Wars in the North Caucasus in the 19th century. The population of the North Caucasus in the first half of the 19th century

By the end of the 19th century, the proportion of the Russian population increased here, primarily due to the migration of peasants from the central provinces of Russia. In the Stavropol province, Kuban and Terek regions, they were called "out-of-town". Having no rights to land, they are forced to engage in crafts and trade.

During this period, the development of the remaining virgin lands continues, and the role of commercial agriculture increases accordingly. By the end of the 19th century, the North Caucasus, along with the Ukrainian and central black earth, became the breadbasket of the Russian Empire. Sale to the market grain, meat, leather becomes the main profile of the Caucasus. For the quick export of products, construction is carried out railroads and highways.

In 1875, traffic was opened along the Rostov-Vladikavkaz railway, which connected the region with the rest of Russia. In 1878, the railway line Tikhoretskaya - Ekaterinodar was opened. In 1896 - Caucasian - Stavropol. In 1899 - Tikhoretskaya - Tsaritsin.

The appearance of roads enhances the importance of cities, contributes to rapid growth settlements along highways. The need to export agricultural raw materials increases the role of ports.

Drawing the North Caucasus into the all-Russian market increased the capitalization of this region and contributed to the formation of international economic ties. At the end of the 19th century, agricultural products of the Kuban region were exported to Germany, Holland, Denmark, Italy, Belgium, France and England.

In addition to agricultural raw materials, natural resources were actively developed. Several mines for the extraction of polymetals operated in Ossetia. Oil was developed in Adygea and Chechnya.

The North Caucasus and Russia as a whole were characterized by the following features:

• uneven development of some regions and regions;
• communal survivals;
• backlog of infrastructure from production.

Civilizational difficulties of mountain dwellers entering the Russian economic and social space

Not the entire Slavic population took part in capitalist relations, the old-fashioned methods were still used in agriculture, and the population itself hardly had an idea of ​​​​the advanced methods of agricultural technology.

Indigenous highlanders were even less involved in the market. Objectively, in order to participate in the business life of the country, it was necessary to join Russian civilizational values. For a long time, this was available only to the mountain nobility, especially those peoples where social differentiation had developed (Ossetians, Kabardians, Abazins, Kumyks).

Princes and nobles were enrolled in the royal service, received awards, money, land. Representatives of noble families studied at universities. In the Stavropol gymnasium for the period 1850-1887, 1839 highlanders received education.

In general, the highlanders had few nobility, the bulk of the population were communal peasants. Being illiterate, dark, they steadfastly held on to their tribal customs, faith, language, and suspiciously perceived everything new coming from the authorities, giaours (kafir).

The final end did not at all mean the automatic end of the enmity between the Russians and the highlanders. Anti-Russian sentiments also took place after the end. For example, in 1864-1865 the performance Zikrist sects under the leadership of Kunta-Khadzhi, later, Kadiriyya, mountainous Chechnya. In 1868 - unrest of the Circassians in the villages along the Khodz River. Spring-summer 1877 - an uprising in Chechnya and Dagestan under the slogans for freedom and sharia. All these performances were not without the instigation of the Muslim clergy and Turkish agents.

These facts did not testify to the universal anti-Russian mood of all mountaineers. During the uprising of 1887, part of the Dagestanis fought with the Russian units, the other part voluntarily signed up for the mounted police, which helped to suppress the uprising. During the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878, several hundred Caucasian highlanders fought against the Turks. In these battles, the Ingush squadron and the Ossetian division distinguished themselves during the liberation of Bulgaria. In Transcaucasia, the Kabardino-Kumyk and Chechen formations showed themselves.

The tsarist government used the qualities and natural militancy of the highlanders, and therefore many of them in military service reached military ranks and positions in society. The composition included two villages, Chernoyarskaya and Novoossetinskaya, whose population consisted of Ossetians.

In addition to military activities, the highlanders also achieved success in economic areas. In the late 19th - early 20th centuries, the resorts of the Caucasian Mineralnye Vody were almost entirely supplied with meat and dairy products(butter factory Blandova and T. Bacherova). In Balkaria - cheese making. They formed their own regions of specialization. Karachaevsk and Balkaria - sheep breeding. Kabarda and Adygea - horse breeding. Dagestan - gardening And viticulture.

Some of the highlanders, unable to engage in traditional activities, turned into hired workers. In 1897, 356 Dagestanis and 993 in the Terek region worked at various enterprises in European Russia. On the Baku oil fields about 3,000 Dagestanis worked.

Cultural change among indigenous peoples

Introducing highlanders to values Russian civilization contributed not only to economic ties, but also to the cultural and educational activities of the Russian state. In 1881, a real school where local highlanders begin to study. In 185 - library. In 1897 - female gymnasium. By the end of the 19th century, there were 26 schools, although general literacy population remained low (9-10%).

Having received knowledge in Russian schools, gymnasiums, and colleges, the highlanders became enlighteners of their own peoples. In the second half of the 19th century, there largest number local researchers, future national intelligentsia. For example, works are printed Abduly Omarov on the history of the Laks; works on the ethnography of the Avars Aidamir Cherkeevsky; Balshit Dalgat, after graduating from the law faculty of St. Petersburg University, he publishes a work on the religious beliefs of the Chechens. A native of Ingushetia Chakh Akhriev collects materials on the material and spiritual culture of the Ingush, publishes their legends and traditions. Representative of the Cabara Kazi Atazhukin publishes the Kabardian alphabet, publishes articles about the Circassians.

The most capable of the highlanders became not only educators, they mastered other occupations. At the beginning of the 20th century, a Chechen businessman and oilman gained fame Tapa Chermoev.

The bulk of the mountain population as a whole was slowly drawn into the all-Russian market, weakly attached to culture. Nevertheless, as part of the Russian Empire, all local peoples got the opportunity to preserve their language and culture, and demographically, they found themselves in favorable conditions. If in 1897 there were approximately 65,000 of all Adyghes in the Kuban region, then in 1917 - 100,000 people. The highlanders of the North Caucasus, except for volunteers, were not subject to universal military service, which had a positive effect on demographic processes.

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Caucasian War 1817-1864

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

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

Formally, the beginning of this undeclared war between Russia and the mountain peoples of the northern slope of the Caucasus can be attributed to 1816, by the time Lieutenant General Alexei Petrovich Yermolov, the hero of the Battle of Borodino, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Caucasian army.

In fact, the penetration of Russia into the North Caucasus region began long before that and proceeded slowly but steadily. Back in the 16th century, after the capture of the Astrakhan Khanate by Ivan the Terrible, on the western coast of the Caspian Sea at the mouth of the Terek River, the Tarki fortress was founded, which became the starting point for penetration into the North Caucasus from the Caspian Sea, the birthplace of the Terek Cossacks.

In the kingdom of Grozny, Russia acquires, although more formally, a mountainous region in the center of the Caucasus - Kabarda. The chief prince of Kabarda, Temryuk Idarov, sent an official embassy in 1557 with a request to take Kabarda "under the high hand" of powerful Russia in order to protect it 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 the raids of the Crimeans.

Since Catherine's time, after the victorious Russian-Turkish wars for Russia, the annexation of the Crimea and the steppes of the Northern Black Sea coast, the struggle for the steppe space of the North Caucasus - for the Kuban and Terek steppes - began. Lieutenant-General Alexander Vasilievich Suvorov, appointed in 1777 as commander of a corps in the Kuban, led the capture of these vast spaces. It was he who introduced the practice of scorched earth in this war, when everything recalcitrant was destroyed. The Kuban Tatars as an ethnic group disappeared forever in this struggle.

To consolidate the victory on the conquered lands, fortresses are founded, interconnected by cordon lines, separating the Caucasus from the already annexed territories. Two rivers become a natural border in the south of Russia: one flowing from the mountains to the east into the Caspian - Terek and the other flowing west to the Black Sea - the Kuban. By the end of the reign of Catherine II along the entire space from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea, at a distance of almost 2000 km. along the northern shores of the Kuban and the Terek there is a chain of defensive structures - the "Caucasian Line". For cordon service, 12,000 Black Sea, former Cossack Cossacks, who settled their villages along the northern bank of the Kuban River (Kuban Cossacks), were resettled.

