Which commander led the Caucasian war. Caucasian War (1817—1864) - Battles and engagements, campaigns - History - Catalog of articles - Native Dagestan

Background

According to the agreement concluded in Georgievsk on July 24, Tsar Irakli II was accepted under the protection of Russia; In Georgia, it was decided to maintain 2 Russian battalions with 4 guns. It was, however, impossible for such weak forces to protect the country from the continuously repeated raids of the Lezgins - and the Georgian militias were inactive. Only in the fall of the year was it decided to undertake an expedition to the village. Jary and Belokan, to punish the raiders, who were overtaken on October 14, near the Muganlu tract, and, having been defeated, fled across the river. Alazan. This victory did not bring significant fruit; Lezgin invasions continued, Turkish emissaries traveled throughout Transcaucasia, trying to incite the Muslim population against the Russians and Georgians. When Umma Khan of Avar (Omar Khan) began to threaten in Georgia, Heraclius turned to the commander of the Caucasian line, General. Potemkin with a request to send new reinforcements to Georgia; this request could not be respected, since the Russian troops were at that time busy suppressing the unrest caused on the northern slope of the Caucasus ridge by the preacher of the holy war, Mansur, who had appeared in Chechnya. A fairly strong detachment sent against him under the command of Colonel Pieri was surrounded by Chechens in the Zasunzha forests and almost exterminated, and Pieri himself was killed. This increased Mansur's authority among the mountaineers; the unrest spread from Chechnya to Kabarda and Kuban. Although Mansur’s attack on Kizlyar failed and soon after he was defeated in Malaya Kabarda by a detachment of Colonel Nagel, the Russian troops on the Caucasian line continued to remain in a tense state.

Meanwhile, Umma Khan, with Dagestan hordes, invaded Georgia and devastated it without meeting any resistance; on the other hand, the Akhaltsikhe Turks raided it. The Georgian troops, representing nothing more than a crowd of poorly armed peasants, turned out to be completely untenable; Colonel Vurnashev, who commanded the Russian battalions, was constrained in his actions by Irakli and his entourage. In the city, in view of the impending rupture between Russia and Turkey, our troops located in Transcaucasia were recalled to the line, for the protection of 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 Tekelli, and the Caucasian Corps, under the command of Lieutenant General Potemkin. In addition, a settled or zemstvo army was established, consisting of Ossetians, Ingush and Kabardians. General Potemkin, and then General Tekelli undertook successful expeditions beyond the Kuban, but the situation on the line did not change significantly, and the raids of the mountaineers continued uninterruptedly. Communications between Russia and Transcaucasia almost ceased: Vladikavkaz and other fortified points on the way to Georgia were abandoned by Russian troops in the year. Tekelli's campaign against Anapa (city) was unsuccessful. In the city, the Turks, together with the highlanders, moved to Kabarda, but were defeated by the general. Herman. In June 1791, Chief General Gudovich took Anapa, and Mansur was also captured. Under the terms of the Treaty of Yassi concluded in the same year, Anapa was returned to the Turks. With the end of the Turkish War, they began to strengthen the K. line with new fortifications and to establish new Cossack villages, and the coasts of the Terek and upper Kuban were populated mainly 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 designated for settlement Black Sea Cossacks. Georgia was at that time in the most deplorable state. Taking advantage of this, Aga Mohammed Khan of Persia, in the second half of the year, invaded Georgia and on September 11 took and destroyed Tiflis, from where the king, with a handful of entourage, fled to the mountains. Russia could not be indifferent to this, especially since the rulers of the regions neighboring Persia always leaned towards the stronger side. At the end of the year, Russian troops entered Georgia and Dagestan. The Dagestan rulers declared their submission, except for the Derbent Khan Sheikh Ali, who locked himself in his fortress. On May 10, the fortress was taken, after stubborn defense. Derbent, and in June it was occupied without resistance by Baku. The commander of the troops, Count Valerian Zubov, was appointed instead of Gudovich as the chief commander of the Caucasus region; but his activities there (see The Persian Wars) soon came to an end with the death of Empress Catherine. Paul I ordered Zubov to suspend military operations; Following this, Gudovich was again appointed commander of the Caucasian corps, and the Russian troops who were in Transcaucasia were ordered to return from there: it was only allowed to leave 2 battalions in Tiflis for a while, due to the increased requests of Heraclius.

In the city, George XII ascended the Georgian throne, who persistently asked Emperor Paul to take Georgia under his protection and provide it with armed assistance. As a result of this, and in view of the clearly hostile intentions of Persia, Russian troops in Georgia were significantly strengthened. When Umma Khan Avar invaded Georgia in the city, General Lazarev with a Russian detachment (about 2 thousand) and part of the Georgian militia (extremely poorly armed), defeated him on November 7, on the banks of the Yora River. On December 22, 1800, a manifesto on the annexation of Georgia to Russia was signed in St. Petersburg; Following this, King George died. At the beginning of the reign of Alexander I, Russian administration was introduced in Georgia; Gen. was appointed commander-in-chief. Knorring, and the civil ruler of Georgia was Kovalensky. Neither one nor the other was well acquainted with the morals, customs and views of the people, and the officials who arrived with them indulged in various abuses. All this, combined with the machinations of the party who were dissatisfied with Georgia’s entry into Russian citizenship, led to the fact that unrest in the country did not stop, and its borders were still subject to raids by neighboring peoples.

At the end, Mr. Knorring and Kovalensky were recalled, and Lieutenant General was appointed commander-in-chief in the Caucasus. book Tsitsianov, well acquainted with the region. He sent most of the members of the former Georgian royal house to Russia, rightly considering them the main culprits of unrest and unrest. He spoke to the khans and owners of the Tatar and mountain regions in a menacing and commanding tone. Residents of the Dzharo-Belokan region, who did not stop their raids, were defeated by a detachment of the general. Gulyakov, and the region itself was annexed to Georgia. In the city of Mingrelia, and in 1804 Imereti and Guria entered into Russian citizenship; in 1803 the Ganja fortress and the entire Ganja Khanate were conquered. The attempt of the Persian ruler Baba Khan to invade Georgia ended in the complete defeat of his troops near Etchmiadzin (June). In the same year, the Khanate of Shirvan, and in the city - the khanates of Karabakh and Sheki, Jehan-Gir Khan of Shahagh and Budag Sultan of Shuragel accepted Russian citizenship. Baba Khan again opened offensive operations, but at the mere news of Tsitsianov’s approach, he fled beyond the Araks (see Persian Wars).

On February 8, 1805, Prince Tsitsianov, who approached the city of Baku with a detachment, was treacherously killed by the local khan. Count Gudovich, who was well acquainted with the state of affairs on the Caucasian line, but not in Transcaucasia, was again appointed in his place. The recently conquered rulers of various Tatar regions, having ceased to feel Tsitsianov’s firm hand over them, again became clearly hostile to the Russian administration. Although the actions against them were generally successful (Derbent, Baku, Nukha were taken), the situation was complicated by the invasions of the Persians and the break with Turkey that followed in 1806. In view of the war with Napoleon, all fighting forces were drawn to the western borders of the empire; Caucasian troops were left without strength. Under the new commander-in-chief, gen. Tormasov (from the city), it was necessary to intervene in the internal affairs of Abkhazia, where among the members of the ruling house that had quarreled among themselves, some turned to Russia for help, while others turned to Turkey; at the same time, the fortresses of Poti and Sukhum were taken. It was also necessary to pacify the uprisings in Imereti and Ossetia. Tormasov's successors were Gen. Marquis Pauducci and Rtishchev; at the latter, thanks to the victory of the gene. Kotlyarevsky near Aslanduz and the capture of Lenkoran, the Treaty of Gulistan was concluded with Persia (). A new uprising that broke out in the fall of the year in Kakheti, instigated by the fugitive Georgian prince Alexander, was successfully suppressed. Since the Khevsurs and Kists (mountain Chechens) took an active part in this disturbance, Rtishchev decided to punish these tribes and in May undertook an expedition to Khevsuria, little known to the Russians. The troops sent there under the command of Major General Simonovich, despite incredible natural obstacles and the stubborn defense of the mountaineers, reached the main Khevsur village of Shatil (in the upper reaches of the Arguni), captured it and destroyed all the enemy villages lying on their way. The raids into Chechnya undertaken by Russian troops around the same time were not approved by Emperor Alexander I, who ordered General Rtishchev to try to restore calm on the Caucasian line with friendliness and condescension.

