Caucasian War (briefly). The beginning of the Caucasian war List of used literature

Nikolay Evdokimov
Ivan Paskevich
Mamia V (VII) Gurieli
Davit I Gurieli
Georgy (Safarbey) Chachba
Dmitry (Omarbey) Chachba
Mikhail (Hamudbey) Chachba
Levan V Dadiani
David I Dadiani
Nicholas I Dadiani
Mehdi II
Sulaiman Pasha Tarkovsky
Abu Muslim Khan Tarkovsky
Shamsutdin-Khan Tarkovsky
Ahmedkhan II
Musa-bek
Daniyal-bek (before 1844) Gazi Muhammad †
Gamzat-bek †
Imam Shamil #
Baysangur Benoevsky # †
Hadji Murad †
Muhammad Amin
Daniyal-bek (from 1844 to 1859)
Tashev-Khadzhi †
Kyzbek Tugujoko †
Beibulat Taimiev
Haji Berzek Kerantukh
Aublaa Akhmat
Shabbat Marshan
Eshsou Marshan
Sheikh-Mulla Akhtynsky
Agabek Rutulsky

In the book "Unconquered Chechnya", published in 1997 after the First Chechen War, public and political figure Lema Usmanov called the war of 1817-1864 " First Russo-Caucasian War» .

Ermolov - Conquest of the Caucasus

But the tasks facing Ermolov in the North Caucasus demanded precisely his energy and intelligence. The Georgian Military Highway divides the Caucasus into two lanes: to the east of it - Chechnya and Dagestan, to the west - Kabarda, extending to the upper reaches of the Kuban, and further - the Trans-Kuban lands inhabited by Circassians. Chechnya with Dagestan, Kabarda and finally Circassia constituted the three main theaters of struggle, and in relation to each of them special measures were required.

Background

History of Dagestan
Dagestan in the ancient world
Dagestan in the Middle Ages
Dagestan in modern times
Caucasian war
Dagestan as part of the USSR
Dagestan after the collapse of the USSR
History of Dagestan The peoples of Dagestan Dagestan portal

History of Chechnya
History of Chechnya in the Middle Ages
Chechnya and the Russian Empire
Caucasian war
Chechnya in the Civil War
Chechnya in the USSR
Chechnya after the collapse of the USSR
Portal "Chechnya"

Russo-Persian War (1796)

Georgia was at that time in the most deplorable state. Taking advantage of this, Agha Mohammed Shah Qajar invaded Georgia and on September 11, 1795 took and destroyed Tiflis. Tsar Heraclius fled to the mountains with a handful of his entourage. At the end of the same year, Russian troops entered Georgia and. The Dagestani rulers expressed their obedience, except for Surkhay-khan II of Kazikumukh and the Derbent khan Sheikh-Ali. On May 10, 1796, the fortress of Derbent was taken despite stubborn resistance. Baku was occupied in June. The commander of the troops, Lieutenant-General Count Valerian Zubov, was appointed in place of Gudovich as the Chief Commander of the Caucasian Territory; but his activity there was soon put to an end by the death of Empress Catherine. Paul I ordered Zubov to suspend hostilities. Gudovich was again appointed commander of the Caucasian corps. Russian troops were withdrawn from Transcaucasia, except for two battalions left in Tiflis.

Accession of Georgia (1800-1804)

Russo-Persian War

In the same year, Tsitsianov also subdued the Shirvan Khanate. Undertook a number of measures to encourage handicrafts, agriculture and trade. He founded the Noble School in Tiflis, which was later transformed into a gymnasium, restored a printing house, and sought the right for Georgian youth to receive education in higher educational institutions in Russia.

Uprising in South Ossetia (1810-1811)

Philip Paulucci had to simultaneously wage war against the Turks (from Kars) and against the Persians (in Karabakh) and fight the uprisings. In addition, during the reign of Paulucci, the address of Alexander I received statements from the bishop of Gori and the vicar of the Georgian Dositheus, the leader of the Aznaur Georgian feudal group, who raised the issue of the illegality of granting the princes of Eristavi fiefdoms in South Ossetia; The Aznaur group still hoped that, having displaced the representatives of Eristavi from South Ossetia, it would divide the vacated possessions among themselves.

But soon, in view of the impending war against Napoleon, he was summoned to St. Petersburg.

In the same year, an uprising led by Aslanbey Chachba-Shervashidze broke out in Abkhazia against the rule of his younger brother Safarbey Chachba-Shervashidze. The Russian battalion and the militias of the ruler of Megrelia Levan Dadiani then saved the life and power of the ruler of Abkhazia Safarbey Chachba.

Events 1814-1816

Ermolovsky period (-)

In September 1816, Ermolov arrived at the border of the Caucasian province. In October, he arrived on the Caucasian line in the city of Georgievsk. From there he immediately went to Tiflis, where the former commander-in-chief of infantry, Nikolai Rtischev, was awaiting him. On October 12, 1816, by the highest order, Rtischev was expelled from the army.

"Opposite the center of the line lies Kabarda, once populous, whose inhabitants, revered as the bravest among the mountaineers, often desperately opposed the Russians in bloody battles because of their populations.
... The plague was our ally against the Kabardians; for, having completely destroyed the entire population of Malaya Kabarda and devastating Bolshoi, weakened them so much that they could not gather in large forces as before, but made raids in small parties; otherwise, our troops, weakly scattered over a large area, might end up in danger. Quite a few were undertaken in Kabarda expeditions, sometimes they were forced to return or pay for the abductions made."(From the notes of A. P. Ermolov during the administration of Georgia)

«… Downstream of the Terek, there are Chechens, the worst of the bandits, who attack the line. Their society is very sparsely populated, but it has increased enormously in the last few years, for the villains of all other nations were friendly, leaving their land for any crime. Here they found accomplices who were immediately ready either to avenge them, or to participate in robberies, and they served them as faithful guides in lands they did not know themselves. Chechnya can rightly be called the nest of all robbers... "(from the notes of A. P. Ermolov during the administration of Georgia)

« I have seen many peoples, but such rebellious and unyielding as Chechens do not exist on earth and the path to the conquest of the Caucasus lies through the conquest of the Chechens, or rather, through their complete destruction».

« Sovereign! .. Mountain peoples by example of their independence in the subjects of your Imperial Majesty themselves give rise to a rebellious spirit and love of independence". From the report of A. Ermolov to Emperor Alexander I on February 12, 1819

In the spring of 1818, Ermolov turned to Chechnya. In 1818, the Groznaya fortress was founded in the lower reaches of the river. It was believed that this measure put an end to the uprisings of the Chechens who lived between Sunzha and Terek, but in fact it was the beginning of a new war with Chechnya.

Ermolov moved from separate punitive expeditions to a systematic advance into the depths of Chechnya and Mountainous Dagestan by encircling mountainous areas with a continuous ring of fortifications, cutting openings in rugged forests, laying roads and destroying recalcitrant auls.

The highlanders who threatened the Tarkovsky Shamkhalstvo annexed to the empire were pacified. In 1819, the Vnezapnaya fortress was built to keep the mountaineers in submission. An attempt to attack her, undertaken by the Avar Khan, ended in complete failure.

In Chechnya, Russian forces drove troops of armed Chechens further into the mountains and resettled the population to the plains under the protection of Russian garrisons. A clearing was cut in a dense forest to the village of Germenchuk, which served as one of the main bases of the Chechens.

Map of the Caucasus. 1824.

Central part of the Caucasus. 1824.

Its result was the consolidation of Russian power in Kabarda and the Kumyk lands, in the foothills and on the plains. The Russians advanced gradually, methodically cutting down the forests in which the highlanders took refuge.

Gazavat start (-)

The new commander-in-chief of the Caucasian corps, Adjutant General Paskevich, abandoned systematic advancement with the consolidation of the occupied territories and returned mainly to the tactics of individual punitive expeditions. At first, he was mainly busy with the wars with Persia and Turkey. The successes in these wars contributed to the maintenance of external calm, but Muridism spread more and more. In December 1828, Kazi-Mulla (Gazi-Muhammad) was proclaimed imam. He was the first to call for ghazavat, trying to unite the disparate tribes of the Eastern Caucasus into one mass hostile to Russia. Only the Avar Khanate refused to recognize its power, and the Kazi-Mulla's attempt (in 1830) to seize Khunzakh ended in defeat. After that, the influence of Kazi-Mulla was greatly shaken, and the arrival of new troops sent to the Caucasus after the conclusion of peace with Turkey forced him to flee from the Dagestani village of Gimry to the Bekan Lezgins.

In the Western Caucasus, a detachment of General Velyaminov penetrated in the summer to the mouths of the Pshada and Vulan rivers and laid there fortifications Novotroitskoye and Mikhailovskoye.

In September of the same 1837, Emperor Nicholas I visited the Caucasus for the first time and was dissatisfied with the fact that, despite many years of efforts and major sacrifices, the Russian troops were still far from lasting results in pacifying the region. General Golovin was appointed to replace Baron Rosen.

Meanwhile, hostilities began on the Black Sea coast, where the hastily built Russian forts were in a dilapidated state, and the garrisons were extremely weakened by fevers and other diseases. On February 7, the highlanders took possession of Fort Lazarev and exterminated all its defenders; On February 29, the same fate befell the Velyaminovskoye fortification; On March 23, after a fierce battle, the highlanders penetrated the Mikhailovskoye fortification, the defenders of which blew themselves up along with the attackers. In addition, the highlanders captured (April 2) the Nikolaev Fort; but their enterprises against the fort of Navaginsky and the fortifications of Abinsky were unsuccessful.

On the left flank, the premature attempt to disarm the Chechens aroused extreme resentment among them. In December 1839 and January 1840, General Pullo conducted punitive expeditions in Chechnya and ruined several villages. During the second expedition, the Russian command demanded to hand over one gun from 10 houses, as well as to give one hostage from each village. Taking advantage of the discontent of the population, Shamil raised the Ichkerinians, the Aukhs and other Chechen societies against the Russian troops. Russian troops under the command of General Galafeev limited themselves to searches in the forests of Chechnya, which cost many people. The case on the river was especially bloody. Valerik (July 11). While General Galafeev was walking around Malaya Chechnya, Shamil with Chechen detachments subdued Salatavia to his power and in early August invaded Avaria, where he conquered several auls. With the accession to him of the foreman of the mountain societies in the Andian Koisu, the famous Kibit-Magoma, his strength and enterprise increased tremendously. By the fall, all of Chechnya was already on the side of Shamil, and the means of the Caucasian line were insufficient for a successful fight against him. The Chechens began to attack the tsarist troops on the banks of the Terek and nearly captured Mozdok.

On the right flank, by the fall, a new fortified line along the Laba was provided with forts Zassovsky, Makhoshevsky and Temirgoevsky. On the Black Sea coastline, the fortifications Velyaminovskoye and Lazarevskoye were renewed.

The failures of the Russian troops spread in the highest government spheres the conviction of the futility and even harm of offensive actions. This opinion was especially supported by the then Minister of War, Prince. Chernyshev, who visited the Caucasus in the summer of 1842 and witnessed the return of the Grabbe detachment from the Ichkerin forests. Impressed by this catastrophe, he persuaded the tsar to sign a decree forbidding any expeditions in the city and ordering him to limit himself to defense.

This forced inaction of the Russian troops encouraged the enemy, and attacks on the line again became more frequent. On August 31, 1843 Imam Shamil took possession of the fort at the village. Untsukul, destroying the detachment that went to the rescue of the besieged. In the following days, several more fortifications fell, and on September 11, Gotsatl was taken, which interrupted communication with Temir Khan-Shura. From August 28 to September 21, the losses of Russian troops amounted to 55 officers, more than 1,500 lower ranks, 12 guns and significant warehouses: the fruits of many years of efforts were lost, long obedient mountain communities were cut off from the Russian forces and the morale of the troops was undermined. On October 28, Shamil surrounded the Gergebil fortification, which he managed to take only on November 8, when only 50 of the defenders survived. The detachments of the mountaineers, scattering in all directions, cut off almost all communication with Derbent, Kizlyar and the left flank of the line; Russian troops in Temir Khan Shura withstood the blockade, which lasted from November 8 to December 24.

Battle of Dargo (Chechnya, May 1845)

In May 1845, the tsarist army invaded the Imamat in several large detachments. At the beginning of the campaign, 5 detachments were created for actions in different directions. The Chechen one was led by General Leaders, Dagestan by Prince Beibutov, Samurskiy by Argutinsky-Dolgorukov, Lezginsky by General Schwartz, Nazranovsky by General Nesterov. The main forces moving towards the capital of the Imamate were headed by the commander-in-chief of the Russian army in the Caucasus, Count M.S.Vorontsov.

Not meeting serious resistance, the 30,000-strong detachment passed the mountainous Dagestan and invaded Andia on June 13. At the time of the departure from Andia to Dargo, the total number of the detachment was 7940 infantry, 1218 cavalry and 342 artillerymen. The battle of Dargin lasted from 8 to 20 July. According to official data, in the Battle of Dargin, the tsarist troops lost 4 generals, 168 officers and up to 4,000 soldiers. Many future famous military leaders and politicians took part in the 1845 campaign: the governor in the Caucasus in 1856-1862. and Field Marshal Prince A. I. Baryatinsky; Commander-in-Chief of the Caucasian Military District and Chief Chief of the Civil Unit in the Caucasus in 1882-1890. Prince A. M. Dondukov-Korsakov; the acting commander-in-chief in 1854 before his arrival in the Caucasus, Count N. N. Muravyov, Prince V. O. Bebutov; famous Caucasian military general, chief of the General Staff in 1866-1875. Count F. L. Heiden; the military governor, killed in Kutaisi in 1861, Prince A. I. Gagarin; the commander of the Shirvan regiment, Prince S. I. Vasilchikov; adjutant general, diplomat in 1849, 1853-1855, Count K.K.Benckendorff (seriously wounded in the 1845 campaign); Major General E. von Schwarzenberg; Lieutenant General Baron N. I. Delvig; NP Beklemishev, a wonderful draftsman, who left many sketches after the trip to Dargo, also known for his witticisms and puns; Prince E. Wittgenstein; Prince Alexander of Hesse, Major General, and others.