The Caucasian line is a chain of small fortified Cossack villages surrounded by a moat, in front of which there is a high earthen rampart, on which there is a strong wattle fence made of thick brushwood, a watchtower, and several cannons. From fortification to fortification, there is a chain of cordons - several dozen people 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, the mutual penetration of completely different cultures of the Cossacks and mountaineers (language, clothing, weapons, women). “These Cossacks (Cossacks living on the Caucasian line) differ from the highlanders only in their unshaven head ... weapons, clothes, harness, tacks - everything is mountain.< ..... >Almost all of them speak Tatar, make friends with the highlanders, even have kinship through mutually kidnapped wives - but in the field they are inexorable enemies. A.A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky. Ammalat-back. Caucasian story. Meanwhile, the Chechens were no less afraid and suffered from the raids of the Cossacks than those from them.

In 1783, the king of united Kartli and Kakheti, Erekle II, appealed to Catherine II with a request to accept Georgia as Russian citizenship and protect it by Russian troops. The Georgievsk Treaty of the same year establishes a Russian protectorate over Eastern Georgia - Russia's priority in foreign policy Georgia and its protection from the expansion of Turkey and Persia.

The fortress on the site of the village Kapkay (mountain gate), erected in 1784, is called Vladikavkaz - owning the Caucasus. Here, near Vladikavkaz, the construction of the Georgian Military Road begins - a mountain road through the Main Caucasian Range, connecting the North Caucasus with the new Transcaucasian possessions of Russia.

In 1801, Alexander I published a manifesto, according to which Kartliya and Kakheti, at the request of their other owner - Tsar George, the heir of Erekle II, are completely reunited with Russia. the Artlian-Kakheti kingdom no longer exists. The response of the neighboring countries of Georgia, Persia and Turkey, was unequivocal. Supported alternately by either France or England, depending on events in Europe, they enter a period of long-term wars with Russia that ended in their defeat. Russia has new territorial acquisitions, including Dagestan and a number of khanates in northeastern Transcaucasia. By this time, the principalities of Western Georgia: Imeretia, Mingrelia and Guria voluntarily became part of Russia, though retaining their autonomy.

But the North Caucasus, especially its mountainous part, is still far from subjugation. The oaths given by some North Caucasian feudal lords were mostly declarative. In fact, the entire mountainous zone of the North Caucasus was not subject to the Russian military administration. Moreover, dissatisfaction with the tough colonial policy of tsarism of all strata of the mountain population (the feudal elite, the clergy, the mountain peasantry) caused a number of spontaneous uprisings, which were sometimes massive. There is still no reliable road linking Russia with its now vast Transcaucasian possessions. Movement along the Georgian Military Highway was dangerous - the road was subject 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. Yermolov as commander of the Separate Caucasian Corps, head of the civilian unit in Georgia. In fact, he is a governor, a full-fledged 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 had gone to Russia, Yermolov was promoted to general from infantry and, according to Peter's "table of ranks", becomes a full general.

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

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

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

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

The Caucasian corps was reinforced to 50 thousand people, the Black Sea Cossack army was attached to help it, and another 40 thousand people. In 1819-1821, Yermolov undertook a series of punitive raids into the mountainous regions of Dagestan. The mountaineers resist desperately. Independence for them is the main thing in life. Nobody expressed humility, even women and children. It can be said without exaggeration that in these battles in the Caucasus every man was a warrior, every aul 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, is completely subdued.

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

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

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

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

Hang with your snowy head

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

How this war of conquest was waged in the mountains is best judged in the words of the commander-in-chief himself: “The rebellious villages were devastated and burned, orchards and vineyards were cut down to the roots, and in many years the traitors will not return to their primitive state. Extreme poverty will be theirs.” execution..." In Lermontov's poem "Izmail-bek" it sounds like this:

Villages are burning; they have no protection...

How predatory beast, to a humble abode

The winner breaks in with bayonets;

He kills old people and children

Innocent maidens and mothers

He caresses with a bloody hand ...

Meanwhile, General Yermolov is one of the most progressive major Russian military leaders of that time. An opponent of the Arakcheev settlements, drill 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 unlimited and disenfranchised service.

The "December events" of 1825 in St. Petersburg also affected the leadership of the Caucasus. Nicholas I withdrew, as it seemed to him, unreliable, close to the circles of the Decembrists, "lord over the entire Caucasus" - Yermolov. He was unreliable since the time of Paul I. For belonging to a secret officer's circle opposed to the emperor, Yermolov served several months in prison. Peter and Paul Fortress and left the exile in Kostroma.

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

Approximately from the middle of the twenties of the 19th century, even under Yermolov, the struggle of the highlanders of Dagestan and Chechnya acquires a religious coloring - muridism. In the Caucasian version, muridism proclaimed that the main path of rapprochement with God lies for every "seeker of truth - murid" through the fulfillment of the precepts of the ghazavat. Fulfillment of Sharia without ghazawat is not salvation.

The wide distribution of this movement, especially in Dagestan, was based on the rallying on religious grounds of the multilingual mass of the free mountain peasantry. By the number of languages ​​that exist in the Caucasus, it can be called the language "Noah's ark". Four language groups, more than forty dialects. Especially motley in this respect is Dagestan, where even single-aul languages ​​existed. The fact that in Islam penetrated Dagestan back in the 12th century and had deep roots here, while in the western part of the North Caucasus it began to assert itself only in the 16th century, and two centuries later the influence of paganism was still felt here.

What the feudal lords (princes, khans, beks) failed to unite the Eastern Caucasus into a single force was succeeded by the Muslim clergy, who combined religious and secular principles in one person. The Eastern Caucasus, infected with the deepest religious fanaticism, has become a formidable force, to overcome which Russia with its two hundred thousandth army took almost three decades.

At the end of the twenties, the imam of Dagestan (imam in Arabic means standing in front) was proclaimed Mullah Gazi-Mohammed. A fanatic, a passionate preacher of ghazawat, he managed to excite the mountain masses with promises of heavenly bliss and, no less important, promises of complete independence from any authorities other than Allah and Sharia. The movement covered almost all of Dagestan. Opponents of the movement were only the Avar khans, who were not interested in the unification of Dagestan and acted in alliance with the Russians. Gazi-Muhammed, who carried out a series of raids on the Cossack villages, captured and devastated the city of Kizlyar, died in battle while defending one of the villages. His ardent supporter and friend - Shamil, wounded in this battle, survived.

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

After the death of Gamzat, Shamil, having killed the last heir of the Avar Khanate, becomes the imam of Dagestan and Chechnya. A brilliantly gifted person who studied with the best teachers of grammar, logic and rhetoric of the Arabic language in Dagestan, Shamil was considered an outstanding scientist of Dagestan. A man with an unbending, firm will, a brave warrior, he knew how not only to inspire and arouse fanaticism in the highlanders, but also to subordinate them to his will. His military talent and organizational skills, endurance, ability to choose the right moment for a strike created many difficulties for the Russian command in the conquest of the Eastern Caucasus. He was neither an English spy, nor, moreover, anyone's henchman, as he was at one time represented by Soviet propaganda. His goal was the same - to preserve the independence of the Eastern Caucasus, to create his own state (theocratic in form, but, in fact, totalitarian)

Shamil divided the regions subject to him into "naibstvos". Each naib had to come to war with a certain number of soldiers, organized into hundreds, dozens. Understanding the importance of artillery, Shamil created a primitive production of cannons and ammunition for them. But still, the nature of the war for the highlanders remains the same - partisan.

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

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

In the next two years, Shamil made a series of raids on villages subject to the Russians, 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 on an equal footing with men or committed suicide, preferring death to captivity. In this battle, Shamil loses his wife, son, his sister, nephews, over a thousand of his supporters die. Shamil's eldest son, Dzhemal-Eddin, was taken hostage. Shamil barely escapes from captivity, hiding in one of the caves above the river with only seven murids. The Russian battle also cost almost three thousand people killed and wounded.