Ermolovsky period (-)

“... Downstream of the Terek live the Chechens, the worst of the robbers who attack the line. Their society is very sparsely populated, but has increased enormously in the last few years, for the villains of all other nations who leave their land due to some kind of crime were received in a friendly manner. Here they found accomplices, immediately ready to either avenge them or participate in robberies, and they served as their faithful guides in lands unknown to them. Chechnya can rightly be called the nest of all robbers...” (from the notes of A.P. Ermolov during the administration of Georgia)

The new (since the year) commander of all the tsarist troops in Georgia and on the Caucasian line, A.P. Ermolov, however, convinced the sovereign of the need to subdue the highlanders solely by force of arms. It was decided to carry out the conquest of the mountain peoples gradually, but urgently, occupying only those places that could be retained and not going further until what had been acquired was strengthened.

Ermolov, in the city, began his activities on the line from Chechnya, strengthening the Nazranovsky redoubt located on the Sunzha and establishing the Grozny fortress on the lower reaches of this river. This measure stopped the uprisings of the Chechens living between Sunzha and Terek.

In Dagestan, the highlanders who threatened Shamkhal Tarkovsky, captured by Russia, were pacified; To keep them in bondage, the Sudden fortress was built. The attempt against her by the Avar Khan ended in complete failure. In Chechnya, Russian troops destroyed villages and forced the indigenous inhabitants of these lands (Chechens) to move further and further from Sunzha; A clearing was cut through the dense forest to the village of Germenchuk, which served as one of the main defensive points of the Chechen army. In the city, the Black Sea Cossack army was assigned to a separate Georgian corps, renamed a separate Caucasian corps. The Burnaya fortress was built in the city, and the crowds of the Avar Khan Akhmet, who tried to interfere with Russian work, were broken up. On the right flank of the line, the Trans-Kuban Circassians, with the help of the Turks, began to disturb the borders more than ever; but their army, which invaded the land of the Black Sea army in October, suffered a severe defeat from the Russian army. In Abkhazia, the book. Gorchakov defeated the rebellious crowds near Cape Kodor and brought the prince into possession of the country. Dmitry Shervashidze. In the city, to completely pacify the Kabardians, a number of fortifications were built at the foot of the Black Mountains, from Vladikavkaz to the upper reaches of the Kuban. In and years The actions of the Russian command were directed against the Trans-Kuban highlanders, who did not stop their raids. In the city, the Abkhazians, who rebelled against the successor of the prince, were forced to submit. Dmitry Shervashidze, book. Mikhail. In Dagestan, in the 20s, a new Mohammedan teaching, muridism, began to spread, which subsequently created a lot of difficulties and dangers. Ermolov, having visited the city of Kuba, ordered Aslankhan of Kazikumukh to stop the unrest excited by the followers of the new teaching, but, distracted by other matters, could not monitor the execution of this order, as a result of which the main preachers of Muridism, Mulla-Mohammed, and then Kazi-Mulla, continued to inflame the minds of the mountaineers in Dagestan and Chechnya and proclaim the proximity of gazavat, that is, a holy war against the infidels. In 1825, there was a general uprising of Chechnya, during which the highlanders managed to capture the post of Amir-Adzhi-Yurt (July 8) and tried to take the fortification of Gerzel-aul, rescued by a detachment of Lieutenant General. Lisanevich (July 15). The next day Lisanevich and the gene who was with him. The Greeks were killed by one Chechen intelligence officer. From the very beginning of the city, the coast of the Kuban again began to be subject to raids by large parties of Shapsugs and Abadzekhs; The Kabardians were also worried. A number of expeditions to Chechnya were carried out in the city, cutting down clearings in dense forests, laying new roads and destroying villages free from Russian troops. This ended the activities of Ermolov, who left the Caucasus in the city.

The Yermolov period (1816-27) is considered one of the bloodiest for the Russian army. Its results were: on the northern side of the Caucasus ridge - the strengthening of Russian power in Kabarda and the Kumyk lands; the capture of many societies that lived in the foothills and plains against the lion. flank line; For the first time, the idea of ​​the need for gradual, systematic action in a country similar, according to the correct remark of Ermolov’s associate, Gen. Velyaminov, to a huge natural fortress, where it was necessary to seize each redoubt sequentially and, only having firmly established itself in it, conduct further approaches. In Dagestan, Russian power was supported by the betrayal of the local rulers.

The beginning of gazavat (-)

The new commander-in-chief of the Caucasian corps, adjutant general. Paskevich, at first, was busy with wars with Persia and Turkey. The successes he achieved in these wars contributed to maintaining external calm in the country; but Muridism spread more and more, and Kazi-Mulla sought to unite the hitherto scattered tribes of the east. The Caucasus into one mass hostile to Russia. Only Avaria did not succumb to his power, and his attempt (in the city) to take control of Khunzakh ended in defeat. After this, the influence of Kazi-Mulla was greatly shaken, and the arrival of new troops sent to the Caucasus after the conclusion of peace with Turkey forced him to flee from his residence, the Dagestan village of Gimry, to the Belokan Lezgins. In April, Count Paskevich-Erivansky was recalled to command the army in Poland; In his place, they were temporarily appointed commanders of the troops: in Transcaucasia - General. Pankratiev, on the line - Gen. Velyaminov. Kazi-Mulla transferred his activities to the Shamkhal possessions, where, having chosen as his residence the inaccessible tract Chumkesent (in the 13th century, to the 10th from Temir-Khan-Shura), he began to call all the mountaineers to fight the infidels. His attempts to take the fortresses of Burnaya and Vnezapnaya failed; but General Emanuel’s movement into the Aukhov forests was also unsuccessful. The last failure, greatly exaggerated by the mountain messengers, increased the number of Kazi-Mulla's followers, especially in central Dagestan, so that he plundered Kizlyar and attempted, but unsuccessfully, to take possession of Derbent. Attacked, December 1, regiment. Miklashevsky, he had to leave Chumkesent and went to Gimry. The new chief of the Caucasian corps, Baron Rosen, took Gimry on October 17, 1832; Kazi-Mulla died during the battle. His successor was Gamzat-bek (q.v.), who invaded Avaria in the city, treacherously took possession of Khunzakh, exterminated almost the entire khan’s family and was already thinking about conquering all of Dagestan, but died at the hands of a murderer. Soon after his death, on October 18, 1834, the main hangout of the murids, the village of Gotsatl (see the corresponding article), was taken and destroyed by a detachment of Colonel Kluki-von Klugenau. On the Black Sea coast, where the highlanders had many convenient points for communication with the Turks and trading in slaves (the Black Sea coastline did not yet exist), foreign agents, especially the British, distributed proclamations hostile to us among the local tribes and delivered military supplies. This forced the bar. Rosen to entrust the gene. Velyaminov (summer 1834) a new expedition to the Trans-Kuban region, to establish a cordon line to Gelendzhik. It ended with the construction of the Nikolaevsky fortification.

Imam Shamil

Imam Shamil

In the eastern Caucasus, after the death of Gamzat-bek, Shamil became the head of the murids. The new imam, gifted with outstanding administrative and military abilities, soon turned out to be an extremely dangerous adversary, uniting all the hitherto scattered tribes of the Eastern Caucasus under his despotic power. Already at the beginning of the year, his forces increased so much that he set out to punish the Khunzakhs for killing his predecessor. Aslan Khan-Kazikumukhsky, who was temporarily appointed by us as the ruler of Avaria, asked to occupy Khunzakh with Russian troops, and Baron Rosen agreed to his request, in view of the strategic importance of the named point; but this entailed the need to occupy many other points to ensure communications with Khunzakh through inaccessible mountains. The Temir-Khan-Shura fortress, newly built on the Tarkov plane, was chosen as the main stronghold on the route of communication between Khunzakh and the Caspian coast, and the Nizovoye fortification was built to provide a pier to which ships from Astrakhan approached. Shura's communication with Khunzakh was covered by the fortification of Zirani, near the river. Avar Koisu, and the Burunduk-kale tower. For direct communication between Shura and the Vnezapnaya fortress, the Miatlinskaya crossing over Sulak was built and covered with towers; the road from Shura to Kizlyar was secured by the fortification of Kazi-Yurt.

