cutting down forests, building roads, erecting fortifications. To protect Veden, Shamil pulled together about 6-7 thousand people. Russian troops approached Veden on February 8, climbing mountains and descending from them through liquid and sticky mud, making 1/2 a verst an hour, with terrible effort. Beloved naib Shamil Talgik came over to our side; the inhabitants of the nearest villages refused obedience to the imam, so he entrusted the protection of Veden to the Tavlins, and took the Chechens away from the Russians, into the depths of Ichkeria, from where he issued an order for the inhabitants of Greater Chechnya to move to the mountains. The Chechens did not comply with this order and came to our camp with complaints about Shamil, with expressions of humility and with a request for protection. General Evdokimov fulfilled their desire and sent a detachment of Count Nostitz to the Khulhulau River to protect those moving within our borders. To divert enemy forces from Veden, the commander of the Caspian part of Dagestan, Baron Wrangel, began military operations against Ichkeria, where Shamil was now sitting. Approaching a number of trenches to Veden, General Evdokimov on April 1, 1859 took it by storm and destroyed it to the ground. A number of societies fell away from Shamil and went over to our side. Shamil, however, still did not lose hope and, having appeared in Ichichal, gathered a new militia. Our main detachment freely marched forward, bypassing the enemy fortifications and positions, which, as a result, were left by the enemy without a fight; the villages encountered on the way submitted to us without a fight, too; the inhabitants were ordered to be treated peacefully everywhere, about which all the highlanders soon learned and even more willingly began to fall away from Shamil, who retired to Andalalo and fortified himself on Mount Gunib. On July 22, a detachment of Baron Wrangel appeared on the banks of the Avar Koisu, after which the Avars and other tribes expressed their obedience to the Russians. On July 28, a deputation from Kibit-Magoma came to Baron Wrangel, announcing that he had detained Shamil's father-in-law and teacher, Dzhemal-ed-Din, and one of the main preachers of Muridism, Aslan. On August 2, Daniel-bek surrendered his residence Irib and the village of Dusrek to Baron Wrangel, and on August 7 he himself appeared to Prince Baryatinsky, was forgiven and returned to his former possessions, where he set about establishing calm and order among the societies that had submitted to the Russians.

A conciliatory mood seized Dagestan to such an extent that in mid-August the commander-in-chief traveled without hindrance through the whole of Avaria, accompanied by some Avars and Koisubulins, all the way to Gunib. Our troops surrounded Gunib from all sides; Shamil locked himself there with a small detachment (400 people, including the inhabitants of the village). Baron Wrangel, on behalf of the commander-in-chief, suggested that Shamil submit to the Sovereign, who would allow him free travel to Mecca, with the obligation to choose her as his permanent residence; Shamil rejected this offer. On August 25, the Apsheronians climbed the steep slopes of Gunib, slew the Murids, who were desperately defending the rubble, and approached the village itself (8 versts from the place where they climbed the mountain), where other troops had gathered by that time. Shamil was threatened with an immediate assault; he decided to surrender and was taken to the commander-in-chief, who received him kindly and sent him, along with his family, to Russia.

After being received in St. Petersburg by the emperor, Kaluga was assigned to him for residence, where he stayed until 1870, with a short stay at the end of this time in Kyiv; in 1870 he was allowed to live in Mecca, where he died in March 1871. Having united all the societies and tribes of Chechnya and Dagestan under his rule, Shamil was not only an imam, the spiritual head of his followers, but also a political ruler. Based on the teachings of Islam about the salvation of the soul by war with the infidels, trying to unite the disparate peoples of the Eastern Caucasus on the basis of Mohammedanism, Shamil wanted to subordinate them to the clergy, as a generally recognized authority in the affairs of heaven and earth. To achieve this goal, he sought to abolish all authorities, orders and institutions based on age-old customs, on adat; the basis of the life of the highlanders, both private and public, he considered Sharia, that is, that part of the Koran that contains civil and criminal decisions. As a result, power was to pass into the hands of the clergy; the court passed from the hands of elected secular judges to the hands of qadis, interpreters of sharia. Having bound by Islam, as with cement, all the wild and free societies of Dagestan, Shamil gave control into the hands of the spiritual and with their help established a single and unlimited power in these once free countries, and in order to make it easier for them to endure his yoke, he pointed out two great goals, which mountaineers, obeying him, can achieve: the salvation of the soul and the preservation of independence from the Russians. The time of Shamil was called by the highlanders the time of Sharia, his fall - the fall of Sharia, since immediately after that ancient institutions, ancient elected authorities and the decision of affairs according to custom, i.e. according to adat, revived everywhere. The entire country subordinated to Shamil was divided into districts, each of which was under the control of the naib, who had military-administrative power. For the court in each district there was a mufti who appointed qadis. The naibs were forbidden to solve Sharia affairs under the jurisdiction of the mufti or qadis. At first, every four naibs were subject to a mudir, but Shamil was forced to abandon this establishment in the last decade of his rule, due to constant strife between the mudirs and naibs. The assistants of the naibs were murids, who, as experienced in courage and devotion to the holy war (ghazavat), were assigned to perform more important tasks.

The number of murids was indefinite, but 120 of them, under the command of a yuzbashi (centurion), constituted the honorary guard of Shamil, were always with him and accompanied him on all trips. Officials were obliged to unquestioning obedience to the imam; for disobedience and misdeeds, they were reprimanded, demoted, arrested and punished with whips, from which the mudirs and naibs were spared. Military service was required to carry all able to bear arms; they were divided into tens and hundreds, which were under the command of the tenth and sot, subordinate in turn to the naibs. In the last decade of his activity, Shamil led regiments of 1000 people, divided into 2 five-hundred, 10 hundred and 100 detachments of 10 people, with respective commanders. Some villages, in the form of atonement, were exempted from military service, to supply sulfur, saltpeter, salt, etc. Shamil's largest army did not exceed 60 thousand people. From 1842-43, Shamil started artillery, partly from cannons abandoned by us or taken from us, partly from those prepared at his own factory in Vedeno, where about 50 guns were cast, of which no more than a quarter turned out to be suitable. Gunpowder was made in Untsukul, Ganiba and Vedeno. The highlanders' teachers in artillery, engineering and combat were often runaway soldiers, whom Shamil caressed and gave gifts. Shamil's state treasury was made up of random and permanent incomes: the first were delivered by robbery, the second consisted of zekat - the collection of a tenth of the income from bread, sheep and money established by Sharia, and kharaj - tax from mountain pastures and from some villages that paid the same tax to the khans. The exact figure of the imam's income is unknown.

