100 Years Caucasian War. Caucasian wars

During the years of the first Chechen war, the author of this book, General Kulikov, was the commander-in-chief of the combined group of federal troops 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 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 capitulation of Shamil and the exodus of the Circassians, from the Civil War and Stalin’s deportations to both Chechen campaigns, forcing Tbilisi to peace and the latest counter-terrorism operations - you will find in this book only comprehensive information about the fighting in the Caucasus, but also a guide to the “Caucasian Labyrinth” in which we are still wandering. It is estimated that since 1722, Russia has fought here for a total of more than a century, so it was not for nothing that this endless war was nicknamed the “Hundred Years’ War.” It is not finished to this day. “For 20 years now, the “Caucasian syndrome” has existed in the minds of the Russian people. Hundreds of thousands of “refugees” from the once fertile land flooded our cities and “privatized” industrial facilities, retail outlets, and markets. It’s no secret that today in Russia the overwhelming number of people from the Caucasus live much better than the Russians themselves, and high in the mountains and remote villages new generations of people who are hostile to Russia are growing up. The Caucasian labyrinth has not yet been completed to this day. 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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by liters company.

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 region”, 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 Caucasus region. The main peaks of the Caucasus Mountains in the 18th–19th centuries were considered Elbrus (5642 m), Dykh-Tau (Dykhtau - 5203 m) and Kazbek (5033 m), today another peak has been added to their list - Shkhara, also with a height of 5203 m. Geographically, the Caucasus consists of the Ciscaucasia, the Greater Caucasus and the Transcaucasus.

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

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

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

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 Migration) .

Another reason is that many states neighboring the Caucasus, during their heyday, tried to spread and establish their rule in this region. Thus, the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Turks acted from the west, the Persians, Arabians from the south, and the 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. Rebellious tribes retreated to inaccessible mountainous areas and defended their independence for centuries. The warring mountain tribes were formed from them. Some of these tribes united with each other due to common interests, many retained their originality, and finally, some tribes, due to different historical fates, separated and lost all connection with each other. For this reason, in the mountainous regions it was possible to observe a phenomenon where the inhabitants of the two nearest villages differed significantly in appearance, language, morals, and customs.

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

In accordance with ethnographic studies conducted by 19th-century scientists Shagren, Schiffner, 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, Svanetians, Kurds, Ossetians and Talyshens. The second is the Turkic race: Kumyks, Nogais, Karachais and other highlander societies occupying the middle of the northern slope of the Caucasus Range, as well as all Transcaucasian Tatars. And finally, the third included tribes of unknown races: Adyges (Circassians), Nakhche (Chechens), Ubykhs, Abkhazians and Lezgins. The Indo-European race made up the majority of the population of Transcaucasia. These were Georgians and their fellow tribesmen, the Imeretians, 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, despite all the persecution from the neighboring strong Muslim states, were able to preserve their nationality and religion (Christianity), and the Georgians, in addition, their identity. Mountain tribes lived in the mountainous regions of Kakheti: Svaneti, Tushins, Pshavs and Khevsurs.

Khevsur warriors of the second half of the 19th century.

Transcaucasian Tatars made up the bulk of the population in the khanates subject to Persia. All of them professed the Muslim faith. In addition, Kurtins (Kurds) and Abkhazians lived in Transcaucasia. The first were a militant nomadic tribe that partially occupied the territory bordering 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 Caucasus region had an even wider spectrum. Both slopes of the Main Caucasus Range west of Elbrus were occupied by mountain peoples. The most numerous people were the Adygs (in their language it means - island) or, as they were usually called, Circassians. 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 there were aristocratic elements at the core of Circassian society, their privileged classes did not enjoy any special rights.

The Adyghe people (Circassians) were represented by numerous tribes. The most significant of them were the Abadzekhs, who occupied the entire northern slope of the Main Range, between the upper reaches of the Laba and Sups rivers, as well as the Shapsugs and Natukhais. The latter lived to the west, on both slopes of the ridge right up to the mouth of the Kuban. The remaining Circassian tribes, occupying both the northern and southern slopes, along the eastern coast of the Black Sea were insignificant. Among them were Bzhedukhs, Khamisheevts, Chercheneyevts, Khatukhaevts, Temirgoyevts, Yegerukhavtsy, Makhoshevtsy, Barakeevtsy, Besleneevtsy, Bagovtsy, Shakhgireyevtsy, Abaza, Karachai, Ubykh, Vardane, Dzhiget, 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 Caucasus Range, could also be classified as 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 former in their softer morals. It should also be noted that they were the first of the tribes of the northern slope of the Caucasus Range to enter into friendly relations with Russia.

The territory of Kabarda along the bed of the Ardon River was geographically divided into Bolshaya and Malaya. The tribes of Bezenievs, Chegems, Khulams, and Balkars lived in Greater Kabarda. Malaya Kabarda was inhabited by the Nazran, Karabulakh and other tribes.

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

East and south of Kabarda lived Ossetians (they called themselves Irons). They inhabited the upper ledges of the northern slope of the Caucasus Range, as well as part of the foothills between the Malka and Terek rivers. In addition, some Ossetians also lived along the southern slopes of the Caucasus Range, to the west of the direction where the Georgian Military Road was subsequently built. These people were few in number and poor. The main societies of the Ossetians were: Digorians, Alagirians, Kurtatins and Tagaurs. Most of them professed Christianity, although there were also those who recognized Islam.

In the basin of the Sunzha and 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, in Chechen society there has been a teip (teip is a clan-territorial community) and territorial system of social organization. This organization gave it 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 compliance with land use rules; 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 elected elders on the basis of spiritual laws and ancient customs. This social organization of the Chechens largely explained the unprecedented resilience of their long-term struggle against various external enemies, including the Russian Empire.

The Chechens of the plains and foothills provided their needs through natural resources and agriculture. The highlanders, in addition, were distinguished by their passion for raids with the aim of robbing lowland farmers and capturing people for their subsequent sale into slavery. They professed Islam. However, religion has never played a key role among the Chechen population. Chechens have traditionally not been distinguished by religious fanaticism; they put freedom and independence at the forefront.

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

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

However, it should be noted that, despite the close proximity of two strong 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 traces of paganism. This was especially true for the Circassian tribes. In many places, the mountaineers worshiped wooden crosses, brought them gifts, and celebrated the most important Christian holidays. Traces of paganism were expressed among the mountaineers by special respect for some protected groves, in which touching a tree with an ax was considered sacrilege, as well as by some special rituals observed at weddings and funerals.

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

However, this did not mean equality of all classes. Most of the Circassians, Kabardians, Kumyks and Ossetians have long had privileged classes of princes, nobles and free people. Equality of classes 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 there are three lower classes: ob (people who depended on a patron), pshiteley (subordinate cultivator) and yasyr (slave). At the same time, all public affairs were decided at public assemblies, where all free people had the right to vote. Decisions were implemented through persons elected at the same meetings, who were temporarily vested with power for this purpose.

With all the diversity of life of the Caucasian highlanders, it should be noted that the main foundations of the existence of their societies were: family relationships; blood feud (blood feud); ownership; the right of every free person to own 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. Their freedom and life were in his power. But if he killed or sold his wife without guilt, he was subject to vengeance from her relatives.

The right and duty of revenge were also one of the fundamental laws in all mountain societies. Among the mountaineers, failure to avenge blood or insult was considered extremely dishonorable. Payment for blood was allowed, but only with the consent of the offended party. Payment was allowed in people, livestock, weapons and other property. Moreover, the payments could be so significant that one culprit was not able to pay them, and it was distributed to the entire family.

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

The right to carry and use weapons at their own discretion belonged to every free person. The lower classes could only use weapons on the orders of their master or for his protection. Respect for elders among the mountaineers 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 them to provide shelter even to an enemy if he came into the house as a guest. The duty of all members of the union was to protect the safety of the guest while he was on their land, not sparing life.

In a tribal union, the duty of each member of the union was that he had to take part in all matters relating to common interests, in a clash with other unions, to appear at a general request or on alarm with weapons. In turn, the clan union society patronized each of the people belonging to it, defended its own and took revenge for everyone.

To resolve disputes and quarrels, both between members of one union and between members of foreign unions, the Circassians used a court of mediators, called an adat court. For this purpose, the parties elected trusted people, as a rule, from among 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 used.

As for the well-being of the mountain tribes living 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 basic 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 most powerful features of their national character. At the same time, in case of emergency, the mountaineers also engaged in righteous labor. The construction of terraces for crops on rocky, barely accessible mountains, and numerous irrigation canals running over considerable distances are the best proof of this.

Content with little, not refusing to work when it is absolutely necessary, willingly embarking on raids and predatory attacks, the mountaineer usually spent the rest of his time in idleness. Household and even field work were predominantly the responsibility of women.

The richest part of the population of the northern part of the Caucasus Range were the inhabitants of Kabarda, some nomadic tribes and residents of the Kumykh possessions. A number of Circassian tribes were not inferior in wealth to the above-mentioned peoples. The exception was the tribes of the Black Sea coast, which, with the decrease in human trafficking, were in a financially constrained situation. A similar situation was typical for mountain societies that occupied the rocky upper ledges of the Main Range, as well as the majority of the population of Chechnya.

The belligerence of the people's character, which prevented the mountaineers from developing their well-being, and the passion to seek adventure lay at the basis of their small raids. Attacks in small parties of 3 to 10 people, as a rule, were not planned in advance. Usually, in their free time, which the mountaineers had plenty of in their way of life, they gathered at the mosque or in the middle of the village. 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 spoils. More significant detachments were usually assembled under the command of famous riders, and numerous formations were convened by decision of popular assemblies.

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

Differences in the properties of the terrain of inland (mountainous) and coastal Dagestan significantly affected the composition and way of life of its population. The bulk of the population of internal Dagestan (the territory located between Chechnya, the Caspian khanates and Georgia) were Lezgin 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 were some differences in their social structure and social development. The Avars were famous for their daring and great military abilities. They have long had a social system in the form of a khanate. The social structure of the Lezgins was predominantly democratic and represented separate free societies. The main ones were: Salatavs, Gumbets (or Bakmolali), Adians, Koisubs (or Khindatl), Kazi-Kumykhs, Andalali, Karakh, Antsukh, Kapucha, Ankratal Union with its societies, Dido, Ilankhevi, Unkratal, Bogulyami, Tekhnutsal, Karata , buni and other less significant societies.

Assault on a mountain village

The Caspian territory of Dagestan was inhabited by Kumyks, Tatars and partly Lezgins and Persians. Their social structure was based on khanates, shamkhals, and umtsia (possessions), founded by the conquerors who penetrated here. The northernmost of them was the Tarkov Shamkhalate, to the south of it were the possessions of the Karakaytag umtsia, the khanates of Mekhtulinsky, Kumukhsky, Tabasaran, Derbentsky, Kyurinsky and Kubinsky.

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

Islam developed and strengthened in Dagestan since the times 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 places were usually chosen that were most convenient for defense. Many of the Dagestan villages were surrounded on all sides by steep cliffs and, as a rule, only one narrow path led to the village. Inside the village, houses formed narrow and crooked streets. Water pipelines used to deliver water to the village and to irrigate gardens were sometimes carried over long distances and constructed with great skill and labor.

Coastal Dagestan in matters of welfare and improvement, with the exception of Tabasarani and Karakaitakh, was at a higher degree of development than its inland regions. The 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 terrain, social structure, life and morals of the population of Dagestan were significantly different from similar issues in the northern part of the Caucasus Range.

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

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

As the southern borders of the Russian Empire approached the Caucasus 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 was simply ignored. At the same time, the morals and customs of the peoples living in the Caucasus developed over centuries and formed the basis of their way of life. Their incorrect interpretation led to the adoption of unfounded, ill-considered decisions, and actions without taking them into account led to the emergence of conflict situations and unreasonable military losses.

Already at the beginning of the 18th century, the military-administrative bodies of the empire were faced with problems associated with various forms of social structure of the diverse population of the region. These forms ranged from primitive fiefs to societies without any political or administrative authority. In this regard, all issues, ranging from negotiations of various levels and nature, solving the most ordinary everyday issues up to the use of military force, required new, unconventional approaches. Russia was not yet quite ready for such a development of events.

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

On the issue of geopolitical relations and influence of great powers on the Caucasus region, the following should be noted. The geographical location of the Caucasus predetermined the desire of many of them at different historical stages to spread and establish 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 8th century, the Arabs established themselves in coastal Dagestan and formed the Avar Khanate here.

After the Arabs, this territory was dominated by the Mongols, Persians and Turks. The last two peoples, during the two centuries of the 16th and 17th, continuously challenged each other for 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) and Abkhazians. In Transcaucasia, the rule of the Turks spread to the provinces of Georgia, and lasted almost until the half of the 18th century. Persian possessions in Transcaucasia extended all the way to the southern and southeastern borders of Georgia and the Caspian khanates of Dagestan.

By the beginning of the 18th century, the northern part of the Caucasus region was in the zone of influence of the Crimean Khanate, a vassal of Turkey, as well as numerous nomadic peoples - the Nogais, Kalmyks and Karanogais. Russian presence and influence in the Caucasus at this time was minimal. In the northeastern part of the Caucasus region, even under Ivan the Terrible, the Tersky town was founded, and the free Cossacks (descendants of the Greben Cossacks), by decree 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 steppe tribes roamed. The southern borders of the empire were located north of these nomadic camps 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, Safavid Persia and the Ottoman Empire, who sought to establish themselves in the Caucasus 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 Caucasus region was by this time mostly negative, and towards Russia more favorable.