At the All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod in 1896, in a specially built cylinder-shaped building with a circumference of 100 meters with a high half-glass dome, the battle panorama "Storm of the village of Akhulgo" was exhibited. Author - Franz Roubaud, whose name is well known to Russian fans visual arts and history based on 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. An unreasonable policy towards the Chechens, an attempt to take away their weapons lead to a general uprising in Chechnya. Chechnya has joined Shamil - he is the ruler of the entire Eastern Caucasus.

His base is in the village of Dargo, from where he made successful raids into Chechnya and Dagestan. Having destroyed a number of Russian fortifications and partly their garrisons, Shamil captured hundreds of prisoners, including even high-ranking officers, dozens of guns. The apogee was the capture by him at the end of 1843 of the village of Gergebil, the main stronghold of the Russians in Northern Dagestan. The authority and influence of Shamil increased so much that even the Dagestan beks in the Russian service, having high ranks, passed to him.

In 1844, Nicholas I sent Count M.S. Vorontsov (from August 1845 he was a prince), that same Pushkin "half-my lord, half-merchant", one of the best administrators of Russia at that time. The chief of staff of the Caucasian Corps was Prince A.I. Baryatinsky is a comrade of childhood and youth of the heir to the throne - Alexander. However, at the initial stages, their high ranks do not bring success.

In May 1845, the command of the formation aimed at capturing the capital of Shamil - Dargo was 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 was completely defeated, losing not only all property, but also over 3.5 thousand soldiers and officers. The attempt to regain the village of Gergebil was also unsuccessful for the Russians, the storming of which cost very heavy losses.

The turning point begins after 1847 and is associated not so much with partial military successes - the capture of Gergebil after the second siege, but with the fall in Shamil's popularity, mainly in Chechnya. There are many reasons for this. This is dissatisfaction with the harsh Sharia regime in relatively wealthy Chechnya, blocking predatory raids on Russian possessions and Georgia and, as a result, a decrease in the income of naibs, rivalry between naibs. The liberal policy and numerous promises to the mountaineers who expressed their obedience, especially inherent in Prince A.I., had a significant impact. Baryatinsky, who in 1856 became the commander-in-chief and viceroy of the tsar in the Caucasus. The gold and silver he handed out acted no less powerfully than the "fittings" - rifles with rifled barrels - the new Russian weapon.

Shamil's last major successful raid took place in 1854 against 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 into the Alazani Valley, where, having ruined several of the richest estates, he captured the Georgian princesses: Anna Chavchavadze and Varvara Orbeliani, the granddaughters of the last Georgian king.

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

With the end of the Eastern War, active Russian operations resumed, primarily in Chechnya. Lieutenant General N. I. Evdokimov, the son of a soldier and a former soldier himself, is the main associate of 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 generous promises of the governor to the obedient highlanders, decide the fate of Greater and Lesser Chechnya. In Chechnya, Shamil has only wooded Ichkeria, in whose fortified village Vedeno he concentrates his forces. With the fall of Vedeno, after its assault in the spring of 1859, Shamil lost the support of all of Chechnya, his main support.

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

The life of Shamil with his entire family: wives, sons, daughters and sons-in-law in the Kaluga golden cage under the vigilant supervision of the authorities is already the life of another person. After repeated requests, he was allowed in 1870 to leave with his family for Medina (Arabia), where he died 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 of the 200,000-strong Separate Caucasian Corps were moved.

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

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

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

In 1829, after signing an agreement with Turkey, Nicholas I wrote in a rescript addressed to Paskevich: more important is the pacification of the mountain peoples forever or the extermination of the recalcitrant.” That's as simple as extermination.

Based on this command, in the summer of 1830 Paskevich made an attempt to seize the coast, the so-called "Abkhaz expedition", occupying several settlements on the Abkhaz coast: Bombara, Pitsunda and Gagra. Further advance from the Gagra Gorges was shattered by 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 exit of the highlanders to the coast. Fortifications were located at the mouths of rivers, in valleys or in long-standing settlements that previously belonged to the Turks: Anapa, Sukhum, Poti, Redut-Kale. The advance along the seashore and the construction of roads, with the desperate resistance of the highlanders, cost countless victims. It was decided to establish fortifications by amphibious landings from the sea, and this required a considerable number of lives.

In June 1837, the fortification of the "Holy Spirit" was founded at Cape Ardiler (in Russian transcription - Adler). During the landing from the sea, ensign Alexander Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, a poet, writer, publisher, ethnographer of the Caucasus, an active participant in the events of December 14, died, went missing.

By the end of 1839, defensive structures already existed in twenty places along the Russian coast: 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.

The events associated with the foundation and defense of the strongholds of the Black Sea coastline are perhaps the 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 non-existent. The garrisons, from the Black Sea line battalions, remained in the same places throughout the existence of the "line", in fact, without a change and, as it were, on the islands. On the one hand the sea, on the other - the highlanders on the surrounding heights. It was not the Russian army that held back the highlanders, but they, the highlanders, kept the garrisons of fortifications under siege. Yet the biggest scourge was the damp Black Sea climate, diseases and, above all, malaria. Here is just one fact: in 1845, 18 people were killed along the entire "line", and 2427 died of diseases.

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

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

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 Yermolov's: cutting down forests, building roads and fortifications, driving the highlanders into the mountains. By 1864, the troops of N.I. Evdokimov occupied the entire territory on the northern slope of the Caucasus Range.

No wild liberties love! A.S. Pushkin. "Prisoner of the Caucasus".

The first uprising, already in the reconciled Chechnya, broke out almost a year after its conquest by Prince. Baryatinsky. Then they repeated over and over again. But these are only riots of the subjects of His Highness the Sovereign Emperor, who demanded only pacification, and pacified.

And yet, in historical terms, the annexation of the North Caucasus to Russia was inevitable - such was the time. But there was logic in Russia's fiercest war for the Caucasus, in the heroic struggle of the highlanders for their independence.

It seems all the more pointless both the attempt to restore a Sharia state in Chechnya at the end of the twentieth century, and Russia's methods of opposing this. Thoughtless, indefinite war of ambitions - countless victims and sufferings of peoples. The war that turned Chechnya, and not only Chechnya, into a testing ground for Islamic international terrorism.

By the beginning of the XIX century. individual parts of the Caucasus differed sharply from one another in their socio-economic and political system and level cultural development. In Transcaucasia, there were fully developed feudal relations, but in some places patriarchal-clan relations were also strong. Politically, Transcaucasia was divided into several state and semi-state formations. Eastern Georgia included the Kingdom of Kartalino-Kakheti with the capital Tiflis and three vassal sultanates in relation to it. Western Georgia consisted of the kingdom of Imeretia and the principalities of Megrelia, Svanetia, Guria, Adzharia and Abkhazia. The eastern part of Transcaucasia, inhabited by the Azerbaijani and Armenian peoples, consisted of several khanates. The Eastern Caucasus consisted of two main regions: Dagestan, most of which was occupied by the Avars and Lezgins, and Chechnya. There were feudal estates here, for example, the Shamkhalate of Tarkov, the Khanate of Avar, and others. At the same time, there were 44 “free societies” in Dagestan, in which patriarchal clan relations were still strong. Chechnya was an area of ​​almost complete domination of patriarchal-tribal relations. In the North Caucasus, the most numerous were the Kabardians, who were part of the Circassians (Circassians). By the beginning of the XIX century. Big Kabarda was divided between four princely families, and Malaya - between three. The Northwestern Caucasus, that is, the entire course of the Kuban with its tributaries and the Black Sea coast from the mouth of the Kuban to the mouth of the Shakhe River, was inhabited by the Adygs. In the XVIII century. Circassians experienced the stage of decomposition of patriarchal-clan relations and the development of feudal relations.

The central part of the Caucasus, south of Kabarda, was occupied by the Ossetians; some of them, who lived in inaccessible mountain gorges, were at the patriarchal-clan stage of development, while others were dominated by feudal relations. At the junction of Eastern Georgia, Dagestan and the khanates of Eastern Transcaucasia lay the Djaro-Belokan Union of six "free societies", i.e. tribal Avar and Lezgin communities, and the Ilisu sultanate.