"From Ancient Russia to the Russian Empire". Shishkin Sergey Petrovich, Ufa.

Caucasian War 1817-1864

"It is just as difficult to enslave the Chechens and other peoples of the region as it is to smooth out the Caucasus.
This work is carried out not with bayonets, but with time and enlightenment.
So<….>they will make another expedition, knock down several people,
they will smash a crowd of unsettled enemies, lay down some kind of fortress
and return home to wait for autumn again.
This course of action can bring Yermolov great personal benefits,
and no Russia<….>
But quite so, in this continuous war there is something majestic,
and the temple of Janus for Russia, as for ancient Rome, will not be lost.
Who, besides us, can boast that he saw the eternal war?
From a letter to M.F. Orlov - A.N. Raevsky. 10/13/1820

There were still forty-four years left before the end of the war.
Isn't it something reminiscent of the current situation in the Russian Caucasus?

by the time of the appointment of Lieutenant General Alexei Petrovich Yermolov,
hero of the Battle of Borodino, commander-in-chief of the Caucasian army.

In fact, the penetration of Russia into the North Caucasus region
began long before and proceeded slowly but steadily.

Back in the 16th century, after the capture of the Astrakhan Khanate by Ivan the Terrible,
on the western coast of the Caspian Sea at the mouth of the Terek River, the Tarki fortress was founded,
which became the starting point for penetration into the North Caucasus from the Caspian,
birthplace of the Terek Cossacks.

In the kingdom of Grozny, Russia acquires, although more formally,
mountainous region in the Center of the Caucasus - Kabarda.

The chief prince of Kabarda, Temryuk Idarov, sent an official embassy in 1557
with a request to take Kabarda "under the high hand" of powerful Russia
to protect against the Crimean-Turkish conquerors.
On the eastern shore of the Sea of ​​Azov, near the mouth of the Kuban River, there is still
the city of Temryuk, founded in 1570 by Temryuk Idarov,
as a fortress to protect against the raids of the Crimeans.

Since Catherine's time, after the victorious Russo-Turkish wars for Russia,
annexation of the Crimea and the steppes of the Northern Black Sea coast,
the struggle for the steppe space of the North Caucasus began
- for the Kuban and Terek steppes.

Lieutenant General Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov,
appointed in 1777 commander of the corps in the Kuban,
led the capture of these vast expanses.
It was he who introduced the practice of scorched earth in this war, when everything recalcitrant was destroyed.
The Kuban Tatars as an ethnic group disappeared forever in this struggle.

To consolidate the victory on the conquered lands, fortresses are founded,
interconnected by cordon lines,
separating the Caucasus from the already annexed territories.
Two rivers become a natural border in the south of Russia:
one flowing from the mountains to the east in the Caspian - Terek
and the other, flowing west to the Black Sea - Kuban.
By the end of the reign of Catherine II along the entire space from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea,
at a distance of almost 2000 km. along the northern shores of the Kuban and the Terek
there is a chain of defensive structures - the "Caucasian Line".
For cordon service, 12 thousand Black Sea people were resettled,
former Cossack Cossacks, who located their villages along the northern coast
Kuban rivers (Kuban Cossacks).

The Caucasian line is a chain of small fortified Cossack villages surrounded by a moat,
in front of which there is a high earthen rampart, on it is a strong wattle fence made of thick brushwood,
watchtower, yes a few guns.
From fortification to fortification, a chain of cordons - several dozen people in each,
and between the cordons small guard detachments "pickets", ten people each.

According to contemporaries, this region was distinguished by unusual relationships.
- many years of armed confrontation and at the same time mutual penetration
completely different cultures of the Cossacks and mountaineers (language, clothing, weapons, women).

"These Cossacks (Cossacks living on the Caucasian line) are different from the highlanders
only with an unshaven head ... weapons, clothes, harness, tacks - everything is mountain.< ..... >
Almost all of them speak Tatar, make friends with the highlanders,
even kinship through mutually kidnapped wives - but in the field the enemies are inexorable.
A.A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky. Ammalat-back. Caucasian story.
Meanwhile, the Chechens were no less afraid and suffered from the raids of the Cossacks,
than those from them.

The king of united Kartli and Kakheti, Irakli II, turned in 1783 to Catherine II
with a request to accept Georgia into Russian citizenship
and about its protection by Russian troops.

Georgievsky Treaty of the same year establishes a protectorate of Russia over Eastern Georgia
- Russia's priority in Georgia's foreign policy and its protection from the expansion of Turkey and Persia.

The fortress on the site of the village Kapkay (mountain gate), built in 1784,
receives the name Vladikavkaz - owning the Caucasus.
Here, near Vladikavkaz, the construction of the Georgian Military Highway begins
- mountain road through the Main Caucasian Range,
linking the North Caucasus with the new Transcaucasian possessions of Russia.

The Artli-Kakheti kingdom no longer exists.
The response of the neighboring countries of Georgia, Persia and Turkey, was unequivocal.
Supported alternately by France and England
depending on events in Europe, they enter a period of long-term wars with Russia,
ended in their defeat.
Russia has new territorial acquisitions,
including Dagestan and a number of khanates of northeastern Transcaucasia.
By this time, the principalities of Western Georgia:
Imereti, Mingrelia and Guria voluntarily became part of Russia,
while maintaining its autonomy.

But the North Caucasus, especially its mountainous part, is still far from subjugation.
Oaths given by some North Caucasian feudal lords,
were mostly declarative.
practically the entire mountainous zone of the North Caucasus did not obey
Russian military administration.
Moreover, dissatisfaction with the tough colonial policy of tsarism
all strata of the mountain population (the feudal elite, the clergy, the mountain peasantry)
caused a number of spontaneous uprisings, which were sometimes massive.
A reliable road linking Russia with its now vast
There are no Transcaucasian possessions yet.
Traffic on the Georgian Military Highway was dangerous
- the road is subject to attacks by mountaineers.

With the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Alexander I
forcing the conquest of the North Caucasus.

The first step on this path is the appointment of Lieutenant General A.P. Yermolova
commander of the Separate Caucasian Corps, head of the civilian unit in Georgia.
In fact, he is the governor, the full ruler of the entire region,
(officially, the post of governor of the Caucasus will be introduced by Nicholas I only in 1845).