Caspian campaign of Peter I

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

The events that took place in Dagestan could not help but alarm Russia, which was actively trading with the East through its lands. Trade routes from Persia and India through Dagestan were essentially cut off. 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 highlanders, was sent to the Caucasus, and Artemy Petrovich Volynsky was sent to reconnaissance of 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 of both a military and political nature. For the next four years, his activities were based on measures to bring the Dagestani rulers into Russian citizenship and prepare the campaign of Russian troops in the Caucasus. This activity was very successful. Already at the beginning of the next year, through Volynsky, Moscow received a request from the Dagestan shamkhal of Tarkovsky Adil-Girey to accept him as Russian citizenship. This request was greeted kindly, and the shamkhal himself was granted “as a sign of his sovereign favor” with valuable furs worth 3 thousand rubles.

As soon as it emerged victorious from the Northern War, Russia, proclaimed an empire, began preparing for a campaign in the Caucasus. The reason was the beating and robbery of Russian merchants, organized by the Lezgin owner Daud-bek in Shemakha. There, on August 7, 1721, crowds of armed Lezgins and Kumyks attacked Russian shops in the Gostiny Dvor, beat and dispersed the clerks who were with them, and then 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 for the undertaking, there can be no more legitimate reason than this: the first thing is that 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 to the Persians (if they began to protest) that if they pay your losses, then Your Majesty can give them everything you have won. This way you can show to the whole world that you deign to have a true reason for this.”

Peter wrote to this letter in December 1721: “I respond to your opinion; that this opportunity is not to be missed, and we have already ordered a satisfied part of the army to march to you...” In the same 1721, the Terek-Greben Cossacks were placed under the jurisdiction of the Russian military college and formalized as a military class.

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

In early May 1722, the guards were loaded onto ships and sent down the Moscow River, and then along the Volga. Ten days later, Peter and Catherine set off, deciding to accompany her husband on the campaign. Soon the expeditionary force concentrated in Astrakhan, where Volynsky had prepared a good material base for it in advance. There, on his orders, the atamans of the Donets, the military leaders of the Volga Tatars and Kalmyks, whose troops were to take part in the campaign, arrived to meet with the emperor. 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 of Cherkassy and Araslan-bek. With their military detachments, they were supposed 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 mounted Tatars and Kalmyks followed the seashore. Ten days later, Russian ships landed at the mouth of the Terek in the Gulf of Agrakhan. Peter was the first to set foot on land and determined a place to set up a camp, where he intended to wait for the cavalry to approach.

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 mountaineers, hiding in the rocks and behind the trees, disabled 80 soldiers and two officers with well-aimed rifle fire and arrows. But then the Russians, having recovered from the surprise, went on the offensive themselves, defeated the enemy, captured the village and turned it into ashes. Thus began a military expedition, which later became known as the Caspian Campaign of Peter the Great.

Subsequently, Peter acted very decisively, combining diplomacy with armed force. At the beginning of August, his troops moved to Tarki. On the approaches to the city they were met by Shamkhal Aldy-Girey, who expressed his submission to the emperor. Peter received him in front of the guard formation very kindly and promised not to cause the devastation of the region.

On August 13, the Russian regiments solemnly entered Tarki, where they were greeted with honor by the Shamkhal. Aldy-Girey gave Peter a gray argamak in a golden harness. Both of his wives paid a visit to Catherine, presenting her with trays of the best grape varieties. 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 repelled the enemy's attack with relative ease and captured many prisoners. As a warning to all other enemies, Peter ordered the execution of 26 captured military leaders, and the town of Utemish, which consisted of 500 houses, to be turned into ashes. Ordinary soldiers were granted freedom under an oath not to fight the Russians in the future.

Highlander attack

The Russian emperor's loyalty to the submissive and his cruelty to those who resisted soon became known throughout the region. Therefore, Derbent did not resist. On August 23, its ruler with a group of eminent townspeople met the Russians a mile from the city, fell to his knees and presented Peter with two silver keys to the fortress gates. 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 city walls, where they rested for several days, celebrating their bloodless victory. The emperor and his wife spent all this time, escaping the unbearable heat, in a dugout specially built for them, covered with a thick layer of turf. The ruler of Derbent, having learned 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 ground, from where he emerges only at sunset. Nevertheless, when assessing the state of the Russian troops, the 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 next year. Leaving a small detachment in Dagestan, he returned the main forces to Astrakhan for the winter. On the way back, the Russians founded the fortress of the Holy Cross at the place where the Agrakhan River flows into the Sulak River.

At the end of September, on the orders of Peter, Ataman Krasnoshchekin with the Don and Kalmyks inflicted a series of blows on the Utemish Sultan Mahmud, defeated his troops and ruined everything that had survived 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 located in the Caucasus was entrusted to Major General M.A. Matyushkin, who enjoyed the special trust of the emperor.

Türkiye 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 space from Erivan to Tabriz, then moved north and occupied Georgia. King 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 allocated 18 thousand rubles annually for the maintenance of the court. In addition, he was granted lands in various provinces and 3,000 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 crossing from Astrakhan and after a short battle occupied Baku. 700 Persian soldiers and 80 cannons were captured in the city. 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. We 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 for 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 terms favorable to Russia. It stated: “Shakhovaya Majesty cedes to His Imperial Majesty the All-Russian for the eternal possession of the cities of Derbent, Baku with all the lands and places that belong to them and along the Caspian Sea, as well as the provinces: Gilan, Mazanderan and Astrabad, in order to support the army that His The Imperial Majesty will send help to His Shah’s Majesty against his rebels, without demanding money for it.”

View of Derbent from the sea

In the fall of 1723, the Persian province of Gilan was under threat of occupation by Afghans, who entered into a secret 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, and two battalions of soldiers with artillery boarded them. The squadron of ships was commanded by captain-lieutenant Soimanov, and the infantry detachment was commanded by Colonel Shipov.

On November 4, the squadron left Astrakhan and a month later entered the Anzeli raid. Having landed a small landing party, Shipov occupied the city of Rasht without a fight. In the spring of the following year, reinforcements were sent to Gilan from Astrakhan - two thousand infantry men with 24 guns, commanded by Major General A.N. Levashov. With combined efforts, Russian troops occupied the province and established control over the southern coast of the Caspian Sea. Their separate detachments infiltrated deep into the Caucasus, frightening the vassals of Persia, the Sheki and Shirvan khans.

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

Peter highly noted the military merits of his soldiers. All officers were awarded special gold medals, and the lower ranks were awarded 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 many awards established for military operations in the Caucasus.

Thus, Peter the Great, based primarily on the trade and economic interests of Russia, was the first of its rulers to put 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 activities of this region also on the part of Persia and Turkey. Military operations 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 subject to indemnity, which was mainly used to maintain the occupation administration and troops. During the expeditions, it was widely practiced to bring local rulers into Russian citizenship through an oath.

A bargaining chip for palace intrigues

Empress Catherine I tried to continue her husband's policy, but she had little success. The war with Persia did not end with the signing of the Treaty of St. Petersburg, which many of the Shah’s subjects refused to recognize. Their detachments continually attacked Russian garrisons, whose forces were gradually melting away. Some Dagestan rulers continued to behave aggressively. As a result, the interest of the St. Petersburg court in the Caucasus began to noticeably decline. In April 1725, a meeting of the Senate was held on the Persian issue. After much debate, it was decided to send Matyushkin a decree to temporarily stop the conquest of new territories. The general was required to gain a foothold in previously captured areas and, above all, on the coast of the Caspian Sea and on the Kura River, after which the main efforts were concentrated on establishing 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 treacherously killed during dinner with the local ruler. While the investigation into this case was underway, Shamkhal Tarkovsky Aldy-Girey also betrayed the alliance with Russia and, having gathered a large detachment, attacked the fortress of the Holy Cross. It was repelled with heavy losses for the highlanders. But since then, any movement of Russians in the vicinity of the fortress has become practically impossible.

Ambush of highlanders near the road

Matyushkin decided to start putting things in order with Tarkovsky’s shamkhal. By his order, in October 1725, Major Generals Kropotov and Sheremetev made a punitive expedition to the lands 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 along with the Turkish envoy who was with him. His possessions were devastated. Twenty villages perished in the fire, including the capital of the Shamkhalate, which consisted of a thousand households. But this was the end of the active actions of Russian troops in the Caucasus. Matyushkin was recalled from the Caucasus by order of Menshikov.

The Turks immediately took advantage of the weakening of Russian positions. By putting pressure on the Shah, they achieved the signing of a treaty in 1725, 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 somehow offended his Turkish patrons; he was summoned to Constantinople and killed. Power in Shirvan passed to his longtime rival Chelok-Surkhay with his confirmation to the rank of khan.

Having gathered strength with difficulty, in 1726 the Russians continued to “pacify” Shamkhaldom, threatening to turn it into a deserted desert. Finally, Aldy-Girey decided to stop resisting 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 region’s problems. In the absence of high command, there was no unity of plans and actions among the Russian generals. It became increasingly difficult to maintain occupied territories in such conditions.

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

Arriving in the Caucasus, the new commander was struck by the deplorable state of the Russian troops there. In August 1726, he wrote to the Empress: “...The generals, headquarters and chief officers of the local corps cannot support themselves without an increase in salary due to the high cost here; the officers have fallen into extreme, unbearable poverty, that already one major and three captains have gone crazy, and are already pawning many of their badges and scarves...”

Official St. Petersburg remained deaf to Dolgoruky's words. Then the general, at his own peril and risk, carried out extortions among the local population and gave salaries to the troops. In addition, with his power he eliminated material inequality between the Cossacks and mercenaries. “In the Russian army,” he wrote to the empress, “there are two foreign companies - Armenian and Georgian, each of which receives government support; The Russian Cossacks are not given anything, and yet they serve more and the enemy is more terrible. I also assigned them cash payments, because, in my opinion, it is better to pay your own people than strangers. True, the Armenians and Georgians serve a fair amount, 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 begun by his predecessors.

In 1727, Vasily Vladimirovich with a small detachment made a trip along the entire sea coast, demanding that the local rulers confirm the oath of Russian citizenship. Upon his return to Derbent, he wrote to the Empress: “... on his journey he brought under the citizenship of Your Imperial Majesty the provinces lying along the shores of the Caspian Sea, namely: Kergerutsk, Astara, Lenkoran, Kyzyl-Agatsk, Udzharutsk, Salyan; steppes: Muranskaya, Shegoevenskaya, Mazarigskaya, from which there will be an income for the 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 Russia’s lasting power in the lands it occupied. Dolgoruky proposed either increasing treasury expenses for the maintenance of the corps, or imposing a special tribute on local rulers, or reducing the number of troops and the area of ​​​​the territories they controlled. However, none of his proposals found understanding or support in St. Petersburg. The heirs of Peter the Great did not see prospects for Russia in the Caucasus and did not want to spend effort, time and money on it.

Prince Vasily Vladimirovich Dolgoruky

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

At the beginning of Anna Ioannovna's reign, another attempt was made to strengthen the position of the Russian Empire in the Caucasus. To do this, it was necessary to achieve significant political concessions from Persia and official recognition for Russia of the territories it captured in the Caspian region. The complexity of the problem 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, not so much experienced military leaders were required as diplomats.

Unraveling the “Persian knot” was entrusted to the commander of the Caspian Corps, Alexei Nikolaevich Levashov, who was promoted to general-in-chief and given 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 conduct diplomatic negotiations with the Persians. They were instructed to “try as soon as possible to conclude an agreement beneficial for Russia with the Persian Shah and use all means to deviate from the agreement with the Porte.”

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 were lurking 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, subject to the free return of all Caspian territories to the Shah. The Austrians also tried in every possible way to push Russia against Turkey in their own interests. Biron himself, having become a mediator in these negotiations, did not think about the benefit of Russia, but only about his own interests. Therefore, in St. Petersburg, bargaining over the Caucasus was much more active than during 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, with which the favorite bought an estate in Silesia. After this, he began persistently recommending 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 retain any of the Persian provinces and orders first to clear all the lands along the Kura River, when the Shah orders an agreement to restore neighboring friendship and ratifies it; and the other provinces from the Kura River will be ceded when the Shah drives the Turks out of his state.”

Thus, by 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 favorable soil and gave rise to bloody shoots.

In 1732, Biron’s protege, Lieutenant General Ludwig Wilhelm Prince of Hesse-Homburg, took command of the Russian troops in Dagestan. At that time the prince was only 28 years old. He had neither military nor diplomatic experience behind him, but passionately wanted to curry favor.

The new commander took up the matter with enthusiasm and undertook a number of private expeditions. This caused a response, and already in the fall of 1732, cases of attacks by mountaineers on Russian troops became more frequent. So, in October they defeated a detachment of one and a half thousand of Colonel P. Koch. As a result of the surprise attack, the Russians lost 200 people killed and the same number captured. Aboriginal attacks on Russian military detachments and posts also took place in the next two years.