Shamil, more and more consolidating his power, chose the Koisubu district as his stay, where, on the banks of the Andean Koisu, he began to build a fortification, which he called Akhulgo. In 1837, General Fezi occupied Khunzakh, took the village of Ashilty and the fortification of Old Akhulgo and besieged the village of Tilitl, where Shamil had taken refuge. When, on July 3, we took possession of part of this village, Shamil entered into negotiations and promised submission. We had to accept his offer, since our detachment, which had suffered heavy losses, was severely short of food and, in addition, news was received of an uprising in Cuba. The expedition of General Fezi, despite its external success, brought more benefit to Shamil than to us: the retreat of the Russians from Tilitl gave him a pretext for spreading the belief in the mountains about the clear protection of Allah. In the western Caucasus, a detachment of General Velyaminov, in the summer of the year, penetrated to the mouths of the Pshad and Vulana rivers and founded the Novotroitskoye and Mikhailovskoye fortifications there.

In September of the same 1837, Emperor Nicholas I visited the Caucasus for the first time and was dissatisfied with the fact that, despite many years of efforts and major sacrifices, we were still far from lasting results in the pacification of the region. General Golovin was appointed to replace Baron Rosen. In the city, on the Black Sea coast, the fortifications of Navaginskoye, Velyaminovskoye and Tenginskoye were built and the construction of the Novorossiysk fortress, with a military harbor, began.

In the city, actions were carried out in various areas by three detachments. The first landing detachment of General Raevsky erected new fortifications on the Black Sea coast (forts Golovinsky, Lazarev, Raevsky). The second, Dagestan detachment, under the command of the corps commander himself, captured, on May 31, a very strong position of the highlanders on the Adzhiakhur heights, and on June 3 occupied the village. Akhty, near which a fortification was erected. The third detachment, Chechen, under the command of General Grabbe, moved against the main forces of Shamil, fortified near the village. Argvani, on the descent to the Andian Kois. Despite the strength of this position, Grabbe took possession of it, and Shamil with several hundred murids took refuge in Akhulgo, which he had renewed. It fell on August 22, but Shamil himself managed to escape.

The mountaineers apparently submitted, but in fact they were preparing an uprising, which kept us in the most tense state for 3 years. Military operations began on the Black Sea coast, where our hastily built forts were in a dilapidated state, and the garrisons were extremely weakened by fevers and other diseases. On February 7, the highlanders captured Fort Lazarev and destroyed all its defenders; On February 29, the same fate befell the Velyaminovskoye fortification; On March 23, after a fierce battle, the enemy penetrated the Mikhailovskoye fortification, the rest of the garrison of which exploded into the air, along with the enemy crowds. In addition, the highlanders captured (April 2) the Nikolaev fort; but their enterprises against the Navaginsky fort and the Abinsky fortification were unsuccessful.

On the left flank, a premature attempt to disarm the Chechens caused extreme anger among them, taking advantage of which Shamil raised the Ichkerians, Aukhovites and other Chechen societies against us. Russian troops under the command of General Galafeev limited themselves to searching the forests of Chechnya, which cost many people. It was especially bloody on the river. Valerik (July 11). While gen. Galafeev walked around M. Chechnya, Shamil subjugated Salatavia to his power and at the beginning of August invaded Avaria, where he conquered several villages. With the addition of the elder of the mountain societies in the Andean Koisu, the famous Kibit-Magoma, his strength and enterprise increased enormously. By the fall, all of Chechnya was already on Shamil’s side, and the means of the K. line were insufficient to successfully fight him. The Chechens extended their raids to the Terek and almost captured Mozdok. On the right flank, by the fall, the new line along the Labe was secured by the forts of Zassovsky, Makhoshevsky and Temirgoevsky. The Velyaminovskoye and Lazarevskoye fortifications were restored on the Black Sea coastline. In 1841, riots broke out in Avaria, instigated by Hadji Murad. A battalion with 2 mountain guns was sent to pacify them, under the command of General. Bakunin, failed at the village of Tselmes, and Colonel Passek, who took command after the mortally wounded Bakunin, only with difficulty managed to withdraw the remnants of the detachment to Khunza. The Chechens raided the Georgian Military Road and captured the military settlement of Aleksandrovskoye, and Shamil himself approached Nazran and attacked the detachment of Colonel Nesterov located there, but had no success and took refuge in the forests of Chechnya. On May 15, generals Golovin and Grabbe attacked and took the position of the imam near the village of Chirkey, after which the village itself was occupied and the Evgenievskoye fortification was founded near it. Nevertheless, Shamil managed to extend his power to the mountain societies of the right bank of the river. Avarsky-Koisu and reappeared in Chechnya; the murids again captured the village of Gergebil, which blocked the entrance to Mekhtulin’s possessions; our communications with Avaria were temporarily interrupted.

In the spring of the year, the expedition of Gen. Fezi improved our affairs in Avaria and Koisubu. Shamil tried to agitate southern Dagestan, but to no avail. General Grabbe moved through the dense forests of Ichkeria, with the goal of capturing Shamil’s residence, the village of Dargo. However, already on the 4th day of movement, our detachment had to stop and then begin a retreat (always the most difficult part of operations in the Caucasus), during which it lost 60 officers, about 1,700 lower ranks, one gun and almost the entire convoy. The unfortunate outcome of this expedition greatly raised the spirit of the enemy, and Shamil began to recruit troops, intending to invade Avaria. Although Grabbe, having learned about this, moved there with a new, strong detachment and captured the village of Igali from the battle, but then withdrew from Avaria, where our garrison remained in Khunzakh alone. The overall result of the actions of 1842 was far from satisfactory; in October, Adjutant General Neidgardt was appointed to replace Golovin. The failures of our weapons spread in the highest spheres of government the conviction that offensive actions were futile and even harmful. The then Minister of War, Prince, especially rebelled against this kind of action. Chernyshev, who had visited the Caucasus the previous summer and witnessed the return of Grabbe’s detachment from the Ichkerin forests. Impressed by this catastrophe, he requested the Highest Command, which prohibited all expeditions to the city and ordered that the city be limited to defense.

This forced inaction emboldened the opponents, and raids on the line became more frequent again. On August 31, 1843, Imam Shamil captured the fort at the village. Untsukul, destroying the detachment that went to the rescue of the besieged. In the following days, several more fortifications fell, and on September 11, Gotsatl was taken, which interrupted communication with Temir Khan-Shura. From August 28 to September 21, the losses of Russian troops amounted to 55 officers, more than 1,500 lower ranks, 12 guns and significant warehouses: the fruits of many years of effort were lost, long-submissive mountain societies were torn from our power and our moral charm was shaken. On October 28, Shamil surrounded the Gergebil fortification, which he managed to take only on November 8, when only 50 defenders remained. Gangs of mountaineers, scattering in all directions, interrupted almost all communications with Derbent, Kizlyar and Lev. flank of the line; our troops in Temir Khan-Shura withstood the blockade that lasted from November 8 to December 24. The Nizovoye fortification, defended by only 400 people, withstood attacks by a crowd of thousands of highlanders for 10 days, until it was rescued by a detachment of the general. Freytag. In mid-April, Shamil's forces, led by Hadji Murad and Naib Kibit-Magom, approached Kumykh, but on the 22nd they were completely defeated by Prince Argutinsky, near the village. Margi. Around this time, Shamil himself was defeated near the village. Andreeva, where Colonel Kozlovsky’s detachment met him, and near the village. Gilli Highlanders were defeated by Passek's detachment. On the Lezgin line, the Elisu khan Daniel Bek, who had been loyal to us until then, was indignant. A detachment of General Schwartz was sent against him, who scattered the rebels and captured the village of Elisu, but the khan himself managed to escape. The actions of the main Russian forces were quite successful and ended with the capture of the Dargeli district (Akusha and Tsudahar); then the construction of the forward Chechen line began, the first link of which was the Vozdvizhenskoye fortification, on the river. Arguni. On the right flank, the highlanders’ assault on the Golovinskoye fortification was brilliantly repulsed on the night of July 16.