Thus, the Caucasus by the beginning of the XIX century. was a motley conglomerate of small and smallest feudal and tribal associations, which were in constant enmity among themselves and greatly lagged behind in their social development.

The social system and political situation of Georgia in the first half of the 19th century. Agriculture in Georgia early XIX in. was at a low level. The shifting system dominated everywhere, in which the land was exploited until it was completely exhausted; land fertilization was rarely resorted to; imperfect agricultural tools required a large number of laborers, as well as livestock, and gave a weak production effect. The cultivation of the landlords' land was carried out by the forces of the serfs and with the help of their tools. The industry was in its very early stages of development. in Tiflis at the end of the 16th century. there were cannon, gunpowder and glass factories, a printing house and a mint, but these were insignificant enterprises. In Eastern Georgia, the number of populated areas after the Persian invasion in 1795 greatly decreased; of the surviving villages, about 100 belonged to the state, 70 to the Georgian royal house, 90 to the church, and 190 to the landowners. Princes had vassals. Thus, Prince Tsitsishvili had 34 vassals, and Prince Orbeliani had 28. The princes were guided by local feudal laws. The customs of blood feud still persisted, although feudal legislation sought to replace it with a fine for murder. The life of a person was regarded by the feudal lords of Georgia in accordance with the feudal hierarchy: the fine for killing a prince exceeded the fine for killing a peasant by more than a hundred times.

The vast majority of the peasants (Glekhs) of Georgia were serfs. The lowest group of the serfs were yards. Khizans occupied a special place among the serfs of Georgia; these were landless peasants who, with the consent of the landowner, settled on his land on the basis of an oral agreement with him; their situation was difficult. The serfs of Georgia had over a hundred different kinds of duties in favor of the feudal lord - dues in kind, different types corvee. Along with the serfs, slaves, or serfs, played a certain role in the economy; the main source of slavery was the wars and raids of the feudal lords, as well as the purchase of slaves in the slave markets. The life, personality and property of the peasants were at the complete disposal of the landowners. The trial of the peasants was done by the landowner; remnants of the tribal system were preserved in the court.

The same feudal possessions as Eastern Georgia were Imeretia, Abkhazia and other regions of Western Transcaucasia. The landlords of Imereti almost did not run their own household. During the year, they migrated with their families and servants from village to village, from yard to yard on their property, feeding on the products of the peasant economy. Human trafficking was a kind of trade in Imereti; Peasants were illegally sold into slavery, both individually and as whole families, both to neighboring Christian possessions and to Muslim countries. Slavery occupied a significant place in the social structure of Imereti, but it was not the basis of production - it was "domestic slavery". Economy of Abkhazia by the beginning of the 19th century. retained a natural, closed character.

At that time, Abkhazia was the feudal possession of the Shervashidze princes, who were in vassal dependence on the kings of Imereti. The power of the Shervashidze princes extended mainly to the coastal part of Abkhazia, while in the mountainous regions, which largely retained their independence, the patriarchal-tribal way of life was still strong. The peasants of coastal Abkhazia often fled to the mountains from feudal oppression. The forms and methods of feudal exploitation of the Abkhazian peasants were distinguished by some originality: a significant part of the peasants were not formally attached to the land, and their exploitation was covered by all sorts of patriarchal traditions. Another part of the Abkhazian peasants was in the position of serfs. Together with the slaves, they were for the most part the household servants of the landowner, since the master's plowing in Abkhazia was insignificant and did not require a large number of laborers.

In the first half of the XIX century. Georgian nationality has not yet formed into a nation. “Georgians of pre-reform times,” writes I. V. Stalin, “lived on common territory and spoke the same language, nevertheless they did not, strictly speaking, constitute one nation, for they, divided into a number of principalities torn apart from each other, could not live a common economic life, waged wars among themselves for centuries and ruined each other, inciting Persians and Turks against each other. The ephemeral and accidental unification of the principalities, which some successful king sometimes managed to carry out, at best captured only the superficial administrative sphere, quickly breaking up against the whims of the princes and the indifference of the peasants. Yes, it could not be otherwise with the economic fragmentation of Georgia ... Georgia, as a nation, appeared only in the second half of the 19th century, when the fall of serfdom and the growth of the economic life of the country, the development of communications and the emergence of capitalism established the division of labor between the regions of Georgia, completely shattered economic isolation principalities and tied them into one whole.

The accession of Georgia to Russia was of great positive significance for her, she became more and more closely connected with the economic and cultural life of Russia. Georgia was now protected from the constant attacks that had previously taken place from its hostile neighbors - Persia and Turkey, which ruined its economy and destroyed its culture. Georgian lands were gradually united into one whole. In December 1803, the Prince of Megrelia Grigory Dadiani asked for the acceptance of Megrelia into Russian citizenship and took the oath. The king of Imereti, Solomon, also took an oath and "petition clauses" for citizenship (1804); initially, the royal title was left for Solomon, but then he was removed from power, and Russian administration was introduced in Imereti (1810). Since the principality of Guria was a vassal of Imereti, the prince of Guria Mamia Gurieli was informed that he was now under the protection of tsarist Russia. In the same years, the annexation of Abkhazia took place. Turkey, which intervened in the affairs of Abkhazia, wanted to eliminate the Abkhaz ruler Shervashidze for his refusal to be a vassal of the Turkish sultan, in connection with this, Russian troops occupied Poti and Sukhumi in 1810. A number of original Georgian lands went to Georgia in connection with the successful wars that Russia waged against Turkey and Persia.

The reunification of the Georgian lands within Russia was a huge progressive event in the history of Georgia and contributed to the elimination of that feudal fragmentation, which for centuries was not possible for any Georgian rulers to realize. This was the starting point for the further economic development of Georgia.

Those hard times have become a distant memory of the past, when the Georgian peasant plowed the land armed, and during enemy raids he had to throw the unharvested crop and leave the property to be plundered by the enemy. Under the rule of Russia, the feudal strife that had previously torn the country apart became impossible, feudal fragmentation came to naught due to the formation in Transcaucasia of common market ties with Russia and Russian administrative centralization. After joining Russia, the elements of slavery that still existed in Georgia were destroyed. Trade intensified, handicrafts developed noticeably. In 1814, the construction of the Georgian Military Highway was completed, and regular communication began along it, which served not only military purposes, but also the civilian population and played a significant role in the development of economic and cultural ties between Russia and Transcaucasia. In 1857, the Russian Society of Shipping and Trade was established, as a result of which regular flights were established on the Black Sea between Odessa, the Crimean coast, and Potii Trebizond.

In an article dedicated to the centenary of Georgia's accession to Russia, L. Ketskhoveli wrote: “Since that time, the life of Georgia has taken a new direction. Protected from external enemies, she began to ponder the essence of her inner life and, sobered by the life of Russia, began to gather her civil forces.

The national-colonial policy of tsarism in relation to the annexed and conquered territories of the Caucasus, of course, does not exhaust the entire complex history of the life of its peoples during this period. The anti-people policy of the tsarist government must not be confused with the problem of communication between peoples. Despite the oppressive policy of tsarism and contrary to it, in the same years a different, parallel process developed - the process of economic, social and cultural rapprochement between the peoples of the Caucasus and the Russian people. The inclusion of many Caucasian territories in Russia contributed to the economic communication of peoples, which was independent of the will of tsarism. Items of Russian and Caucasian industry and handicrafts began to mutually penetrate in large quantities into the national economy of both the Russian regions and the Caucasus; exchange of economic experience also took place to a certain extent.

However, under the yoke of tsarism, which considered Georgia as its colony, the development of the productive forces of the richest region proceeded at a slow pace.

The system of government established by tsarism, bribery and arbitrariness of the local administration, red tape and chicanery of the royal courts, the removal of the Georgian language from schools and courts - all this weighed heavily on the population of Georgia. To combat the abuses of the administration in Transcaucasia, the post of prosecutor was created. However, 28 years after the annexation of Georgia, Field Marshal Paskevich wrote to Emperor Nicholas: “The outward appearance of the improvement only covers up the unrest and abuses, very important, long-rooted ... The people saw with horror that they did not find protection in the courts, but in the authorities of patronage, and, losing power of attorney to the government, often sought satisfaction by arbitrariness, and some fled in despair abroad. To this was added the abundance and severity of taxes.