At this time, the Turkish Sultan sent a 25,000-strong horde of Crimean Tatars to Persia, the path of which ran through the territory of Dagestan controlled by Russian troops. Prince Ludwig decided to put a barrier in the enemy's path. 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 repelled 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 St. 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 stamina of his subordinate troops, without conducting reconnaissance of the enemy, he withdrew units across the Sulak River at night, and then to the fortress of the Holy Cross. Taking advantage of this, the Tatars broke into Dagestan, plundering everything in their path.

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

The Russian commander-in-chief, the Prince of Hesse-Homburg, had no influence on the events developing in the Caucasus, and actually 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 on his estates in Russia. While he was preparing to leave for the Caucasus, the situation there became sharply complicated. To improve the situation, decisive measures were required, primarily forces and means. General A.N. Levashov repeatedly turned 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 quickly restore order in the controlled area. But Biron stubbornly rejected the commander’s requests and proposals. At the same time, he persistently recommended that Empress Anna Ioannovna withdraw her troops from the Caucasus. And the efforts of the favorite were not in vain.

According to the Treaty of Ganji 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 was founded in 1735, Kizlyar, which for many years became an outpost of Russia on the coast of the Caspian Sea. This was the last case of General A.N. Levashov in the Caucasus. Soon he received an appointment to Moscow and left the mountainous region forever.

In 1736, a war began between Russia and Turkey, the goal of which Empress Anna Ioannovna set to destroy the Prut Treaty, which was humiliating for Russia. In the spring, the corps of Field Marshal P.P. was moved to Azov. Lassi, who captured this fortress on July 20. Russia again had a bridgehead 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 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. Greater and Lesser 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 without compensation strategically important areas that 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 suffered losses that outweighed its profits tens of times. This became the main trump card in Biron’s political game, who was able to bring it to the end with his own benefit.

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

* * *

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 -

From 1818 to 1864, the Russian government waged a protracted and bloody war against a number of mountain peoples of the North Caucasus. The reason for this war was Russia’s desire to annex the lands located in the foothills and mountains of the northern part of the Main Caucasus Range from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea. It became a logical continuation of the expansion of the Russian state in the southern direction in the 18th-19th centuries.

Background to the conflict

It so happened that some small states of Transcaucasia (for example, Kartli and Kakheti) became part of the Russian Empire much earlier than the North Caucasus. They were separated from the territory of vast Russia by the high mountains of Dagestan and the impenetrable forests of Chechnya.

In 1768, Turkey, dissatisfied with the presence of Russian troops in Poland, declared war on Russia. The commander of the Russian army, Gottlieb von Totleben, captured the Georgian city of Kutaisi in 1770. In 1774, the Kuchuk-Kaynarji Peace Treaty was concluded with Turkey; along it the Russian border moved to Kuban. In 1783, the Kakheti king Irakli II signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, according to which a Russian protectorate was established in Kartli and Kakheti. Two Russian battalions under the command of Potemkin, numbering about 1,600 people with four guns, entered Tiflis. However, soon, in February 1784, Russian troops were withdrawn from Tiflis and Vladikavkaz.

In May 1795, the Persian Shah Agha Muhammad invaded Georgia and defeated the small army of Erekle II, who was left without Russian support, near Tiflis. The Shah's soldiers committed a terrible massacre in the city. In response to this, Empress Catherine II declared war on Persia. Russian troops captured Kubakh, Baku and Derbent. After Catherine's death in 1796, Paul I wanted to give up the conquered territories. But in 1799, the new Persian Shah Fet Ali Khan demanded that the Georgian king George XII take his son hostage. George turned to the Russian Emperor Paul I for help, and he sent troops to Kakheti and prevented the Persian invasion. In gratitude for this, in 1800, before his death, the Georgian king turned to the Russian emperor with a request to accept Kartli and Kakheti under the direct rule of Russia. In 1801, these states became part of Russia.

“Annexation of Christian principalities,” wrote a Russian historian of the 19th century. V. O. Klyuchevsky - brought Russia into conflict with Persia, from which it had to conquer numerous khanates dependent on it. But as soon as the Russians stood on the Caspian and Black Sea shores of Transcaucasia, they naturally had to secure their rear by conquering the mountain tribes. Such a complex series of phenomena was caused by the will of George XII of Georgia.”

In 1804, the small western Georgian principalities of Mingrelia, Imereti and Guria voluntarily joined the Russian Empire, and in 1805 the khanates of Karabakh, Shirvan and Sheki. Along with this, in 1803 the Lezgins of Chartalakha and the Eli-su Sultanate were annexed by force of arms, and in 1804 Ganja was taken by storm, then renamed Elizavetpol.

In 1804, Russia went to war with Persia, and in 1807 - with the Ottoman Empire. Despite the fact that it was necessary to fight on two fronts (also in Europe against Napoleon), convincing victories were won in the southern direction. According to the Bucharest Peace Treaty of 1812 with the Ottoman Empire and the Gulistan Treaty of 1813 with Persia, Russia confirmed its rights to Kartli, Kakheti, Imereti, Mingrelia, Abkhazia, the khanates of Ganja, Karabakh, Sheki, Derbent, Qubakh, Baku and part of Talish.

The Caucasian War itself began with the appointment in 1816 of General Alexei Ermolov, hero of the war of 1812, as governor of Georgia. In addition to the governorship, he served as ambassador extraordinary to Persia and commanded the Separate Caucasian Corps. Ermolov insisted on the broadest powers in his actions in relation to the mountaineers. Emperor Alexander I hesitated, since most of the mountain peoples of the North Caucasus by that time had allied relations with Russia, and this, apparently, suited Alexander quite well. By the way, during the war with Napoleon, the highlanders offered their help to the Russian Tsar, which, however, he did not take advantage of.

N. G. Chernetsov. Tiflis. 1830

“Repeated experiments,” wrote the Russian Tsar, “made the rule undeniable that it is not by killing residents and destroying homes that it is possible to establish calm on the Caucasian line, but by treating the mountain peoples kindly and friendly...” Surprisingly accurately noticing one of the reasons that pushed the Russians military to the war in the Caucasus, the emperor noted: “The attacks contain, for the most part, the intention of the military commanders on the line to carry out robbery and get a share of the looted livestock and other property of imaginary enemies...”.

War

Alexey Petrovich Ermolov (1777-1861), general of the infantry, commander-in-chief of Georgia, commander of the Separate Caucasian Corps (1816-1827).

Nevertheless, in the end, the “war party” won at court. Through his friend, the chief of the General Staff of His Imperial Majesty, Prince P. Volkonsky, Ermolov was able to prepare a draft imperial decree giving him carte blanche to “tame the predations of the Chechens and their neighboring peoples.” One of his arguments sounded like this: “Sire! There is no need to fear external war... Internal worries are much more dangerous for us! The mountain peoples, by their example of independence, give rise to a rebellious spirit and love of independence in the very subjects of Your Imperial Majesty...” Apparently, this was too much even for the liberal Alexander I. But the main reason for the long and bloody Caucasian War was the desire of the ruling elite to quickly and unconditionally include the North Caucasus into Russia. This desire was reinforced by the result of the recent victorious war with Napoleon, which instilled confidence in the future, as it seemed then, an easy victory over the Caucasian “savages.”

On May 12, 1818, Russian troops crossed the border river Terek at that time, which caused an uprising of the Chechens living beyond the Terek, which General Ermolov brutally suppressed. Here is how the battle for the center of this uprising, the Chechen village of Dada-Yurt, one of the participants and historians of the war, Russian General V.A. Potto, describes: “Each courtyard, surrounded by a high stone fence and representing a kind of small fortress, had to first be fired upon by artillery, and then take it by storm. The soldiers carried guns on their hands from one house to another. And as soon as the slightest breach was made, the soldiers rushed into the gaps, and there, in the dark and stuffy huts, there was an invisible bloody massacre with bayonets and daggers.

The bitterness on both sides grew with each new victim. Some Chechens, seeing that they could no longer resist, slaughtered their wives and children in front of the soldiers; many of these women themselves rushed at the soldiers with daggers or, on the contrary, threw themselves from them into burning houses and died alive in the flames... The aul was finally taken only when all its defenders were exterminated without exception, when from the numerous Dada-Yurt population only fourteen people remained, and even then they were seriously wounded.”

To imagine the scale of this massacre alone, we note that the population of a large village ranged from several hundred to several thousand inhabitants. For his cruelty, the highlanders gave Yermolov the nickname Yarmul (“child of a dog”).

Moving through Chechnya, Ermolov founded the fortresses of Groznaya and Vernaya. At the same time, he is trying to win over a number of local tribes to the side of the Russians.

In 1825, an uprising broke out in Chechnya against the policies of Ermolov, who destroyed villages, cut down forests, and burned pastures and vineyards. The Chechens made a series of bold attacks on the Russian fortresses they had built.

Friedrich Bodenstedt, a German researcher, Slavic professor, expert in Russian and some Caucasian languages, who lived for some time in the Caucasus and knew Mikhail Lermontov and Alexander Herzen, describes one of the episodes of this round of war: “The last important action of Ermolov was a devastating campaign against peoples of Chechnya. Encouraged by the murids of Mullah Muhammad, they inflicted many significant losses on the Russians with their bold attacks...”

A group of Chechens united in order to storm the important fortress of Amir-Haji-Yurt. Having learned from a defector about the threat of an attack on the fortress, Brigadier General Grekov sent from the Vakh-Chai fortress, located about 50 miles away, and ordered the commandant of Amir-Hadji-Yurt to make the necessary preparations.

We will keep silent about whether the commandant, apparently too careless, followed the order; The Chechens probably received news of the general’s order, but were not afraid, but tried to use it to their advantage. In the silence of the night they made their way through the forest located next to Amir-Haji-Yurt, to the walls of the fortress; one of the Chechens, who knew Russian, shouted to the sentry: “Open the gate! The general is coming with reinforcements."

Soon this order was carried out, and in a moment the entire fortress was filled with the sons of the mountains. A bloody massacre began... In less than a quarter of an hour, the entire personnel of the fortress was killed, and the banner with the crescent was already fluttering over it. Not a single Russian escaped the avenging sabers of the Chechens.

General Grekov, who learned about the daring attack, sent messengers in all directions to receive reinforcements; his brigade immediately set off. Lieutenant General Lisanevich joined him from Georgievsk, and the army thus formed reached the captured fortress in a forced march. A deadly fight ensued. The Chechens stubbornly defended themselves until their gunpowder supplies ran out; Then they rushed from the fortress with sabers in their hands, fighting their way with wild screams along a bloody path through the dense formation of the Russians, and rushed into forest shelters, none of them fell into the hands of the attacking enemy. The Russians entered the smoking ruins of Amir-Hadji-Yurt over the corpses of their brothers.

Circassian. Watercolor. Mid-19th century

The troops were so mixed up and there were so many soldiers with wounds and injuries that the commanders thirsting for revenge did not dare to take further action. After much hesitation, General Grekov decided to resort to negotiations in order to temporarily end the bloodshed and prepare for new battles. Finally, he called the leaders and elders of the hostile tribes to the Wah-Chai fortress.

About 200 (according to other sources, about 300) Chechens, led by a mullah, came. Grekov wanted to open the gates of the fortress to the envoys, but, remembering the bloody scenes in the Amir-Hadji-Yurt fortress, the alarmed General Lisanevich stubbornly objected and insisted on letting in only the mullah to negotiate on behalf of the entire people.

Soon a fearless Chechen appeared at the house where both generals and their entourage had gathered.

Why did your people, - Grekov began his speech, - having violated the agreement, entered the war again?

Because you were the first to break the treaties and because my people hate you as their oppressor,” answered the mullah.

Shut up, traitor! - the angry general interrupted him. “Don’t you see that your servants have abandoned you and you are in my hands?” I will have you tied up and your lying tongue torn out...

So this is how you honor your guest? - the Chechen shouted angrily, rushed at the general and pierced him with his dagger.

Those present rushed, drawing their swords, at the mullah, screams were heard, several people became victims of the enraged Chechen, until he himself fell, pierced by bullets and bayonets. Among the dead was also Lieutenant General Lisanevich, one colonel and two other officers were wounded.

Russian soldiers killed about 300 people, among whom were not only the elders of the village of Aksai, called by Lisanevich. Several Georgians loyal to Russia and even Cossacks dressed in Circassian style also fell under the hot hand.

In 1826, General Ermolov was removed from his post for excessive independence and on suspicion of connections with the Decembrists.

Tsar Nicholas I admonished the new Caucasian governor, Ivan Paskevich, who replaced him with these words: “You will have to pacify the mountain peoples forever or exterminate the rebellious.”

Forests continued to be cut down, villages were destroyed, Russian fortresses were built everywhere on the lands of the mountaineers. In its operations against them, the tsarist army made extensive use of artillery. But to advance artillery in the mountains of Dagestan and the forests of Chechnya, convoys and pack horses were required. We had to cut down the forest and cut clearings. In the mountains, cannons were rolled by hand, and pack horses were led single file by the bridle. They carried with them a supply of firewood and feed for horses. As a result, the fighting was carried out by mobile teams of “hunters” and “plastuns”, copying the methods of the highlanders. The latter, being limited in manpower and practically lacking artillery, which appeared to them only during the time of Shamil, resorted to the tactics of surprise raids and guerrilla warfare. In a direct clash, the highlanders, as a rule, could not cope with the organized formations of the Russian troops.