For the successful completion of a diplomatic mission to Persia,
which prevented the Shah's attempts to return to Persia at least part of the lands that had gone to Russia,
Yermolov was promoted to general from infantry and according to Peter's "table of ranks"
becomes a full general.

Yermolov began fighting in 1817.
"The Caucasus is a huge fortress, defended by a half-million garrison.
The assault will be costly, so let's lead the siege"
- he said and switched from the tactics of punitive expeditions
to a systematic advance deep into the mountains.

In 1817-1818. Yermolov carried out an advance deep into the territory of Chechnya,
pushing the left flank of the "Caucasian Line" to the border of the Sunzha River,
where he founded several fortified points, including the Groznaya fortress,
(since 1870 the city of Grozny, now the ruined capital of Chechnya).
Chechnya, where the most warlike of the mountain peoples lived,
covered at that time by impenetrable forests, was
natural hard-to-reach fortress and in order to overcome it,
Yermolov cut down wide clearings in the forests, providing access to the Chechen villages.

Two years later, the "line" was moved to the foot of the Dagestan mountains,
where fortresses were also built, connected by a system of fortifications
with the Groznaya fortress.
The Kumyk plains are separated from the highlanders of Chechnya and Dagestan, who were pushed into the mountains.

In support of the armed uprisings of Chechens defending their land,
most of the Dagestan rulers in 1819 are united in a military Union.
Persia, extremely interested in confronting the highlanders of Russia,
behind which England also stood, provides the Union with financial assistance.

The Caucasian Corps was reinforced to 50 thousand people,
the Black Sea Cossack army, another 40 thousand people, was given to help him.
In 1819-1821 Ermolov undertook a series of punitive raids
in the mountainous regions of Dagestan.
The mountaineers resist desperately. Independence for them is the main thing in life.
Nobody expressed humility, even women and children.
It can be said without exaggeration that in these battles in the Caucasus every man
was a warrior, each aul was a fortress, each fortress was the capital of a warlike state.

There is no talk about losses, the result is important - Dagestan, it would seem, is completely subdued.

In 1821-1822 the center of the Caucasian line was advanced.
Fortifications built at the foot of the Black Mountains,
closed the exits from the gorges of Cherek, Chegem, Baksan.
Kabardians and Ossetians have been pushed back from the areas convenient for agriculture.

An experienced politician and diplomat, General Yermolov, understood that with one force of arms,
only by punitive expeditions to put an end to the resistance of the highlanders
almost impossible.
Other measures are also needed.
He declared the rulers subject to Russia free from all duties,
free to dispose of the land at their discretion.
For the local princes, shahs, who recognized the authority of the king, the rights
over former subservient peasants.
However, this did not lead to peace.
The main force resisting the invasion was still not the feudal lords,
and the mass of free peasants.

In 1823, an uprising broke out in Dagestan, raised by Ammalat-bek,
which Yermolov takes several months to suppress.
Before the start of the war with Persia in 1826, the region was relatively calm.
But in 1825, in the already conquered Chechnya, a vast uprising broke out,
led by the famous rider, the national hero of Chechnya - Bay Bulat,
covering the whole of Greater Chechnya.
In January 1826, a decisive battle took place on the Argun River,
in which the forces of many thousands of Chechens and Lezgins were dispersed.
Yermolov went through the whole of Chechnya, cutting down forests and severely punishing recalcitrant auls.
Involuntarily, the lines come to mind:

But behold - the East raises a howl! ...

Hang with your snowy head

Humble yourself, Caucasus: Yermolov is coming! A.S. Pushkin. "Prisoner of the Caucasus"

How this war of conquest was waged in the mountains is best judged by
in the words of the commander-in-chief himself:
"The rebellious villages were ravaged and burned,
orchards and vineyards cut down to the roots,
and after many years the traitors will not return to their original state.
Extreme poverty will be their punishment ... "

In Lermontov's poem "Izmail-bek" it sounds like this:

Villages are burning; they have no protection...

Like a beast of prey, to a humble abode

The winner breaks in with bayonets;

He kills old people and children

Innocent maidens and mothers

He caresses with a bloody hand ...

Meanwhile, General Yermolov
- one of the most progressive major Russian military leaders of that time.
Opponent of the Arakcheev settlements, drill and bureaucracy in the army,
he did a lot to improve the organization of the Caucasian Corps,
to facilitate the life of soldiers in their essentially indefinite and disenfranchised service.

"December events" of 1825 in St. Petersburg
affected the leadership of the Caucasus.

Nicholas I recalled, as it seemed to him, unreliable,
close to the circles of the Decembrists "lord over the entire Caucasus" - Yermolov.
He was unreliable since the time of Paul I.
For belonging to a secret officer's circle opposed to the emperor,
Yermolov spent several months in the Peter and Paul Fortress
and left the exile in Kostroma.

In his place, Nicholas I appointed a general from the cavalry I.F. Paskevich.

During his command
there was a war with Persia in 1826-27 and with Turkey in 1828-29.
For the victory over Persia, he received the title of Count of Erivan and the epaulettes of a field marshal,
and three years later, having brutally suppressed an uprising in Poland in 1831,
he became the Most Serene Prince of Warsaw, Count Paskevich-Erivan.
A rare double title for Russia.
Only A.V. Suvorov had such a double title:
Prince of Italy, Count Suvorov-Rymniksky.

From about the mid-twenties of the nineteenth century, even under Yermolov,
the struggle of the highlanders of Dagestan and Chechnya acquires a religious coloring - muridism.

In the Caucasian version, Muridism proclaimed,
that the main path of rapprochement with God lies for every “seeker of truth - murid”
through the fulfillment of the precepts of the ghazavat.
Fulfillment of Sharia without ghazawat is not salvation.

The wide spread of this movement, especially in Dagestan,
was based on the rallying on religious grounds of a multilingual mass
free mountain peasantry.
By the number of languages ​​spoken in the Caucasus, it can be called
linguistic "Noah's ark".
Four language groups, more than forty dialects.
Especially motley in this regard is Dagestan, where even single-aul languages ​​existed.
Not a little contributed to the success of Muridism and the fact that Islam penetrated Dagestan in the XII century.
and had deep roots here, while in the western part of the North Caucasus he began
only in the 16th century, and two centuries later, the influence of paganism was still felt here.