In 1807, an order was issued that all civil matters between serfs should be dealt with by the landowner; complaints from peasants against landowners were not accepted by the courts. The landowners sold the peasants without land, and not only as whole families, but also one by one. It was very difficult for the peasants to stay troops, requisition food for the troops at low prices, and perform various government work.

In response to the heavy regime of oppression established by tsarism, uprisings broke out in Georgia. They are complex in composition: along with progressive elements of protest against social oppression and the colonial policy of tsarism, in these uprisings there was a strong intervention of reactionary elements who deceived the Georgian people and tried to lead them behind the slogans of restoring Georgian "independence"; the victory of these reactionary forces would be doom for Georgia. A mixture of these different elements was observed, for example, in the uprising that arose in the spring of 1804 in the mountainous region of Eastern Georgia, in the upper reaches of the Aragva River. It was caused by heavy in-kind duties for the construction of the Georgian Military Highway, maintenance of passing troops, excesses of the Zemstvo police and bullying of the local police captain, whom the rebels beat to death with shovels. Separate detachments of the rebels reached several thousand people. The rebels captured many points on the Georgian Military Highway, destroyed bridges on it, captured the pass through the Main Range, arranging a redoubt and blockages on it, and surrounded Ananur and Lare. Communication between the North Caucasus and Georgia was interrupted.

Fighting the tsarist troops and officials, the rebels turned their weapons against the Georgian feudal lords - the princes of Eristavi, who were at the head of the police sent to quell the uprising. The estates belonging to the princes of Eristavi were destroyed. After the uprising, representatives of the former Georgian royal house immediately tried to use them for their own purposes, dreaming of restoring their reactionary power in a backward country.

In October 1804, in order to restore “order” on the Georgian Military Highway, the commander-in-chief in Georgia, Prince Tsitsianov, undertook the most severe punitive expedition, setting fire to all the villages on the way. The uprising of 1810 in Imereti was inspired by the former Imeretian king Solomon, who went over to the side of Turkey. The feudal nobility campaigned in favor of King Solomon. The princes led the uprising; deceived by their agitation, the peasantry participated in the militias organized by the feudal landowners. Tsarism managed to suppress the uprising only in the autumn of 1810. In 1811-1812. a great uprising took place in Kakheti. It was caused, on the one hand, by the requisitions and harassment of local landowners and tsarist officials, on the other hand, by the severity of the standing troops stationed in the villages of Kakhetia in the order of repression for the failure of the Kakhetian peasants to deliver provisions for the tsarist troops. The supply of provisions was completely unbearable for the peasants of Kakhetia: in 1811 there was a severe crop failure, the price of bread rose significantly, the peasants ate roots and herbs. Cruel requisitions were the last impetus for the uprising. It covered mainly Signakh and Telavi counties, and then spread to Ananur county (mountainous Georgia). The uprising took place during the years of the Russian-Turkish war and was fueled by agitation hostile to Russia coming from Turkey and Persia. The uprising in Kakheti, suppressed in March, soon flared up again and at this stage acquired a distinct reactionary character; the leadership of the uprising was seized by the feudal lords; at the head of the princes and nobles was Tsarevich Alexander, who received subsidies from the English and Persian governments; princes and nobles tried to tear Georgia away from Russia. The uprising was put down in January 1813.

In 1819-1820. On the basis of church reform, an uprising began in Imereti. After 1801, in order to further Russify Georgia and centralize the entire administrative apparatus, it was decided to subordinate the clergy and all church property to the synod and exarch (the head of the Orthodox Church, appointed to Georgia by the tsarist government). At the same time, the number of churches and the number of priests and bishops were significantly reduced; the liberation from serfdom of princely and noble priests and their families was carried out. Church nobles began to be evicted to state lands. These measures aroused the resistance of the bishops, princes and nobles, who tried to find support from the peasants and sought to use their dissatisfaction with the royal officials and local rulers in their own interests. The movement was suppressed by the tsarist troops.

In 1832, a noble conspiracy was uncovered in Georgia, seeking to tear Georgia away from Russia and restore the former monarchy. The conspiracy was led by reactionary forces - the Georgian noble nobility wanted to regain their lost privileges. Individual progressive figures were drawn into the conspiracy, with whom tsarism dealt with especially cruelly (S. Dodashvili and others).

The "Caucasian War" is the longest military conflict involving the Russian Empire, which dragged on for almost 100 years and was accompanied by heavy casualties from both the Russian and Caucasian peoples. The pacification of the Caucasus did not happen even after the parade of Russian troops in Krasnaya Polyana on May 21, 1864 officially marked the end of the subjugation of the Circassian tribes of the Western Caucasus and the end of the Caucasian war. The armed conflict that lasted until the end of the 19th century gave rise to many problems and conflicts, the echoes of which are still heard at the beginning of the 21st century..

The concept of "Caucasian war", its historical interpretations

The concept of "Caucasian War" was introduced by the pre-revolutionary historian Rostislav Andreevich Fadeev in the book "Sixty Years of the Caucasian War", published in 1860.

Pre-revolutionary and Soviet historians until the 1940s preferred the term "Caucasian wars of the empire"

"Caucasian war" became a common term only in Soviet times.

Historical interpretations of the Caucasian war

In the huge multilingual historiography of the Caucasian War, three main directions stand out, which reflect the positions of the three main political rivals: the Russian Empire, the great powers of the West and the supporters of the Muslim resistance. These scientific theories determine the interpretation of the war in historical science.

Russian imperial tradition

The Russian imperial tradition is represented in the works of pre-revolutionary Russian and some contemporary historians. It originates from the pre-revolutionary (1917) lecture course of General Dmitry Ilyich Romanovsky. The supporters of this direction include the author of the famous textbook Nikolai Ryazanovsky "History of Russia" and the authors of the English-language " Modern Encyclopedia in Russian and Soviet history"(Ed. J.L. Viszhinsky). The work of Rostislav Fadeev mentioned above can also be attributed to the same tradition.

In these works, we often talk about "pacifying the Caucasus", about Russian "colonization" in the sense of developing territories, focuses on the "predation" of the highlanders, the religiously militant nature of their movement, emphasizes the civilizing and reconciling role of Russia, even taking into account mistakes and " kinks".

In the late 1930s-1940s, a different point of view prevailed. Imam Shamil and his supporters were declared proteges of the exploiters and agents of foreign intelligence services. Shamil's prolonged resistance, according to this version, was allegedly due to the help of Turkey and Britain. From the end of the 1950s to the first half of the 1980s, the emphasis was on the voluntary entry of all peoples and regions without exception into Russian state, friendship of peoples and solidarity of working people in all historical epochs.

In 1994, Mark Bliev and Vladimir Degoev's book "The Caucasian War" was published, in which the imperial scientific tradition is combined with an orientalist approach. The vast majority of North Caucasian and Russian historians and ethnographers reacted negatively to the hypothesis expressed in the book about the so-called "raid system" - the special role of raids in mountain society, caused by a complex set of economic, political, social and demographic factors.

Western tradition

It is based on the premise of Russia's inherent desire to expand and "enslave" the annexed territories. In Britain of the 19th century (fearing Russia's approach to the "pearl of the British crown" India) and the USA of the 20th century (worried about the approach of the USSR / Russia to the Persian Gulf and the oil regions of the Middle East), the highlanders were considered a "natural barrier" on the way of the Russian Empire to the south. The key terminology of these works is "Russian colonial expansion" and the "North Caucasian shield" or "barrier" that opposes them. The classic work is the work of John Badley, "The Conquest of the Caucasus by Russia", published at the beginning of the last century. At present, adherents of this tradition are grouped in the "Society for Central Asian Studies" and the journal "Central Asian Survey" published by it in London.