Lezgin (left) and Circassian (right). Colorized engraving. 1822

In Chechnya, the war was fought mainly in winter, when the rivers became shallow and the forests were exposed, in which the mountaineers set up ambushes in the summer. In Dagestan, on the contrary, in winter the mountain passes were practically impassable for heavy convoys, but in the spring swollen mountain rivers interfered. Military operations began only in the summer with the advent of pasture for horses. With the first snowfalls they stopped fighting until the next summer.

"Warm Siberia"

To wage war in the Russian army, the Separate Caucasian Corps was formed. It received the ironic name “warm Siberia” because it served as a place of exile. After the defeat of the Decembrist uprising, many of them were sent to the Caucasus as privates. After the Polish uprising, unreliable Poles were sent to the Caucasus. In addition to political ones, duelists, gamblers and other violators of discipline were sent there. In the Caucasus, the Russian army almost never used corporal punishment. Relations between officers and soldiers were more friendly and trusting than in other regions of Russia. The dress code was practically not observed and was often replaced by a local costume (Circassian coat, burka, papakha). Due to the constantly ongoing war, combat training in the Caucasian Corps was higher than in the rest of the Russian land army.

The range of rifle fire among the highlanders reached 600 steps, since they used a double charge of gunpowder, prohibited by Russian military regulations, which made it possible to conduct targeted fire at the gun servants. Russian guns and pistols were smooth-bore, with a flintlock. There were few rifled weapons. When new models of rifles and pistols were introduced, old models were not removed from service.

Each soldier had 192 cartridges and 14 flints for his smoothbore gun. The shooter, armed with a rifled rifle, had 180 rounds of ammunition and 25 flints.

In 1828, at a congress of representatives of the peoples of Dagestan in the Avar village of Untsukul, the creation of an imamate - a theocratic state of the highlanders - was proclaimed.

Theocracy(from the Greek “theos” - “god” and “kratos” - “power”) - a form of government in which the head of state is both its secular and spiritual leader. The norms of life and laws of such a state are regulated by the prescriptions of the dominant religion.

Gazi-Magomed, who came from free Avar peasants, was appointed the first imam (secular and spiritual ruler) of Dagestan (and later Chechnya).

The high-mountainous Avar Khanate was that part of Dagestan that was under Russian protectorate. Supporters of Gazi-Magomed waged a merciless struggle against the Avar khans, who did not want to enter the Imamate and live according to Sharia law.

Sharia(from Arabic, “Sharia” - literally “the right path”) - a set of laws and religious and ethical norms based on the holy book of Muslims, the Koran, the Sunnah (traditions about the instructions of Muhammad) and fatwas (decisions of authoritative Muslim jurists).

When Russian troops came to the defense of the Avar rulers, Gazi-Magomed began to fight against Russia under the slogans of a holy war against the infidels - jihad.

A. S. Pushkin, who visited the Caucasus in 1829, wrote: “Neither peace nor prosperity is observed under the shadow of the double-headed eagle! Moreover, traveling around the Caucasus is unsafe... The Circassians hate us. We drove them out of free pastures; their villages were destroyed, entire tribes were destroyed. Hour by hour they go deeper into the mountains and direct their raids from there.”

In 1830, Paskevich developed a plan for the development of the North-West Caucasus by creating overland communications along the Black Sea coast. As a result, the western transport route between the Azov region and Georgia became another arena of struggle between Russia and the highlanders. Over a distance of 500 km from the mouth of the Kuban to Abkhazia, under the cover of the guns of the Black Sea Fleet and landing troops, 17 forts were created, the garrisons of which immediately found themselves under constant siege. Even trips to the forest for firewood turned into military expeditions for them.

Shamil and his state

Since 1830, Gazi-Magomed carried out a number of attacks on Russian fortresses. He died in 1832 in a battle for his native village of Gimry, throwing himself with a naked saber at the bayonets of Russian soldiers from the tower in which he locked himself with the highlanders. Among the latter was his childhood friend, closest ally, the future legendary Imam Shamil (1799-1871).

Shamil himself survived this battle miraculously. Before jumping out of the window of the same tower after Gazi-Magomed, Shamil threw the saddle out of it. Without understanding it, the soldiers standing below began to shoot at the saddle. At that moment, Shamil made an incredible jump, finding himself behind the encirclement. One of the Russians who climbed onto the roof of the tower threw a heavy stone at him, breaking his shoulder. The wounded Shamil cut down the soldier who stood in the way with a saber and tried to escape, but two more people blocked his way. One of them fired a gun almost point-blank - Shamil dodged the bullet and cracked the soldier’s skull. However, the other somehow contrived and plunged a bayonet into the chest of the desperate highlander. In front of the shocked enemies, Shamil pulled him towards him by this bayonet and brought his saber down on the soldier. His next victim was an officer who rushed at him with a saber. Bleeding Shamil knocked the saber out of the officer’s hands. He tried to defend himself with his cloak, but Shamil pierced him with a saber, after which he and one of his murids rushed off the cliff into the deepest abyss.

The enemies decided that he was dead and did not even look for the body. However, during the fall, Shamil and his comrade caught on a thorny bush growing on an almost vertical wall, and thanks to this they remained alive. His powerful body, despite severe wounds, defeated death. The local doctor and Shamil's wife Patimat attended to him. When after some time he appeared before his fellow countrymen, they mistook him for one who had risen from the dead.

The place of the deceased Imam Gazi-Magomed was taken by Gamzat-bek. He destroyed almost the entire family of Avar khans and was killed for this in the mosque according to the law of blood feud. After this, Shamil was proclaimed imam.

He understood that disunity was the main reason that hindered the highlanders in the fight against the Russian Empire, and made an attempt to unite the scattered tribes of the North Caucasus into a single state. This task turned out to be very difficult, because it was necessary to reconcile dozens of peoples who spoke different languages ​​and were often at odds with each other. The North Caucasus at that time was a boiling cauldron, where there was a war of all against all. Shamil tried to find something in common that could unite the mountaineers. This commonality was Islam, which, according to the new imam, was to become both a single religion and a banner of struggle against the invaders. With the help of Mohammedanism, he wanted not only to introduce common faith among his fellow countrymen (in many mountain villages there were still very strong remnants of ancient pagan beliefs), but also to establish for them general laws, before which everyone would be equal - both nobles and ordinary peasants.

The fact is that almost all tribes, and sometimes individual villages, lived according to ordinary laws (adat). This constantly led to clashes, since adat was often interpreted by everyone in their own way. By and large, the rule of the strong triumphed in the mountains. Whoever was stronger, richer, more noble, imposed his own will on his fellow tribesmen. A terrible misfortune was the widespread custom of blood feud, which sometimes destroyed entire villages. In attempts to find at least some protection from the reigning tyranny, local residents often turned to the patronage of Russian generals. They, in turn, transferred all internal affairs to the discretion of the local khans who had transferred to Russian citizenship and turned a blind eye to the monstrous lawlessness committed by the latter.

According to Shamil, a common law for all, based on Sharia, should have put an end to this orgy of lawlessness and violence. The state created by Shamil and his predecessors included almost all of Chechnya, part of Dagestan and some regions of the North-West Caucasus. It was divided into administrative units that took into account the settlement of mountain tribes and peoples. At the head of the new provinces, instead of the traditional tribal nobility, naibs (governors) were appointed, personally appointed by Shamil.

However, his idyllic plans for building a just state, where equality and brotherhood would reign for all, failed to be realized. Quite soon, the naibs began to abuse their position no less than the former tribal khans whom they had exterminated. This was one of the reasons for Shamil's defeat. Dissatisfaction with the new government grew among the people; under pressure from Russian troops, former loyal comrades betrayed the imam.

A new round of war has begun. Russian troops organized several expeditions against Shamil. In 1837 and 1839 His residence on Mount Akhulgo was stormed. The authorities hastened to report to St. Petersburg about the complete pacification of the Caucasus. But in 1840, the mountaineers of the North-Western Caucasus began decisive actions against Russian fortifications on the Black Sea coast, storming and destroying four of them along with their garrisons. While defending the Mikhailovsky fortification, Private Arkhip Osipov blew himself up along with a powder magazine and hundreds of highlanders surrounding him. He became the first Russian soldier to be forever included in the lists of his unit.

F. A. Rubo. Assault on the village of Akhulgo. 1888

In the same 1840, Shamil managed to unite the rebel highlanders of Chechnya with the Dagestanis. Shamil moved away from the practice of head-on collisions and defense of fortified villages to the last. Punitive expeditions of government troops began to be ambushed and subjected to unexpected attacks. The biggest defeat for the Russians was the campaign of the new Caucasian governor M.S. Vorontsov to the capital of Shamil - Dargo. This expedition was carried out at the personal request of Nicholas I in 1845. Shamil did not defend Dargo, left it to Vorontsov, but during the withdrawal of the detachment that found itself without food supplies, the highlanders dealt him a number of blows. Russian losses amounted to 4 thousand people; four generals were killed.

However, the imam's attempts to unite the entire North Caucasus against Russia were unsuccessful. The mountaineers saw that the “state of justice” founded by Shamil rested on repression. The crisis in the Imamate was stopped by the Crimean War, when the Turkish Sultan and his European allies promised Shamil support. The period of the Crimean War saw the last surge in the military activity of the highlanders.

Final stage

The final outcome of the fighting in the Caucasus was predetermined by the rearmament of the Russian army with rifled guns. This significantly reduced its losses, since it allowed it to open fire from a longer distance. The highlanders made do with the same weapons.

The new royal governor in the Caucasus, Prince A.I. Baryatinsky, continued the policy begun in the late 40s. XIX century Vorontsov. He abandoned senseless punitive expeditions into the depths of the mountains and began systematic work to build fortresses, cut clearings in the forests and resettle the Cossacks to the occupied territories.

After the surrender of Shamil in 1859, part of the Abadzekhs and the Shapsug and Ubykh tribes continued their resistance. Until 1864, the mountaineers slowly retreated further and further to the southwest: from the plains to the foothills, from the foothills to the mountains, from the mountains to the Black Sea coast. The capitulation of the Ubykhs in the Kbaada tract (now Krasnaya Polyana) on May 21, 1864 is considered the date of the official end of the Caucasian War. Although isolated pockets of resistance persisted until 1884.

The result of the Caucasian War was the annexation of the entire North Caucasus to Russia. Over almost 50 years of hostilities, the population of Chechnya alone, according to some estimates, decreased by 50%. According to Friedrich Bodenstedt, for 80 years of the 19th century. the number of this people decreased from 1.5 million to 400 thousand. At the same time, despite the cruelties and enormous sacrifices suffered by the mountain peoples during the war, their colonization by Russia also had certain positive aspects. Through the Russian language and culture, they became familiar with the achievements of European and world civilization, which contributed to the development of their economy, culture and social consciousness. However, the methods by which the North Caucasus was “civilized” in the 19th century became time bombs that exploded at the end of the 20th century. a new, now Chechen war.

In 1817-1827, the commander of the Separate Caucasian Corps and the chief administrator in Georgia was General Alexei Petrovich Ermolov (1777-1861). Ermolov’s activities as commander-in-chief were active and quite successful. In 1817, the construction of the Sunzha line of cordons (along the Sunzha River) began. In 1818, the fortresses of Groznaya (modern Grozny) and Nalchik were built on the Sunzhenskaya line. The campaigns of the Chechens (1819-1821) with the aim of destroying the Sunzhenskaya line were repulsed, Russian troops began advancing into the mountainous regions of Chechnya. In 1827, Ermolov was dismissed from his post for patronizing the Decembrists. Field Marshal General 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 1834-1859, the liberation struggle of the Caucasian highlanders, which took place under the flag of Gazavat, was led 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 bridle Dengau Mohammed. Gifted with brilliant natural abilities, he listened to the best teachers of grammar, logic and rhetoric of the Arabic language in Dagestan and soon began to be considered an outstanding scientist. The sermons of Kazi Mullah (or rather Gazi-Mohammed), the first preacher of ghazavat - the holy war against the Russians, captivated Shamil, who first became his student, and then his friend and ardent supporter. The followers of the new teaching, which sought salvation of the soul and cleansing from sins through a holy war for faith against the Russians, were called murids. When the people were sufficiently fanaticized and excited by descriptions of paradise, with its houris, and the promise of complete independence from any authorities other than Allah and his Sharia (spiritual law set out in the Koran), Kazi Mullah managed to to carry along Koisuba, Gumbet, Andiya and other small societies of the Avar and Andian Kois, most of the Shamkhaldom of Tarkovsky, the Kumyks and Avaria, except for its capital Khunzakh, where the Avar khans visited. Counting that his power would only be strong in Dagestan when he finally captured Avaria, the center of Dagestan, and its capital Khunzakh, Kazi Mullah gathered 6,000 people and on February 4, 1830 went with them against Khansha Pahu-Bike. On February 12, 1830, he moved to storm Khunzakh, with one half of the militia commanded by Gamzat-bek, his future successor imam, and the other by Shamil, the future 3rd imam of Dagestan.