On the Black Sea coastline in the summer of 1845, the highlanders attempted to seize forts Raevsky (May 24) and Golovinsky (July 1), but were repulsed.

From the city on the left flank, actions were carried out aimed at strengthening control over the occupied lands, erecting new fortifications and Cossack villages and preparing for further movement deep into the Chechen forests by cutting down wide glades. Victory of the book. Bebutov, who snatched out of the hands of Shamil the hard-to-reach aul of Kutish (now part of the Levashinsky district of Dagestan), which he had just occupied, resulted in a complete pacification of the Kumyk plane and foothills.

On the Black Sea coastline, Ubykhs number up to 6 thousand people. On November 28, they launched a desperate new attack on the Golovinsky fort, but were repulsed with great damage.

In the city, Prince Vorontsov laid siege to Gergebil, but due to the spread of cholera among the troops, he had to retreat. At the end of July, he undertook a siege of the fortified village of Salta, which, despite the significant siege weapons of the advancing troops, held out until September 14, when it was cleared by the highlanders. Both of these enterprises cost the Russian troops about 150 officers and more than 2,500 lower ranks who were out of action.

The detachments of Daniel-bek invaded the Dzharo-Belokansky district, but on May 13 they were completely defeated at the village of Chardakhly.

In mid-November, the Dagestani highlanders invaded Kazikumukh and briefly captured several auls.

An outstanding event in the city was the capture of Gergebil (July 7) by Prince Argutinsky. In general, for a long time there was no such calmness in the Caucasus as this year; only on the Lezgin line were frequent alarms repeated. In September, Shamil tried to capture the Akhta fortification on Samur, but he failed.

In the city of the siege of the village Chokha, undertaken by Prince. Argutinsky, cost the Russian troops heavy losses, but was not successful. From the side of the Lezgin line, General Chilyaev made a successful expedition to the mountains, which ended in the defeat of the enemy near the village of Khupro.

In the city, the systematic deforestation in Chechnya continued with the same persistence and was accompanied by more or less serious clashes. This course of action has forced many hostile societies to declare their unconditional submission.

For the first time, Russian troops made a campaign in the Caucasus in 1594, during the reign of Boris Godunov. Campaigns in the Caucasus and Transcaucasia were led by Peter I and his closest successors. During the reign of Catherine II, a more or less systematic advance of the Russian troops and the Russian administration to the Caucasus began. In pre-revolutionary historiography, it was generally accepted that the beginning of the Caucasian War coincided with the annexation of the East Georgian Kingdom to the Russian Empire. In Soviet historiography, at one time it was customary to count the beginning of the Caucasian War from 1817 from the moment Yermolov assumed the post of commander-in-chief and began systematic campaigns against the mountain tribes. There is another noteworthy opinion that the beginning of the Caucasian War began in 1785, when Russian troops, during the movement of Sheikh Mansur, first encountered the teachings and practices of Muridism, which were so characteristic of the main campaigns of the Caucasian War in the 19th century, and the most prominent representative and leader which was Shamil.

Reasons (goals) of war

The beginning of the Caucasian War coincides with the first year of this century, when Russia took over the Georgian kingdom. This event determined the state's new relations with the semi-savage tribes of the Caucasus, from alien to us, they became internal, and Russia had to subordinate them to its power. From here a long and bloody struggle arose. The Caucasus demanded great sacrifices. The occupation of the Transcaucasian regions was neither an accidental nor an arbitrary event in Russian history. It was prepared for centuries, was caused by great state needs and was fulfilled by itself. Back in the sixteenth century, when the Russian people grew up in solitude on the banks of the Oka and Volkhov, separated from the Caucasus by a wild desert, sacred duties and great hopes riveted the attention of the first tsars to this land. The domestic struggle against Islam, which pressed Russia from all sides, was resolved. Through the ruins of the Tatar kingdoms, based on Russian soil, a vast horizon opened to the Moscow state to the south and east; there, in the distance, could be seen the free seas, rich trade, the co-religion peoples of the Georgians and the Caucasian mountaineers, then still half Christians, stretching out their hand to Russia. On the one hand, the Volga led the Russians to the Caspian Sea, surrounded by wealthy peoples who did not have a single boat, to the sea without a master; domination on this sea must have led over time to domination over the fragmented and powerless possessions of the Caspian Caucasus. On the other hand, the groans of Orthodox Georgia reached Russia, worn down by barbaric invasions, exhausted by an endless struggle, which at that time was no longer fighting for the right to be an independent people, but only for the right not to renounce Christ. Muslim fanaticism, inflamed by this new teaching of Shi'a, was in full swing. Desperate to overcome the hardness of the Christian tribe, the Persians systematically massacred the population of entire regions.

Regardless of the most essential interests, according to which the possession of the Caucasus was already a matter of prime importance for the Empire at that time, on the one hand of the religious issue, Russia could not refuse protection to Orthodox Georgia, without ceasing to be Russia. By the manifesto on January 18, 1801, Pavel Petrovich accepted Georgia into the number of Russian regions, according to the will of the last Georgian Tsar George XIII.

At that time, the dispute for domination in the Black Sea was going on with us only with Turkey. But Turkey had already been declared politically bankrupt; she was already under the tutelage of Europe, which jealously looked after her integrity, because she could not take an equal part in the division. Despite this artificial balance, a struggle began between the great powers for the predominant influence on Turkey and everything belonging to it. Europe penetrated Asia from two sides, from the west and south; for some Europeans, Asian issues have become of paramount, exceptional importance. Within Turkey, if not actual, then diplomatically assumed, were the Black Sea and Transcaucasia; this state extended its claims to the shores of the Caspian Sea and could easily fulfill them with the first success gained over the Persians. But the vaguely outlined mass of the Turkish empire was already beginning to move from one influence to another. It was obvious that the dispute over the Black Sea, sooner or later, at the first convenient political combination, would become a European dispute and would be turned against us, because questions of Western influence or domination in Asia did not tolerate division; a rival there is fatal to European power. Whatever influence or domination would have extended to these countries (between which there were lands without an owner, such as, for example, the entire Caucasian Isthmus), it would become hostile to us. Meanwhile, dominion in the Black and Caspian Seas, or in the extreme case, even the neutrality of these seas, is a vital issue for the entire southern half of Russia, from the Oka to the Crimea, in which the main forces of the empire, both personal and material, are increasingly concentrated. This half of the state was created, one might say, by the Black Sea. Possession of the coast made it independent and the richest part of the empire. In a few years, with the construction of the Transcaucasian railroad, which must attract extensive trade with Upper Asia, with the rapid development of the Volga and sea shipping companies, with an established Asian trade company, the deserted Caspian Sea will create for southeastern Russia the same situation as the Black the sea has already set up for the southwest. But Russia can protect its southern basins only from the Caucasian isthmus; a continental state like ours can neither support its importance, nor force it to respect its will where its cannons cannot reach on solid ground. If the horizon of Russia were closed to the south by the snowy peaks of the Caucasian ridge, the entire western continent of Asia would be completely outside our influence, and with the current powerlessness of Turkey and Persia, it would not have waited long for the owner or masters. If this did not happen and does not happen, it is only because the Russian army, standing on the Caucasian isthmus, can embrace the southern shores of these seas, stretching out its arms in both directions.

European trade with Persia and inner Asia, passing through the Caucasian Isthmus, subject to Russian domination, promises positive benefits to the state; the same trade that passed through the Caucasus, independent of us, would create for Russia an endless series of losses and dangers. The Caucasian army holds the key to the East in its hands; this is so well known to our ill-wishers that during the war that had elapsed it was impossible to open an English brochure so as not to find talk about a means of clearing the Transcaucasus of Russians. But if relations with the east are a matter of primary importance for others, then for Russia they fulfill a historical necessity, which is not in its power to evade.

During the first Chechen war, the author of this book, General Kulikov, was the commander-in-chief of the united group of federal forces in the North Caucasus and the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. But this book is not just a memoir, more than the personal experience of one of the most knowledgeable participants in the tragedy. This is a complete encyclopedia of all the Caucasian wars from the 18th century to the present day. From the campaigns of Peter the Great, the exploits of the "Catherine's Eagles" and the voluntary annexation of Georgia to the victories of Ermolov, the surrender of Shamil and the exodus of the Circassians, from the Civil War and Stalin's deportations to both Chechen campaigns, the compulsion of Tbilisi to peace and the latest counter-terrorist operations - you will not find in this book only exhaustive information about the hostilities in the Caucasus, but also a guide to the "Caucasian labyrinth", in which we still wander. It is estimated that since 1722 Russia has fought here for a total of more than a century, so this endless war was nicknamed "The Hundred Years" for a reason. It is not finished to this day. “The Caucasian syndrome has existed in the minds of the Russian people for 20 years already. Hundreds of thousands of "refugees" from the once fertile land flooded our cities, "privatized" industrial facilities, retail outlets, markets. It's no secret that today in Russia the overwhelming majority of people from the Caucasus live much better than the Russians themselves, and high in the mountains and remote auls, new generations of people who are hostile to Russia are growing up. The Caucasian labyrinth has not been fully completed even today. But there is a way out of any labyrinth. You just need to show intelligence and patience to find it ... "

A series: All wars of Russia

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company liters.

Russia's first war in the Caucasus

Caucasian region at the beginning of the 18th century

The Caucasus, or, as it was customary to call this region in past centuries, the "Caucasian Territory", in the 18th century, geographically was a space located between the Black, Azov and Caspian Seas. It is crossed diagonally by the Greater Caucasus mountain range starting at the Black Sea and ending at the Caspian Sea. Mountain spurs occupy more than 2/3 of the territory of the Caucasian region. Elbrus (5642 m), Dykh-Tau (Dykhtau - 5203 m) and Kazbek (5033 m) were considered the main peaks of the Caucasus Mountains in the XVIII-XIX, nowadays another peak has been added to their list - Shkhara, which also has a height of 5203 m. geographically, the Caucasus consists of the Ciscaucasia, the Greater Caucasus and the Transcaucasia.

Both the nature of the terrain and the climatic conditions within the Caucasian Territory are extremely diverse. It was these features that directly affected the formation and ethnographic life of the peoples living in the Caucasus.

The diversity of climate, nature, ethnography and the historical development of the region formed the basis for its division into natural components in the 18th – 19th centuries. These are the Transcaucasia, the Northern part of the Caucasian Territory (Ciscaucasia) and Dagestan.

For a more correct and objective understanding of the events in the Caucasus in past centuries, it is important to represent the characteristic features of the population of this region, the most important of which are: the heterogeneity and diversity of the population; a variety of ethnographic life, various forms of social structure and socio-cultural development, a variety of beliefs. There are several reasons for this.

One of them was that the Caucasus, located between North-West Asia and South-East Europe, was geographically located on the routes (two main routes of movement - northern or steppe and southern or Asia Minor) of the movement of peoples from Central Asia (Great Nations Migration) ...

Another reason is that many states, neighboring the Caucasus, during their heyday, tried to spread and assert their dominion in this region. Thus, the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Turks acted from the west, Persians, Arabians from the south, Mongols and Russians from the north. As a result, the inhabitants of the plains and accessible parts of the Caucasus Mountains constantly mixed with new peoples and changed their rulers. The recalcitrant tribes retired to remote mountainous areas and defended their independence for centuries. Of these, the warlike mountain tribes were formed. Some of these tribes united among themselves due to common interests, while many retained their identity, and finally, due to different historical destinies, some tribes divided and lost all connection with each other. For this reason, in the mountainous regions it was possible to observe a phenomenon when the inhabitants of the two nearest villages differed significantly both in appearance, and in language, and in morals, and in customs.

The following is closely related to this reason - the tribes, driven into the mountains, settled in isolated gorges and gradually lost their relationship with each other. The division into separate societies was explained by the severity and savagery of nature, its inaccessibility and isolation of mountain valleys. This solitude and isolation, obviously, is one of the main reasons that people from the same tribe live different lives, have different customs and customs, and even speak dialects that are often difficult to understand by their fellow tribesmen.

In accordance with ethnographic studies carried out by scientists of the 19th century Shagren, Shifner, Brosse, Rosen, and others, the population of the Caucasus was divided into three categories. The first included the Indo-European race: Armenians, Georgians, Mingrelians, Gurians, Svanets, Kurds, Ossetians and Talyshens. The second is the Turkic race: the Kumyks, Nogais, Karachais and other highlanders' societies occupying the middle of the northern slope of the Caucasian ridge, as well as all the Transcaucasian Tatars. And finally, the third included tribes of unknown races: Adyge (Circassians), Nakhche (Chechens), Ubykhs, Abkhazians and Lezgins. The Indo-European race constituted the majority of the population of the Transcaucasus. These were Georgians and Imeretians of the same tribe, Mingrelians, Gurians, as well as Armenians and Tatars. Georgians and Armenians were at a higher degree of social development in comparison with other peoples and tribes of the Caucasus. They, in spite of all the persecutions from the neighboring strong Muslim states, were able to preserve their nationality and religion (Christianity), and the Georgians, in addition, their identity. Mountain tribes inhabited the mountainous regions of Kakheti: Svanets, Tushins, Pshavs and Khevsurs.