What failed feudal lords: princes, khans, beks
- to unite the Eastern Caucasus into a single force
- succeeded the Muslim clergy, combining in one person
religious and secular origin.
The Eastern Caucasus, infected with the deepest religious fanaticism,
became a formidable force, to overcome which Russia with its two hundred thousandth army
took almost three decades.

At the end of the twenties, the imam of Dagestan
(imam in Arabic means standing in front)
Mullah Gazi-Mohammed was proclaimed.

A fanatic, a passionate preacher of ghazavat, he managed to excite the mountain masses
promises of heavenly bliss and, no less important,
promises of complete independence from any authorities other than Allah and Sharia.

The movement covered almost all of Dagestan.
Opponents of the movement were only the Avar khans,
not interested in the unification of Dagestan and acting in alliance with the Russians.
Gazi-Mohammed, who carried out a series of raids on the Cossack villages,
captured and devastated the city of Kizlyar, died in battle during the defense of one of the villages.
His ardent supporter and friend - Shamil, wounded in this battle, survived.

The Avar Bek Gamzat was proclaimed Imam.
The enemy and murderer of the Avar khans, he himself perishes at the hands of conspirators two years later,
one of which was Hadji Murad, the second figure after Shamil in the ghazawat.
The dramatic events that led to the death of the Avar khans, Gamzat,
and even Hadji Murad himself formed the basis of L. N. Gorskaya Tolstoy's story "Hadji Murad".

After the death of Gamzat, Shamil, having killed the last heir of the Avar Khanate,
becomes the imam of Dagestan and Chechnya.

A brilliantly gifted man who studied with the best teachers in Dagestan
grammar, logic and rhetoric of the Arabic language,
Shamil was considered an outstanding scientist of Dagestan.
A man with an unbending, firm will, a brave warrior, he knew how not only to inspire
and arouse fanaticism in the highlanders, but also to subordinate them to your will.
His military talent and organizational skills, endurance,
the ability to choose the right moment to strike created many difficulties
Russian command during the conquest of the Eastern Caucasus.
He was neither an English spy, much less someone's henchman,
as it was at one time represented by Soviet propaganda.
His goal was one - to preserve the independence of the Eastern Caucasus,
create your own state (theocratic in form, but, in fact, totalitarian) .

Shamil divided the regions subject to him into "naibstvos".
Each naib had to come to war with a certain number of soldiers,
organized into hundreds, tens.
Understanding the meaning of ar
tilleria, Shamil created a primitive production of cannons
and their ammunition.
But still, the nature of the war for the mountaineers remains the same - partisan.

Shamil moves his residence to the village of Ashilta, away from Russian possessions
in Dagestan and from 1835-36, when the number of his adherents increased significantly,
begins to attack Avaria, devastating its villages,
most of which swore allegiance to Russia.

In 1837, a detachment of General K.K. was sent against Shamil. Feze.
After a fierce battle, the general took and completely ruined the village of Ashilta.
Shamil, surrounded in his residence in the village of Tilitle,
sent truce envoys to express their obedience.
The general went to negotiations.
Shamil put up three amanats (hostages), including the grandson of his sister,
and swore allegiance to the king.
Having missed the opportunity to capture Shamil, the general extended the war with him for another 22 years.

In the next two years, Shamil made a series of raids on Russian-controlled villages.
and in May 1839, having learned about the approach of a large Russian detachment,
led by General P.Kh. Grabbe, hiding in the village of Akhulgo,
turned by him into an impregnable fortress for that time.

The battle for the village of Akhulgo, one of the fiercest battles of the Caucasian war,
in which no one asked for mercy, and no one gave it.

Women and children armed with daggers and stones,
fought alongside men or committed suicide,
preferring death to captivity.
In this battle, Shamil loses his wife, son, his sister, nephews die,
over a thousand supporters.
Shamil's eldest son, Dzhemal-Eddin, was taken hostage.
Shamil barely escapes from captivity, hiding in one of the caves above the river
with only seven murids.
The Russian battle also cost almost three thousand people killed and wounded.

At the All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod in 1896
in a specially built cylinder-shaped building with a circumference of 100 meters
with a high half-glass dome, a battle panorama was exhibited
"Assault on the village of Akhulgo".
Author - Franz Roubaud, whose name is well known to Russian fans
fine art and history from his two later battle panoramas:
"Defense of Sevastopol" (1905) and "Battle of Borodino" (1912).

The time after the capture of Akhulgo, the period of Shamil's greatest military successes.

Unreasonable policy towards the Chechens, an attempt to take away their weapons
lead to a general uprising in Chechnya.
Chechnya has joined Shamil - he is the ruler of the entire Eastern Caucasus.

His base is in the village of Dargo, from where he made successful raids into Chechnya and Dagestan.
Having destroyed a number of Russian fortifications and partly their garrisons,
Shamil captured hundreds of prisoners, including even high-ranking officers, dozens of guns.

The apogee was the capture by him at the end of 1843 of the village of Gergebil
- the main stronghold of the Russians in Northern Dagestan.
The authority and influence of Shamil increased so much that even the Dagestan beks
in the Russian service, having high ranks, passed to him.

In 1844, Nicholas I sent the commander of the troops to the Caucasus
and Viceroy of the Emperor with emergency powers, Count M.S. Vorontsova
(since August 1845 he is a prince),
that same Pushkin "half-my lord, half-merchant",
one of the best administrators of Russia of that time.

The chief of staff of the Caucasian Corps was Prince A.I. Baryatinsky
- comrade of childhood and youth of the heir to the throne - Alexander.
However, at the initial stages, their high ranks do not bring success.

In May 1845, the command of a unit aimed at capturing the capital of Shamil
- Dargo takes over the governor himself.
Dargo is captured, but Shamil intercepts food transport
and Vorontsov is forced to retreat.
During the retreat, the detachment was completely defeated, losing not only all property,
but also over 3.5 thousand soldiers and officers.
The attempt to regain the village of Gergebil was also unsuccessful for the Russians,
the assault on which cost very heavy losses.

The turning point begins after 1847 and is connected not so much
with partial military successes - taking after the secondary siege of Gergebil,
how much with the fall of Shamil's popularity, mainly in Chechnya.

There are many reasons for this.
This is dissatisfaction with the harsh Sharia regime in relatively wealthy Chechnya,
blocking predatory raids on Russian possessions and Georgia and,
as a result, a decrease in the income of the naibs, the rivalry of the naibs among themselves.