The assault was unsuccessful; Shamil, together with Kazi Mullah, returned to Nimry. Accompanying his teacher on his campaigns, 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, stabbed all over with bayonets. The death of the latter, the wounds received by Shamil during the siege of Gimr, and the dominance of Gamzat-bek, who declared himself the successor of Kazi-mullah and imam - all this kept Shamil in the background until the death of Gamzat-bek (September 7 or 19, 1834), the main of which he was a collaborator, raising troops, obtaining material resources and commanding expeditions against the Russians and the enemies of the Imam. Having learned about the death of Gamzat-bek, Shamil gathered a party of the most desperate murids, rushed with them to New Gotsatl, seized the wealth looted by Gamzat there and ordered to kill the surviving youngest son of Paru-Bike, the only heir of 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 ensuring that there was no single strong government in Dagestan and therefore acted in alliance with the Russians against Kazi-mullah and Gamzat-bek. For 25 years, Shamil ruled over the highlanders of Dagestan and Chechnya, successfully fighting against the enormous forces of Russia. Less religious than Kazi Mullah, less hasty and reckless than Gamzat-bek, Shamil had military talent, great organizational abilities, endurance, perseverance, the ability to choose the time to strike and assistants to fulfill his plans. Distinguished by his strong and unyielding will, he knew how to inspire the mountaineers, knew how to excite them to self-sacrifice and obedience to his authority, which was especially difficult and unusual for them.

Superior to 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 legal ruler to Avaria so that it would not fall into the hands of the murids. Klugenau moved towards Gotsatl. Shamil, having created blockages on the left bank of the Avar Koisu, intended to act against the Russians in the flank and rear, but Klugenau managed to cross the river, and Shamil had to retreat into Dagestan, where at that time hostile clashes occurred between contenders for power. Shamil's position in these first years was very difficult: a series of defeats suffered by the mountaineers shook their desire for ghazavat and faith in the triumph of Islam over the infidels; one after another, free societies expressed their submission and handed over hostages; Fearing ruin by the Russians, the mountain villages were reluctant to host murids. Throughout 1835, Shamil worked in secret, recruiting followers, fanatizing the crowd and pushing aside rivals or making peace with them. The Russians allowed him to strengthen, because they looked at him as an insignificant adventurer. Shamil spread the rumor that he was only working to restore the purity of Muslim law between the rebellious societies of Dagestan and expressed his readiness to submit to the Russian government with all the Khoisu-Bulin people if he was assigned special content. Thus 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 Circassians’ opportunity 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 Sharia ( Arabic sharia literally - the proper path) and submitted to the imam. In April 1836, Shamil, with a party of 2 thousand people, with exhortations and threats forced the Khoisu-Bulin people and other neighboring societies to accept his teachings and recognize him as an imam. The commander of the Caucasian corps, Baron Rosen, wishing to undermine the growing influence of Shamil, in July 1836, sent Major General Reut to occupy Untsukul and, if possible, Ashilta, Shamil’s place of residence. Having occupied Irganay, Major General Reut was met with statements of submission from Untsukul, whose elders explained that they accepted Sharia only by yielding to the power of Shamil. Reut did not go to Untsukul after that 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 south of Avaria, recognized him power.

At the beginning of 1837, the corps commander instructed Major General Feza to undertake several expeditions to different parts of Chechnya, which was carried out with success, but made an insignificant impression on the highlanders. Shamil's continuous attacks on Avar villages forced the governor of the Avar Khanate, Akhmet Khan Mehtulinsky, 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 inaccessible cliff Akhulga, the family and all the property of the imam were located. 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 sent against him. Shamil tried to break through this barrier and on the night of June 7-8 attacked Buchkiev’s detachment, but after a hot battle he was forced to retreat. On June 9, Ashilta was taken by storm and burned after a desperate battle with 2 thousand selected fanatical murids, who defended every hut, every street, and then rushed at our troops six times to recapture Ashilta, but in vain. On June 12, Akhulgo was also taken by storm. On July 5, General Feze moved troops to attack Tilitla; all the horrors of the Ashiltip pogrom were repeated, when some did not ask and others did not give mercy. Shamil saw that the matter was lost and sent the envoy with an expression of humility. General Feze gave in to the deception and entered into negotiations, after which Shamil and his comrades handed over three amanats (hostages), including Shamil’s nephew, and swore allegiance to the Russian emperor. Having missed the opportunity to take Shamil prisoner, General Feze dragged out the war for 22 years, and by concluding peace with him as an equal party, he raised his importance in the eyes of all of Dagestan and Chechnya. Shamil’s position, however, was very difficult: on the one hand, the mountaineers were shocked by the appearance of the Russians in the very heart of the most inaccessible part of Dagestan, and on the other, 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 time killed their energy. Soon circumstances changed. Unrest in the Kuban region and in southern Dagestan diverted most of the government troops to the south, as a result of which Shamil was able to recover from the blows inflicted on him and again win over some free societies to his side, acting on them either by persuasion or by force (end of 1838 and beginning 1839). Near Akhulgo, which was destroyed during the Avar expedition, he built New Akhulgo, where he moved his residence from Chirkat. In view of the possibility of uniting all the mountaineers of Dagestan under the rule of Shamil, the Russians during the winter of 1838-39 prepared troops, convoys and supplies for an expedition into the depths of Dagestan. It was necessary to restore free communications along all our routes of communication, which were now threatened by Shamil to such an extent that strong columns of all types of weapons had to be assigned to cover our transports between Temir-Khan-Shura, Khunzakh and Vnezapnaya. The so-called Chechen detachment of Adjutant General Grabbe was appointed to act against Shamil. Shamil, for his part, in February 1839 gathered an armed mass of 5,000 people in Chirkat, strongly fortified the village of Arguani on the way from Salatavia to Akhulgo, destroyed the descent from the steep Souk-Bulakh mountain, and, to divert attention, attacked on May 4 the submissive to Russia the village of Irganay and took its inhabitants to the mountains. At the same time, Tashav-haji, loyal to 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 will go deeper into the mountains when moving to Akhulgo. Adjutant General Grabbe understood this plan and, in a surprise attack, took and burned a fortification near Miskit, destroyed and burned a number of villages in Chechnya, stormed Sayasani, the stronghold of Tashav-haji, and on May 15 returned to Sudden. On May 21, he set out from there again.

Near the village of Burtunay, Shamil took a flank position on impregnable heights, but the Russian encircling movement forced him to go to Chirkat, and his militia dispersed in different directions. Working out a road along puzzling steep slopes, Grabbe climbed the Souk-Bulakh pass and on May 30 approached Arguani, where Shamil sat down with 16 thousand people to delay the movement of the Russians. After a desperate hand-to-hand battle for 12 hours, in which the highlanders and Russians suffered huge losses (the highlanders had up to 2 thousand people, we had 641 people), he left the village (June 1) and fled to New Akhulgo, where he locked himself up with his most devoted murids. Having occupied Chirkat (June 5), General Grabbe approached Akhulgo on June 12. The blockade of Akhulgo lasted for ten weeks; Shamil communicated freely with the surrounding communities, again occupied Chirkat and stood on our communications, bothering us from both sides; reinforcements flocked to him from everywhere; The Russians were gradually surrounded by a ring of mountain rubble. Help from the Samur detachment of General Golovin brought them out of this difficulty and allowed them to close a ring of batteries near New Akhulgo. Anticipating the fall of his stronghold, Shamil tried to enter into negotiations with General Grabbe, demanding free passage 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 of this pogrom was very strong; many societies sent atamans and expressed their submission; former associates of Shamil, including Tashav-hajj, planned to usurp the imam’s power and recruited followers, but were mistaken in their calculations: like a phoenix, Shamil was reborn from the ashes and already in 1840 he again began the fight against the Russians in Chechnya, taking advantage of the discontent of the mountaineers against our bailiffs and against attempts to take away their weapons. General Grabbe considered Shamil a harmless fugitive and did not care about his pursuit, which he took advantage of, gradually regaining his lost influence. Shamil intensified the dissatisfaction of the Chechens with a clever rumor that the Russians intended to turn the mountaineers into peasants and involve them in serving military service; The mountaineers were worried and remembered Shamil, contrasting the justice and wisdom of his decisions with the activities of the Russian bailiffs.

The Chechens invited him to lead 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 Lesser Chechnya and the villages near Sunzhenka began to arm themselves. Shamil constantly disturbed the Russian troops with raids by large and small parties, which 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 those who remained unprotected and submissive to Russia. society, subjugated them to his power and moved them to the mountains. By the end of May, Shamil had gathered a significant militia. Little Chechnya was completely deserted; 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 Lesser Chechnya, had several heated clashes, by the way, on July 11 on the Valerika River (Lermontov took part in this battle, who described it in a wonderful poem), but despite huge losses, especially Valerike, the Chechens did not give up on Shamil and willingly joined his militia, which he now sent to northern Dagestan. Having won over the Gumbetians, Andians and Salatavites to his side and holding in his hands the exits to the rich Shamkhal plain, Shamil gathered a militia of 10 - 12 thousand people from Cherkey against 700 people of the Russian army. Having stumbled upon Major General Kluki von Klugenau, Shamil’s 9,000-strong militia, after stubborn battles on the 10th and 11th mules, abandoned further movement, returned to Cherkey, and then part of Shamil was sent home: he was waiting for a wider movement in Dagestan. Avoiding battle, he gathered a militia and worried the highlanders with rumors that the Russians would take the mounted highlanders and send them to serve in Warsaw. On September 14, General Kluki von Klugenau managed to challenge Shamil to battle near Gimry: he was defeated 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 Murat (1852), who betrayed Russia, went over to his side (November 1840) and agitated the Avalanche. Shamil settled in the village of Dargo (in Ichkeria, near the upper reaches of the Aksai River) and took a number of offensive actions. The cavalry party of Naib Akhverdy-Magoma appeared on September 29, 1840 near Mozdok and took several people captive, 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 reconcile with the Russians. This further raised the importance of the imam among the mountaineers. Throughout the winter of 1840 - 1841, gangs of Circassians and Chechens broke through Sulak and penetrated even to Tarki, stealing cattle and plundering near Termit-Khan-Shura itself, communication with the line became possible only with a strong convoy. Shamil ravaged the villages that tried to resist his power, took his wives and children with him to the mountains and forced the Chechens to marry their daughters to Lezgins, and vice versa, in order to connect these tribes with each other. It was especially important for Shamil to acquire such employees as Hadji Murat, who attracted Avaria to him, Kibit Magoma in southern Dagestan, very influential among the mountaineers, a fanatic, brave and capable self-taught engineer, and Jemaya ed-Din, an outstanding preacher. By April 1841, Shamil commanded almost all the tribes of mountainous Dagestan, except Koisubu. Knowing how important Cherkey’s occupation was for the Russians, he fortified all the routes there with rubble and defended them himself with extreme tenacity, but after the Russians outflanked them on both flanks, he retreated deep into Dagestan. On May 15, Cherkey 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 expected to set up his residence if the Russians drove him out of 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 villages remained in government hands. At the beginning of winter, Shamil flooded Dagestan with his gangs and cut off communications with the conquered societies and with Russian fortifications. General Kluki von Klugenau asked the corps commander to send reinforcements, but the latter, hoping that Shamil would cease his activities in the winter, postponed this matter until spring. Meanwhile, Shamil was not at all inactive, but was intensively preparing for next year’s campaign, not giving our exhausted troops a moment’s rest. Shamil's fame reached the Ossetians and Circassians, who had high hopes for him. On February 20, 1842, General Feze took Gergebil by storm. On March 2, he occupied Chokh without a fight and arrived in Khunzakh on March 7. At the end of May 1842, Shamil invaded Kazikumukh with 15 thousand militia, but, defeated on June 2 at Kyulyuli by Prince Argutinsky-Dolgoruky, he quickly cleared the Kazikumukh Khanate, probably because he received news of the movement of a large detachment of General Grabbe to Dargo. Having traveled only 22 versts in 3 days (May 30 and 31 and June 1) and having lost about 1,800 people out of action, General Grabbe returned back without doing anything. This failure unusually raised the spirit of the mountaineers. 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 the construction of a fortification at Seral-Yurt (1842), and the construction of a fortification on the Assa River marked the beginning of the forward Chechen line.

Shamil spent the entire spring and summer of 1843 organizing his army; When the mountaineers removed the grain, he went on the offensive. On August 27, 1843, having made a journey of 70 versts, Shamil unexpectedly appeared in front of the Untsukul fortification, with 10 thousand people; Lieutenant Colonel Veselitsky, with 500 people, went to help the fortification, but, surrounded by the enemy, he died with the entire detachment; On August 31, Untsukul was taken, destroyed to the ground, many of its inhabitants were executed; The remaining 2 officers and 58 soldiers were taken prisoner from the Russian garrison. Then Shamil turned against Avaria, where General Klucki von Klugenau settled in Khunzakh. As soon as Shamil entered the Avaria, one village after another began to surrender to him; despite the desperate defense of our garrisons, he managed to take the Belakhani fortification (September 3), the Maksokh tower (September 5), the Tsatany fortification (September 6 - 8), Akhalchi and Gotsatl; Seeing this, the accident was abandoned from Russia and the inhabitants of Khunzakh were kept 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 constructed fortifications. Shamil was in no hurry to attack Khunzakh, fearing that one failure would ruin what he had gained through victories. Throughout this campaign, Shamil showed the talent of an outstanding commander. Leading crowds of mountaineers who were still unfamiliar with discipline, self-willed and easily discouraged at the slightest failure, he managed in a short time to subjugate them to his will and instill a readiness to undertake the most difficult undertakings. After an unsuccessful attack on the fortified village of Andreevka, Shamil turned his attention to Gergebil, which was poorly fortified, and yet was of great importance, protecting access from northern to southern Dagestan, and to the Burunduk-kale tower, occupied by only a few soldiers, while it protected message Accidents with the 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, almost the entire garrison was killed, only a few were captured (November 8). The fall of Gergebil was a signal for the uprising of the Koisu-Bulin villages along the right bank of the Avar Koisu, as a result of which Russian troops cleared the Avaria. Temir-Khan-Shura was now completely isolated; not daring to attack her, Shamil decided to starve her to death and attacked the Nizovoye fortification, where there was a warehouse 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 Miatli blockhouse, then Khunzakh, the garrison of which, under the command of Passek, moved to Zirani, where it was besieged by the mountaineers. General Gurko moved to help Passek and on December 17 rescued him from the siege.