Khevsurian warriors of the second half of the 19th century

The Transcaucasian Tatars constituted the bulk of the population in the khanates subject to Persia. They all professed the Muslim faith. In addition, clumps (Kurds) and Abkhazians lived in Transcaucasia. The first were a militant nomadic tribe that partially occupied the territory bordering with Persia and Turkey. The Abkhazians are a small tribe representing a separate possession on the Black Sea coast north of Mingrelia and bordering on the Circassian tribes.

The population of the northern part of the Caucasian Territory had an even wider spectrum. Both slopes of the Main Caucasian ridge west of Elbrus were occupied by mountain peoples. The most numerous people were the Circassians (in their language it means - Island) or, as they were usually called, the Circassians. The Circassians were distinguished by their beautiful appearance, good mental abilities and indomitable courage. The social structure of the Circassians, like most other highlanders, can most likely be attributed to democratic forms of coexistence. Although at the heart of Circassian society there were aristocratic elements, their privileged estates did not enjoy any special rights.

The Adyg people (Circassians) were represented by numerous tribes. The most significant of them were the Abadzekhs, who occupied the entire northern slope of the Main Ridge, between the upper reaches of the Laba and Sups rivers, as well as Shapsugs and Natukhai. The latter lived to the west, on both slopes of the ridge up to the mouth of the Kuban. The rest of the Circassian tribes, occupying both northern and southern slopes, along the eastern coast of the Black Sea were insignificant. Among them were Bzhedukhs, Khamisheis, Chercheneevs, Khatukhais, Temirgoyevs, Jaegerukhavtsy, Makhoshevtsy, Barakeys, Besleneevtsy, Bagovtsy, Shahgireyis, Abazinians, Karachais, Ubykhs, Vardane, Dzhigets, etc.

In addition, the Kabardians who lived east of Elbrus and occupied the foothills of the middle part of the northern slope of the Main Caucasian ridge could also be attributed to the Circassians. In their customs and social structure, they were in many ways similar to the Circassians. But, having made significant progress on the path of civilization, the Kabardians differed from the first in softer morals. It should be noted that they were the first of the tribes of the northern stingray of the Caucasian ridge, which entered into friendly relations with Russia.

The territory of Kabarda by the channel of the Ardon River was geographically divided into Bolshaya and Malaya. In Big Kabarda, the tribes of Bezeni, Chegem, Khulam, and Balkar lived. Small Kabarda was inhabited by the Nazran tribes, Karabulakhs and others.

The Circassians, like the Kabardians, professed the Muslim faith, but between them at that time there were still traces of Christianity, and among the Circassians there were traces of paganism.

To the east and south of Kabarda lived the Ossetians (they called themselves - Ironians). They populated the upper ledges of the northern slope of the Caucasian ridge, as well as part of the foothills between the Malka and Terek rivers. In addition, part of the Ossetians also lived along the southern slopes of the Caucasian ridge, to the west of the direction where the Georgian Military Highway was later laid. These people were few and poor. The main societies of the Ossetians were: Digors, Alagirs, Kurtatins and Tagaurians. Most of them professed Christianity, although there were those who recognized Islam.

In the basin of the Sunzha, Argun rivers and the upper reaches of the Aksai River, as well as on the northern slopes of the Andean ridge, Chechens or Nakhche lived. The social structure of this people was quite democratic. Since ancient times, Chechen society has had a teip (teip - clan-territorial community) and a territorial system of social organization. This organization gave him a strict hierarchy and strong internal connections. At the same time, such a social structure determined the peculiarities of relations with other nationalities.

The fundamental function of the teip was the protection of the land, as well as the observance of the rules of land use, this was the most important factor in its consolidation. The land was in the collective use of the teip and was not divided between its members into separate plots. Management was carried out by elective foremen on the basis of spiritual laws and ancient customs. This social organization of the Chechens largely explained the unparalleled endurance of their long-term struggle against various external enemies, including the Russian Empire.

The Chechens of the plain and foothill regions provided their needs with natural resources and agriculture. The highlanders, in addition, were distinguished by a passion for raids with the aim of plundering lowland farmers and capturing people for their subsequent sale into slavery. They professed Islam. However, religion in the Chechen population has never been assigned a key role. Traditionally, Chechens were not distinguished by religious fanaticism; they put freedom and independence at the forefront.

The space to the east of the Chechens between the mouths of the Terek and Sulak was inhabited by the Kumyks. The Kumyks in their appearance and language (Tatar) were very different from the highlanders, but at the same time they had a lot in common in their customs and degree of social development. The social structure of the Kumyks was largely determined by their division into eight main classes. The princes were the highest class. The last two classes of chagara and kula were in full or partial dependence on their owners.

The Kumyks, like the Kabardians, were among the first to enter into friendly relations with Russia. They considered themselves obedient to the Russian government since the time of Peter the Great. Like most of the mountain tribes, they preached the Mohammedan faith.

However, it should be noted that, despite the close proximity of two powerful Muslim states, Safavid Persia and the Ottoman Empire, many mountain tribes by the beginning of the 18th century were not Muslims in the strict sense of the word. They, professing Islam, at the same time had various other beliefs, performed rituals, some of which were traces of Christianity, others were traces of paganism. This was especially characteristic of the Circassian tribes. In many places, the highlanders worshiped wooden crosses, brought them gifts, and honored the most important Christian holidays. Traces of paganism were expressed among the mountaineers by special respect for some reserved groves, in which it was considered sacrilege to touch a tree with an ax, as well as some special rituals observed at weddings and funerals.

In general, the peoples that lived in the northern part of the Caucasian Territory, constituting the remnants of various peoples that separated from their roots in different historical periods and at very different degrees of social development, in their social structure, and in their morals and customs, were of great diversity. As for their internal and political structure, and above all of the mountain peoples, it was an interesting example of the existence of a society without any political and administrative authorities.

However, this did not mean the equality of all estates. Most of the Circassians, Kabardians, Kumyks and Ossetians have long had privileged estates of princes, nobles and free people. Equality of estates to one degree or another existed only among the Chechens and some other less significant tribes. At the same time, the rights of the upper classes extended only to the lower classes. For example, among the Circassians, into three lower classes: ob (people who depended on the patron), millers (subservient farmer) and yasyr (slave). At the same time, all public affairs were decided at popular meetings, where all free people had the right to vote. The decisions were implemented through persons elected at the same meetings, who were temporarily empowered for this purpose.

With all the variety of life of the Caucasian highlanders, it should be noted that the main foundations of the existence of their societies were: family relations; blood feud (blood revenge); ownership; the right of every free person to have and use weapons; respect for elders; hospitality; clan unions with a mutual obligation to protect each other and responsibility to other clan unions for the behavior of each.

The father of the family was the sovereign master over his wife and minor children. Freedom and their lives were in his power. But if he killed or sold his wife without fault, then he was subject to revenge from her relatives.

The right and duty of revenge was also one of the basic laws in all mountain societies. Not to avenge blood or offense was considered by the highlanders to be highly dishonorable. Payment for blood was allowed, but only with the consent of the offended party. Payment was allowed by people, livestock, weapons and other property. At the same time, the payments could be so significant that one guilty person was not able to pay them, and it was distributed to the entire surname.

The right to private property extended to livestock, houses, cultivated fields, etc. Empty fields, pastures and forests did not constitute private property, but were divided between surnames.

The right to carry and use weapons at their own discretion belonged to every free person. The lower classes could use weapons only at the command of their master or for his protection. Respect for elders among the highlanders was developed to such an extent that even an adult could not start a conversation with an old man until he spoke to him, and could not sit down with him without an invitation. The hospitality of the mountain tribes obliged to give shelter even to the enemy, if he was a guest in the house. The duty of all members of the union was to protect the safety of the guest while he was on their land, not sparing his life.

In a tribal union, the duty of each member of the union was that he had to take part in all matters related to common interests, in a collision with other unions, to appear on general demand or on alert with weapons. In turn, the society of the tribal union patronized each of the people belonging to it, defended its own and avenged everyone.

To resolve disputes and quarrels, both between members of the same union and between members of outside unions, the Circassians used the court of mediators, called the adat court. For this, the parties chose their trusted people, as a rule, from the elderly, who enjoyed special respect among the people. With the spread of Islam, a general Muslim spiritual court according to Sharia, executed by mullahs, began to be applied.

As for the well-being of the mountain tribes who lived in the northern part of the Caucasus, it should be noted that the majority of the people had only the means to satisfy the most necessary needs. The reason lay primarily in their morals and customs. An active, tireless warrior in military operations, at the same time, the highlander was reluctant to perform any other work. This was one of the strongest traits of their folk character. At the same time, in case of emergency, the highlanders were engaged in righteous work. The arrangement of terraces for crops on rocky, barely accessible mountains, and numerous irrigation canals drawn over considerable distances are the best proof of this.

Content with a little, not giving up work when it is absolutely necessary, willingly launching raids and predatory attacks, the mountaineer usually spent the rest of the time in idleness. Domestic and even field work was predominantly the responsibility of women.

The richest part of the population of the northern part of the Caucasian ridge was made up of the inhabitants of Kabarda, some nomadic tribes and residents of the Kumykh possessions. A number of Circassian tribes were not inferior to the aforementioned peoples in terms of their wealth. The exceptions were the tribes of the Black Sea coast, which, with the decrease in human trafficking, were in a financially constrained position. A similar situation was characteristic of the mountainous societies that occupied the rocky upper ledges of the Main Range, as well as the majority of the population of Chechnya.

The militancy of a popular character, which hindered the highlanders from developing their prosperity, a passion for seeking adventure, was at the heart of their small forays. Attacks in small parties from 3 to 10 people, as a rule, were not planned in advance. Usually, in their free time, which the highlanders had enough for their way of life, they gathered at the mosque or in the middle of the aul. During the conversation, one of them suggested going on a raid. At the same time, a treat was required from the initiator of the idea, but for this he was appointed senior and received most of the booty. More significant detachments usually gathered under the command of well-known riders, and numerous formations were convened by decision of the popular assemblies.

These are, in the most general terms, ethnogeography, social structure, life and customs of the mountain peoples who lived in the northern part of the Caucasian ridge.

Differences in the properties of the terrain of internal (highland) and coastal Dagestan significantly affected the composition and life of its population. The main mass of the population of internal Dagestan (the territory located between Chechnya, the Caspian khanates and Georgia) was made up of the Lezghin peoples and Avars. Both of these peoples spoke the same language, both were distinguished by their strong physique. Both were characterized by a gloomy disposition and high resistance to hardship.

At the same time, there was some difference in their social structure and social development. The Avars were famous for their prowess and great military abilities. They also have a long-established social system in the form of a khanate. The social structure of the Lezghins was predominantly democratic and represented separate free societies. The main ones were: Saladians, Gumbets (or Bakmolals), Adians, Koisubs (or Hindatl), Kazi-Kumikhs, Andalals, Karas, Antsukhi, Kapucha, Ankratal Union with their societies, Dido, Ilankhevi, Unkratal, Boguli, Tehnuts , boonies, and other less significant societies.

Storming a mountain village

The Caspian territory of Dagestan was inhabited by Kumyks, Tatars and partly Lezghins and Persians. Their social structure was based on khanates, shamkhalism, skills (possessions), founded by invaders who penetrated here. The northernmost of them was Tarkovskoe shamkhalstvo, south of it were the possessions of the Karakaitag um, the Khanates Mekhtulinskoe, Kumukhskoe, Tabasaran, Derbentskoe, Kyurinskoe and Kubinskoe.

All free societies consisted of free people and slaves. In the possessions and khanates, in addition, there was also a class of nobles, or beks. Free societies, like the Chechen ones, had a democratic structure, but they represented closer alliances. Each society had its own main aul and was subordinate to the qadi or the foreman elected by the people. The circle of power of these individuals was not clearly defined and largely depended on personal influence.

Islam has developed and strengthened in Dagestan since the time of the Arabs and had an incomparably greater influence here than in other Caucasian tribes. The entire population of Dagestan mainly lived in large auls, for the construction of which the most convenient places for defense were usually chosen. Many of the Dagestani auls were surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs and, as a rule, only one narrow path led to the village. Inside the village, the houses formed narrow and crooked streets. The water pipelines used to deliver water to the aul and to irrigate the gardens were sometimes laid over long distances and arranged with great skill and difficulty.

Coastal Dagestan in terms of welfare and improvement, with the exception of Tabasarani and Karakaitakh, was at a higher degree of development than its inner regions. Derbent and Baku khanates were famous for their trade. At the same time, in the mountainous regions of Dagestan, people lived quite poorly.

Thus, the locality, social structure, way of life and customs of the population of Dagestan were significantly different from similar issues in the northern part of the Caucasian ridge.

Between the territories inhabited by the main peoples of the Caucasus, as if in small specks, lands were inserted where small peoples lived. Sometimes they made up the population of one village. Residents of the villages of Kubachi and Rutults and many others can serve as an example. They all spoke their own languages, had their own traditions and customs.

The presented brief overview of the life and customs of the Caucasian highlanders shows the inconsistency of the opinions that developed in those years about the "wild" mountain tribes. Of course, none of the mountain societies can be compared with the position and social development of society in civilized countries of that historical period. However, provisions such as property rights, treatment of elders, and forms of government in the form of popular assemblies deserve respect. At the same time, the belligerence of character, predatory raids, the law of blood revenge, unbridled freedom in many ways shaped the idea of ​​the "wild" highlanders.

With the approach of the southern borders of the Russian Empire to the Caucasian region in the 18th century, the diversity of its ethnographic life was not sufficiently studied and when solving military-administrative issues it was not taken into account, and in some cases it was simply ignored. At the same time, the mores and customs of the peoples living in the Caucasus have evolved over the centuries and are the basis of their way of life. Their incorrect interpretation led to the adoption of unreasonable, ill-considered decisions, and actions without taking them into account led to the emergence of conflict situations, to unjustified military losses.