Significantly influenced by liberal policies and numerous promises
to the mountaineers who expressed obedience, especially inherent in Prince A.I. Baryatinsky,
who in 1856 became commander-in-chief and viceroy of the tsar in the Caucasus.
The gold and silver that he distributed was no less powerful,
than "fittings" - rifles with rifled barrels - a new Russian weapon.

Shamil's last major successful raid took place in 1854 against Georgia.
during the Eastern (Crimean) War of 1853-1855.
Turkish sultan, interested in joint actions with Shamil,
awarded him the title of Generalissimo of the Circassian and Georgian troops.
Shamil gathered about 15 thousand people and, breaking through the cordons,
went down to the Alazani valley, where he ruined several of the richest estates,
captured Georgian princesses: Anna Chavchavadze and Varvara Orbeliani,
granddaughters of the last Georgian king.

In exchange for the princesses, Shamil demands the return of the captive in 1839
son of Jemal Eddin,
by that time he was already a lieutenant of the Vladimir Lancers Regiment and a Russophile.
It is possible that under the influence of his son, but rather because of the defeat of the Turks near Karsk and in Georgia,
Shamil did not take active steps in support of Turkey.

With the end of the Eastern War, the active actions of the Russians resumed,
especially in Chechnya.

Lieutenant General N. I. Evdokimov, the son of a soldier and a former soldier himself
- the main associate of the prince. Baryatinsky on the left flank of the Caucasian line.
Capture by him of one of the most important strategic objects - the Argun Gorge
and the generous promises of the governor to the obedient highlanders, decide the fate of Greater and Lesser Chechnya.

In the power of Shamil in Chechnya, only wooded Ichkeria,
in the fortified village of which Vedeno he concentrates his forces.
With the fall of Vedeno, after its assault in the spring of 1859,
Shamil is losing the support of all of Chechnya, his main support.

The loss of Vedeno became for Shamil the loss of the naibs closest to him,
one after another who went over to the side of the Russians.
Expression of humility by the Avar Khan and the surrender of a number of fortifications by the Avars,
deprives him of any support in the Accident.
The last place of stay of Shamil and his family in Dagestan is the village of Gunib,
where about 400 murids loyal to him are with him.
After taking the approaches to the village and its complete blockade by troops under the command
the governor himself, Prince Baryatinsky, August 29, 1859 Shamil surrendered.
General N.I. Evdokimov receives from Alexander II the title of Russian count,
becomes an infantry general.

Shamil's life with his entire family: wives, sons, daughters and sons-in-law
in the Kaluga golden cage under the vigilant supervision of the authorities
this is someone else's life.
After repeated requests, he was allowed to leave with his family for Medina in 1870.
(Arabia), where he dies in February 1871.

With the capture of Shamil, the Eastern zone of the Caucasus was completely conquered.

The main direction of the war has shifted to the western regions,
where, under the command of the already mentioned General Evdokimov, the main forces were moved
200,000th Separate Caucasian Corps.

The events unfolding in the Western Caucasus were preceded by another epic.

The result of the wars of 1826-1829. were agreements concluded with Iran and Turkey,
along which Transcaucasia from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea became Russian.
With the annexation of Transcaucasia, the eastern coast of the Black Sea from Anapa to Poti
- also a possession of Russia.
The Adzharian coast (principality of Adzharia) became part of Russia only in 1878.

The actual owners of the coast are the highlanders: Circassians, Ubykhs, Abkhazians,
for which the coast is vital.
Across the coast they receive help from Turkey, England
food, weapons, emissaries arrive.
Without owning the coast, it is difficult to subdue the highlanders.

In 1829, after signing an agreement with Turkey
Nicholas I, in a rescript addressed to Paskevich, wrote:
“Having thus ended one glorious deed (the war with Turkey)
you have another, in my eyes just as glorious,
and in reasoning, direct benefit is much more important
- the pacification of the mountain peoples forever or the extermination of the recalcitrant.

It's so simple - extermination.

Based on this command, Paskevich in the summer of 1830 made an attempt
take possession of the coast, the so-called "Abkhazian expedition",
occupying several settlements on the Abkhazian coast: Bombara, Pitsunda and Gagra.
Further advance from the Gagra gorges
crashed against the heroic resistance of the Abkhaz and Ubykh tribes.

Since 1831, the construction of defensive fortifications of the Black Sea coastline began:
fortresses, forts, etc., blocking the exit of the highlanders to the coast.
Fortifications were located at the mouths of rivers, in valleys or in long-standing
settlements that previously belonged to the Turks: Anapa, Sukhum, Poti, Redut-Kale.
Advancing along the seashore and building roads with the desperate resistance of the highlanders
cost countless victims.
It was decided to establish fortifications by landing troops from the sea,
and it took a lot of lives.

In June 1837, the fortification of the "Holy Spirit" was founded on Cape Ardil
(in Russian transcription - Adler).

During the landing from the sea, he died, went missing,
warrant officer Alexander Bestuzhev-Marlinsky - poet, writer, publisher, ethnographer of the Caucasus,
an active participant in the events of December 14th.

By the end of 1839 along the Russian coast in twenty places
there are fortifications:
fortresses, fortifications, forts that made up the Black Sea coastline.
Familiar names of the Black Sea resorts: Anapa, Sochi, Gagra, Tuapse
- places of former fortresses and forts.

But the mountainous regions are still unruly.

Events related to the foundation and defense of strongholds
Black Sea coastline, perhaps
most dramatic in the history of the Caucasian war.

There is no land road along the entire coast yet.
The supply of food, ammunition and other things was carried out only by sea,
and in the autumn-winter period, during storms and storms, it is practically absent.
The garrisons from the Black Sea line battalions remained in the same places
throughout the existence of the "line", in fact, without a change and, as it were, on the islands.
On the one hand the sea, on the other - the highlanders on the surrounding heights.
It was not the Russian army that held back the highlanders, but they, the highlanders, kept the garrisons of fortifications under siege.
Yet the biggest scourge was the damp Black Sea climate, diseases and,
First of all, malaria.
Here is just one fact: in 1845, 18 people were killed along the entire "line",
and 2427 died of diseases.

At the beginning of 1840, a terrible famine broke out in the mountains,
forcing the highlanders to look for food in the Russian fortifications.
In February-March, they raid a number of forts and capture them,
completely destroying the few garrisons.
Almost 11 thousand people took part in the assault on Fort Mikhailovsky.
Private Tenginsky regiment Arkhip Osipov blows up a powder magazine and dies himself,
dragging along another 3,000 Circassians.
On the Black Sea coast, near Gelendzhik, there is now a resort town
- Arkhipovoosipovka.