By the end of 1843, Shamil was the complete master of Dagestan and Chechnya; we had to begin the task of conquering them from the very beginning. Having started organizing the lands under his control, Shamil divided Chechnya into 8 divisions and then into thousands, five hundred, hundreds and tens. The duties of the naibs were to give orders for the invasion of small parties into our borders and to monitor all movements of Russian troops. Significant reinforcements received by the Russians in 1844 gave them the opportunity to take and ravage Cherkey and push Shamil from an impregnable position at Burtunay (June 1844). On August 22, the Russians began construction on the Argun River of the Vozdvizhensky fortification, the future center of the Chechen line; The mountaineers tried in vain to prevent the construction of the fortress, lost heart and stopped showing up. Daniel Bek, Sultan of Elisu, went over to Shamil’s side at this time, but General Schwartz took over the Elisu Sultanate, and the Sultan’s betrayal did not bring Shamil the benefit he expected. 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 tie them to himself: for this purpose, he established the position of murtazeks, from poor and homeless people, who, having received power and importance from him, were a blind instrument in his hands and strictly monitored the execution of his instructions. In February 1845, Shamil occupied the trading village of Chokh and forced neighboring villages to submit.

Emperor Nicholas I ordered the new governor, Count Vorontsov, to take Shamil's residence, Dargo, although all the authoritative Caucasian military generals rebelled against this as a useless expedition. The expedition, undertaken on May 31, 1845, occupied Dargo, abandoned and burned by Shamil, and returned on July 20, having lost 3,631 people without the slightest benefit. Shamil surrounded the Russian troops during this expedition with such a mass of his troops that they had to conquer every inch of the way at the cost of blood; all the roads were damaged, dug up and blocked by dozens of rubble and debris; all the villages had to be taken by storm or they were left destroyed and burned. The Russians took away from the Dargin expedition the conviction that the path to dominion in Dagestan goes through Chechnya and that they need to act not by raids, but by cutting roads in the forests, founding fortresses and populating occupied places with Russian settlers. This was started in the same 1845. In order to divert 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 recapturing the Dargin district, Shamil moved his capital to Vedeno, in Ichkeria. In October 1846, having taken a strong position near the village of Kuteshi, Shamil intended to lure the Russian troops, under the command of Prince Bebutov, into this narrow gorge, surround them here, cut them off from all communications with other detachments and defeat or starve them to death. Russian troops unexpectedly, on the night of October 15, attacked Shamil and, despite stubborn and desperate defense, defeated him completely: he fled, abandoning many badges, one cannon and 21 charging 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). The outbreak of cholera in the mountains forced both sides to suspend hostilities. On July 25, Prince Vorontsov besieged the village of Salta, which was heavily fortified and equipped with a large garrison; Shamil sent his best naibs (Hadji Murad, Kibit Magoma and Daniel Bek) to the rescue of the besieged, but they were defeated by an unexpected attack by Russian troops and fled with huge losses (August 7). Shamil tried many times to help Saltam, but was unsuccessful; On September 14, the fortress was taken by the Russians. By constructing fortified headquarters in Chiro-Yurt, Ishkarty and Deshlagor, which guarded the plain between the Sulak River, the Caspian Sea and Derbent, and by constructing fortifications at Khojal-Makhi and Tsudahar, which laid the foundation for the line along Kazikumykh-Kois, the Russians greatly constrained Shamil’s movements, making it difficult him a breakthrough to the plain and blocking the main passages to middle Dagestan. Added to this was 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; The naibs quarreled among themselves, accused each other and even reached the point of denunciation. In January 1848, Shamil gathered naibs, chief elders and clergy in Vedeno and announced to them that, not seeing help from the people in his enterprises and zeal in military operations against the Russians, he was resigning from the title of imam. The meeting declared that it would not allow this, because there was no man in the mountains more worthy to bear the title of Imam; the people are not only ready to submit to Shamil’s demands, but also oblige themselves to his son, to whom, after the death of his father, the title of imam should pass.

On July 16, 1848, Gergebil was captured by the Russians. Shamil, for his part, attacked the fortification of Akhta, defended by only 400 people under the command of Colonel Roth, and the murids, inspired by the personal presence of the imam, numbered at least 12 thousand. The garrison defended itself heroically and was saved by the arrival of Prince Argutinsky, who defeated Shamil’s gathering near the village of Meskindzhi on the banks of the Samura River. The Lezgin line was raised to the southern spurs of the Caucasus, by which the Russians took away pastures from the mountaineers and forced many of them to submit or move to our borders. From the side of Chechnya, we began to push back the societies that were rebellious to us, cutting deep into the mountains with the forward Chechen line, which so far consisted only of the fortifications of Vozdvizhensky and Achtoevsky, with a gap of 42 versts between them. At the end of 1847 and the beginning of 1848, in the middle of Lesser Chechnya, a fortification was erected on the banks of the Urus-Martan River between the above-mentioned fortifications, 15 versts from Vozdvizhensky and 27 versts from Achtoevsky. With this we took away from the Chechens a rich plain, the breadbasket of the country. The population lost heart; some submitted to us and moved closer to our fortifications, others went further into the depths of the mountains. From the Kumyk plane, the Russians cordoned off Dagestan with two parallel lines of fortifications. The winter of 1858-49 passed calmly. In April 1849, Hadji Murat launched an unsuccessful attack on Temir-Khan-Shura. In June, Russian troops approached Chokh and, finding it well fortified, waged a siege according to all the rules of engineering; but, seeing the enormous forces gathered by Shamil to repel the attack, Prince Argutinsky-Dolgorukov lifted the siege. In the winter of 1849 - 1850, a huge clearing was cut from the Vozdvizhensky fortification to the Shalinskaya Polyana, the main breadbasket of Greater Chechnya and partly of Nagorno-Dagestan; to provide another route there, a road was cut from the Kurinsky fortification through the Kachkalykovsky ridge to the descent into the Michika valley. During four summer expeditions, Little Chechnya was completely 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. The attempts of Shamil and his naibs to penetrate into our borders were unsuccessful: they ended in the retreat of the highlanders 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 Aukhavits, Colonel Kishinsky on Kuteshin Heights, etc.). In 1851, the policy of ousting the rebellious highlanders from the plains and valleys continued, the ring of fortifications narrowed, and the number of fortified points increased. The expedition of Major General Kozlovsky to Greater Chechnya turned this area, up to the Bassy River, into a treeless plain. In January and February 1852, Prince Baryatinsky, in front of Shamil’s eyes, made a series of desperate expeditions into the depths of Chechnya. Shamil pulled all his forces into Greater Chechnya, where, on the banks of the Gonsaul and Michika rivers, he entered into a hot and stubborn battle with Prince Baryatinsky and Colonel Baklanov, but, despite the enormous superiority in forces, he was defeated several times. In 1852, Shamil, in order to warm up the zeal of the Chechens and dazzle them with a brilliant feat, decided to punish the peaceful Chechens living near Grozny for their departure to the Russians; but his plans were discovered, he was surrounded on all sides, and of the 2,000 people of his militia, many fell near Grozny, and 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 mountaineers who were submissive to us, but did not have much success. The hopelessness of the struggle was reflected in numerous relocations to our borders and even the betrayal of the naibs, including Hadji Murad.

A big blow for Shamil in 1853 was the capture by the Russians of the Michika river valley and its tributary Gonsoli, in which lived a very large and devoted Chechen population, feeding 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 with countless rubble, skillfully placed and folded, all possible descents and ascents were spoiled to the point of complete unsuitability 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 wake up. Shamil spread a rumor that the Russians would leave the Caucasus and then he, the imam, remaining a complete master, would severely punish those who did not now go over to his side. On August 10, 1853, he set out from Vedeno, along the way he gathered a militia of 15 thousand people and on August 25 occupied the village of Starye Zagatala, but, defeated by Prince Orbeliani, who had only about 2 thousand troops, he went into the mountains. Despite this failure, the population of the Caucasus, electrified by the mullahs, was ready to rise up against the Russians; but for some reason the imam delayed the whole winter and spring and only at the end of June 1854 he descended to Kakheti. Repelled from the village of Shildy, he captured the family of General Chavchavadze in Tsinondali and left, plundering several villages. On October 3, 1854, he again appeared in front of the village of Istisu, but the desperate defense of the inhabitants of the village and the tiny garrison of the redoubt delayed him until Baron Nikolai arrived from the Kura fortification; Shamil's troops were completely defeated and fled to the nearest forests. During 1855 and 1856, Shamil was little active, and Russia was not able 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 energetically 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 Bassa River in March 1857, the Shali fortification was erected, extended almost to the foot of the Black Mountains, the last refuge of the rebellious Chechens, and opening the shortest route to Dagestan. General Evdokimov penetrated into the Argen valley, cut down the forests here, burned the villages, 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, Vedena. Many villages submitted to the Russians. In order to keep at least part of Chechnya in his obedience, Shamil cordoned off the villages remaining loyal to him with his Dagestan paths and drove the inhabitants further into the mountains; but the Chechens had already lost faith in him and were only looking for an opportunity to get rid of his yoke. In July 1858, General Evdokimov took the village of Shatoy and occupied the entire Shatoy plain; another detachment penetrated into Dagestan from the Lezgin line. Shamil was cut off from Kakheti; The Russians stood on the tops of the mountains, from where they could at any moment descend to Dagestan along the Avar Kois. The Chechens, burdened by Shamil's despotism, asked for help from the Russians, expelled the murids and overthrew the authorities installed by Shamil. The fall of Shatoi struck Shamil so much that he, having a mass of troops under arms, hastily retired to Vedeno. The agony of Shamil's power began at the end of 1858. Having allowed the Russians to establish themselves unhindered on Chanty-Argun, he concentrated large forces along another source of the Argun, Sharo-Argun, and demanded the complete arming of the Chechens and Dagestanis. His son Kazi-Maghoma occupied the gorge of the Bassy River, but was driven out from there in November 1858. Aul Tauzen, strongly fortified, was outflanked by us.

Russian troops did not march, as before, through dense forests, where Shamil was the complete master, but slowly moved forward, cutting down forests, building roads, erecting fortifications. To protect Veden, Shamil gathered about 6 - 7 thousand people. Russian troops approached Veden on February 8, climbing the mountains and descending them through liquid and sticky mud, covering 1/2 a mile per hour, with terrible effort. Beloved Naib Shamil Talgik came over to our side; residents of nearby villages refused to obey the imam, so he entrusted the protection of Veden to the Tavlinians, and took the Chechens away from the Russians, into the depths of Ichkeria, from where he issued an order for the inhabitants of Greater Chechnya to move to the mountains. The Chechens did not carry out this order and came to our camp with complaints against Shamil, with expressions of submission and asking for protection. General Evdokimov fulfilled their wish and sent a detachment of Count Nostits to the Hulhulau River to protect those moving 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 in a series of trenches, General Evdokimov took it by storm on April 1, 1859 and destroyed it to the ground. A whole number of societies fell away from Shamil and came over to our side. Shamil, however, still did not lose hope and, appearing in Ichichal, gathered a new militia. Our main detachment moved forward freely, bypassing enemy fortifications and positions, which as a result were abandoned by the enemy without a fight; the villages we encountered along the way also submitted to us without a fight; It was ordered to treat the inhabitants everywhere peacefully, which all the mountaineers soon learned about and began to abandon Shamil even more willingly, who retired to Andalyalo and fortified himself on Mount Gunib. On July 22, Baron Wrangel’s detachment appeared on the bank 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 with the announcement that he had detained Shamil’s father-in-law and teacher, Dzhemal-ed-Din, and one of the main preachers of Muridism, Aslan. On August 2, Daniel Bek surrendered his residence Irib and the village of Dusrek to Baron Wrangel, and on August 7 he himself appeared to Prince Baryatinsky, was forgiven and returned to his former possessions, where he set about establishing peace and order among the societies that had submitted to the Russians.