The military-administrative bodies of the empire already at the beginning of the 18th century faced problems associated with various forms of social structure of the region's diverse population. These forms ranged from primitive fiefdoms to societies without any political or administrative power. In this regard, all issues, ranging from negotiations of various levels and nature, the solution of the most common everyday issues up to the use of military force, required new, non-traditional approaches. Russia was not yet quite ready for such a development of events.

The situation was complicated in many respects by large differences in the socio-cultural development of people both within the tribes and in the region as a whole, by the involvement of its population with various religions and beliefs.

On the issue of geopolitical relations and the influence of the great powers on the Caucasus region, the following should be noted. The geographical position of the Caucasus predetermined the desire of many of them at different historical stages to spread and assert their influence in the political, trade, economic, military and religious spheres of activity. In this regard, they sought to seize the territories of the region or at least exercise their patronage in various forms, from alliance to protectorate. So, back in the VIII century, the Arabs established themselves in coastal Dagestan, formed the Avar Khanate here.

After the Arabs, this territory was dominated by Mongols, Persians and Turks. The last two peoples, during the two centuries of the 16th and 17th centuries, continuously challenged each other's power over Dagestan and Transcaucasia. As a result of this confrontation, by the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries, Turkish possessions spread from the eastern Black Sea coast to the lands of the mountain peoples (Circassians), Abkhazians. In Transcaucasia, the rule of the Turks spread to the provinces of Georgia, and lasted almost until the middle of the 18th century. Persian possessions in Transcaucasia extended up to the southern and southeastern borders of Georgia and to the Caspian khanates of Dagestan.

By the beginning of the 18th century, the northern part of the Caucasian Territory was in the zone of influence of the Crimean Khanate, a vassal of Turkey, as well as numerous nomadic peoples - Nogays, Kalmyks and Karanogay. The Russian presence and influence in the Caucasus at this time was minimal. In the northeastern part of the Caucasian Territory, even under Ivan the Terrible, the Terek town was founded, and the free Cossacks (descendants of the Greben Cossacks), by order of Peter the Great, were resettled from the Sunzha River to the northern banks of the Terek in five villages: Novogladkovskaya, Shchedrinskaya, Starogladkovskaya, Kudryukovskaya and Chervlenskaya ... The Russian Empire was separated from the Caucasus by a huge steppe zone, in which the tribes of the steppe inhabitants roamed. The southern borders of the empire were located north of these nomads and were determined by the borders of the Astrakhan province and the lands of the Don army.

Thus, the main rivals of the Russian Empire, the Safavid Persia and the Ottoman Empire, who sought to establish themselves in the Caucasian region and thereby solve their interests, were in a more advantageous position by the beginning of the 18th century. At the same time, the attitude towards them on the part of the population of the Caucasian Territory was by this time mostly negative, and towards Russia more favorable.

Caspian campaign of Peter I

At the beginning of the 18th century, Persia stepped up its activities in the Eastern Caucasus, and soon all the coastal possessions of Dagestan recognized its authority over themselves. The Persian ships were complete masters of the Caspian Sea and controlled the entire coastline. But the arrival of the Persians did not put an end to civil strife between the local owners. In Dagestan, there was a fierce massacre, into which Turkey, which was at enmity with Persia, was gradually drawn.

The events that took place in Dagestan could not but alarm Russia, which, through its lands, conducted active trade with the East. Trade routes from Persia and India through Dagestan, in fact, were cut. The merchants suffered huge losses, and the state treasury also suffered.

For the purpose of reconnaissance in 1711, Prince Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky, a native of Kabarda, who knew many eastern languages ​​and customs of the mountaineers, was sent to the Caucasus, and Artemy Petrovich Volynsky was sent to reconnoiter the situation in Persia in 1715.

Upon his return in 1719, A.P. Volynsky from Persia, he was appointed governor of Astrakhan with great powers, both military and political. For the next four years, his activities were based on measures to bring the Dagestan rulers into Russian citizenship and to prepare a campaign for Russian troops in the Caucasus. This activity has been very successful. Already at the beginning of the next year, through Volynsky, Moscow received a petition from the Dagestani shamkhal of Tarkov's Adil-Girey to accept him into Russian citizenship. This request was met with benevolence, and the shamkhal himself was granted “as a sign of his sovereign favor” with valuable furs worth 3 thousand rubles.

As soon as she emerged victorious from the Northern War, Russia, proclaimed an empire, began to prepare for a campaign in the Caucasus. The pretext was the beating and robbery of Russian merchants, organized by the Lezgin owner Daud-bek in Shemakhi. There, on August 7, 1721, crowds of armed Lezghins and Kumyks attacked Russian shops in the Gostiny Dvor, beat and dispersed the clerks who were with them, after which they plundered goods totaling up to half a million rubles.

A.P. Volynsky

Having learned about this, A.P. Volynsky urgently reported to the emperor: “... according to your intention to undertake, there can be no more legitimate reasons than this: the first thing you deign to stand up for your own; second, not against the Persians, but against their enemies and their own. In addition, you can offer the Persians (if they would protest) that if they pay your losses, then Your Majesty can give them everything won. So you can show in front of the whole world that you deign to have a true reason for that. "

Peter wrote to this letter in December 1721: “I answer your opinion; that this opportunity is not to be missed very much, and we have already ordered a happy part of the army to march to you ... ". In the same 1721, the Terek-Grebensk Cossacks were assigned to the jurisdiction of the military collegium of Russia and formalized as a military estate.

At the beginning of 1722, the Russian emperor learned that the Persian Shah near his capital was defeated by the Afghans. Troubles began in the country. There was a threat that, taking advantage of this, the Turks would strike first and before the Russians would appear on the coast of the Caspian Sea. It became risky to postpone the campaign to the Caucasus any longer.

In early May 1722, the guards were loaded onto ships and sent down the Moskva River, and then along the Volga. Ten days later, Peter and Catherine, who decided to accompany her husband on the campaign, set off. Soon the expeditionary corps concentrated in Astrakhan, where Volynsky had prepared a good material base for it in advance. There, on his order, to meet with the emperor, the atamans of the Donets arrived, the commanders of the Volga Tatars and Kalmyks, whose detachments were to take part in the campaign. The total number of Russian troops intended for the invasion of the Caucasus exceeded 80 thousand people.

In addition, the Kabardian princes were supposed to take part in the campaign: the brother of Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky, Murza Cherkassky and Araslan-bek. With their military detachments, they were to join the Russian army on August 6 on the Sulak River.

On July 18, ships with regular infantry and artillery left Astrakhan for the Caspian Sea. Nine thousand dragoons, twenty thousand Don Cossacks and thirty thousand horse Tatars and Kalmyks followed the seashore. Ten days later, Russian ships landed on the shore at the mouth of the Terek in the Agrakhan Bay. Peter was the first to set foot on land and determined the place for the arrangement of the camp, where he intended to wait for the approach of the cavalry.

The fighting began earlier than expected. On July 23, a detachment of Brigadier Veterani on the approach to the village of Enderi in the gorge was suddenly attacked by the Kumyks. The highlanders, hiding in the rocks and behind the trees, put 80 soldiers and two officers out of action with well-aimed rifle fire and arrows. But then the Russians, recovering from the surprise, went on the offensive themselves, defeated the enemy, captured the village and turned it to ashes. Thus began a military expedition, which later received the name of the Caspian campaign of Peter the Great.

Subsequently, Peter acted very decisively, combining diplomacy with military force. In early August, his troops moved to Tarki. On the outskirts of the city, they were greeted by Shamkhal Aldy-Giray, who expressed obedience to the emperor. Peter received him in front of the guards very kindly and promised not to ruin the region.

On August 13, Russian regiments solemnly entered Tarki, where they were greeted with honor by shamkhal. Aldy-Girey presented Peter with a gray argamak in a golden harness. Both his wives paid a visit to Catherine, donating trays of the best grape varieties to her. The troops received food, wine and fodder.

On August 16, the Russian army set out on a campaign to Derbent. This time the path was not entirely smooth. On the third day, one of the columns was attacked by a large detachment of the Utemish Sultan Mahmud. The soldiers repulsed the enemy's blow with comparative ease and took many prisoners. For the edification of all other enemies, Peter ordered the execution of 26 captive military leaders, and the town of Utemish, which consisted of 500 houses, was reduced to ashes. Ordinary soldiers were granted freedom under an oath not to fight the Russians in the future.

Highlanders attack

The loyalty of the Russian emperor to the submissive and his cruelty to those who resisted soon became known throughout the region. Therefore, Derbent did not resist. On August 23, his ruler with a group of eminent townspeople met the Russians a mile from the city, fell on his knees and presented Peter with two silver keys from the gates of the fortress. Peter kindly received the delegation and promised not to send troops into the city. He kept his word. The Russians set up a camp near the walls of the city, where they rested for several days, celebrating a bloodless victory. All this time, the emperor and his wife, fleeing the unbearable heat, spent in a dugout specially built for them, covered with a thick layer of turf. The ruler of Derbent, learning about this, was very surprised. In a secret message to the shah, he wrote that the Russian tsar is so wild that he lives in the earth, from where he comes out only at sunset. Nevertheless, assessing the state of the Russian troops, Naib did not skimp on praise.

After capturing Derbent, the Russian camp began to prepare for a campaign against Baku. However, an acute shortage of food and fodder forced Peter to postpone it until the next year. Leaving a small detachment in Dagestan, he returned the main forces to Astrakhan for the winter. On the way back, the Russians laid the fortress of the Holy Cross at the place where the Agrakhan River flows into the Sulak River.

At the end of September, by order of Peter, ataman Krasnoshchekin with the Donets and Kalmyks struck a series of blows at the Utemish Sultan Mahmud, defeated his troops and destroyed everything that had survived from the previous pogrom. 350 people were captured and 11 thousand heads of cattle were captured. This was the last victory won in the presence of Peter I in the Caucasus. At the end of September, the imperial couple sailed to Astrakhan, from where they returned to Russia.

After Peter's departure, the command of all Russian troops stationed in the Caucasus was entrusted to Major General M.A. Matyushkin, who enjoyed the special confidence of the emperor.

Turkey was alarmed by the appearance of Russian troops on the Caspian coast. In the spring of 1723, a 20,000-strong Turkish army occupied the area from Erivan to Tabriz, then moved north and occupied Georgia. Tsar Vakhtang took refuge in Imereti, and then moved to the Russian fortress of the Holy Cross. From there, in 1725, he was transported to St. Petersburg and received by Catherine I. Astrakhan was assigned to him for residence, and the Russian treasury annually allocated 18 thousand rubles for the maintenance of the court. In addition, he was granted land in various provinces and 3000 serfs. The exiled Georgian king lived comfortably in Russia for many years.

Fulfilling the will of the emperor, in July 1723 Matyushkin with four regiments made a sea passage from Astrakhan and after a short battle occupied Baku. In the city, 700 Persian soldiers and 80 cannons were captured. For this operation, the detachment commander was promoted to lieutenant general.

The alarm was sounded in Isfahan. The internal situation in Persia did not allow the Shah to engage in Caucasian affairs. I had to negotiate with Russia. Ambassadors were urgently sent to St. Petersburg with a proposal for an alliance in the war with Turkey and with a request for help to the Shah in the fight against his internal enemies. Peter decided to focus on the second part of the sentences. On September 12, 1723, an agreement was signed on favorable terms for Russia. It stated: “Shakhov's Majesty cedes to His Imperial Majesty of All Russia in the eternal possession of the city of Derbent, Baku with all the lands and places that lie across the Caspian Sea, tokozh de and provinces: Gilan, Mazanderan and Astrabad, in order to contain The Imperial Majesty will send his Shakhov Majesty against his rebels to help, without demanding money. "

View of Derbent from the sea

In the fall of 1723, the Persian province of Gilan was under the threat of occupation by the Afghans, who entered into a conspiracy with Turkey. The provincial ruler, in turn, turned to the Russians for help. M.A. Matyushkin decided not to miss such a rare opportunity and forestall the enemy. Within a short time, 14 ships were prepared for sailing, which were embarked by two battalions of soldiers with artillery. The squadron of ships was commanded by Lieutenant Captain Soimanov, and the infantry squadron was commanded by Colonel Shipov.

On November 4, the squadron left Astrakhan and a month later set up a raid near Anzeli. Having landed a small assault force, Shipov occupied the city of Rasht without a fight. In the spring of the next year, a reinforcement was sent to Gilan from Astrakhan - two thousand infantry with 24 guns, commanded by Major General A.N. Levashov. Through joint efforts, Russian troops occupied the province and established control over the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. Their separate detachments infiltrated into the depths of the Caucasus, frightening the vassals of Persia, the Sheki and Shirvan khans.

On the whole, the Persian campaign was completed successfully. True, having seized vast territories on the coast of the Caspian Sea, Russian troops lost 41,172 people, of whom only 267 died in battles, 46 drowned, 220 deserted, and the rest died of wounds and diseases. The campaign, on the one hand, showed weakness for the resistance of the rulers of the Eastern Caucasus, on the other hand, the unpreparedness of the Russian army to conduct operations in the southern latitudes, the shortcomings of its medical support, supplies and much more.

Peter praised the military merits of his soldiers. All officers were awarded special gold, and the lower ranks - silver medals with the image of the emperor, which were worn on the ribbon of the first Russian Order of St. Andrew the First-Called. This medal was the first of a number of awards established for military operations in the Caucasus.