At the end of the year, a new commander-in-chief, Count M. S. Vorontsov, was appointed to the Caucasus. He arrived in the early spring of the year, and in June he moved with a large detachment to Andia and then to Shamil’s residence - Dargo (see). This expedition ended with the destruction of the said village and gave Vorontsov the princely title, but it cost us enormous losses. On the Black Sea coastline, in the summer of 1845, the highlanders attempted to capture forts Raevsky (May 24) and Golovinsky (July 1), but were repulsed. From the city on the left flank, we began to strengthen our power in the already occupied lands, erecting new fortifications and Cossack villages, and preparing further movement deep into the Chechen forests, by cutting down wide clearings. Victory of the book Bebutov, who wrested the difficult-to-reach village of Kutishi (in central Dagestan) from the hands of Shamil, which had just been occupied by him, resulted in the complete calming of the Kumyk plane and the foothills. On the Black Sea coastline, the Ubykhs (up to 6 thousand people) launched a new desperate attack on the Golovinsky fort on November 28, but were repelled with great damage.

In the city, Prince Vorontsov besieged Gergebil, but due to the spread of cholera among the troops, he had to retreat. At the end of July, he undertook a siege of the fortified village of Salta, which, despite the significance of our siege weapons, held out until September 14, when it was cleared by the mountaineers. Both of these enterprises cost us about 150 officers and more than 2 1/2 tons of lower ranks who were out of action. The forces of Daniel Bek invaded the Jaro-Belokan district, but on May 13 they were completely defeated at the village of Chardakhly. In mid-November, crowds of Dagestan highlanders invaded Kazikumukh and managed to take possession, but not for long, of several villages.

An outstanding event in the city is the capture of Gergebil (July 7) by Prince Argutinsky. In general, for a long time there has not been such calm in the Caucasus as this year; Only on the Lezgin line were frequent alarms repeated. In September, Shamil tried to capture the fortification of Akhty, on Samur, but he failed. In the city, the siege of the village of Chokha, undertaken by Prince. Argutinsky, cost us great losses, but was not successful. From the Lezgin line, General Chilyaev carried out a successful expedition into the mountains, which ended in the defeat of the enemy near the village of Khupro.

In the year, systematic deforestation in Chechnya continued with the same persistence and was accompanied by more or less heated affairs. This course of action, putting societies hostile to us in a hopeless situation, forced many of them to declare unconditional submission. It was decided to adhere to the same system in the city. On the right flank, an offensive was launched to the Belaya River, with the goal of moving our front line there and taking away the fertile lands between this river and Laba from the hostile Abadzekhs; in addition, the offensive in this direction was caused by the appearance in the western Caucasus of Shamil’s agent, Mohammed-Emin, who collected large parties for raids on our Labin settlements, but was defeated on May 14.

G. was marked by brilliant actions in Chechnya, under the leadership of the head of the left flank, Prince. Baryatinsky, who penetrated hitherto inaccessible forest shelters and destroyed many hostile villages. These successes were overshadowed only by the unsuccessful expedition of Colonel Baklanov to the village of Gurdali.

In the city, rumors about an upcoming break with Turkey aroused new hopes among the mountaineers. Shamil and Mohammed-Emin, having gathered the mountain elders, announced to them the firmans received from the Sultan, commanding all Muslims to rebel against the common enemy; they talked about the imminent arrival of Turkish troops in Georgia and Kabarda and about the need to act decisively against the Russians, who were allegedly weakened by the sending of most of their military forces to the Turkish borders. However, the spirit of the mass of the mountaineers had already fallen so low, due to a series of failures and extreme impoverishment, that Shamil could only subjugate them to his will through cruel punishments. The raid he planned on the Lezgin line ended in complete failure, and Mohammed-Emin, with a crowd of Trans-Kuban highlanders, was defeated by a detachment of General Kozlovsky. When the final break with Turkey followed, at all points in the Caucasus it was decided to maintain a predominantly defensive course of action on our part; however, the clearing of forests and the destruction of the enemy's food supplies continued, although to a more limited extent. In the city, the head of the Turkish Anatolian army entered into communication with Shamil, inviting him to move to join him from Dagestan. At the end of June, Shamil invaded Kakheti; The mountaineers managed to ravage the rich village of Tsinondal, capture the family of its ruler and plunder several churches, but upon learning of the approach of Russian troops, they fled. Shamil's attempt to take possession of the peaceful village of Istisu (q.v.) was unsuccessful. On the right flank, we left the space between Anapa, Novorossiysk and the mouths of the Kuban; The garrisons of the Black Sea coastline were taken to Crimea at the beginning of the year, and forts and other buildings were blown up (see Eastern War of 1853-56). Book Vorontsov left the Caucasus back in March, transferring control to the general. Read, and at the beginning of the year General was appointed commander-in-chief in the Caucasus. N. I. Muravyov. The landing of the Turks in Abkhazia, despite the betrayal of its ruler, Prince. Shervashidze, had no harmful consequences for us. At the conclusion of the Paris Peace, in the spring of 1856, it was decided to take advantage of those operating in Az. Turkey with troops and, having strengthened the Caspian Corps with them, began the final conquest of the Caucasus.

Baryatinsky

The new commander-in-chief, Prince Baryatinsky, turned his main attention to Chechnya, the conquest of which he entrusted to the head of the left wing of the line, General Evdokimov, an old and experienced Caucasian; but in other parts of the Caucasus the troops did not remain inactive. In and years Russian troops achieved the following results: the Adagum Valley was occupied on the right wing of the line and the Maykop fortification was built. On the left wing, the so-called “Russian road”, from Vladikavkaz, parallel to the ridge of the Black Mountains, to the fortification of Kurinsky on the Kumyk plane, is completely completed and strengthened by newly built fortifications; wide clearings have been cut in all directions; the mass of the hostile population of Chechnya has been driven to the point of having to submit and move to open areas, under state supervision; The Aukh district is occupied and a fortification has been erected in its center. In Dagestan, Salatavia is finally occupied. Several new Cossack villages were established along Laba, Urup and Sunzha. The troops are everywhere close to the front lines; the rear is secured; vast expanses of the best lands are cut off from the hostile population and, thus, a significant share of the resources for the fight are wrested from the hands of Shamil.

On the Lezgin line, as a result of deforestation, predatory raids gave way to petty theft. On the Black Sea coast, the secondary occupation of Gagra marked the beginning of securing Abkhazia from incursions by Circassian tribes and from hostile propaganda. The city's actions in Chechnya began with the occupation of the Argun River gorge, which was considered impregnable, where Evdokimov ordered the construction of a strong fortification, called Argunsky. Climbing up the river, he reached, at the end of July, the villages of the Shatoevsky society; in the upper reaches of the Argun he founded a new fortification - Evdokimovskoye. Shamil tried to divert attention by sabotage to Nazran, but was defeated by a detachment of General Mishchenko and barely managed to escape into the still unoccupied part of the Argun Gorge. Convinced that his power there had been completely undermined, he retired to Veden - his new residence. On March 17, the bombardment of this fortified village began, and on April 1 it was taken by storm.

Shamil fled beyond the Andean Koisu; all of Ichkeria declared its submission to us. After the capture of Veden, three detachments headed concentrically to the Andean Koisu valley: Chechen, Dagestan and Lezgin. Shamil, who temporarily settled in the village of Karata, fortified Mount Kilitl, and covered the right bank of the Andean Koisu, opposite Conkhidatl, with solid stone rubble, entrusting their defense to his son Kazi-Magoma. With any energetic resistance from the latter, forcing the crossing at this point would cost enormous sacrifices; but he was forced to leave his strong position as a result of the troops of the Dagestan detachment entering his flank, who made a remarkably courageous crossing across the Andiyskoe Koisu at the Sagytlo tract. Shamil, seeing danger threatening from everywhere, fled to his last refuge on Mount Gunib, having only 332 people with him. the most fanatical murids from all over Dagestan. On August 25, Gunib was taken by storm, and Shamil himself was captured by Prince Baryatinsky.