The conciliatory mood swept Dagestan to such an extent that in mid-August the commander-in-chief traveled unhindered through the entire Avaria, accompanied only by Avars and Khoisubulins, all the way to Gunib. Our troops surrounded Gunib on all sides; Shamil locked himself there with a small detachment (400 people, including the village residents). Baron Wrangel, on behalf of the commander-in-chief, invited 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 Absheronians climbed the steep slopes of Gunib, cut down the murids desperately defending the rubble and approached the village itself (8 miles from the place where they climbed the mountain), where by this time other troops had gathered. 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, he was given Kaluga to live, where he stayed until 1870, with a short stay at the end of this time in Kyiv; 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 head of his followers, but also a political ruler. Based on the teachings of Islam about the salvation of the soul by war with the infidels, trying to unite the disparate peoples of the eastern Caucasus on the basis of Mohammedanism, Shamil wanted to subordinate them to the clergy, as the generally recognized authority in the affairs of heaven and earth. To achieve this goal, he sought to abolish all authorities, orders and institutions based on age-old customs, on adat; He considered the basis of the life of the mountaineers, both private and public, to be Sharia, that is, that part of the Koran where civil and criminal regulations are set out. As a result of this, power had to pass into the hands of the clergy; the court passed from the hands of elected secular judges to the hands of qadis, interpreters of Sharia. Having bound all the wild and free societies of Dagestan with Islam, like cement, Shamil gave control into the hands of the spiritual and with their help established unified and unlimited power in these once free countries, and to make it easier for them to bear his yoke, he pointed to two great goals, which the mountaineers, by obeying him, can achieve: salvation of the soul and preservation of independence from the Russians. The time of Shamil was called by the mountaineers the time of Sharia, his fall - the fall of Sharia, since immediately after that ancient institutions, ancient elected authorities and the resolution of affairs according to custom, i.e. 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, each naib had a mufti who appointed qadis. Naibs were prohibited from deciding Sharia matters under the jurisdiction of the mufti or qadis. Every four naibs were first subordinated to a mudir, but Shamil was forced to abandon this establishment in the last decade of his rule due to constant strife between the mudirs and naibs. The assistants of the naibs were the murids, who, as having been tested in courage and devotion to the holy war (gazavat), were entrusted with more important tasks.

The number of murids was uncertain, but 120 of them, under the command of a yuzbashi (centurion), constituted Shamil’s honorary guard, were with him constantly and accompanied him on all his trips. Officials were obliged to obey the imam without question; for disobedience and misconduct they were reprimanded, demoted, arrested and punished with lashes, from which the mudirs and naibs were spared. Everyone capable of bearing arms was required to perform military service; they were divided into tens and hundreds, who were under the command of tens and sots, subordinate in turn to naibs. In the last decade of his activity, Shamil created regiments of 1000 people, divided into 2 five-hundred, 10 hundred and 100 detachments of 10 people, with corresponding commanders. Some villages, as a form of atonement, were freed from military service, supplying sulfur, saltpeter, salt, etc. The largest army of Shamil did not exceed 60 thousand people. From 1842 - 43, Shamil started artillery, partly from guns abandoned by us or taken from us, partly from those prepared at his own factory in Vedeno, where about 50 guns were cast, of which no more than a quarter turned out to be usable. Gunpowder was produced in Untsukul, Ganib and Vedene. Teachers of the mountaineers in artillery, engineering and combat were often fugitive soldiers, whom Shamil caressed and gave gifts. Shamil's state treasury was made up of random and permanent income: the first was delivered by robbery, the second consisted of zekyat - the collection of a tenth of the income from bread, sheep and money established by Sharia, 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.

The Caucasian War is the longest in Russian history. Officially, it was fought in 1817-1864, but in fact the date of the start of regular hostilities can be pushed back to the beginning of the Russian-Persian War of 1804-1813, the annexation of Georgia in 1800, or to the Persian Campaign of 1796, or even to the beginning of the Russian-Turkish War 1787-1791. So it wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to call it “our Centennial”...

Top 10 Russian generals of the Caucasian War (in chronological order)

1. Pavel Dmitrievich Tsitsianov (Tsitsishvili). A descendant of the Russified Georgian princely family, a general from the infantry, “a chick of Suvorov’s nest” (which they like to remember with regards to famous generals, but with regards to screwed-up ones, they don’t remember), the commander-in-chief in Georgia - the first after its annexation to Russia (in which process he played an important role ). In 1803 he led Russian troops in the war against Persia. He takes Ganja by storm, beats the Persians at Echmiadzin and Kanagir, but cannot take Erivan. Annexes the Ilisu and Shuragel Sultanates, the Ganja, Karabakh, Sheki and Shirvan Khanates to Russia. In 1806 he besieged Baku, but during negotiations for the surrender of the city he was killed by the Persians. During his lifetime, highly valued by his superiors and popular in the army, he is now completely and fatally forgotten by the “patriots of Russia.”

2. Ivan Vasilievich Gudovich. Ukropokhokhol From the Little Russian nobility. A man of “complex character”, especially at the end of his life, when he fell into insanity and, being the governor of Moscow, declared war on... glasses, furiously attacking everyone he saw wearing them (while his unscrupulous relatives, meanwhile, were simply sawing through the treasury). However, before that, Gudovich, awarded the title of count and the rank of field marshal for his victories, distinguished himself in all Turkish wars, repeatedly beating the enemy in the positions of chief of the Caucasian line and commander of the Kuban corps, and in 1791 he accomplished an amazing feat, taking Anapa by storm - an act that much more worthy of tons of gilded PR than the storming of Ishmael. But, however, the Ukrainian “slanders of Pavlov’s cane reaction” are not supposed to be heroes in our history...

3. Pavel Mikhailovich Karyagin. This, apparently, is the irony of history - the person who accomplished the most amazing feats is most forgotten. June 24 - July 15, 1805, a detachment of Colonel Karyagin, commander of the 17th Jaeger Regiment, of 500 people found itself on the way of the 40,000-strong Persian army. In three weeks, this handful, which was eventually reduced to a hundred fighters, not only repelled several enemy attacks, but managed to take three fortresses by storm. For such an almost epic feat, the colonel did not become a general and did not receive the Order of St. George (he already had the 4th degree, but they were “greedy” to give the 3rd, defending themselves with an award sword and Vladimir of the 3rd degree). Even more than that, the date of his birth is still unknown, not a single portrait exists (even a posthumous one), the village named after him (Karyagino) is now proudly called the city of Fizuli, and in Russia the name of the colonel is forgotten from the word “to death”...

4. Pyotr Stepanovich Kotlyarevsky. Another “Ukr” (the real “patriots of Russia” should already be ashamed), who from 1804 to 1813 made a brilliant career in Transcaucasia, earning the nicknames “Meteor General” and “Caucasian Suvorov”. He defeated the Persians in an epic (due to the inequality of forces with them) battle at Aslanduz, took Akhalkalaki (receiving the rank of major general for it) and Lenkoran (for which he was awarded St. George of the 2nd degree). However, “as always in Russia” - during the storming of Lankaran, Kotlyarevsky was seriously wounded in the face, forced to retire and lived for almost 40 years in “honest modesty” and gradually increasing oblivion. True, in 1826, Nicholas I awarded him the rank of infantry general and appointed him commander of the army in the new war against Persia, but Kotlyarevsky refused the post, citing wounds and fatigue from illnesses and sores. Now forgotten to a degree directly proportional to his lifetime glory.

5. Alexey Petrovich Ermolov. The idol of Russian Nazis and other nationalist rabble - because for the cattle to love in Russia, it was not necessary to defeat the Persians or Turks, but it was necessary to burn and execute “persons of Chechen nationality.” However, infantry general Ermolov earned a reputation as both a capable general and a tough administrator even before his appointment to the Caucasus, in the wars with the Poles and the French. And in general, with all the viciousness of his character and “mercilessness towards the enemies of the Reich,” he understood the Caucasus and the Caucasians much more than his current fonnat from the “rescuers of Russia.” True, he openly missed the start of the war with Persia in 1826 and made a number of failures. But he was removed not for this, but for “political unreliability” - and everyone knows this too.

6. Valerian Grigorievich Madatov-Karabakhsky (Madatyan), aka Rostom Grigoryan (Kyukuits). Well, here everything is clear - why do today’s Russians remember about some “Armenian” from the common people, whose intelligence, courage and “business qualities” achieved the rank of lieutenant general and the fame of “Yermolov’s right hand”? All sorts of exploits in the wars with the French, many years of keeping the Azerbaijani princes under a tight rein and the victory over the Persians at Shamkhor - this is all bullshit, “I didn’t kill the Chechens.” Ermolov's resignation led Madatov to an inevitable conflict with Paskevich, which is why in 1828 he transferred to the army operating on the Danube, where he died of illness after yet another series of feats.

7. Ivan Fedorovich Paskevich. And again “hokhloukr” (yes, yes, everyone already realized that this is ZOG). One of the many “division commanders of 1812” to whom Fortune gave a lucky receipt - he first became a commander and “military mentor”, and then a favorite of the future Emperor Nicholas I, who immediately upon ascending the throne made him first commander of the army in the war against Persia, then, dumping Ermolov as commander of the Caucasian Corps. The only advantage of Paskevich, a suspicious, tyranny, evil man and “with a pessimistic view of the world,” was his military talent, which allowed him to win resounding victories over the Persians, and then over the Turks in the war of 1828-1829. Subsequently, Paskevich became Count of Erivan, Prince of Warsaw, Field Marshal General, but ended his career rather ingloriously in 1854, having achieved little on the Danube before suffering a severe shell shock at Silistra.

8. Mikhail Semenovich Vorontsov. The owner of an aristocratic surname that gives a misleading impression of his fame. But he is also directly related to ZOG, because he grew up and was educated in London, where his father worked for many years as a plenipotentiary minister (ambassador). That is why he endured heretical and godless convictions that soldiers should not be beaten with sticks, because this makes them serve worse... He fought a lot and fruitfully with the French, being seriously wounded at Borodino, and from 1815 to 1818 commanding the occupation corps in France. In 1844 he was appointed governor of the Caucasus and until 1854 he commanded the corps during the most active battles with Shamil - he took Dargo, Gergebil and Salty, earning the rank of field marshal general. However, many of his orders, especially during the “Suhar Expedition,” are still strongly criticized. The word “absolutely” is unknown to today’s “patriots,” despite the fact of the war against the Chechens. And rightly so - we don’t need agents of the gay-Ropean ZOG as heroes...

9. Nikolai Nikolaevich Muravyov-Karssky. From an equally famous aristocratic family, with the same effect of “deceptive recognition” - today’s “Russians” are more likely to remember the Decembrists Muravyovs, or Muravyov-Amursky. The future infantry general began his career during the wars with the French as a quartermaster, that is, as a staff officer. Then fate threw him to the Caucasus, where he spent most of his life and career. Nikolai Muravyov turned out to be a complex person - harmful, vindictive, proud and bilious (read his “Notes” - you will understand everything), with a long and nasty tongue, he had conflicts with Griboedov, and with Paskevich, and with Baryatinsky, and with many others. But his military abilities led to the fact that in 1854 Muravyov was appointed governor of the Caucasus and commander of the Caucasian Corps. At which posts did the Turks beat a lot during the Eastern (Crimean) War and took Kars for the second time in the history of Russia (becoming Kars). But he fell out with almost all the “Caucasian” military men and resigned in 1856.

10. Alexander Ivanovich Baryatinsky. Well, finally, the thick-dog-purebred Prince Rurikovich. Therefore, apparently, it was simply and honestly forgotten by the “patriots” with a clear conscience. He spent almost his entire military career in the Caucasus, with the exception of 1854-1856, when, due to a quarrel with Muravyov, he left his post as chief of staff of the Caucasian Corps. In 1856 he was appointed governor in the Caucasus and commander of the Caucasian Corps. Brayatinsky had the honor (which had absolutely no impact on today’s unpopularity) to end the Caucasian War - in 1859 Shamil (for which Baryatinsky became a field marshal) and Muhammad Amin surrendered to Russian troops, in 1864 the last of those who resisted - the Circassians - capitulated. Ze var is over...

Caucasian wars of Russia

Russia's relations with the peoples living on both sides of the Caucasus range began in ancient times. After the division of Georgia into several separate kingdoms and principalities, the weakest of them often resorted to the Russian government with requests for protection. The entry, in 1561, of Tsar Ivan the Terrible into marriage with the Kabardian princess Maria Temryukovna gave rise to a rapprochement between Russia and the Caucasian peoples. In 1552, residents of the Beshtau environs, constrained by Tatar raids, surrendered under the protection of the Russian Tsar. Kakheti Tsar Alexander II, oppressed by the attacks of Shamkhal Tarkovsky, sent an embassy to Tsar Fyodor Mikhailovich in 1586, expressing his readiness to enter into Russian citizenship. Kartala Tsar Georgy Simonovich also swore allegiance to Russia.

During the Time of Troubles in Rus', relations with the Caucasus ceased for a long time. The repeated requests for help that the local rulers made to Tsars Mikhail and Alexei could not be fulfilled by Russia. Since the time of Peter I, Russia's influence on the affairs of the Caucasus region has become more definite and constant. The border remained along the north-eastern branch of the river. Terek, the so-called old Terek.

Troops of Peter I in Tarki

Derbent fortress

Under Anna Ioannovna, the construction of the defensive Caucasian line began. In 1735, the Kizlyar fortress was founded, in 1739 the Kizlyar fortified line was created, in 1763 a new fortress was built - Mozdok, which marked the beginning of the Mozdok fortified line.