Thus, Peter the Great, proceeding primarily from the trade and economic interests of Russia, was the first of its rulers to set the task of annexing the Caspian coast of the Caucasus at the forefront of the empire's policy. He personally organized a military expedition to the Eastern Caucasus with the aim of conquering it and achieved some success. However, the appearance of Russian troops in the Caucasus intensified the aggressive activity of this region also on the part of Persia and Turkey. Military actions in the Caucasus on the part of Russia were in the nature of expeditions, the purpose of which was not so much the defeat of the main forces of the opposing enemy as the seizure of territory. The population of the occupied lands was taxed with indemnities, which were mainly used to support the occupation administration and troops. During the expeditions, it was widely practiced to bring local rulers into Russian citizenship by means of an oath.

A bargaining figure of palace intrigue

Empress Catherine I tried to continue her husband's policy, but she did not succeed well. The war with Persia did not end with the signing of the Petersburg Treaty, which many of the Shah's subjects refused to recognize. Their detachments now and then made attacks on the Russian garrisons, whose forces were gradually dwindling. Some of the Dagestani rulers were still aggressive. As a result, the interest of the Petersburg court in the Caucasus began to decline noticeably. In April 1725, a meeting of the Senate was held on the Persian question. After a long debate, it was decided to send a decree to Matyushkin to temporarily stop the conquest of new territories. The general was required to gain a foothold in the previously captured areas and, first of all, on the coast of the Caspian Sea and on the Kura River, after which the main efforts were to focus on restoring order in the rear of the Russian troops, where the aggressiveness of some Dagestan rulers became apparent. The reason for this decision was that the commander of the Salyan detachment, Colonel Zimbulatov, and a group of his officers were treasonously killed during a dinner with the local ruler. While the investigation was underway in this case, Shamkhal Tarkovsky Aldy-Girey also betrayed his alliance with Russia and, having assembled a large detachment, attacked the fortress of the Holy Cross. It was repelled with great losses for the highlanders. But since then, any movement of Russians in the vicinity of the fortress has become practically impossible.

Highlanders' ambush by the road

Putting things in order Matyushkin decided to start with Shamkhal Tarkovsky. By his order, in October 1725, Major Generals Kropotov and Sheremetev made a punitive expedition to the land of the traitor. Aldy-Girey, having three thousand troops, did not dare to resist the superior forces of the Russians and left Tarok for the mountains together with the Turkish envoy who was with him. His possessions were devastated. Twenty villages perished in the fire, including the capital of Shamkhalism, which consisted of a thousand households. But this was the end of the active actions of the Russian troops in the Caucasus. Matyushkin was recalled from the Caucasus by order of Menshikov.

The Turks immediately took advantage of the weakening of the Russian positions. Having put pressure on the shah, they achieved the signing in 1725 of a treatise, according to which Kazikumykh and part of Shirvan were recognized as territories subject to the sultan. By that time, the Shirvan ruler Duda-bek had managed to do something wrong before his Turkish patrons; he was summoned to Constantinople and killed. Power in Shirvan passed to his longtime rival Chelok-Surkhay with his confirmation in the rank of khan.

With difficulty mustering their strength, in 1726 the Russians continued to "pacify" shamkhalism, threatening to turn it into a deserted desert. Finally, Aldy-Girey decided to end the resistance and on May 20 surrendered to Sheremetev. He was sent to the fortress of the Holy Cross and taken into custody. But this did not solve the problem of the edge. In the absence of a high command, there was no unity of intentions and actions among the Russian generals. It became more and more difficult to keep occupied territories in such conditions.

Frequent disagreements between the generals prompted the Russian government to appoint an experienced commander in the Caucasus, entrusting him with all the military and administrative power in the region. The choice fell on Prince Vasily Vladimirovich Dolgoruky.

Arriving in the Caucasus, the new commander was amazed at the deplorable state of the Russian troops stationed there. In August 1726, he wrote to the Empress: “... The generals, staff and chief officers of the local corps cannot feed themselves without an increase in salary due to the local high cost; the officers came to extreme poverty unbearable, that already one major and three captains have gone crazy, many of their signs and scarves are already laying ... ".

Official Petersburg remained deaf to Dolgoruky's words. Then the general, at his own peril and risk, made extortions among the local population and gave out salaries to the troops. In addition, with his power, he eliminated the material inequality between the Cossacks and the mercenaries. “In the Russian army,” he wrote to the empress, “there are two foreign companies - Armenian and Georgian, of which each receives state support; Russian Cossacks are given nothing, but meanwhile they serve more and the enemy is more terrible. I also assigned them monetary payments, for, in my opinion, it is better to pay to your own people than to strangers. True, the Armenians and Georgians serve well, but the Cossacks act much more courageously. " It is not surprising that with this approach, the morale of the troops increased significantly. This allowed the commander to continue the work started by his predecessors.

In 1727, Vasily Vladimirovich with a small detachment traveled along the entire coast of the sea, demanding that the local rulers confirm their oath of allegiance to Russia. Upon his return to Derbent, he wrote to the empress: “... on his journey he brought the provinces lying along the coast of the Caspian Sea into subjection to Your Imperial Majesty, namely: Kergerutskaya, Astara, Lenkoran, Kyzyl-Agatskaya, Ujarutskaya, Salyan; steppes: Murano, Shegovenskaya, Mazarigskaya, from which there will be an income for a year of about one hundred thousand rubles. " According to his calculations, these funds should have been enough to maintain a detachment of only 10-12 thousand people, which could not ensure the lasting power of Russia in the occupied lands. Dolgoruky proposed either increasing the treasury expenditures for the maintenance of the corps, or imposing a special tribute on local rulers, or reducing the number of troops and the area of ​​territories controlled by them. However, none of his proposals found understanding and support in St. Petersburg. The heirs of Peter the Great did not see any prospects for Russia in the Caucasus and did not want to waste energy, time and money on it.

Prince Vasily Vladimirovich Dolgoruky

The death of Catherine I, which happened in 1727, and the struggle for power that followed, for some time distracted the attention of the Russian government from the Caucasus. Peter II on the day of coronation, February 25, 1728, produced V.V. Dolgoruky was promoted to field marshal general and recalled to Petersburg. When leaving the Caucasus, Vasily Vladimirovich divided the territory under his jurisdiction into two parts, appointing a separate chief to each. Lieutenant General A.N. Levashov, and in Dagestan, Lieutenant General A.I. Rumyantsev is the father of the great commander.

At the beginning of the reign of Anna Ioannovna, another attempt was made to strengthen the position of the Russian Empire in the Caucasus. This required obtaining from Persia significant political concessions and official recognition for Russia of the territories it had seized in the Caspian region. The complexity of the problem also lay in the fact that it also affected the interests of Turkey and local rulers, some of whom did not want Russia's presence in the Caucasus. To resolve this issue required not so much experienced military leaders as diplomats.

To unravel the "Persian knot" was entrusted to the commander of the Caspian corps, Alexei Nikolaevich Levashov, who was promoted to general-in-chief and endowed with special powers. He was a fairly experienced military leader, but an extremely weak diplomat.

Vice-Chancellor Baron Pyotr Pavlovich Shafirov was sent to help Levashov to conduct diplomatic negotiations with the Persians. They were instructed to "try as soon as possible to conclude a treaty beneficial to Russia with the Shah of Persia and use all means to reject him from the treaty with Porto."

Negotiations began in the summer of 1730 and were unsuccessful. But Levashov and Shafirov looked in vain for the reasons for the failures on the spot - they lurked in St. Petersburg, where the Empress's favorite Ernst Johann Biron took matters into his own hands. His palace was secretly visited not only by the Persians, but also by the Austrians. The Persians promised the Russians support in the war with Turkey on condition that all the Caspian territories be returned to the shah free of charge. The Austrians also did their best to push Russia against Turkey in their own interests. Biron himself, having become a mediator in these negotiations, thought not about the benefits of Russia, but only about his own interests. Therefore, in St. Petersburg, bargaining over the Caucasus was much more active than at the negotiations between Levashov and Shafirov.

In June, the Austrian envoy, Count Wrotislav, presented Biron with a diploma for the county of the Holy Roman Empire, a portrait of the emperor, showered with diamonds and 200 thousand thalers, for which the favorite bought an estate in Silesia. After that, he began to persistently recommend to the Empress "the most optimal way to solve the Caucasian problem."

In the spring of 1731, Levashov and Shafirov received new instructions from the government. They said the following: “The empress does not want to leave behind any of the Persian provinces and orders first to clear all the lands along the Kura River, when the Shah orders to conclude an agreement on the restoration of neighboring friendship and ratifies it; and other provinces from the Kura River will be ceded when the Shah expels the Turks from his state. "

Thus, making concessions to the Shah, Russia put itself on the brink of war with Turkey, which, gradually ousting the Persians, continued the policy of conquering the entire Caucasus. Their emissaries flooded the Caspian khanates, instilling anti-Russian sentiments there, which often fell on fertile soil and gave bloody shoots.

In 1732, Biron's protege Lieutenant General Ludwig Wilhelm, Prince of Hesse-Homburg, took command of the Russian troops in Dagestan. At the time, the prince was only 28 years old. He had no military or diplomatic experience behind him, but he passionately wanted to curry favor.

The new commander set to work with enthusiasm and undertook a number of private expeditions. This provoked a backlash, and in the fall of 1732, the attacks of the mountaineers on the Russian detachments became more frequent. So, in October they defeated the 1,500-strong detachment of Colonel P. Koch. As a result of the surprise attack, the Russians lost 200 people killed and just as many prisoners. Aboriginal attacks on Russian military detachments and posts took place in the next two years.

At this time, the Turkish sultan sent a 25,000-strong horde of Crimean Tatars to Persia, whose path ran through the territory of Dagestan controlled by Russian troops. Prince Ludwig decided to put up a barrier in the way of the enemy. With difficulty, a detachment of four thousand people was assembled, which blocked two mountain passes in the area of ​​the village of Goraichi.

The Russians met the Tatars with friendly rifle and artillery fire and repulsed all their attacks. The enemy retreated, leaving over a thousand people killed and wounded on the battlefield, as well as 12 banners. The latter were taken to Petersburg and thrown at the feet of the Empress. The losses of the Russians themselves amounted to 400 people.

The prince was unable to reap the benefits of his victory. Not believing in the resilience of the subordinate troops, without conducting reconnaissance of the enemy, at night he withdrew the units across the Sulak River, and then to the fortress of the Holy Cross. Taking advantage of this, the Tatars broke through to Dagestan, plundering everything in their path.

Delighted with the victories in Dagestan, in 1733 the Sultan sent troops to Persia, but they were defeated near Baghdad. After that, the Turks were forced to cede all the lands previously conquered from them to the Persians, including in Dagestan. However, the ruler of Dagestan, Surkhai Khan, did not obey the shah. In response to this, in 1734, Persian troops invaded Shemakha and defeated Surkhay Khan, who with the remnants of troops began to retreat to the north. In pursuit of him, Nadir Shah occupied the Kazikumykh and several other provinces.

The Russian commander-in-chief, the Prince of Hesse-Homburg, did not in any way influence the events developing in the Caucasus, and in fact lost power over the rulers of Dagestan. In 1734 he was recalled to Russia.

The command of the troops in Dagestan was again entrusted to General A.N. Levashov, who at that time was on vacation at his estates in Russia. While he was about to leave for the Caucasus, the situation there sharply deteriorated. To improve the situation, decisive measures were required, primarily forces and means. General A.N. Levashov repeatedly appealed to St. Petersburg with a request to send reinforcements and improve the material support of the troops of the Lower (Astrakhan) corps, promising in this case to restore order in the controlled area in a short time. But Biron stubbornly rejected the commander's requests and proposals. At the same time, he persistently recommended Empress Anna Ioannovna to withdraw troops from the Caucasus. And the efforts of the favorite were not in vain.

According to the Ganja Treaty of March 10, 1735, Russia ceased hostilities in the Caucasus, returned to Persia all the lands along the western coast of the Caspian Sea, liquidated the fortress of the Holy Cross and confirmed the outline of the border along the Terek River.

To strengthen the line of the new border, a new fortress, Kizlyar, was laid in 1735, which for many years became an outpost of Russia on the coast of the Caspian Sea. This was the last thing General A.N. Levashov in the Caucasus. Soon he was assigned to Moscow and left the mountainous region forever.

In 1736, a war began between Russia and Turkey, the aim of which was the destruction of the Prut Treaty, humiliating for Russia, by the Empress Anna Ioannovna. In the spring, the corps of Field Marshal P.P. Lassi, who took possession of this fortress on July 20. Russia again had a foothold on the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov, from where some of their detachments began to infiltrate to the south, and, above all, to Kabarda. There the Russians quickly found a common language with some of the princes who had long sought an alliance with Russia. As a result of the Belgrade Peace Treaty, signed in September 1739, Russia retained Azov, but made concessions to the Turks regarding Kabarda. Big and Small Kabarda were declared a kind of buffer zone between the possessions of Russia and the Ottoman Empire in the Caucasus. Russian troops left these lands.

The signing of the Ganja and Belgrade treaties was essentially a betrayal of the Caucasian policy of Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great. Russian troops left strategically important areas free of charge, which ensured control over the Caspian Sea and land communications with Persia, and through it - with the Near and Middle East, China and India. At the same time, not having the strength to retain and develop new lands, the Russian Empire annually incurred losses that exceeded the profits dozens of times. This became the main trump card in the political game of Biron, who, with his own benefit, was able to bring it to the end.

Thus, as a result of political games, Russia in the Caucasus received nothing but huge human and material losses. This is how her first attempt to establish herself in this region ended unsuccessfully, which cost, according to the most rough estimates, more than 100 thousand human lives. At the same time, Russia did not find new friends, but it did have more enemies.