With the beginning of the Eastern War, when the position of forts and fortifications became hopeless
- supply is completely interrupted, the Russian Black Sea fleet is flooded,
forts between two fires - highlanders and the Anglo-French fleet,
Nicholas I decides to abolish the "line", withdraw the garrisons, blow up the forts,
which was promptly done.

In November 1859, after the capture of Shamil, the main forces of the Circassians
led by Shamil's emissary, Mohammed-Emin, capitulated.
The land of the Circassians was cut by the Belorechensk defensive line with the Maykop fortress.
Tactics in the Western Caucasus - Yermolov's:
deforestation, the construction of roads and fortifications, the displacement of the highlanders into the mountains.
By 1864, the troops of N.I. Evdokimov occupied the entire territory
on the northern slope of the Caucasus Range.

Pushed to the sea or driven into the mountains, the Circassians and Abkhazians were given a choice:
move to the plains or emigrate to Turkey.
More than 500 thousand of them went to Turkey, then they were repeated more than once.
But these are only riots of the subjects of His Highness the Sovereign Emperor,
requiring only pacification, and pacified.

And yet, in historical terms, the accession of the North Caucasus to Russia
was inevitable - such was the time.

But there was logic in Russia's fiercest war for the Caucasus,
in the heroic struggle of the highlanders for their independence.

The more pointless it seems
as an attempt to restore the Sharia state in Chechnya at the end of the twentieth century,
and Russia's methods of countering this.
Thoughtless, indefinite war of ambitions - countless victims and sufferings of peoples.
The war that transformed Chechnya, and not only Chechnya
into the range of Islamic international terrorism.

Israel. Jerusalem

Notes

Orlov Mikhail Fyodorovich(1788 - 1842) - count, major general,
participant in campaigns against Napoleon in 1804-1814, division commander.
Member of Arzamas, organizer of one of the first officers' circles, Decembrist.
He was close to the family of General N.N. Raevsky, to A.S. Pushkin.

Raevsky Alexander Nikolaevich(1795 - 1868) - the eldest son of the hero of the war of 1812
cavalry general N.N. Raevsky, Colonel.
Was on friendly terms with A.S. Pushkin
M. Orlov was married to the eldest of the sisters of A. Raevsky - Ekaterina
his other sister, Maria, was the wife of the Decembrist Prince. S. Volkonsky, who followed him to Siberia.

Why this post? Because history must not be forgotten.
I do not see a good peace between the Russians and the highlanders. I do not see...

It all began in the 16th century, after the capture of the Astrakhan Khanate by Ivan the Terrible,
then Suvorov chopped off territories to a fig.
Formally, the beginning of this undeclared war between Russia and the mountain peoples
the northern slope of the Caucasus can be attributed to 1816,
that is, almost 200 years of incessant war ...

Visibility of the World is not the World.
In vain Putin and Co. hope for "good neighborliness"
and help in the fight against "dissenters."
Until the first storm... tzatski with beads... that "Allah has given" they will take and screw a knife INTO THE BACK.
So it was, so it will be.
The highlanders, apparently posted on the Internet, have not changed at all.
Civilization has not reached them.
They live by their own laws. Only "cunning" has grown.
In vain Putin feeds the Beast, no matter how they bite off that hand that gives ...

Caucasian War of 1817-64, hostilities associated with 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 turned out to be separated from Russia by the lands of Chechnya, Mountainous Dagestan (although legally Dagestan was annexed in 1813) and the North-Western 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 hostilities in the area. Appointed in 1816 as commander-in-chief in the Caucasus, General A.P. Yermolov moved from separate punitive expeditions to a systematic advance deep into Chechnya and Mountainous Dagestan by surrounding the mountainous regions with a continuous ring of fortifications, cutting clearings in difficult forests, laying roads and destroying "unruly" auls. This forced the population either to move to the flat (plain) under the supervision of the Russian garrisons, or to go into the depths of the mountains. The first period of the Caucasian War began with the order of May 12, 1818, by General Yermolov to cross the Terek. Yermolov drew up a plan of offensive operations, at the forefront of which was the widespread colonization of the region by the Cossacks and the formation of "layers" between hostile tribes by resettling loyal tribes there. In 1817 the left flank of the Caucasian line was moved from the Terek to the river. Sunzha, in the middle reaches of which, in October 1817, the fortification of Barrier Stan was laid, which was the first step in a systematic advance deep into the territories of the mountain peoples and actually marked the beginning of K.V. In 1818, the Groznaya fortress was founded in the lower reaches of the Sunzha. The continuation of the Sunzha line were the fortresses Vnepnaya (1819) and Burnaya (1821). In 1819, the Separate Georgian Corps was renamed the Separate Caucasian Corps and reinforced to 50,000 men; Yermolov was also subordinate to the Black Sea Cossack army (up to 40 thousand people) in the North-Western Caucasus. 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 the vassals of Russia with subordination to Russian commandants (the lands of the Kazikumukh Khan to the Kyurinsky Khan, the Avar Khan to the Shamkhal of Tarkovsky), or became dependent on Russia (the lands of the Utsmi Karakaytag), or liquidated with the introduction of Russian administration ( khanate of Mekhtuli, 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 Yermolov's actions was the subjugation of almost all of Dagestan, Chechnya and Trans-Kuban. General I.F., who replaced Yermolov in March 1827. Paskevich abandoned the systematic advance with the consolidation of the occupied territories and returned mainly to the tactics of individual punitive expeditions, although the Lezgin line was created under him (1830). In 1828, in connection with the construction of the Sukhumi military road, the Karachaev region was annexed. The expansion of the colonization of the North Caucasus and the cruelty of the aggressive policy of Russian tsarism caused spontaneous mass uprisings of the highlanders. The first of these took place in Chechnya in July 1825: the highlanders, led by Bei-Bulat, captured the post of Amiradzhiyurt, but their attempts to take Gerzel and Groznaya failed, and in 1826 the uprising was crushed. At the end of the 20s. in Chechnya and Dagestan, a movement of highlanders arose under the religious shell of muridism, an integral part of which was the 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 a speech against the oppression of local feudal lords. The reactionary side of the movement was the struggle of the elite of the Muslim clergy for the creation of a feudal-theocratic state of the imamate. This isolated the adherents of Muridism from other peoples, fomented fanatical hatred of non-Muslims, and, most importantly, preserved the backward feudal forms of social organization. The movement of the highlanders under the flag of Muridism was the impetus for the expansion of the scale of K.V., 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, the Kabardians); secondly, the “carrot and stick” policy pursued by tsarism, with the help of which he managed to win over part of the feudal lords and their subjects. These peoples did not oppose Russian domination, but their situation was difficult: they were under the double yoke of tsarism and local feudal lords.