End of the War: Conquest of Circassia (1859-1864)

The capture of Gunib and the capture of Shamil could be considered the last act of the war in the Eastern Caucasus; but there still remained the western part of the region, inhabited by warlike tribes hostile to Russia. It was decided to conduct actions in the Trans-Kuban region in accordance with the system adopted in recent years. The native tribes had to submit and move to the places indicated to them on the plane; otherwise, they were pushed further into the barren mountains, and the lands they left behind were populated by Cossack villages; finally, after pushing the natives from the mountains to the seashore, they could either move to the plain, under our closest supervision, or move to Turkey, in which it was supposed to provide them with possible assistance. To quickly implement this plan, Prince. Baryatinsky decided, at the beginning of the year, to strengthen the troops of the right wing with very large reinforcements; but the uprising that broke out in the newly calmed Chechnya and partly in Dagestan forced us to temporarily abandon this. Actions against the small gangs there, led by stubborn fanatics, dragged on until the end of the year, when all attempts at indignation were finally suppressed. Only then was it possible to begin decisive operations on the right wing, the leadership of which was entrusted to the conqueror of Chechnya,

Caucasian War 1817-64, military actions related to the annexation of Chechnya, Mountainous Dagestan and the North-Western Caucasus by Tsarist Russia. After the annexation of Georgia (1801) and Azerbaijan (1803), their territories were separated from Russia by the lands of Chechnya, Mountainous Dagestan (although legally Dagestan was annexed in 1813) and the North-West Caucasus, inhabited by warlike mountain peoples who raided the Caucasian fortified line, interfered with relations with Transcaucasia. After the end of the wars with Napoleonic France, tsarism was able to intensify military operations in this area. General A.P., appointed commander-in-chief in the Caucasus in 1816. Ermolov moved from individual punitive expeditions to a systematic advance into the depths of Chechnya and Mountainous Dagestan by surrounding mountainous areas with a continuous ring of fortifications, cutting clearings in difficult forests, laying roads and destroying “rebellious” villages. This forced the population either to move to the plane (plain) under the supervision of Russian garrisons, or to go into the depths of the mountains. The first period of the Caucasian War began with an order dated May 12, 1818 from General Ermolov to cross the Terek. Ermolov drew up a plan of offensive action, at the forefront of which was the widespread colonization of the region by the Cossacks and the formation of “layers” between hostile tribes by relocating loyal tribes there. In 1817 the left flank of the Caucasian line was moved from the Terek to the river. The Sunzha, in the middle reaches of which the fortification of Pregradny Stan was laid in October 1817, which was the first step in a systematic advance into the territories of the mountain peoples and actually marked the beginning of K.V. In 1818, the Grozny fortress was founded in the lower reaches of the Sunzha. A continuation of the Sunzhenskaya line were the fortresses of Vnezapnaya (1819) and Burnaya (1821). In 1819, the Separate Georgian Corps was renamed the Separate Caucasian Corps and strengthened to 50 thousand people; The Black Sea Cossack army (up to 40 thousand people) in the North-West Caucasus was also subordinated to Ermolov. In 1818, a number of Dagestan feudal lords and tribes united and in 1819 began a campaign against the Sunzha line. But in 1819-21. they suffered a series of defeats, after which the possessions of these feudal lords were either transferred to Russian vassals with subordination to Russian commandants (the lands of the Kazikumukh Khan to the Kyurinsky Khan, the Avar Khan to Shamkhal Tarkovsky), or became dependent on Russia (the lands of Utsmiya Karakaitag), or were liquidated with the introduction of Russian administration ( Mehtuli Khanate, as well as the Azerbaijani Khanates of Sheki, Shirvan and Karabakh). In 1822 26 A number of punitive expeditions were carried out against the Circassians in the Trans-Kuban region.

The result of Ermolov's actions was the subjugation of almost all of Dagestan, Chechnya and Trans-Kubania. General I.F., who replaced Ermolov in March 1827 Paskevich abandoned a systematic advance with the consolidation of occupied territories and returned mainly to the tactics of individual punitive expeditions, although under him the Lezgin Line was created (1830). In 1828, in connection with the construction of the Military-Sukhumi road, the Karachay region was annexed. The expansion of colonization of the North Caucasus and the cruelty of the aggressive policy of Russian tsarism caused spontaneous mass uprisings of the mountaineers. The first of them occurred in Chechnya in July 1825: the highlanders, led by Bey-Bulat, captured the Amiradzhiyurt post, but their attempts to take Gerzel and Grozny failed, and in 1826 the uprising was suppressed. At the end of the 20s. in Chechnya and Dagestan, a movement of mountaineers arose under the religious cover of muridism, an integral part of which was ghazavat (Jihad) “holy war” against the “infidels” (i.e. Russians). In this movement, the liberation struggle against the colonial expansion of tsarism was combined with opposition to the oppression of local feudal lords. The reactionary side of the movement was the struggle of the top of the Muslim clergy for the creation of a feudal-theocratic state of the imamate. This isolated supporters of Muridism from other peoples, incited fanatical hatred of non-Muslims, and most importantly, preserved backward feudal forms of social structure. The movement of the highlanders under the flag of Muridism was the impetus for expanding the scale of the KV, although some peoples of the North Caucasus and Dagestan (for example, Kumyks, Ossetians, Ingush, Kabardians, etc.) did not join this movement. This was explained, firstly, by the fact that some of these peoples could not be carried away by the slogan of Muridism due to their Christianization (part of the Ossetians) or the weak development of Islam (for example, Kabardians); secondly, the “carrot and stick” policy pursued by tsarism, with the help of which it managed to attract part of the feudal lords and their subjects to its side. These peoples did not oppose Russian rule, but their situation was difficult: they were under the double oppression of tsarism and local feudal lords.

The second period of the Caucasian War represents the bloody and formidable era of Muridism. At the beginning of 1829, Kazi-Mulla (or Gazi-Magomed) arrived in the Tarkov Shankhaldom (a state on the territory of Dagestan in the late 15th - early 19th centuries) with his sermons, while receiving complete freedom of action from the shamkhal. Having gathered his comrades, he began to go around aul after aul, calling on “sinners to take the righteous path, instruct the lost and crush the criminal authorities of the auls.” Gazi-Magomed (Kazi-mullah), proclaimed imam in December 1828 and put forward the idea of ​​​​unifying the peoples of Chechnya and Dagestan. But some feudal lords (Avar Khan, Shamkhal Tarkovsky, etc.), who adhered to the Russian orientation, refused to recognize the authority of the imam. Gazi-Magomed's attempt to capture the capital of Avaria, Khunzakh, in February 1830 was unsuccessful, although the expedition of the tsarist troops in 1830 to Gimry failed and only led to the strengthening of the imam's influence. In 1831, the murids took Tarki and Kizlyar, besieged Burnaya and Vnezapnaya; their detachments also operated in Chechnya, near Vladikavkaz and Grozny, and with the support of the rebel Tabasarans they besieged Derbent. Significant territories (Chechnya and most of Dagestan) came under the authority of the imam. However, from the end of 1831 the uprising began to decline due to the desertion of the peasantry from the murids, dissatisfied with the fact that the imam had not fulfilled his promise to eliminate class inequality. As a result of large expeditions of Russian troops in Chechnya, undertaken by the commander-in-chief in the Caucasus, General G.V., appointed in September 1831. Rosen, the detachments of Gazi-Magomed were pushed back to Mountainous Dagestan. The imam with a handful of murids took refuge in Gimry, where he died on October 17, 1832 during the capture of the village by Russian troops. Gamzat-bek was proclaimed the second imam, whose military successes attracted almost all the peoples of Mountain Dagestan, including some of the Avars, to his side; however, the ruler of Avaria, Hansha Pahu-bike, refused to speak out against Russia. In August 1834, Gamzat-bek captured Khunzakh and exterminated the family of Avar khans, but as a result of a conspiracy by their supporters, he was killed on September 19, 1834. In the same year, Russian troops, in order to stop the relations of the Circassians with Turkey, conducted an expedition to the Trans-Kuban region and laid the fortifications of Abinsk and Nikolaevskoe.