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The given introductory fragment of the book All Caucasian wars of Russia. The most complete encyclopedia (V.A.Runov, 2013) provided by our book partner -

In 1817-1827, General Aleksey Petrovich Ermolov (1777-1861) was the commander of the Separate Caucasian Corps and the chief commander in Georgia. Ermolov's activities as commander-in-chief were active and quite successful. In 1817, the construction of the Sunzha cordon line (along the Sunzha river) began. In 1818, the fortresses of Groznaya (present-day Grozny) and Nalchik were built on the Sunzhenskaya line. The campaigns of the Chechens (1819-1821) with the aim of destroying the Sunzhenskaya line were repulsed, the Russian troops began to advance into the mountainous regions of Chechnya. In 1827 Yermolov was dismissed for 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 governor, Prince M.S. Vorontsov (1782-1856), was forced to return to the cordon system. In the years 1834-1859, the liberation struggle of the Caucasian highlanders, which took place under the flag of the gazavat, was headed by Shamil (1797 - 1871), who created a Muslim-theocratic state - the imamate. Shamil was born in the village of Gimrakh around 1797, and according to other sources, around 1799, from the Avar Uzden 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 became an outstanding scientist. The sermons of Kazi-mullah (or rather Gazi-Mohammed), the first preacher of the ghazavat - the holy war against the Russians, captivated Shamil, who first became his disciple, 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 the holy war for the faith against the Russians, were called murids. When the people were sufficiently fanatical and excited by the descriptions of paradise, with its houris, and the promise of complete independence from any authorities, except Allah and his Sharia (spiritual law set forth in the Koran), Kazimullah managed to carry along Koisuba, Gumbet, Andia and other small societies in the Avar and Andean Kois, most of the shamkhalism 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 seized 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 Pakhu-Bike. On February 12, 1830, he set out 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-mulla, returned to Nimry. Accompanying his teacher on his campaigns, Shamil in 1832 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-mullah died, all punctured with bayonets. The death of the latter, the wounds received by Shamil during the siege of Gimr, and the reign 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, collecting troops, obtaining material resources and commanding expeditions against the Russians and the enemies of the imam. Learning about the death of Gamzat-bek, Shamil gathered a party of the most desperate murids, rushed with them to New Gotsatl, seized the wealth stolen by Gamzat and ordered to kill the surviving youngest son of Paru-Bike, the only heir to the Avar Khanate. With this murder, Shamil finally removed the last obstacle to the spread of the imam's power, 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 Kazimullah 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-mulla, less hasty and reckless than Gamzat-bek, Shamil possessed a military talent, great organizational skills, endurance, perseverance, the ability to choose the time to strike and helpers to fulfill their desires. Distinguished by a firm and unyielding will, he knew how to inspire the mountaineers, knew how to excite them to self-sacrifice and to obey his power, which was especially difficult and unusual for them.

Surpassing his predecessors in intelligence, he, like them, did not understand the means to achieve his goals. Fear for the future forced the Avars to get closer to the Russians: the Avar foreman Khalil-bek came to Temir-Khan-Shura and asked Colonel Kluki von Klugenau to appoint a legitimate ruler in Avaria so that it would not fall into the hands of the murids. Klugenau moved towards Gotzatl. Shamil, having set up blockages on the left bank of the Avar Koisu, intended to act on the flank and rear of the Russians, but Klugenau managed to cross the river, and Shamil had to retreat into Dagestan, where at that time hostile clashes took place between the contenders for power. Shamil's position in these early years was very difficult: a series of defeats suffered by the mountaineers shaken their desire for ghazavat and their belief in the triumph of Islam over the giaours; one after another, the free societies showed obedience and betrayed the hostages; Fearing ruin by the Russians, the mountain auls were reluctant to host murids. Throughout 1835, Shamil worked in secret, gaining adherents, fanaticizing the crowd and pushing aside rivals or making peace with them. The Russians gave him a boost because they looked at him like a worthless adventurer. Shamil spread a rumor that he was only working to restore the purity of Muslim law between the recalcitrant societies of Dagestan and expressed his readiness to submit to the Russian government with all the koisu-bulins, if he was assigned a special content. In this way, putting the Russians to sleep, who at that time were especially busy building fortifications along the Black Sea coast in order to cut off the opportunity for the Circassians to communicate with the Turks, Shamil, with the assistance of Tashav-haji, tried to rouse the Chechens and assure them that most of the mountainous Dagestan had already accepted the Sharia ( arab. sharia literally - the proper way) and obeyed the imam. In April 1836, Shamil, with a party of 2 thousand people, with admonitions and threats forced the Kois-Bulins and other neighboring societies to accept his teachings and to 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 greeted with statements of obedience on the part of Untsukul, whose foremen explained that they had accepted the 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. To gain greater 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 Dagestan societies from Chechnya to Avaria, as well as a significant part of the Avars and societies lying to the 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 done with success, but made an insignificant impression on the mountaineers. 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 Khanate, Khunzakh. On May 28, 1837, General Feze entered Khunzakh and then moved to the village of Ashilte, near which, on the impregnable cliff of Akhulga, 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 attacked Buchkiev's detachment on the night of June 7-8, 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 thousand selected fanatics-murids, who defended every saklya, every street, and then rushed to 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 Ashiltip pogrom were repeated, when some did not ask and others did not give mercy. Shamil saw that the case was lost and sent the envoy with an expression of humility. General Feze gave in to deception and entered into negotiations, after which Shamil and his comrades betrayed three amanats (hostages), including his nephew Shamil, and swore allegiance to the Russian emperor. Having missed the opportunity to take Shamil prisoner, 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 the whole of Dagestan and Chechnya. Shamil's position, 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. Circumstances soon changed. The 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 by conviction, then by force (late 1838 and early 1839). Near the destroyed in the Avar expedition Akhulgo 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, a baggage train and supplies for an expedition deep into Dagestan. It was necessary to restore free communication along all our routes of communication, which Shamil now threatened to such an extent that strong columns of all types of weapons had to be appointed to cover our transports between Temir-Khan-Shura, Khunzakh and Suddennaya. To act against Shamil, the so-called Chechen detachment of Adjutant General Grabbe was appointed. 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 attacked the obedient Russia on May 4 to distract attention. the village of Irganai and took its inhabitants to the mountains. At the same time, Tashav-haji, a devotee of Shamil, captured the village of Miskit on the Aksai River and built a fortification near it in the Akhmet-Tala tract, from which he could at any time attack the Sunzha line or the Kumyk plane, and then strike in the rear when the troops go deep into the mountains when driving to Akhulgo. Adjutant General Grabbe understood this plan and with a surprise attack took and burned the fortification near Miskit, destroyed and burned a number of auls in Chechnya, took Sayasani, the Tashav-haji stronghold by storm, and on May 15 returned to Sudzapnaya. On May 21, he again set out from there.

Near the village of Burtunaya, Shamil took up a flanking position on inaccessible heights, but the roundabout movement of the Russians forced him to leave for Chirkat, while his militia dispersed in different directions. Working out the road along puzzling steep slopes, Grabbe ascended the Souk-Bulakh pass and on May 30 approached Arguani, where Shamil sat down with 16 thousand people in order to delay the movement of the Russians. After a desperate hand-to-hand fight for 12 hours, in which the highlanders and the Russians suffered huge losses (the highlanders have up to 2 thousand people, we have 641 people), he left the village (on 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 on June 12 approached Akhulgo. The blockade of Akhulgo lasted for ten weeks; Shamil freely communicated with the surrounding communities, again occupied Chirkat and stood on our communications, disturbing us from both sides; reinforcements flocked to him from everywhere; the Russians were gradually enveloped in a ring of mountain heaps. The 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. Foreseeing 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 Akhulgos were taken, and most of the defenders died. Shamil himself managed to escape, was wounded on the way and fled through Salatau to Chechnya, where he settled in the Argun gorge. The impression from this pogrom was very strong; many societies sent chieftains and showed obedience; Shamil's former associates, including Tashav-hajj, conceived to appropriate the imam's power and recruited adherents, but they made a mistake in their calculations: how Shamil revived from the ashes of the phoenix and already in 1840 again began to fight 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 intensified the discontent of the Chechens with a cleverly spread rumor that the Russians intended to convert the mountaineers into peasants and involve them in serving military service; The highlanders worried and remembered Shamil, opposing the justice and wisdom of his decisions to the activities of the Russian bailiffs.

The Chechens invited him to become the head of the uprising; he agreed to this only after repeated requests, taking an oath from them and taking hostages from the best families. By his order, all of Malaya Chechnya and the villages of Prisunzhensk began to arm themselves. Shamil constantly disturbed the Russian troops with raids of large and small parties, which were moved 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 Russia who remained without protection society, subjugated them to his power and moved them to the mountains. By the end of May, Shamil had assembled a significant militia. Little Chechnya is all empty; its population abandoned their homes, rich lands and hid in the 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, who described it in a wonderful poem), but despite huge losses, especially during Valerike, the Chechens did not abandon Shamil and willingly joined his militia, which he now sent to northern Dagestan. Having won over the Gumbetites, Andians and Salavans to his side and holding in his hands the exits to the rich Shamkhal plain, Shamil gathered at Cherkey a militia of 10-12 thousand people against 700 people of the Russian army. Having stumbled upon Major General Kluka von Klugenau, Shamil's 9,000-strong militia, after stubborn battles on the 10th and 11th Mule, abandoned further movement, returned to Cherkei, and then partly Shamil was disbanded to their homes: he was waiting for a wider movement in Dagestan. Dodging the battle, he collected the militia and worried the mountaineers with rumors that the Russians would take the mounted highlanders and send them to serve in Warsaw. On September 14, General Klucky von Klugenau managed to challenge Shamil to a battle near Gimry: he was beaten on his head and fled, Avaria and Koisubu were saved from plunder and devastation. Despite this defeat, Shamil's power was not shaken in Chechnya; all the tribes between Sunzha and Avar Koisu submitted to him, vowing not to enter into any relations with the Russians; Hadji Murad, who betrayed Russia (1852s), 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 undertook a number of offensive actions. The equestrian party of the naib Akhverda-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, considered it necessary to enter into relations with him, challenging him to reconciliation 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 behind Sulak and even penetrated as far as Tarki, stealing cattle and robbing near Termit-Khan-Shura itself, the communication of which with the line became possible only with a strong convoy. Shamil ruined the auls that tried to resist his power, took wives and children with him to the mountains and forced the Chechens to marry their daughters to Lezghins, and vice versa, in order to tie these tribes together by kinship. Particularly important for Shamil was the acquisition of such employees as Hadji Murad, who attracted Avaria to him, Kibit-Magom in southern Dagestan, a very influential among the highlanders, fanatic, brave and capable self-taught engineer, and Jemaya-ed-Din, an outstanding preacher. By April 1841, Shamil ruled over almost all the tribes of highland Dagestan, except for Koisubu. Knowing how important the occupation of Cherkey was for the Russians, he fortified all the paths there with rubble and himself defended them with extreme stubbornness, but after the Russians outflanked them from both flanks he retreated deep into Dagestan. On May 15, Cherkei surrendered to General Feza. Seeing that the Russians were busy building fortifications and left him alone, Shamil decided to take possession of Andalal, with the impregnable Gunib, where he hoped to establish his residence if the Russians ousted him from Dargo. Andalal was also important because its inhabitants made gunpowder. In September 1841, the Andalians 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 Russian fortifications. General Klucky von Klugenau asked the corps commander to send reinforcements, but the latter, hoping that Shamil would stop his activities in winter, postponed this matter until spring. Meanwhile, Shamil was not at all idle, but was intensively preparing for the campaign of the next year, not giving our exhausted troops a single minute of peace. The glory of Shamil reached the Ossetians and Circassians, who pinned great hopes on him. On February 20, 1842, General Feze took Gergebil by storm. On March 2, he occupied Chokh without a fight, and on March 7 he arrived in Khunzakh. At the end of May 1842, Shamil invaded Kazikumukh with 15 thousand militias, but, defeated on June 2 at Kyululi by Prince Argutinsky-Dolgoruky, quickly cleared the Kazikumukh Khanate, probably because he received news of the movement of a large detachment of General Grabbe to Dargo. Having passed in 3 days (May 30 and 31 and June 1) only 22 miles and having lost about 1800 people who were out of action, General Grabbe returned back without doing anything. This failure raised the spirits of the mountaineers unusually. 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 Assa River marked the beginning of the Chechen forward line.

Throughout the spring and summer of 1843, Shamil used to organize his army; when the mountaineers removed the bread, he went on the offensive. On August 27, 1843, having made a transition of 70 versts, Shamil unexpectedly appeared in front of the Untsukul fortification, with 10 thousand people; Lieutenant Colonel Veselitsky, with 500 men, went to the aid of the fortification, 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 remaining 2 officers and 58 soldiers were taken prisoner. Then Shamil turned against Avaria, where General Klucky von Klugenau sat down in Hunzach. As soon as Shamil entered Avaria, one village after another began to surrender to him; despite the desperate defense of our garrisons, he managed to take the fortification of Belakhana (September 3), the Makokh tower (September 5), the Tsatanykh fortification (September 6 - 8), Akhalchi and Gotsatl; seeing this, the Accident was postponed from Russia and the inhabitants of Khunzakh were restrained from treason 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 housed in small and poorly arranged fortifications. Shamil was in no hurry to attack Khunzakh, fearing with one failure to destroy what he had gained by victories. Throughout this campaign, Shamil showed the talent of an outstanding commander. Leading crowds of mountaineers, still unfamiliar with discipline, self-willed and easily discouraged at the slightest failure, he was able to subdue them in a short time to his will and instill a willingness to go into the most difficult enterprises. After an unsuccessful attack on the fortified village of Andreevka, Shamil drew attention to Gergebil, which was poorly fortified, but meanwhile was of great importance, protecting the access from northern Dagestan to southern, and to the Burunduk-kale tower, occupied by only a few soldiers, while she defended Crash message with plane. On October 28, 1843, crowds of mountaineers, numbering up to 10 thousand, surrounded Gergebil, whose garrison consisted of 306 people from the Tiflis regiment, under the command of Major Shaganov; after a desperate defense, the fortress was taken, the garrison was almost completely killed, only a few were captured (November 8). The fall of Gergebil was a signal for the uprising of the Koisu-Bulin auls along 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 fortification of Nizovoye, where there was a storehouse of food supplies. Despite the desperate attacks of 6,000 highlanders, the garrison withstood all their attacks and was liberated by General Freigat, who burned the supplies, riveted the cannons and took the garrison to Kazi-Yurt (November 17, 1843). The hostile mood of the population forced the Russians to clear the Miatlinsky blockhouse, then Khunzakh, whose garrison, under the command of Passek, moved to Zirani, where it was besieged by the highlanders. General Gurko moved to the aid of Passek and rescued him from the siege on December 17.