The second period of the Caucasian War is a bloody and formidable period of Muridism. At the beginning of 1829, Kazi-Mulla (or Gazi-Magomed) arrived in the Tarkov Shankhalstvo (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-in-arms, 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 ​​uniting the peoples of Chechnya and Dagestan. But some feudal lords (Khan of Avar, Shamkhal of 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 not successful, although the expedition of the tsar's troops in 1830 to Gimry failed and only led to an increase in the influence of the imam. In 1831, the Murids took Tarki and Kizlyar, laid siege to Stormy and Vnepnaya; their detachments also operated in Chechnya, near Vladikavkaz and Grozny, and with the support of the rebel Tabasarans, they laid siege to Derbent. Significant territories (Chechnya and most of Dagestan) were under the authority of the imam. However, from the end of 1831, the uprising began to decline due to the departure from the murids of the peasantry, dissatisfied with the fact that the imam did not fulfill his promise to eliminate class inequality. As a result of large expeditions of Russian troops in Chechnya, undertaken by General G.V. Rosen, the detachments of Gazi-Magomed were pushed back to Mountain 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 Mountainous Dagestan to his side, including some of the Avars; however, the ruler of Avaria, Khansha Pahu-bike, refused to oppose Russia. In August 1834, Gamzat-bek captured Khunzakh and exterminated the family of the Avar khans, but as a result of a conspiracy of their supporters, he was killed on September 19, 1834. and Nikolaev.

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 did not conduct active operations for 2 years. During this time, Shamil, having chosen the village of Akhulgo as his base, subjugated some of the elders and feudal lords of Chechnya and Dagestan, brutally cracking down on 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 retreated, but due to heavy losses and lack of food, the tsar's troops were 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 in fact their defeat and strengthened Shamil's authority. In the North-Western Caucasus, Russian troops in 1837 laid the fortifications of the Holy Spirit, Novotroitskoye, Mikhailovskoye. In March 1838, Rosen was replaced by General E.A. Golovin, under whom the fortifications Navaginskoe, Velyaminovskoe, Tenginskoe and Novorossiyskoye were created in the North-Western 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 on August 22, 1839, captured the residence of Shamil Akhulgo; wounded Shamil with murids broke into Chechnya. On the Black Sea coast in 1839, the Golovinskoye and Lazarevskoye fortifications were laid and the Black Sea coastline was created from the mouth of the river. Kuban to the borders of Megrelia; in 1840, the Labinskaya line was created, but soon the tsarist troops suffered a number of major defeats: in February-April 1840, the rebellious Circassians captured the fortifications of the Black Sea coastline (Lazarevskoye, Velyaminovskoye, Mikhailovskoye, Nikolaevskoye). In the Eastern Caucasus, an attempt by the Russian administration to disarm the Chechens sparked an uprising that engulfed all of 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, Chechens went to Shamil's troops operating in North-Western Dagestan. In 1840-43, despite the strengthening of the Caucasian Corps with an infantry division, Shamil won a number of major victories, occupied Avaria and established his power in a significant part of Dagestan, more than doubling the territory of the imamate and bringing the number of his troops to 20 thousand people. In October 1842 Golovin was replaced by General A. I. Neigardt also transferred 2 more infantry divisions to the Caucasus, which made it possible to push back Shamil's troops somewhat. 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 the residence of Shamil, the village of Dargo. However, the highlanders surrounded Vorontsov's detachment, who barely managed to escape, having lost 1/3 of the composition, all the guns and the convoy. In 1846, Vorontsov returned to Yermolov's tactics of conquering the Caucasus. Shamil's attempts to disrupt the enemy's offensive were not successful (in 1846, the failure of a breakthrough to Kabarda, in 1848, the fall of Gergebil, in 1849, the failure of the assault on Temir-Khan-Shura and a breakthrough in Kakheti); in 1849-52 Shamil managed to take Kazikumukh, but by the spring of 1853 his troops were finally driven out of Chechnya to Mountain Dagestan, where the situation of the highlanders also became difficult. In the Northwestern Caucasus, the Urup line was created in 1850, and in 1851 an 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, stepped up his actions and in August 1853 tried to break through the Lezgin line near Zakatala, but failed. In November 1853, the Turkish troops were defeated at Bashkadyklar, and the attempts of the Circassians to capture the Black Sea and Labinsk lines were repelled. In the summer of 1854, Turkish troops launched an offensive against Tiflis; at the same time, Shamil's detachments, having broken through the Lezgin 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, deepened began in the late 40s. internal crisis of the Imamate. The actual transformation of Shamil's governors, the naibs, into self-serving feudal lords, who aroused the indignation of the highlanders with their cruel rule, exacerbated social contradictions, and the peasants began to gradually move away from Shamil's movement (in 1858, in Chechnya, in the Vedeno region, an uprising even broke out against the power of Shamil). The weakening of the imamate was also facilitated by ruin and heavy casualties in a long unequal struggle in the face of a shortage 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 around the imamate with a strong consolidation of the occupied territories. In April 1859, the residence of Shamil, the village of Vedeno, fell. Shamil fled with 400 murids to the village of Gunib. As a result of concentric movements of three detachments of Russian troops, Gunib was surrounded and stormed on August 25, 1859; almost all the murids died in battle, and Shamil was forced to surrender. In the North-Western Caucasus, the disunity of the Circassian and Abkhazian tribes facilitated the actions of the tsarist command, which took fertile lands from the highlanders and transferred them 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) capitulated, led by Mohammed-Emin. The lands of the Circassians were cut by the Belorechenskaya line with the Maykop fortress. In 185961 clearings, roads and the settlement of lands seized from the highlanders were carried out. In the middle of 1862, resistance to the colonialists intensified. To occupy the territory left by the highlanders 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 to advance along the coast and deep into the mountains. In 1863, the tsarist troops occupied the territory between the river. Belaya and Pshish, and by mid-April 1864 the entire coast to Navaginskoye and the territory to the river. Laba (on the northern slope of the Caucasus Range). Only the highlanders of the Akhchipsu society and a small tribe of Khakuches in the valley of the river did not submit. Mzymta. Pushed back to the sea or driven into the mountains, the Circassians and Abkhazians were forced to either move to the plains or, under the influence of the Muslim clergy, emigrate to Turkey. The unpreparedness of the Turkish government to receive, accommodate and feed a mass of people (up to 500 thousand people), the arbitrariness and violence of the local Turkish authorities and difficult living conditions caused a high death rate among the settlers, an insignificant part of whom returned to the Caucasus again. By 1864, Russian administration was introduced in Abkhazia, and on May 21, 1864, the 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 hostilities continued until the end of 1864, and in the 60-70s. anti-colonial uprisings took place in Chechnya and Dagestan.