Shamil was proclaimed the third imam in 1834. The Russian command sent a large detachment against him, which destroyed the village of Gotsatl (the main residence of the murids) and forced Shamil’s troops to retreat from Avaria. Believing that the movement was largely suppressed, Rosen remained inactive for 2 years. During this time, Shamil, having chosen the village of Akhulgo as his base, subjugated part of the elders and feudal lords of Chechnya and Dagestan, brutally dealing with those feudal lords who did not want to obey him, and won wide support among the masses. In 1837, the detachment of General K.K. Fezi occupied Khunzakh, Untsukul and part of the village of Tilitl, where Shamil’s troops retreated, but due to heavy losses and lack of food, the tsarist troops found themselves in a difficult situation, and on July 3, 1837, Fezi concluded a truce with Shamil. This truce and the withdrawal of the tsarist troops were actually their defeat and strengthened the authority of Shamil. In the North-West Caucasus, Russian troops in 1837 founded the fortifications of the Holy Spirit, Novotroitskoye, Mikhailovskoye. In March 1838, Rosen was replaced by General E.A. Golovin, under whom the fortifications of Navaginskoye, Velyaminovskoye, Tenginskoye and Novorossiysk were created in the North-West Caucasus in 1838. The truce with Shamil turned out to be temporary, and in 1839 hostilities resumed. Detachment of General P.Kh. Grabbe, after an 80-day siege, captured the residence of Shamil Akhulgo on August 22, 1839; The wounded Shamil and his murids broke through to Chechnya. On the Black Sea coast in 1839, the Golovinskoye and Lazarevskoye fortifications were laid and the Black Sea coastline from the mouth of the river was created. Kuban to the borders of Megrelia; in 1840 the Labinsk line was created, but soon the tsarist troops suffered a number of major defeats: the rebel Circassians in February April 1840 captured the fortifications of the Black Sea coastline (Lazarevskoye, Velyaminovskoye, Mikhailovskoye, Nikolaevskoye). In the Eastern Caucasus, the Russian administration's attempt to disarm the Chechens sparked an uprising that spread throughout Chechnya and then spread to Mountainous Dagestan. After stubborn battles in the area of ​​​​the Gekhinsky forest and on the river. Valerik (July 11, 1840) Russian troops occupied Chechnya, the Chechens went to Shamil’s troops operating in Northwestern Dagestan. In 1840-43, despite the strengthening of the Caucasian Corps by an infantry division, Shamil won a number of major victories, occupied Avaria and established his power in a large part of Dagestan, expanding the territory of the Imamate by more than doubling and increasing the number of his troops to 20 thousand people. In October 1842, Golovin was replaced by General A. I. Neigardt and 2 more infantry divisions were transferred to the Caucasus, which made it possible to somewhat push back Shamil’s troops. But then Shamil, again seizing the initiative, occupied Gergebil on November 8, 1843 and forced the Russian troops to leave Avaria. In December 1844, Neigardt was replaced by General M.S. Vorontsov, who in 1845 captured and destroyed Shamil’s residence, aul Dargo. However, the highlanders surrounded Vorontsov’s detachment, which barely managed to escape, having lost 1/3 of its personnel, all its guns and convoy. In 1846, Vorontsov returned to Ermolov’s tactics of conquering the Caucasus. Shamil’s attempts to disrupt the enemy’s offensive were unsuccessful (in 1846, the failure of the breakthrough into Kabarda, in 1848, the fall of Gergebil, in 1849, the failure of the assault on Temir-Khan-Shura and the breakthrough in Kakheti); in 1849-52 Shamil managed to occupy Kazikumukh, but by the spring of 1853 his troops were finally driven out of Chechnya to Mountainous Dagestan, where the position of the highlanders also became difficult. In the North-Western Caucasus, the Urup Line was created in 1850, and in 1851 the uprising of Circassian tribes led by Shamil's governor Muhammad-Emin was suppressed. On the eve of the Crimean War of 1853-56, Shamil, counting on the help of Great Britain and Turkey, intensified his actions and in August 1853 tried to break through the Lezgin line at Zagatala, but failed. In November 1853, Turkish troops were defeated at Bashkadyklar, and Circassian attempts to seize the Black Sea and Labinsk lines were repulsed. In the summer of 1854, Turkish troops launched an offensive against Tiflis; At the same time, Shamil’s troops, breaking through the Lezgi line, invaded Kakheti, captured Tsinandali, but were detained by the Georgian militia, and then defeated by Russian troops. Defeat in 1854-55. The Turkish army finally dispelled Shamil's hopes for outside help. By this time, what had begun in the late 40s had deepened. internal crisis of the Imamate. The actual transformation of Shamil's governors, the naibs, into self-interested feudal lords, whose cruel rule aroused the indignation of the mountaineers, exacerbated social contradictions, and the peasants began to gradually move away from Shamil's movement (in 1858, an uprising against Shamil's power even broke out in Chechnya in the Vedeno region). The weakening of the Imamate was also facilitated by devastation and heavy casualties in a long, unequal struggle in conditions of shortages of ammunition and food. The conclusion of the Paris Peace Treaty of 1856 allowed tsarism to concentrate significant forces against Shamil: the Caucasian Corps was transformed into an army (up to 200 thousand people). The new commanders-in-chief, General N. N. Muravyov (1854 56) and General A.I. Baryatinsky (1856 60) continued to tighten the blockade ring around the Imamate with a strong consolidation of the occupied territories. In April 1859, Shamil's residence, the village of Vedeno, fell. Shamil with 400 murids fled to the village of Gunib. As a result of the concentric movements of three detachments of Russian troops, Gunib was surrounded and taken by storm on August 25, 1859; Almost all the murids died in battle, and Shamil was forced to surrender. In the Northwestern Caucasus, the disunity of the Circassian and Abkhazian tribes facilitated the actions of the tsarist command, which took away fertile lands from the mountaineers and handed them over to the Cossacks and Russian settlers, carrying out the mass eviction of the mountain peoples. In November 1859, the main forces of the Circassians (up to 2 thousand people) led by Muhammad-Emin capitulated. The lands of the Circassians were cut by the Belorechensk line with the Maykop fortress. In 1859 61 the construction of clearings, roads and the settlement of lands seized from the highlanders were carried out. In mid-1862, resistance to the colonialists intensified. To occupy the territory remaining with the mountaineers with a population of about 200 thousand people. in 1862, up to 60 thousand soldiers were concentrated under the command of General N.I. Evdokimov, who began advancing along the coast and deep into the mountains. In 1863, tsarist troops occupied the territory between the rivers. Belaya and Pshish, and by mid-April 1864 the entire coast to Navaginsky and the territory to the river. Laba (along the northern slope of the Caucasus ridge). Only the highlanders of the Akhchipsu society and the small tribe of Khakuchi in the valley of the river did not submit. Mzymta. Pushed to the sea or driven into the mountains, the Circassians and Abkhazians were forced either to move to the plain or, under the influence of the Muslim clergy, to emigrate to Turkey. The unpreparedness of the Turkish government to receive, accommodate and feed masses of people (up to 500 thousand people), the arbitrariness and violence of local Turkish authorities and difficult living conditions caused a high mortality rate among the displaced, a small part of whom returned to the Caucasus again. By 1864, Russian control was introduced in Abkhazia, and on May 21, 1864, tsarist troops occupied the last center of resistance of the Circassian Ubykh tribe, the Kbaadu tract (now Krasnaya Polyana). This day is considered the date of the end of K.V., although in fact military operations continued until the end of 1864, and in the 60-70s. Anti-colonial uprisings took place in Chechnya and Dagestan.

About the Caucasian War in brief

Kavkazskaya vojna (1817—1864)

The Caucasian War began
Caucasian War causes
Caucasian War stages
Caucasian War results

The Caucasian War, in short, is a period of prolonged military conflict between the Russian Empire and the North Caucasian Imamate. The war was fought for the complete subjugation of the mountainous regions of the North Caucasus, and is one of the most fierce in the 19th century. Covers the period from 1817 to 1864.

Close relations between Russia and the peoples of the Caucasus began after the collapse of Georgia in the 15th century. Since the 16th century, many oppressed states of the Caucasus range asked for protection from Russia.