By the end of 1843 Shamil was the complete master of Dagestan and Chechnya; we had to start the business of conquering them from the very beginning. After organizing the lands under his control, 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 monitor all movements of the Russian troops. Significant reinforcements received by the Russians in 1844 gave them the opportunity to take and destroy Cherkei and push Shamil back from an impregnable position at Burtunai (June 1844). On August 22, the Russians began the construction of the Vozdvizhensky fortification, the future center of the Chechen line, on the Arguna river; The mountaineers tried in vain to prevent the construction of the fortress, lost heart and stopped showing themselves. Daniel-bek, the sultan of Elisu, went over to the side of Shamil at that time, but General Schwartz took the Elisu sultanate, and the Sultan's betrayal did not bring Shamil the benefit he had hoped for. Shamil's power was still very strong in Dagestan, especially in the southern and left banks of the Sulak and Avar Koisu. He understood that his main support was the lower class of the people, and therefore tried by all means to bind him to himself: for this purpose, he established the post of murtazeks, from poor and homeless people who, having received power and importance from him, were a blind instrument in his hands and strictly observed the execution of his orders. In February 1845, Shamil occupied the trading village of Chokh and forced the neighboring villages into submission.

Emperor Nicholas I ordered the new governor, Count Vorontsov, to take the residence of Shamil, Dargo, although all authoritative Caucasian military generals rebelled against this, as against a useless expedition. The expedition, undertaken on May 31, 1845, took Dargo, abandoned and burned by Shamil, and returned on July 20, losing 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 roads were ruined, dug up and blocked by dozens of rubble and markings; all villages had to be taken by storm, or they got destroyed and burned. The Russians took away from the Dargin expedition the conviction that the path to domination in Dagestan goes through Chechnya and that it was necessary to act not by raids, but by cutting roads in forests, establishing fortresses and settling occupied places by Russian settlers. This was started in the same year 1845. To distract the government's attention from the events in Dagestan, Shamil harassed the Russians at various points along the Lezgin line; but the development and strengthening of the Military-Akhtyn road here, too, gradually limited the field of his actions, bringing the Samur detachment closer to the Lezgin one. With a view to regain possession of the Darginsky 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 off 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 the head: he fled, throwing many badges, one cannon and 21 charge boxes. With the onset of spring 1847, the Russians besieged Gergebil, but, defended by desperate murids, skillfully fortified, he fought back, supported in time by Shamil (June 1 - 8, 1847). Cholera, which began in the mountains, forced both sides to suspend hostilities. On July 25, Prince Vorontsov laid siege to the heavily fortified and garrisoned village of Salty; Shamil sent his best naibs (Hadji Murad, Kibit-Magomu and Daniel-bek) to the rescue of the besieged, but they were defeated by an unexpected attack of Russian troops and fled with a huge loss (August 7). Shamil tried many times to help Saltam, but was unsuccessful; On September 14 the fortress was taken by the Russians. By the construction of fortified headquarters in Chiro-Yurt, Ishkart and Deshlagar, which guarded the plain between the Sulak River, the Caspian Sea and Derbent, and the construction of fortifications at Khojal-Makhi and Tsudakhar, which laid the foundation for the line along Kazikumykh-Kois, the Russians greatly impeded Shamil's movements, making it difficult to him a breakthrough to the plain and blocking the main passages to central Dagestan. To this was added the discontent of the people, who, starving, grumbled that due to the 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 the point of denunciations. In January 1848, Shamil gathered Naibs, chief elders and clergymen in Vedeno and announced to them that, not seeing help from the people in his undertakings and zeal in military operations against the Russians, he was relinquishing the title of imam. The congregation announced that it would not allow this, because in the mountains there is no person more worthy to bear the title of imam; the people are not only ready to obey the demands of Shamil, but also pledged obedience to his son, to whom the title of imam should pass after the death of his father.

On July 16, 1848 Gergebil was taken by the Russians. Shamil, for his part, attacked the fortification of Akhta, protected by only 400 people under the command of Colonel Roth, and there were no less than 12 thousand murids, inspired by the personal presence of the imam. The garrison defended itself heroically and was saved by the arrival of Prince Argutinsky, who defeated Shamil's congregation near the village of Meskindzhi on the banks of the Samura River. The Lezghin line was raised to the southern spurs of the Caucasus, than the Russians took the pastures from the mountaineers and forced many of them to submit or move to our borders. From the side of Chechnya, we began to squeeze the disobedient societies, cutting deep into the mountains with the advanced Chechen line, which so far consisted only of the fortification of Vozdvizhensky and Achtoevsky, with an interval of 42 versts between them. 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 aforementioned fortifications, 15 versts from Vozdvizhensky and 27 versts from Achtoevsky. With this we took away from the Chechens a rich plain, the granary 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 1858-1949 passed calmly. In April 1849 Hadji Murad made an unsuccessful attack on Temir-Khan-Shura. In June, Russian troops approached Chokh and, finding it perfectly fortified, led a siege in accordance with 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 fortification of Vozdvizhensky to Shalinskaya Polyana, the main granary of Greater Chechnya and partly of Nagorny Dagestan; to provide another path to the same road, a road was cut from the Kura fortification through the Kachkalykovsky ridge to the descent into the Michik valley. During the four summer expeditions, Little Chechnya was covered by us. The Chechens were driven to despair, were indignant at Shamil, did not hide their desire to free themselves from his power, and in 1850, among several thousand, moved to our borders. Attempts by Shamil and his naibs to penetrate our borders were unsuccessful: they ended with the retreat of the mountaineers or even their complete defeat (the affairs of Major General Sleptsov at Tsoki-Yurt and Datykh, Colonel Maydel and Baklanov on the Michika River and in the land of the Aukhavites, Colonel Kishinsky on Kuteshinsky Heights, etc.). In 1851, the policy of ousting the rebellious highlanders from the plains and valleys continued, the ring of fortifications narrowed, the number of fortified points increased. Major General Kozlovsky's expedition to Greater Chechnya turned this area, up to the Bassa River, into a treeless plain. In January and February 1852, Prince Baryatinsky made a series of desperate expeditions deep into Chechnya in front of Shamil. Shamil pulled all his forces into Greater Chechnya, where on the banks of the Gonsaula and Michika rivers he entered into a hot and stubborn battle with Prince Baryatinsky and Colonel Baklanov, but, despite a huge superiority in forces, he was defeated several times. In 1852, in order to stir up the zeal of the Chechens and blind them with a brilliant feat, Shamil decided to punish the peaceful Chechens who lived near Groznaya for their departure to the Russians; but his plans were discovered, he was enveloped from all sides, and out of 2,000 people in his militia, many fell near Groznaya, while others drowned in Sunzha (September 17, 1852). Shamil's actions in Dagestan over the years consisted of sending out parties that attacked our troops and the highlanders obedient to us, but did not have much success. The hopelessness of the struggle was reflected in the numerous migrations to our borders and even in 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 Michik rivers and its tributary Gonsoli, in which lived a very large and devoted Chechen population, who fed not only themselves, but also Dagestan with their bread. He gathered about 8 thousand cavalry and about 12 thousand infantry for the defense of this corner; all the mountains were fortified by countless heaps, skillfully placed and folded, all possible descents and ascents were ruined to the point of being completely unusable 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 to rouse. Shamil spread the rumor that the Russians would leave the Caucasus and then he, the imam, remaining a complete master, would severely punish those who would not go over to his side now. On August 10, 1853, he set out from Vedeno, on the way gathered a militia of 15 thousand people and on August 25 occupied the village of Starye Zakataly, but, defeated by Prince Orbeliani, who had only about 2 thousand troops, went into the mountains. Despite this setback, the population of the Caucasus, electrified by the mullahs, was ready to rise up against the Russians; but the imam for some reason delayed the whole winter and spring, and only at the end of June 1854 did he descend to Kakheti. Repulsed from the village of Shildy, he captured the family of General Chavchavadze in Tsinondaly 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 detained him until Baron Nikolai arrived from the Kura fortification; Shamil's troops were completely 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, since 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 place; the Chechens stopped obeying the Naibs and moved closer to us.

On the Basse river in March 1857, the Shali fortification was erected, which was advanced almost to the foot of the Black Mountains, the last refuge of the rebellious Chechens, and opened the shortest route to Dagestan. General Evdokimov penetrated the Argen valley, cut down forests here, burned auls, built defensive towers and the Argun fortification and brought a clearing to the top of Dargin-Duk, from which it is not far from Shamil's residence, Veden. Many villages submitted to the Russians. 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 looking for only an opportunity to get rid of his yoke. In July 1858 General Evdokimov took the village of Shatoi and occupied the entire Shatoevskaya plain; another detachment entered Dagestan from the side of the Lezgin line. Shamil was cut off from Kakheti; the Russians stood on the tops of the mountains, from where they could descend to Dagestan along the Avar Kois at any moment. The Chechens, burdened by the despotism of Shamil, asked the Russians for help, drove out the murids and overthrew the authorities set by Shamil. The fall of Shatoi so amazed Shamil that he, having a mass of troops under his arms, hastily withdrew to Vedeno. The agony of Shamil's power began at the end of 1858. Allowing the Russians to establish themselves freely on Chanty-Argun, he concentrated large forces on another source of the Argun, Sharo-Argun, and demanded the universal arming of the Chechens and Dagestanis. His son Kazi-Magoma occupied the gorge of the Bassa River, but was driven out from there in November 1858. Aul Tauzen, heavily fortified, was bypassed by us from the flanks.

The Russian troops did not go, as before, through dense forests, where Shamil was a complete master, but slowly moved forward, cutting down forests, leading roads, erecting fortifications. To protect Veden, Shamil pulled in about 6-7 thousand people. Russian troops approached Veden on February 8, climbing the mountains and descending from them through liquid and sticky mud, making 1/2 versts an hour, with terrible efforts. Favorite naib Shamil Talgik went over to our side; the inhabitants of the nearest villages refused to obey the imam, so he entrusted the protection of Veden to the Tavlins, and took the Chechens away from the Russians, deep into 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 obedience and asking for protection. General Evdokimov fulfilled their wish and sent a detachment of Count Nostitz to the Hulhulau River to protect those migrating to 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 Veden near the trenches, 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 moved forward freely, bypassing the enemy fortifications and positions, which, as a result, were left by the enemy without a fight; the villages we met on the way submitted to us, too, without a fight; the inhabitants were ordered to be peaceful everywhere, about which all the highlanders soon learned and even more willingly began to fall away from Shamil, who withdrew to Andalyalo 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 submission 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, Jemal-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 began to establish peace and order among the societies that had submitted to Russian.

The conciliatory mood seized Dagestan to such an extent that in mid-August the commander-in-chief rode through the entire Avaria without hindrance, accompanied by some Avars and Khoisubulins 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, offered Shamil to submit to the Emperor, who would allow him free travel to Mecca, with the obligation to choose it as his permanent residence; Shamil rejected this offer. On August 25, the Absherons climbed the steep slopes of the Gunib, cut through the murids who were desperately defending the rubble and approached the aul 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 Kiev; in 1870 he was released to live in Mecca, where he died in March 1871. Having united under his rule all the societies and tribes of Chechnya and Dagestan, Shamil was not only an imam, the spiritual leader of his followers, but also a political ruler. Relying on the teachings of Islam about the salvation of the soul by war with the infidels, trying to unite the scattered 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 strove to abolish all powers, orders and institutions based on age-old customs, in adat; He considered the Sharia, that is, that part of the Koran where civil and criminal decisions are laid down, to be the basis of the life of the highlanders, both private and public. As a consequence, power was to pass into the hands of the clergy; the court passed from the hands of elected secular judges into the hands of the Qadis, the interpreters of Sharia. Having bound all the wild and free societies of Dagestan with Islam, like cement, Shamil put control in the hands of the clergy and, with their help, established a single and unlimited power in these once free countries, and to make it easier for them to endure his yoke, he pointed to two great goals, which highlanders, obeying him, can achieve: salvation of the soul and preservation of independence from the Russians. The mountaineers called the time of Shamil the time of Sharia, its fall - the fall of Sharia, since now after that ancient institutions, ancient elective authorities and the decision of affairs according to custom, that is, according to adat, were revived everywhere. The entire country subordinate to Shamil was divided into districts, each of which was under the control of a naib, who had military-administrative power. For the court, in every naibstvo there was a mufti who appointed a qadiyev. Naibs were forbidden to solve Sharia matters under the jurisdiction of the mufti or qadis. Every four naibs at first obeyed the mudir, but Shamil was forced to abandon this establishment in the last decade of his domination, due to constant strife between the mudirs and the naibs. The assistants of the Naibs were the murids, who, as tested in courage and devotion to the holy war (ghazavat), were entrusted with more important matters.