Anti-imperialist tradition

Early Soviet historiography of the 1920s - the first half of the 1930s. (the school of Mikhail Pokrovsky) considered Shamil and other leaders of the resistance of the highlanders as leaders of the national liberation movement and spokesmen for the interests of the broad working and exploited masses. The raids of the highlanders on their neighbors were justified by the geographical factor, the lack of resources in conditions of almost impoverished urban life, and the robberies of the abreks (19-20 centuries) were justified by the struggle for liberation from the colonial oppression of tsarism.

In the years" cold war"from among the Sovietologists who creatively reworked the ideas of early Soviet historiography, Leslie Blanch came out with his popular work "Sabers of Paradise" (1960), translated into Russian in 1991. A more academic work is Robert Bauman's study "Unusual Russian and Soviet Wars in the Caucasus , in Central Asia and Afghanistan" - speaks of the "intervention" of the Russians in the Caucasus and the "war against the mountaineers" in general. Recently, a Russian translation of the work of the Israeli historian Moshe Hammer "Muslim resistance to tsarism. Shamil and the conquest of Chechnya and Dagestan". A feature of all these works is the absence of Russian archival sources in them.

periodization

Background of the Caucasian War

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti (1801-1810), as well as the Transcaucasian khanates - Ganja, Sheki, Cuban, Talyshinsky (1805-1813) became part of the Russian Empire.

Treaty of Bucharest (1812), who ended the Russian-Turkish war of 1806-1812, recognized Western Georgia and the Russian protectorate over Abkhazia as Russia's sphere of influence. In the same year, the transition to Russian citizenship of the Ingush societies, enshrined in the Vladikavkaz Act, was officially confirmed.

By Gulistan Peace Treaty of 1813, which ended the Russian-Persian war, Iran renounced in favor of Russia sovereignty over Dagestan, Kartli-Kakheti, Karabakh, Shirvan, Baku and Derbent khanates.

The southwestern part of the North Caucasus remained in the sphere of influence of the Ottoman Empire. The hard-to-reach mountainous regions of Northern and Central Dagestan and Southern Chechnya, the mountain valleys of Trans-Kuban Circassia remained outside Russian control.

At the same time, it should be taken into account that the power of Persia and Turkey in these regions was limited, and the fact of recognizing these regions as a sphere of influence of Russia by itself did not mean the immediate subordination of local rulers to St. Petersburg.

Between the newly acquired lands and Russia lay the lands of sworn allegiance to Russia, but de facto independent mountain peoples, predominantly Muslim. The economy of these regions to a certain extent depended on raids on neighboring regions, which, precisely for this reason, could not be stopped, despite the agreements reached by the Russian authorities.

Thus, from the point of view of the Russian authorities in the Caucasus at the beginning of the 19th century, there were two main tasks:

• The need to join the North Caucasus to Russia for territorial unification with Transcaucasia.
• The desire to stop the constant raids of the mountain peoples in the territory of Transcaucasia and Russian settlements in the North Caucasus.

It was they who became the main causes of the Caucasian War.

Brief description of the theater of operations

The main centers of war were concentrated in hard-to-reach mountainous and foothill areas in the North-Eastern and North-Western Caucasus. The region where the war was fought can be divided into two main theaters of war.

Firstly, it is the North-Eastern Caucasus, which mainly includes the territory of modern Chechnya and Dagestan. The main opponent of Russia here was the Imamat, as well as various Chechen and Dagestan state and tribal formations. During the hostilities, the highlanders managed to create a powerful centralized state organization and achieve noticeable progress in armament - in particular, the troops of Imam Shamil not only used artillery, but also organized the production of artillery pieces.

Secondly, this is the North-Western Caucasus, which primarily includes the territories located south of the Kuban River and which were part of historical Circassia. These territories were inhabited by the numerous people of the Adygs (Circassians), divided into a significant number of sub-ethnic groups. The level of centralization of military efforts throughout the war here remained extremely low, each tribe fought or put up with the Russians on its own, only occasionally forming fragile alliances with other tribes. Often during the war there were clashes between the Circassian tribes themselves. Economically, Circassia was poorly developed, almost all iron products and weapons were purchased on foreign markets, the main and most valuable export product was slaves captured during raids and sold to Turkey. The level of organization of the armed forces corresponded approximately to European feudalism, the main force of the army was a heavily armed cavalry, consisting of representatives of the tribal nobility.

Periodically, armed clashes between the highlanders and Russian troops took place on the territory of Transcaucasia, Kabarda and Karachay.

The situation in the Caucasus in 1816

At the beginning of the 19th century, the actions of Russian troops in the Caucasus had the character of random expeditions, not connected by a common idea and a definite plan. Often, conquered regions and sworn-in peoples immediately fell away and became enemies again as soon as the Russian troops left the country. This was due, first of all, to the fact that almost all organizational, managerial and military resources were diverted to waging war against Napoleonic France, and then to organizing post-war Europe. By 1816, the situation in Europe had stabilized, and the return of occupying troops from France and European states gave the government the necessary military force to launch a full-scale campaign in the Caucasus.

The situation on the Caucasian line was as follows: the right flank of the line was opposed by the Trans-Kuban Circassians, the center - by the Kabardian Circassians, and against the left flank behind the Sunzha River lived Chechens, who enjoyed a high reputation and authority among the mountain tribes. At the same time, the Circassians were weakened by internal strife, and a plague epidemic raged in Kabarda. The main threat came primarily from the Chechens.

Politics of General Yermolov and the uprising in Chechnya (1817 - 1827)

In May 1816, Emperor Alexander I appointed General Alexei Yermolov as commander of the Separate Georgian (later Caucasian) Corps.

Yermolov believed that it was impossible to establish a lasting peace with the inhabitants of the Caucasus due to their historically established psychology, tribal fragmentation and established relations with the Russians. He developed a consistent and systematic plan of offensive operations, which provided for the creation of a base and the organization of bridgeheads at the first stage, and only then the beginning of phased but decisive offensive operations.

Yermolov himself characterized the situation in the Caucasus as follows: "The Caucasus is a huge fortress, defended by a half-million garrison. You must either storm it or take possession of the trenches. The assault will cost a lot. So let's lay a siege!" .

At the first stage, Yermolov moved the left flank of the Caucasian Line from the Terek to the Sunzha in order to get closer to Chechnya and Dagestan. In 1818, the Nizhne-Sunzhenskaya line was strengthened, the Nazranovsky (modern Nazran) redoubt in Ingushetia was strengthened, and the Groznaya fortress (modern Grozny) in Chechnya was built. Having strengthened the rear and created a solid operational base, the Russian troops began to move deep into the foothills of the Greater Caucasus Range.

Yermolov's strategy was to systematically move deep into Chechnya and Mountainous Dagestan by surrounding the mountainous regions with a continuous ring of fortifications, cutting clearings in difficult forests, laying roads and destroying recalcitrant auls. The territories liberated from the local population were settled by Cossacks and Russian and Russian-friendly settlers, who formed "layers" between the tribes hostile to Russia. Yermolov responded to the resistance and raids of the highlanders with repressions and punitive expeditions.

In Northern Dagestan, in 1819, the Vnezapnaya fortress was founded (near the modern village of Endirey, Khasavyurt district), and in 1821, the Burnaya fortress (near the village of Tarki). In 1819-1821, the possessions of a number of Dagestan princes were transferred to the vassals of Russia or annexed.

In 1822, the Sharia courts (mekhkeme), which had been operating in Kabarda since 1806, were dissolved. Instead, a Provisional Court for Civil Cases was established in Nalchik under the full control of Russian officials. Together with Kabarda, the Balkars and Karachays, dependent on the Kabardian princes, came under Russian rule. In the interfluve of Sulak and Terek, the lands of the Kumyks were conquered.

In order to destroy the traditional military-political ties between the Muslims of the North Caucasus hostile to Russia, on the orders of Yermolov, Russian fortresses were built at the foot of the mountains on the rivers Malka, Baksanka, Chegem, Nalchik and Terek, which formed the Kabardian line. As a result, the population of Kabarda was locked in a small area and cut off from the Trans-Kuban region, Chechnya and mountain gorges.