By the treaty of 1793, concluded with the Porte, the Kabardians were recognized as independent and should serve as a “barrier to both powers,” and then the Mohammedan teaching, which quickly spread among the highlanders, completely alienated the latter from Russian influence. Since the outbreak of the first war with Turkey under Catherine II, Russia maintained continuous relations with Georgia; Tsar Irakli II even helped our troops, who, under the command of Count Totleben, crossed the Caucasus ridge and entered Imereti through Georgia. According to the agreement concluded in Georgievsk, on July 24, 1783, Tsar Irakli II was accepted under the protection of Russia; in Georgia it was supposed to contain 2 Russian battalions with 4 guns. With such weak forces it was impossible to protect the country from the continuously repeated attacks of the Lezgins - and the Georgian militia was inactive. Turkish emissaries traveled throughout Transcaucasia, trying to incite the Muslim population against the Russians and Georgians. In 1785, Russian troops were busy pacifying the unrest caused on the northern slope of the Caucasus ridge by the preacher of the holy war, Sheikh Mansur, who appeared in Chechnya. A rather strong detachment of Colonel Pieri sent against him was surrounded by Chechens in the Zasunzhensky forests and almost completely exterminated; Colonel Pieri himself was killed.

The defeat of Colonel Pieri's detachment

This increased Mansur’s authority among the highlanders: the excitement spread from Chechnya to Kabarda and Kuban. In 1787, the Russian troops located in Transcaucasia were recalled to the line, to protect which a number of fortifications were erected on the Kuban coast and 2 corps were formed: the Kuban Jaeger Corps, under the command of Chief General Tekeli, and the Caucasian Corps, under the command of Lieutenant General Potemkin. In 1791, Chief General Gudovich took Yalta, and the false prophet Sheikh Mansur was also captured (later executed after the trial). With the end of the Turkish War, new Cossack villages began to be populated, and the coasts of the Terek and upper Kuban were populated primarily by Don people, and the right bank of the Kuban, from the Ust-Labinsk fortress to the shores of the Azov and Black Seas, was populated by Black Sea Cossacks.

Cossacks

In 1798, George XII ascended the Georgian throne, who persistently asked Emperor Paul I to take Georgia under his protection and provide it with armed assistance. On December 22, 1800, a manifesto on the accession of Georgia to Russia was signed in St. Petersburg. At the beginning of the reign of Alexander I, Russian administration was introduced in Georgia; General Knoring was appointed commander-in-chief, and Kovalensky was appointed civil ruler of Georgia.

After the annexation of Georgia (1801-1810) and Azerbaijan (1803-1813), their territories were separated from Russia by the lands of Chechnya, Mountainous Dagestan and the North-West Caucasus, inhabited by warlike mountain peoples who raided the Caucasian fortified lines. Systematic military operations in the Caucasus began after the end of the Napoleonic wars.

General A.P., appointed commander-in-chief in the Caucasus in 1816. Ermolov moved from individual punitive operations to a systematic advance into the depths of Chechnya and Mountainous Dagestan.

Troops A.P. Ermolova in the Caucasus

In 1817-1818, the left flank of the Caucasian fortified line was moved from the Terek to the river. Sunzha, in the middle reaches of which the Pregradny Stan fortification was founded in October 1817. This event was the first step towards the further advance of Russian troops in the Caucasus and actually marked the beginning of the Caucasian War. In 1819, the Separate Caucasian Corps numbered 50,000 people; Ermolov was also subordinate to the Black Sea Cossack army in the North-West Caucasus(40,000 people). In 1818, part of the Dagestan tribes, led by feudal lords, united and in 1819 began a campaign against the Sunzha line, but suffered a number of defeats. Ermolov began his activities on the line in 1818 from Chechnya, strengthening the one located on the river. Sunzha redoubt of Nazran and founded the Grozny fortress on the lower reaches of this river. In Dagestan, the Vnezapnaya fortress was built in 1819. In Chechnya, Russian troops occupied rebellious villages and forced the mountaineers to move further and further from the river. Sunzhi. In Abkhazia, Prince Gorchakov defeated the rebellious crowds near Cape Kodor and brought Prince Dmitry Shervashidze into possession of the country. In 1823-1824, Russian actions were directed against the Trans-Kuban highlanders, who did not stop their raids.

Eviction of mountain villages

In 1925, there was a general uprising of Chechnya, during which the mountaineers managed to capture the Amir-Adzhi-Yurt post (July 8) and tried to take the Gerzel-aul fortification, rescued by the detachment of Lieutenant General Lisanevich (July 15). The next day, Lisanevich and General Grekov, who was with him, were treacherously killed by the Chechens during negotiations.

From the beginning of 1825, the coast of the Kuban began to be subject to raids by large detachments of Shapsuts and Abadzekhs; The Kabardians also became worried. In 1826, a number of expeditions were made to Chechnya, cutting down clearings in dense forests, laying new roads and punishing rebellious villages. The Ermolov period (1816-1827) is rightly considered the most successful in the Caucasian War. Its results were: on the northern side of the Caucasus ridge - the consolidation of Russian power in Kabarda and the Kumyk lands; the subjugation of many highlanders who lived on the foothills and plains opposite the left flank of the line; in Dagestan, Russian power was supported by the obedience of the local rulers, who feared and at the same time respected General A.P. Ermolova.

Map of Chechnya

Russian troops at the Caucasus Pass

In March 1827, Adjutant General I.F. was appointed commander-in-chief in the Caucasus. Paskevich. According to the Turkmanchay Peace of 1828, the Erivan and Nakhichivan khanates went to Russia, and according to the Adrianople Peace Treaty of 1829, the fortresses of Akhaltsikhe, Akhalkalaki and the entire Black Sea coast from the mouth of the river. Kuban to the St. Nicholas pier south of Poti. In connection with the construction of the Military-Sukhumi Road, the territory of Karachay was annexed to Russia in 1828.

Adjutant General I.F. Paskevich

Capture of Kars fortress

Chechen and Lezgin

Since the end of the 20s, the Caucasian War has been expanding in scope due to the movement of highlanders that arose in Chechnya and Dagestan under the reactionary banner of the religious and political doctrine of Muridism, an integral part of which was gazavat - the “holy war” against the “infidels,” that is, the Russians. At the heart of this movement was the desire of the top of the Muslim clergy to create a reactionary feudal-theocratic state - the imamate. For the first time Gazi-Magomed (Kazi-mullah) called for ghazavat, proclaimed in December 1828 by imams and putting forward the idea of ​​​​unifying the peoples of Chechnya and Dagestan.

Gazi-Magomed

In May 1830, Gazi-Magomed and his disciple Shamil with a detachment of 8,000 tried to capture the capital of Avaria - the village of Khunzakh, but failed.

Gazi-Magomed and Shamil

The expedition of the tsarist troops sent to the village of Gimry also failed(residence of the imam), which led to the strengthening of the influence of Gazi-Magomed. In 1831, the imam with 10,000 troops took Tarki and Kizlyar, besieged the fortresses of Burnaya and Vnezapnaya, and then took Derbent. Fighting also broke out in Chechnya, on the approaches to the Grozny fortress and Vladikavkaz. A significant territory (Chechnya and part of Dagestan) came under the rule of Gazi-Magomed. But from the end of 1831, the fighting began to decline due to the desertion of the peasantry from the murids, dissatisfied with the fact that the imam had not fulfilled his promise to eliminate class inequality.

In September 1831, instead of I.F. Paskevich, General G.V. was appointed commander-in-chief in the Caucasus. Rosen, who undertook a number of large expeditions of the tsarist troops in Chechnya, the detachments of Gazi-Magomed were pushed back to Mountainous Dagestan. The imam with part of the murids fortified himself in the village of Gimry, building several fortified lines built in tiers. On October 17, 1832, tsarist troops captured Gimry by storm. Imam Gazi-Magomed was killed in hand-to-hand combat.

Aul Gimry

Assault on the village of Gimry

General G.V. Rosen

The new imam Gamzat-bek, like the previous one, asserted his power not only by promoting the ideas of muridism, but also by force of arms. In August 1843, he captured the village of Khunzakh and, for refusing to oppose Russia, exterminated the entire family of the Avar Khan. Soon Gamzat-bek was killed by the bloodlines of the Avar Khan.

Instead of Gamzat-bek, Shamil became the imam in 1834, under whom the fighting acquired a particularly large scale.

On October 18, 1834, tsarist troops stormed Old and New Gotsatl (the main residence of the Murids) and forced Shamil’s troops to retreat from Avaria. In 1837, a detachment of General K.K. Fezi occupied Khunzakh, Untsukul and part of the village of Tilitl, where Shamil’s troops retreated. Due to heavy losses and lack of food, the detachment found itself in a difficult situation, and on July 3, 1837, Fezi concluded a truce with Shamil.

Truce with Shamil

In 1839, hostilities resumed. General E.A. was appointed commander-in-chief in the Caucasus at this time. Golovin. Detachment of General P.Kh. Grabbe, after an 80-day siege, on August 22, 1839, captured Shamil’s residence - Akhulgo; The wounded Shamil with part of the murids broke into Chechnya.

Aul Ahulgo

Assault on the village of Akhulgo

After stubborn battles in the area of ​​the Gekhinsky forest and on the river. Valerik (July 11, 1840) Russian troops occupied all of Chechnya.

Battle on the river Valerik

In the battle of the river. Valerik was directly involved by Lieutenant of the Russian Army M.Yu. Lermontov, who described it in one of his poems.

In 1840-1843, Shamil’s troops managed to occupy Avaria and a significant part of Dagestan. Shamil took measures to increase the number of his troops and improve their organization. The entire male population between the ages of 15 and 50 was required to perform military service. The troops were formed in thousands, hundreds and dozens. The core of Shamil's army was the light cavalry, the main part of which were the so-called murtazeks(horse fighters). Shamil obliged every 10 households to exhibit and maintain one murtazek. The production of artillery pieces, bullets and gunpowder was established.

Murtazek raid

Mobile, adapted to action in the mountains, Shamil’s murtazeks easily got out of the battle and eluded pursuit. From 1842 to 1846 they were active in the mountainous regions, and only in 1846 they began to suffer defeats from the tsarist troops (since 1844, General M.S. Vorontsov became the commander-in-chief in the Caucasus). In 1846, the breakthrough of Shamil’s troops into Kabarga ended in failure, in 1848 they lost Gergibl, and in 1849 they were defeated during the assault on Temir-Khan-Shura and an attempt to break through to Kakheti. In the North-Western Caucasus in 1851, the uprising of the Circassian tribes led by Shamil's governor Muhammad-Emin was suppressed. By this time, the governors (naibs) of Shamil had turned into large feudal lords and began to cruelly exploit the subject population. Internal social contradictions in the imamate intensified, and the peasantry began to move away from Shamil.

Highlander's saklya

On the eve of the Crimean War of 1853 - 1856, Shamil, counting on the help of England and Turkey, intensified his actions and in August 1853 tried to break through the Lezgin line at New Zagatala, but was again defeated. In the summer of 1854, Turkish troops launched an offensive on Tiflis. At the same time, Shamil’s troops, breaking through the Lezgin line, invaded Kakheti, captured Tsinandali, but were detained by the Georgian militia, and then defeated by the approaching Russian army.

The Caucasian Corps was transformed into an army (up to 200,000 people, 200 guns). The defeat of the Turkish army in 1854-1855 by Russian troops (since 1854, commander-in-chief General N.N. Muravyov) finally dispelled Shamil’s hopes for outside help. The internal crisis of the Imamate, which began in the late 40s, deepened even more. The weakening of the Imamate was also facilitated by very large human losses in the long war with Russia. In April 1859, Shamil's residence, the village of Vedeno, fell.

Russian army in the Caucasus

Shamil, seeing danger threatening from everywhere, fled to his last refuge on Mount Gunib, having with him only 400 of the most fanatical murids. On August 25, 1859, Gunib was captured after a fierce assault. Shamil himself and his sons surrendered to General A.I. Baryatinsky. He was pardoned by Tsar Alexander II and settled in Kaluga with his family. He was allowed to go on Hajj to Mecca, where he died in 1871.

Assault on the village of Gunib

Shamil surrenders

Place of captivity of Imam Shamil

On November 20, 1859, the main forces of the Circassians (2,000 murids) led by Muhammad-Emin were defeated and capitulated.

Fight in the Kbaada tract

Only on the Black Sea coast did the leaders of Muridism still try to resist, hoping for the support of Turkey and England. In 1859-1862, the advance of the tsarist troops (since 1856, commander-in-chief General A.I. Baryatinsky) continued into the depths of the mountains. In 1863, they occupied the territory between the Belaya and Pshish rivers, and by mid-April 1864 - the entire coast to Navaginsky and the territory to the river. Laba. The occupation of the Kbaada (Krasnaya Polyana) tract by Russian troops on May 21, 1864, where the last Circassian base was located, ended the long history of the Caucasian wars, although in fact military operations in some areas continued until the end of 1864.

The historical significance of the Caucasian War was that it ensured the annexation of Chechnya, Mountainous Dagestan and the North-West Caucasus to Russia, saving the mountain peoples from the danger of enslavement by the backward eastern dispotates of Iran and Turkey. The peoples of the Caucasus have found a faithful ally and a powerful defender in the Russian people.