The main reason for the Caucasian War, in short, was that Georgia, the only Christian state in the Caucasus, was constantly under attack and attempts to subjugate it from neighboring Muslim countries. Repeatedly, the rulers of Georgia asked for Russian protection. In 1801, Georgia formally became part of the Russian Empire, but was isolated from it by neighboring countries. There was a need to create the integrity of Russian territory. This was possible only with the subjugation of other peoples of the North Caucasus.

Some states became part of Russia almost voluntarily - Kabarda and Ossetia. The rest - Adygea, Chechnya and Dagestan - categorically refused to do this and put up fierce resistance.
In 1817, the main stage of the conquest of the North Caucasus by Russian troops began under the leadership of General A.P. Ermolova. It was after his appointment as commander of the army in the North Caucasus that the Caucasian War began. Until this time, the Russian authorities were rather lenient towards the mountaineers.
The difficulty of conducting military operations in the Caucasus was that at the same time the Russian Empire had to participate in the Russian-Turkish and Russian-Iranian war.

The second stage of the Caucasian War is associated with the emergence of a single leader in Chechnya and Dagestan - Imam Shamil. He managed to unite disparate peoples and start a “gazavat” - a liberation war - against the Russian troops. Shamil was able to quickly create a strong army and for 30 years waged successful military operations with Russian troops, who suffered huge losses in this war.

Caucasian War 1817-1864

“It is just as difficult to enslave the Chechens and other peoples of the region as it is to smooth out the Caucasus.
This task is accomplished not with bayonets, but with time and enlightenment.
So<….>they will make another expedition, knock down several people,
they will defeat a crowd of unsettled enemies, lay some kind of fortress
and will return home to await autumn again.
This course of action could bring Ermolov great personal benefits,
and no Russia<….>
But at the same time, there is something majestic in this continuous war,
and the temple of Janus for Russia, as for ancient Rome, will not be lost.
Who, besides us, can boast that they have seen eternal war?
From a letter from M.F. Orlova - A.N. Raevsky. 10/13/1820

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

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

In fact, Russia’s penetration into the North Caucasus region
began long before and proceeded slowly but persistently.

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

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

The main prince of Kabarda Temryuk Idarov sends an official embassy in 1557
with a request to accept Kabarda “under the high hand” of powerful Russia
for protection from the Crimean-Turkish conquerors.
On the eastern shore of the Sea of ​​Azov, near the mouth of the Kuban River, there still exists
the city of Temryuk, founded in 1570 by Temryuk Idarov,
as a fortress to protect against Crimean raids.

Since Catherine’s time, after the Russian-Turkish wars that were victorious for Russia,
annexation of Crimea and the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region,
the struggle for the steppe space of the North Caucasus began
- for the Kuban and Terek steppes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Treaty of Georgievsk of the same year established a Russian protectorate over Eastern Georgia
- Russia’s priority in Georgia’s foreign policy and its protection from the expansion of Turkey and Persia.

A fortress on the site of the village of Kapkai (mountain gate), erected in 1784,
receives the name Vladikavkaz - owning the Caucasus.
Here, near Vladikavkaz, the construction of the Georgian Military Road begins
- mountain road through the Main Caucasus Range,
connecting the North Caucasus with the new Transcaucasian possessions of Russia.

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

But the North Caucasus, especially its mountainous part, is still far from being subjugated.
The oaths given by some North Caucasian feudal lords
were mainly of a declarative nature.
in fact, the entire mountainous zone of the North Caucasus did not obey
Russian military administration.
Moreover, dissatisfaction with the harsh colonial policy of tsarism
all layers of the mountain population (feudal elite, clergy, mountain peasantry)
caused a number of spontaneous protests, sometimes of a massive nature.
A reliable road connecting Russia with its now vast
There are no Transcaucasian possessions yet.
Driving along the Georgian Military Road was dangerous
- the road is susceptible to attacks by mountaineers.

With the end of the Napoleonic wars, Alexander I
speeds up the conquest of the North Caucasus.

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

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

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

In 1817-1818 Ermolov advanced deep into the territory of Chechnya,
pushing the left flank of the “Caucasian Line” to the line of the Sunzha River,
where he founded several fortified points, including the Grozny fortress,
(since 1870 the city of Grozny, now the destroyed capital of Chechnya).
Chechnya, where the most warlike of the mountain peoples lived,
covered at that time with impenetrable forests, was
natural inaccessible fortress and in order to overcome it,
Ermolov cut down wide clearings in the forests, providing access to the Chechen villages.

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

In support of the armed uprisings of the Chechens defending their land,
Most of the Dagestan rulers united in 1819 into a military Union.
Persia, extremely interested in the confrontation between the mountaineers of Russia,
behind which England also stood, provides financial assistance to the Union.

The Caucasian Corps has been strengthened to 50 thousand people,
The Black Sea Cossack Army and another 40 thousand people were assigned to help him.
In 1819-1821, Ermolov undertook a series of punitive raids
to the mountainous regions of Dagestan.
The mountaineers resist desperately. Independence for them is the main thing in life.
No one expressed submission, not even women and children.
It can be said without exaggeration that in these battles in the Caucasus every man
was a warrior, every village was a fortress, every fortress was the capital of a warlike state.

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

In 1821-1822 the center of the Caucasian line was advanced.
Fortifications built at the foot of the Black Mountains
the exits from the Cherek, Chegem, and Baksan gorges were closed.
Kabardians and Ossetians are pushed out of areas suitable for farming.

An experienced politician and diplomat, General Ermolov understood that by one force of arms,
Only punitive expeditions will put an end to the resistance of the mountaineers
almost impossible.
Other measures are also needed.
He declared the rulers subject to Russia free from all duties,
free to dispose of the land as they wish.
For local princes and shahs who recognized the power of the tsar, their rights were restored
over the former subject peasants.
However, this did not lead to pacification.
The main force opposing the invasion was not the feudal lords,
and the mass of free peasants.

In 1823, an uprising broke out in Dagestan, raised by Ammalat-bek,
it takes Ermolov several months to suppress.
Before the outbreak of war with Persia in 1826, the region was relatively calm.
But in 1825, in Chechnya, which had already been conquered, a widespread uprising broke out,
led by the famous equestrian, national hero of Chechnya - Bey Bulat,
covering the entire Greater Chechnya.
In January 1826, a decisive battle took place on the Argun River,
in which thousands of forces of Chechens and Lezgins were scattered.
Ermolov went through the whole of Chechnya, cutting down forests and cruelly punishing rebellious villages.
The lines involuntarily come to mind:

But behold, the East raises its howl! ...

Drop your snowy head,

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

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

In Lermontov’s poem “Izmail Bek” it sounds like this:

The villages are burning; they have no protection...

Like a predatory beast, into a humble abode

The winner bursts in with bayonets;

He kills old men and children,

Innocent maidens and mothers

He caresses with a bloody hand...

Meanwhile, General Ermolov
- one of the most progressive major Russian military leaders of that time.
Opponent of Arakcheev settlements, drills and bureaucracy in the army,
he did a lot to improve the organization of the Caucasian Corps,
to make life easier for soldiers in their essentially indefinite and powerless service.

“December events” of 1825 in St. Petersburg
was also reflected in the leadership of the Caucasus.

Nicholas I recalled what he thought was an unreliable
close to the circles of the Decembrists, “ruler over the entire Caucasus” - Ermolov.
He has been unreliable since the time of Paul I.
For belonging to a secret officer circle opposed to the emperor,
Ermolov served several months in the Peter and Paul Fortress
and served exile in Kostroma.

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

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

From about the mid-twenties of the 19th century, even under Ermolov,
The struggle of the mountaineers of Dagestan and Chechnya takes on a religious overtones - muridism.

In the Caucasian version, muridism proclaimed,
that the main path to getting closer to God lies for every “truth seeker - murid”
through the fulfillment of the covenants of gazavat.
Execution of Sharia without ghazavat is not salvation.