Yermolov's policy was to severely punish not only the "robbers", but also those who did not fight them. Yermolov's cruelty towards the recalcitrant highlanders was remembered for a long time. Back in the 1940s, Avar and Chechen residents could tell Russian generals: "You have always ruined our property, burned villages and intercepted our people!"

In 1825 - 1826, the cruel and bloody actions of General Yermolov caused a general uprising of the highlanders of Chechnya under the leadership of Bei-Bulat Taimiev (Taymazov) and Abdul-Kadyr. The rebels were supported by some Dagestan mullahs from among the supporters of the Sharia movement. They called on the highlanders to rise up in jihad. But Bey-Bulat was defeated by the regular army, the uprising was crushed in 1826.

In 1827, General Alexei Yermolov was recalled by Nicholas I and dismissed due to suspicion of having links with the Decembrists.

In 1817 - 1827, there were no active hostilities in the North-Western Caucasus, although numerous raids by Circassian detachments and punitive expeditions of Russian troops took place. The main goal of the Russian command in this region was to isolate the local population from the Muslim environment hostile to Russia in the Ottoman Empire.

The Caucasian line along the Kuban and the Terek was shifted deep into the Adyghe territory and by the beginning of the 1830s went to the Labe River. The Adygs resisted with the help of the Turks. In October 1821, the Circassians invaded the lands of the Black Sea troops, but were driven back.

In 1823-1824 a number of punitive expeditions were carried out against the Circassians.

In 1824, the uprising of the Abkhaz was suppressed, forced to recognize the authority of Prince Mikhail Shervashidze.

In the second half of the 1820s, the coasts of the Kuban again began to be subjected to raids by the Shapsugs and Abadzekhs.

Formation of the Imamat of Nagorno-Dagestan and Chechnya (1828 - 1840)

Operations in the Northeast Caucasus

In the 1820s, the muridism movement arose in Dagestan (murid - in Sufism: a student, the first stage of initiation and spiritual self-improvement. It can mean a Sufi in general and even just an ordinary Muslim). Its main preachers - Mulla-Mohammed, then Kazi-Mulla - propagated in Dagestan and Chechnya a holy war against infidels, primarily Russians. The rise and growth of this movement was largely due to the brutal actions of Alexei Yermolov, as a reaction to the harsh and often indiscriminate repression of the Russian authorities.

In March 1827, Adjutant General Ivan Paskevich (1827-1831) was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Caucasian Corps. The general Russian strategy in the Caucasus was revised, the Russian command abandoned the systematic advance with the consolidation of the occupied territories and returned mainly to the tactics of individual punitive expeditions.

At first, this was due to the wars with Iran (1826-1828) and Turkey (1828-1829). These wars had significant consequences for the Russian Empire, establishing and expanding the Russian presence in the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia.

In 1828 or 1829, the communities of a number of Avar villages elected as their imam an Avar from the village of Gimry Gazi-Muhammed (Gazi-Magomed, Kazi-Mulla, Mulla-Magomed), a student of the Naqshbandi sheikhs Muhammad Yaragsky and Jamaluddin Kazikumukh, who were influential in the North-Eastern Caucasus. This event is usually considered as the beginning of the formation of a single imamate of Nagorno-Dagestan and Chechnya, which became the main focus of resistance to Russian colonization.

Imam Gazi-Mohammed developed an active activity, calling for jihad against the Russians. From the communities that joined him, he took an oath to follow the Sharia, abandon local adats and break off relations with the Russians. During the reign of this imam (1828-1832), he destroyed 30 influential beks, since the first imam saw them as accomplices of Russians and hypocritical enemies of Islam (munafiks).

In the 1830s, Russian positions in Dagestan were fortified by the Lezgin cordon line, and in 1832 the Temir-Khan-Shura fortress (modern Buynaksk) was built.

In the Central Ciscaucasia, from time to time there were peasant uprisings. In the summer of 1830, as a result of the punitive expedition of General Abkhazov against the Ingush and Tagaurians, Ossetia was included in the administrative system of the empire. Since 1831, Russian military administration was finally established in Ossetia.

In the winter of 1830, the Imamat launched an active war under the banner of defending the faith. Ghazi-Mohammed's tactic was to organize swift surprise raids. In 1830, he captured a number of Avar and Kumyk villages subject to the Avar Khanate and Tarkov Shamkhalate. Untsukul and Gumbet voluntarily joined the imamate, and the Andians were subjugated. Gazi-Mohammed tried to capture the village of Khunzakh (1830), the capital of the Avar khans who accepted Russian citizenship, but was repulsed.

In 1831, Gazi-Muhammed sacked Kizlyar, and the next year besieged Derbent.

In March 1832, the imam approached Vladikavkaz and laid siege to Nazran, but was defeated by a regular army.

In 1831, Adjutant General Baron Grigory Rozen was appointed head of the Caucasian Corps. He defeated the troops of Gazi-Mohammed, and on October 29, 1832, he stormed the village of Gimry, the capital of the imam. Gazi-Mohammed died in battle.

In April 1831, Count Ivan Paskevich-Erivansky was recalled to put down the uprising in Poland. In his place were temporarily appointed in Transcaucasia - General Nikita Pankratiev, on the Caucasian line - General Alexei Velyaminov.

Gamzat-bek was elected the new imam in 1833. He stormed the capital of the Avar khans Khunzakh, destroyed almost the entire family of the Avar khans and was killed for this in 1834 by right of blood feud.

Shamil became the third imam. He pursued the same reform policy as his predecessors, but on a regional scale. It was under him that the state structure of the imamate was completed. The Imam concentrated in his hands not only religious, but also military, executive, legislative and judicial powers. Shamil continued the massacre of the feudal rulers of Dagestan, but at the same time tried to ensure the neutrality of the Russians.

Russian troops were actively campaigning against the Imamate, in 1837 and 1839 they destroyed Shamil's residence on Mount Akhulgo, and in the latter case, the victory seemed so complete that the Russian command hastened to report to St. Petersburg about the complete appeasement of Dagestan. Shamil with a detachment of seven comrades-in-arms retreated to Chechnya.

Operations in the Northwest Caucasus

On January 11, 1827, a delegation of Balkar princes petitioned General Georgy Emmanuel to accept Balkaria as Russian citizenship, and in 1828 the Karachaev region was annexed.

According to the Treaty of Adrianople (1829), which ended the Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829, Russia recognized a large part of the eastern coast of the Black Sea, including the cities of Anapa, Sudzhuk-Kale (in the area of ​​modern Novorossiysk), Sukhum, as the sphere of interests of Russia.

In 1830, the new "proconsul of the Caucasus" Ivan Paskevich developed a plan for the development of this region, practically unknown to Russians, by creating an overland communication along the Black Sea coast. But the dependence of the Circassian tribes inhabiting this territory on Turkey was largely nominal, and the fact that Turkey recognized the North-Western Caucasus as a Russian sphere of influence did not oblige the Circassians to anything. The Russian invasion of the territory of the Circassians was perceived by the latter as an attack on their independence and traditional foundations, and met with resistance.

In the summer of 1834, General Velyaminov made an expedition to the Trans-Kuban region, where a cordon line was organized to Gelendzhik, and the Abinsk and Nikolaev fortifications were erected.

In the mid-1830s, the Black Sea Fleet of Russia began to blockade the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. In 1837 - 1839, the Black Sea coastline was created - 17 forts were created under the cover of the Black Sea Fleet over a distance of 500 kilometers from the mouth of the Kuban to Abkhazia. These measures practically paralyzed coastal trade with Turkey, which immediately put the Circassians in an extremely difficult position.

At the beginning of 1840, the Circassians went on the offensive, attacking the Black Sea line of fortresses. On February 7, 1840, Fort Lazarev (Lazarevskoye) fell, on February 29, the Velyaminovskoye fortification was taken, on March 23, after a fierce battle, the Circassians broke into the Mikhailovskoye fortification, which was blown up by a soldier Arkhip Osipov due to his inevitable fall. On April 1, the Circassians captured the Nikolaevsky fort, but their actions against the Navaginsky fort and the Abinsky fortifications were repelled. Coastal fortifications were restored by November 1840.