The number of murids was indefinite, but 120 of them, under the command of a yuzbashi (centurion), were Shamil's guard of honor, were with him forever and accompanied him on all trips. The officials were obliged to obey the imam without question; for disobedience and misdeeds they were reprimanded, demoted, arrested and punished with lashes, from which the mudirs and naibs were spared. All those capable of carrying weapons were required to carry out military service; they were divided into tens and hundreds, which were under the command of the tenth and sotsky, subordinate, in turn, to the naibs. In the last decade of his activity, Shamil started regiments of 1000 people, divided into 2 five-hundredth, 10 hundredth and 100 detachments of 10 people each, in the respective commanders. Some villages, in the form of indemnity, were freed from military service, to supply sulfur, saltpeter, salt, etc. The largest army of Shamil did not exceed 60 thousand people. From 1842 to 1943, Shamil started up artillery, partly from the cannons abandoned by us or taken from us, partly from those prepared at his own factory in Veden, where about 50 guns were cast, of which no more than a quarter were usable. Gunpowder was made in Untsukul, Ganib and Veden. The mountaineers' teachers in artillery, engineering and combat were often fugitive soldiers whom Shamil fondled and gifted. The state treasury of Shamil was made up of random and permanent income: the first were delivered by robbery, the second consisted of zekyat - the collection of a tenth of the income from bread, sheep and money established by the Shariah, and kharaj - taxes 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 Rus to the Russian Empire". Shishkin Sergey Petrovich, Ufa.

As a result of two successful wars with Iran (1804-1813) and Turkey (1806-1812), the Russian Empire acquires the Karabakh, Gandzhin, Sheki, Derbent, and Cuban khanates, and is seeking recognition of its rights to Guria and Megrelia. New territories - new subjects, and with them new problems. The Russian military and civilian administrations very soon learned what the mountain mentality and Caucasian socio-economic relations were.

Having familiarized himself with Yermolov's plan, Emperor Alexander gave the order: "To conquer the mountain peoples gradually, but insistently, to occupy only what you can keep behind you, not to spread otherwise than by becoming a firm foot and securing the occupied space from the attacks of the hostile."

100 great generals

HISTORICAL REFERENCE

The inclusion of Georgia, Eastern Armenia and Northern Azerbaijan in Russia raised the question of the annexation of the North Caucasus, which had an important strategic position. The Russian government could not pursue its foreign policy goals in the Transcaucasia without gaining a foothold in the North Caucasus. The Russian government was able to tackle this problem closely only after the end of the wars with Napoleon.

In 1816, the general, hero of the war of 1812 A.P. Ermolov. Since 1817, he began a systematic attack on the regions of Chechnya and Dagestan, accompanied by the construction of fortified points and the arrangement of safe roads. Thanks to his activities, the ring of economic and political blockade around this region was getting tighter and tighter. This further inflamed the situation, especially since the advance of the Russian army was accompanied by the destruction of the recalcitrant auls.

In the 20s of the 19th century, a broad anti-Russian movement of the Caucasus mountaineers began. In these conditions, on the basis of Islam, the ideology of muridism began to form, which was based on the postulates of strict adherence to Muslim rituals, unconditional obedience to leaders and mentors. His followers proclaimed the impossibility of the subordination of a legitimate Muslim to a non-religious monarch. In the late 1920s on the territory of Chechnya and Dagestan, on the basis of this ideology, a military-theocratic state formation of the Imamat was formed, the first imam of which was Gazi-Mahomet, who called on the highlanders to wage a holy war against the Russian troops (ghazavat).

The Russian government decided to decisively suppress this movement. Ermolov's successor I.F. In 1830 Paskevich addressed the “Proclamation to the population of Dagestan and the Caucasus mountains”, in which he declared Gazi-Magomed a troublemaker and declared him a retaliatory war. Soon the first imam was killed. The second imam was Gamzat-Bek, who died of blood feud.

Russia was firmly involved in the Caucasian War. The hopes of the Russian ruling circles for a quick victory did not come true. The unusual conditions of the mountain war, the resistance of the local population, the lack of a unified strategy and tactics for conducting military operations extended this war for more than thirty years.

In 1834, Shamil (1797-1871), the son of an Avar peasant, the brightest and most talented personality among the leaders of the highlanders, was proclaimed the new imam. He was distinguished by wide education, courage, military talent, as well as religious fanaticism. He managed to concentrate in his hands all the power, thereby strengthening the statehood, to accumulate military forces. The 40s of the XIX century were the time of his greatest successes. Shamil managed to inflict a number of sensitive defeats on the Russian army. In 1843, he launched hostilities in northern Dagestan, which greatly alarmed the Russian government.

In 1845 M.S. Vorontsov, who received emergency powers. However, his punitive expedition ended in failure. In 1846, Shamil invaded Ossetia and Kabarda, intending to push the borders of his state to the West. But Shamil's global plans did not match the economic and military potential of the imamate. Since the end of the 40s of the XIX century, this state began to decline. During the Crimean War, he was unable to provide effective assistance to the Turkish army in the Caucasus. The capture of Tsinandali in 1854 was his last major success.

After the Crimean War, the Russian government launched a decisive offensive against Shamil. The size of the Russian army increased significantly. In August 1856, Alexander II appointed Prince A.I. Baryatinsky. In the years 1857-1859, he managed to conquer all of Chechnya and launch an offensive against Dagestan.

In August 1859, after a fierce battle in the village of Gunib, Shamil was taken prisoner. The Imamat ceased to exist. The last large center of resistance of the highlanders - the Kbaade tract - was taken by Russian troops in 1864. The long-term Caucasian war is over.

"PROCONSUL OF THE CAUCASUS"

In September 1816, Ermolov arrived at the border of the Caucasian province. In October, he arrived on the Caucasian line in the city of Georgievsk. From there he immediately went to Tiflis, where the former commander-in-chief of infantry, Nikolai Rtischev, was awaiting him. On October 12, 1816, by the highest order, Rtischev was expelled from the army.

After surveying the border with Persia, he went in 1817 as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the court of the Persian shah Feth-Ali. Peace was confirmed, and for the first time, consent was expressed to allow the presence of the Russian chargé d'affaires and the mission with him. Upon his return from Persia, he was most mercifully awarded the rank of General of Infantry.

Having familiarized himself with the situation on the Caucasian line, Ermolov outlined a plan of action, which he then adhered to unswervingly. Considering the fanaticism of the mountain tribes, their unbridled willfulness and hostility towards the Russians, as well as the peculiarities of their psychology, the new commander-in-chief decided that it was absolutely impossible to establish peaceful relations under the existing conditions. Ermolov drew up a consistent and systematic plan of offensive actions. Ermolov did not leave unpunished a single robbery and raid of the mountaineers. He did not start decisive action without first equipping the base and creating offensive bridgeheads. Among the components of Yermolov's plan were the construction of roads, the creation of clearings, the erection of fortifications, the colonization of the region by the Cossacks, the formation of "layers" between the tribes hostile to Russia by resettling pro-Russian-minded tribes there.

“The Caucasus,” said Ermolov, “is a huge fortress, protected by a half-million garrison. We must either storm it, or take possession of the trenches. The assault will be expensive. So let us lead the siege! "

Ermolov moved the left flank of the Caucasian line from the Terek to the Sunzha, where he strengthened the Nazran redoubt and in October 1817 laid the fortification of the Pregradny Stan in its middle reaches.

In the fall of 1817, the Caucasian troops were reinforced by the occupation corps of Count Vorontsov that had arrived from France. With the arrival of these forces, Ermolov had a total of about 4 divisions, and he could proceed to decisive actions.

On the Caucasian line, the state of affairs was as follows: the right flank of the line was threatened by the Trans-Kuban Circassians, the center - by the Kabardians, and against the left flank across the Sunzha River lived Chechens, who enjoyed a high reputation and authority among the mountain tribes. At the same time, the Circassians were weakened by internal strife, the Kabardians were mowed down by the plague - the danger threatened primarily from the Chechens. “Now I’ll tell you about the peoples living against the Caucasian line. From the peaks of the Kuban on the left bank live peoples subject to the Ottoman Port under the general name of the Zakubans, famous, warlike, rarely calm ... Opposite the center of the line lies Kabarda, once populous, whose inhabitants, revered as the bravest among the mountaineers, often desperately opposed the Russians in bloody battles due to their populace ... The plague was our ally against the Kabardians; for, having completely destroyed the entire population of Malaya Kabarda and devastating Bolshoi, weakened them so much that they could not gather in large forces as before, but made raids in small parties; otherwise, our troops, weakly scattered over a large area, might end up in danger. Quite a few were undertaken in Kabarda expeditions, sometimes they were forced to return or pay for the abductions made.

... Downstream of the Terek, there are Chechens, the most vicious of the robbers, who attack the line. Their society is very sparsely populated, but it has increased enormously in the last few years, for the villains of all other nations were friendly, leaving their land for any crime. Here they found accomplices who were immediately ready either to avenge them, or to participate in robberies, and they served them as faithful guides in lands they did not know themselves. Chechnya can rightly be called a nest of all robbers ... ”(From the notes of A. P. Ermolov during the government of Georgia).

"Sovereign! .. The mountain peoples by example of their independence in the subjects of your imperial majesty give rise to a rebellious spirit and love of independence." (From the report of A. Ermolov to Emperor Alexander I on February 12, 1819). In the spring of 1818, Ermolov turned to Chechnya. In 1818, the Groznaya fortress was founded in the lower reaches of the river. It was believed that this measure put an end to the uprisings of the Chechens who lived between Sunzha and Terek, but in fact it was the beginning of a new war with Chechnya.

“It is just as impossible to subdue the Chechens, how to smooth over the Caucasus. Who, besides us, can boast that they have seen the Eternal War? " General Mikhail Orlov, 1826.

Ermolov moved from separate punitive expeditions to a systematic advance into the interior of Chechnya and Mountainous Dagestan by encircling mountainous areas with a continuous ring of fortifications, cutting openings in rugged forests, laying roads and destroying recalcitrant auls.

In Dagestan, the highlanders were pacified, who threatened the Shamkhalstvo of Tarkovsky, which was annexed to the empire. In 1819, the Vnezapnaya fortress was built to keep the mountaineers in submission. An attempt to attack it, undertaken by the Avar Khan, ended in complete failure.

In Chechnya, Russian forces drove troops of armed Chechens farther and farther into the mountains and resettled the population to the plains under the protection of Russian garrisons. A clearing was cut in a dense forest to the village of Germenchuk, which served as one of the main bases of the Chechens.

In 1820, the Black Sea Cossack army (up to 40 thousand people) was assigned to the Separate Georgian Corps, renamed into the Separate Caucasian Corps and reinforced. In 1821, on the top of a steep mountain, on the slopes of which was the city of Tarki, the capital of Tarkov shamkhalism, the Burnaya fortress was built. Moreover, during the construction, the troops of the Avar Khan Akhmet, who tried to interfere with the work, were defeated. The possessions of the Dagestani princes, who suffered a series of defeats in 1819-1821, were either transferred to the vassals of Russia and subordinated to the Russian commandants, or liquidated.

On the right flank of the line, the Trans-Kuban Circassians, with the help of the Turks, began to disturb the border more strongly. Their army invaded in October 1821 in the lands of the Black Sea army, but was defeated.

In Abkhazia, Major General Prince Gorchakov defeated the rebels near Cape Kodor and brought Prince Dmitry Shervashidze into the possession of the country.

For the complete pacification of Kabarda in 1822, a number of fortifications were built at the foot of the mountains from Vladikavkaz to the upper reaches of the Kuban. Including the fortress of Nalchik was founded (1818 or 1822).

In the years 1823-1824. a number of punitive expeditions were carried out against the Trans-Kuban highlanders. In 1824 the Black Sea Abkhazians were forced to submit, rebelling against the successor of Prince. Dmitry Shervashidze, Prince. Mikhail Shervashidze.

In Dagestan in the 1820s. a new Islamic trend began to spread - Muridism. Ermolov, having visited Cuba in 1824, ordered Aslankhan of Kazikumukh to stop the unrest excited by the followers of the new teaching, but, distracted by other matters, he could not follow the execution of this order, as a result of which the main preachers of Muridism, Mulla-Mohammed, and then Kazi-Mulla, continued to kindle the minds of the highlanders in Dagestan and Chechnya and to proclaim the proximity of the ghazavat, the holy war against the infidels. The movement of the highlanders under the flag of Muridism was the impetus for the expansion of the Caucasian War, although some mountain peoples (Kumyks, Ossetians, Ingush, Kabardins) did not join it.

In 1825, a general uprising began in Chechnya. On July 8, the mountaineers captured the post of Amirajiyurt and tried to take the Gerzel fortification. On July 15, Lieutenant General Lisanevich rescued him. The next day, Lisanevich and General Grekov were killed by the Chechen mullah Ochar-Khadzhi during negotiations with the elders. Ochar-Khadzhi attacked General Grekov with a dagger, and also mortally wounded General Lisanevich, who tried to help Grekov. In response to the murder of the two generals, the troops killed all the Chechen and Kumyk elders invited to the talks. The uprising was suppressed only in 1826.

The coastal areas of the Kuban were again subjected to raids by large parties of Shapsugs and Abadzekhs. The Kabardians were worried. In 1826, a number of campaigns were made in Chechnya, with deforestation, the laying of clearings and the pacification of auls free from Russian troops. This ended the activity of Ermolov, who was recalled by Nicholas I in 1827 and dismissed due to suspicion of ties with the Decembrists.

Its result was the consolidation of Russian power in Kabarda and the Kumyk lands, in the foothills and on the plains. The Russians advanced gradually, methodically cutting down the forests in which the highlanders took refuge.

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