The widespread spread of this movement, especially in Dagestan,
was based on the unity of a multilingual mass on religious grounds
free mountain peasantry.
Based on the number of languages ​​spoken in the Caucasus, it can be called
linguistic "Noah's Ark".
Four language groups, more than forty dialects.
Dagestan is especially colorful in this regard, where even single-aul languages ​​existed.
The success of muridism was also greatly facilitated by the fact that Islam penetrated into Dagestan back in the 12th century.
and had deep roots here, while in the western part of the North Caucasus he began
was established only in the 16th century, and two centuries later the influence of paganism was still felt here.

What the feudal rulers failed to do: princes, khans, beks
- unite the Eastern Caucasus into a single force
- the Muslim clergy succeeded, combining in one person
religious and secular principles.
The Eastern Caucasus, infected with the deepest religious fanaticism,
became a formidable force that Russia with its two hundred thousand strong army could overcome
it took almost three decades.

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

A fanatic, a passionate preacher of gazavat, he managed to excite the mountain masses
promises of heavenly bliss and, last but not least,
promises of complete independence from any authorities other than Allah and Sharia.

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

Avar bey Gamzat was proclaimed imam.
An enemy and murderer of the Avar khans, he himself died two years later at the hands of the conspirators,
one of whom was Hadji Murat, the second figure after Shamil in Gazavat.
The dramatic events that led to the death of the Avar khans, Gamzat,
and even Hadji Murad himself formed the basis for L. N. Gorskaya Tolstoy’s story “Hadji Murad”.

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

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

Shamil divided the areas under his control into “naibstvos”.
Each naib had to come to war with a certain number of warriors,
organized into hundreds, dozens.
Understanding the meaning of ar
tillery, Shamil created a primitive production of cannons
and ammunition for them.
But still, the nature of the war for the mountaineers remains the same - partisan.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In 1844, Nicholas I sent commander of troops to the Caucasus
and the governor of the emperor with extraordinary powers, Count M.S. Vorontsova
(since August 1845 he has been a prince),
that same Pushkin “half-my-lord, half-merchant”,
one of the best administrators in Russia at that time.

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

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

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

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

Liberal policies and numerous promises significantly influenced
to the mountaineers who expressed humility, especially characteristic of Prince A.I. Baryatinsky,
who in 1856 became the commander-in-chief and viceroy of the Tsar in the Caucasus.
The gold and silver he distributed was no less powerful,
than “fitters” - guns with rifled barrels - the new Russian weapon.

Shamil's last major successful raid occurred in 1854 in Georgia
during the Eastern (Crimean) War of 1853-1855.
The Turkish Sultan, interested in joint actions with Shamil,
awarded him the title of Generalissimo of the Circassian and Georgian troops.
Shamil gathered about 15 thousand people and, breaking through the cordons,
descended to the Alazani Valley, where, having destroyed several of the richest estates,
captivated the Georgian princesses: Anna Chavchavadze and Varvara Orbeliani,
granddaughters of the last Georgian king.

In exchange for the princesses, Shamil demands the return of the prisoner in 1839
son of Djemal-Eddin,
by that time he was already a lieutenant of the Vladimir Uhlan regiment and a Russophile.
It is possible that under the influence of his son, but rather due to the defeat of the Turks near Karsk and in Georgia,
Shamil did not take active steps in support of Turkey.

With the end of the Eastern War, active Russian actions resumed,
primarily in Chechnya.

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

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

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

The life of Shamil with his entire family: wives, sons, daughters and sons-in-law
in the Kaluga golden cage under the watchful supervision of the authorities
This is already the life of another person.
After repeated requests, he was allowed to travel with his family to Medina in 1870
(Arabia), where he dies in February 1871.

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

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

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

The result of the wars of 1826-1829. agreements concluded with Iran and Turkey came into being,
according to which Transcaucasia from the Black to the Caspian Sea became Russian.
With the annexation of Transcaucasia, the eastern coast of the Black Sea from Anapa to Poti
- also a possession of Russia.
The Adjara coast (Principality of Adjara) became part of Russia only in 1878.

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

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

It's that simple - extermination.

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

Since 1831, the construction of protective fortifications of the Black Sea coastline began:
fortresses, forts, etc., blocking the access of the mountaineers to the coast.
The fortifications were located at the mouths of rivers, in valleys or in ancient
settlements that previously belonged to the Turks: Anapa, Sukhum, Poti, Redut-Kale.
Advancement along the seashore and construction of roads with desperate resistance from the mountaineers
cost countless victims.
It was decided to establish fortifications by landing troops from the sea,
and this required a considerable number of lives.

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

During the landing from the sea, he died, went missing,
Ensign Alexander Bestuzhev-Marlinsky - poet, writer, publisher, ethnographer of the Caucasus,
active participant in the “December 14” events.

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

But the mountainous regions are still unruly.

Events related to the founding and defense of strongholds
The Black Sea coastline, perhaps,
most dramatic in the history of the Caucasian War.

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

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

With the outbreak of the Eastern War, when the position of forts and fortifications became hopeless
- supplies are completely interrupted, the Russian Black Sea fleet is flooded,
forts between two fires - the Highlanders and the Anglo-French fleet,
Nicholas I decides to abolish the “line”, withdraw garrisons, blow up forts,
which was urgently accomplished.

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

The Circassians and Abkhazians, pushed to the sea or driven into the mountains, were given a choice:
move to the plain or emigrate to Turkey.
More than 500 thousand of them went to Turkey, Then they were repeated more than once.
But these are just riots of the subjects of His Highness the Emperor,
demanding only pacification, and pacification.

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

But there was logic in Russia’s brutal war for the Caucasus,
in the heroic struggle of the mountaineers for their independence.

The more senseless it seems
as an attempt to restore the Sharia state in Chechnya at the end of the twentieth century,
and Russia’s methods of countering this.
A thoughtless, endless war of ambitions - countless victims and suffering of peoples.
The war that transformed Chechnya, and not only Chechnya
to the testing ground of Islamic international terrorism.

Israel. Jerusalem

Notes

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

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

It all started in the 16th century, after Ivan the Terrible captured the Astrakhan Khanate,
then Suvorov chopped off a ton of territory.
Formally, the beginning of this undeclared war between Russia and the mountain peoples
northern slope of the Caucasus can be dated back to 1816,
i.e. almost 200 years of continuous war...

The appearance of the World is not the World.
In vain do Putin and Co. hope for “good neighborliness”
and assistance in the fight against “dissenters.”
Before the first bucha... twang with beads... that "Allah gave" they will take it and screw a knife INTO YOUR BACK.
So it was, so it will be.
The Highlanders, apparently posted on the Internet, have not changed at all.
Civilization has not reached them.
They live by their own laws. Only the “cunning ass” has grown.
It’s in vain that Putin feeds the Beast, lest they bite off the giving hand...

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

Causes of the war

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

Historians identify the following main reasons for the Caucasian War:

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

Progress and main stages

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

First stage (1817-1819)

This is the period of the first partisan actions in Abkhazia and Chechnya. The relationship between Russia and the peoples of the Caucasus was finally complicated by General Ermolov, who began to build fortified fortresses to control the local peoples, and also ordered the resettlement of the highlanders to the plains around the mountains, for stricter supervision over them. This caused a wave of protest, which further intensified the guerrilla war and further escalated the conflict.

Map of the Caucasian War 1817 1864

Second stage (1819-1824)

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

Third stage (1824-1828)

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

Muridism is an Islamic teaching about the path to salvation through an associated war - ghazavat. The basis of Murism is the obligatory participation in the war against the “infidels”.

Historical reference

Fourth stage (1828-1833)

In 1828, a serious complication occurred in relations between the highlanders and the Russian army. Local tribes create the first independent mountain state during the war years - the Imamate. The first imam is Ghazi-Muhamed, the founder of muridism. He was the first to declare gazavat to Russia, but in 1832 he died during one of the battles.

Fifth stage (1833-1859)

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

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

Sixth stage (1859-1864)

After the defeat of the Shamil Imamate from 1859 to 1864, the final period of the war occurs. These were small local resistances that could be eliminated very quickly. In 1864, they managed to completely break the resistance of the highlanders. Russia ended a difficult and problematic war with victory.

Main results

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

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

But despite the successful conclusion of the war, Russia acquired a complex and turbulent region that required increased resources to maintain order, as well as additional protection measures due to Turkish interests in this area. This was the Caucasian War for the Russian Empire.