In 1817, the Caucasian War began for the Russian Empire, which lasted for almost 50 years. The Caucasus has long been a region in which Russia wanted to expand its influence, and Alexander 1, against the background of the success of foreign policy, decided on this war. It was assumed that success could be achieved in a few years, but the Caucasus became a big problem for Russia for almost 50 years. The interesting thing is that this war was caught by three Russian emperors: Alexander 1, Nicholas 1 and Alexander 2. As a result, Russia came out the winner, however, the victory was given with great efforts. The article offers an overview of the Caucasian War of 1817-1864, its causes, course of events and consequences for Russia and the peoples of the Caucasus.

Causes of the war

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian Empire actively directed its efforts to seize land in the Caucasus. In 1810, the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti became part of it. In 1813, the Russian Empire annexed the Transcaucasian (Azerbaijani) khanates. Despite the announcement of submission by the ruling elites and the agreement to join, the regions of the Caucasus, inhabited by peoples who mainly profess Islam, declare the beginning of the struggle for liberation. Two main regions are being formed in which there is a sense of readiness for disobedience and armed struggle for independence: the western (Circassia and Abkhazia) and the North-Eastern (Chechnya and Dagestan). It was these territories that became the main arena of hostilities in 1817-1864.

Historians identify the following main causes of the Caucasian War:

1. The desire of the Russian Empire to gain a foothold in the Caucasus. And not just to include the territory in its composition, but to fully integrate it, including by extending its own legislation.
2. The unwillingness of some peoples of the Caucasus, in particular the Circassians, Kabardians, Chechens and Dagestanis, to join the Russian Empire, and most importantly, the readiness to conduct armed resistance to the invader.
3. Alexander 1 wanted to save his country from the endless raids of the peoples of the Caucasus on their lands. The fact is that since the beginning of the 19th century, numerous attacks by individual detachments of Chechens and Circassians on Russian territories for the purpose of robbery have been recorded, which created big problems for border settlements.

Progress and milestones

The Caucasian War of 1817-1864 is a vast event, but it can be divided into 6 key stages. Let's look at each of these stages next.

First stage (1817-1819)

This is the period of the first partisan actions in Abkhazia and Chechnya. The relationship between Russia and the peoples of the Caucasus was finally complicated by General Yermolov, who began to build fortified fortresses to control the local peoples, and also ordered the mountaineers to be resettled on the plains around the mountains, for stricter supervision of them. This caused a wave of protest, which further intensified the guerrilla warfare and further aggravated the conflict.

Map of the Caucasian War 1817 1864

Second stage (1819-1824)

This stage is characterized by agreements between the local ruling elites of Dagestan regarding joint military operations against Russia. One of the main reasons for the unification - the Black Sea Cossack Corps was relocated to the Caucasus, which caused mass discontent among the Caucasians. In addition, during this period, battles take place in Abkhazia between the army of Major General Gorchakov and local rebels, who were defeated.

Third stage (1824-1828)

This stage begins with the uprising of Taymazov (Beibulat Taimiev) in Chechnya. His troops tried to capture the Groznaya fortress, but near the village of Kalinovskaya, the rebel leader was captured. In 1825, the Russian army also won a number of victories over the Kabardians, which led to the so-called pacification of Greater Kabarda. The center of resistance has completely moved to the northeast, to the territory of the Chechens and Dagestanis. It was at this stage that a trend in Islam called "muridism" emerged. Its basis is the obligation of ghazavat - holy war. For the highlanders, the war with Russia becomes an obligation and part of their religious beliefs. The stage ends in 1827-1828, when a new commander of the Caucasian corps, I. Paskevich, was appointed.

Muridism is an Islamic doctrine of the path to salvation through a connected war - ghazawat. The basis of Murism is the obligatory participation in the war against the "infidels".

History reference

Fourth stage (1828-1833)

In 1828, there was a serious complication of relations between the highlanders and the Russian army. Local tribes create the first mountainous independent state during the war - imamat. The first imam is Gazi-Mukhamed, the founder of Muridism. He was the first to declare gazavat to Russia, but in 1832 he died during one of the battles.

Fifth stage (1833-1859)

The longest period of the war. It lasted from 1834 to 1859. During this period, the local leader Shamil declares himself an imam and also declares a gazavat of Russia. His army establishes control over Chechnya and Dagestan. For several years, Russia completely loses this territory, especially during its participation in the Crimean War, when all military forces were sent to participate in it. As for the hostilities themselves, for a long time they were conducted with varying success.

The turning point came only in 1859, after Shamil was captured near the village of Gunib. It was a turning point in the Caucasian war. After the capture, Shamil was taken to the central cities of the Russian Empire (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv), arranging meetings with the first persons of the empire and veteran generals of the Caucasian War. By the way, in 1869 he was released on a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, where he died in 1871.

Sixth stage (1859-1864)

After the defeat of Shamil's imamate from 1859 to 1864, the final period of the war takes place. These were small local resistances that could be eliminated very quickly. In 1864, it was possible to completely break the resistance of the highlanders. Russia ended a difficult and problematic war for itself with a victory.

Main results

The Caucasian War of 1817-1864 ended in victory for Russia, as a result of which several tasks were solved:

1. The final capture of the Caucasus and the spread of its administrative structure and legal system there.
2. Strengthening influence in the region. After the capture of the Caucasus, this region becomes an important geopolitical point for strengthening influence in the East.
3. The beginning of the settlement of this region by Slavic peoples.

But despite the successful conclusion of the war, Russia acquired a complex and turbulent region that required increased resources to maintain order, as well as additional protection measures in connection with Turkey's interests in this area. Such was the Caucasian war for the Russian Empire.