The very fact of the destruction of the coastline showed how powerful the Circassians of the Trans-Kuban region had a powerful resistance potential.

The heyday of the Imamat before the start of the Crimean War (1840 - 1853)

Operations in the Northeast Caucasus

In the early 1840s, the Russian administration made an attempt to disarm the Chechens. Regulations for the surrender of weapons by the population were introduced, and hostages were taken to ensure their implementation. These measures caused a general uprising at the end of February 1840 under the leadership of Shoip-mulla Tsentoroyevsky, Dzhavatkhan Dargoevsky, Tashu-khadzhi Sayasanovsky and Isa Gendergenoevsky, which, upon arrival in Chechnya, was headed by Shamil.

On March 7, 1840, Shamil was proclaimed Imam of Chechnya, and Dargo became the capital of the Imamat. By the autumn of 1840, Shamil controlled the whole of Chechnya.

In 1841 riots broke out in Avaria, instigated by Hadji Murad. The Chechens raided the Georgian Military Highway, and Shamil himself attacked a Russian detachment located near Nazran, but was unsuccessful. In May, Russian troops attacked and took the position of the imam near the village of Chirkey and occupied the village.

In May 1842, Russian troops, taking advantage of the fact that the main forces of Shamil set out on a campaign in Dagestan, launched an attack on the capital of the Imamat Dargo, but were defeated during the Ichkerin battle with the Chechens under the command of Shoip-mullah and were driven back with heavy losses. Impressed by this catastrophe, Emperor Nicholas I signed a decree banning all expeditions for 1843 and ordering to be limited to defense.

The troops of the Imamat seized the initiative. On August 31, 1843, Imam Shamil captured the fort near the village of Untsukul and defeated the detachment that was going to the rescue of the besieged. In the following days, several more fortifications fell, and on September 11, Gotsatl was taken and communication with Temir-khan-Shura was interrupted. On November 8, Shamil took the Gergebil fortification. Detachments of mountaineers practically interrupted communication with Derbent, Kizlyar and the left flank of the line.
In mid-April 1844, Shamil's Dagestan detachments under the command of Hadji Murad and Naib Kibit-Magoma launched an attack on Kumykh, but were defeated by Prince Argutinsky. Russian troops captured the Darginsky district in Dagestan and set about building the advanced Chechen line.

At the end of 1844, a new commander-in-chief, Count Mikhail Vorontsov, was appointed to the Caucasus, who, unlike his predecessors, possessed not only military, but also civil power in the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia. Under Vorontsov, hostilities in the mountainous areas controlled by the imamate intensified.

In May 1845, the Russian army invaded the Imamat in several large detachments. Without encountering serious resistance, the troops passed the mountainous Dagestan and in June invaded Andia and attacked the village of Dargo. From July 8 to July 20, the Dargin battle lasted. During the battle, Russian troops suffered heavy losses. Although Dargo was taken, but, in essence, the victory was pyrrhic. Due to the losses suffered, the Russian troops were forced to curtail active operations, so the battle at Dargo can be considered a strategic victory for the Imamate.

Since 1846, several military fortifications and Cossack villages have appeared on the left flank of the Caucasian Line. In 1847, the regular army besieged the Avar village of Gergebil, but retreated due to a cholera epidemic. This important stronghold of the imamate was taken in July 1848 by Adjutant General Prince Moses Argutinsky. Despite such a loss, Shamil's detachments resumed their operations in the south of the Lezgin line and in 1848 attacked the Russian fortifications in the Lezgi village of Akhty.

In the 1840s and 1850s, systematic deforestation continued in Chechnya, accompanied by periodic clashes.

In 1852, the new head of the Left flank, Adjutant General Prince Alexander Baryatinsky, drove the militant highlanders out of a number of strategically important villages in Chechnya.

Operations in the Northwest Caucasus

The offensive of the Russians and Cossacks against the Circassians began in 1841 with the creation of the Labinsk Line proposed by General Grigory von Zass. The colonization of the new line began in 1841 and ended in 1860. During these twenty years, 32 villages were founded. They were settled mainly by the Cossacks of the Caucasian linear army and a certain number of non-residents.

In the 1840s - the first half of the 1850s, Imam Shamil tried to establish contacts with the Muslim rebels in the Northwestern Caucasus. In the spring of 1846, Shamil made a rush to Western Circassia. 9 thousand soldiers crossed to the left bank of the Terek and settled in the villages of the Kabardian ruler Mukhammed-Mirza Anzorov. The imam counted on the support of the Western Circassians led by Suleiman Effendi. But neither the Circassians nor the Kabardians joined forces with Shamil's troops. The Imam was forced to retreat to Chechnya. On the Black Sea coastline in the summer and autumn of 1845, the Circassians tried to capture the Raevsky and Golovinsky forts, but were repulsed.

At the end of 1848, another attempt was made to unite the efforts of the Imamat and the Circassians - the naib of Shamil appeared in Circassia - Mohammed-Amin. He managed to create a unified system of administrative management in Abadzekhia. The territory of the Abadzekh societies was divided into 4 districts (mehkeme), from the taxes from which detachments of riders of Shamil's regular army (murtaziks) were kept.

In 1849, the Russians launched an offensive to the Belaya River in order to move the front line there and take away the fertile lands between this river and Laba from the Abadzekhs, as well as to counter Muhammad Amin.

From the beginning of 1850 until May 1851, the Bzhedugs, Shapsugs, Natukhais, Ubykhs and several smaller societies submitted to Mukhamed-Amin. Three more mekhkemes were created - two in Natukhai and one in Shapsugia. The naib ruled over a vast territory between the Kuban, Laba and the Black Sea.

Crimean War and the end of the Caucasian War in the North-Eastern Caucasus (1853 - 1859)

Crimean War (1853 - 1856)

In 1853, rumors of an impending war with Turkey caused a rise in resistance among the highlanders, who were counting on the arrival Turkish troops to Georgia and Kabarda and to weaken the Russian troops by transferring part of the units to the Balkans. However, these calculations did not come true - the morale of the mountain population dropped noticeably as a result of the long-term war, and the actions of the Turkish troops in the Transcaucasus were unsuccessful and the mountaineers failed to establish interaction with them.

The Russian command chose a purely defensive strategy, but the clearing of forests and the destruction of food supplies from the mountaineers continued, albeit on a more limited scale.

In 1854, the commander of the Turkish Anatolian army entered into relations with Shamil, inviting him to move to connect with him from Dagestan. Shamil invaded Kakhetia, but, having learned about the approach of Russian troops, he retreated to Dagestan. The Turks were defeated and driven back from the Caucasus.

On the Black Sea coast, the positions of the Russian command were seriously weakened due to the entry of the fleets of England and France into the Black Sea and the loss of dominance at sea by the Russian fleet. It was impossible to defend the forts of the coastline without the support of the fleet, in connection with which the fortifications between Anapa, Novorossiysk and the mouths of the Kuban were destroyed, the garrisons of the Black Sea coastline were withdrawn to the Crimea. During the war, Circassian trade with Turkey was temporarily restored, allowing them to continue their resistance.

But the abandonment of the Black Sea fortifications did not have more serious consequences, and the allied command practically did not show activity in the Caucasus, limiting itself to the supply of weapons and military materials to the Circassians at war with Russia, as well as the transfer of volunteers. The landing of the Turks in Abkhazia, despite its support from the Abkhaz prince Shervashidze, did not have a serious impact on the course of hostilities.

The turning point in the course of hostilities came after the accession to the throne of Emperor Alexander II (1855-1881) and the end of the Crimean War. In 1856, Prince Baryatinsky was appointed commander of the Caucasian corps, and the corps itself was reinforced by troops returning from Anatolia.

The Paris Peace Treaty (March 1856) recognized Russia's rights to all conquests in the Caucasus. The only point limiting Russian rule in the region was the prohibition to maintain a military fleet on the Black Sea and build coastal fortifications there.

End of the Caucasian War in the Northeast Caucasus

Already at the end of the 1840s, the fatigue of the mountain peoples from the many years of war began to manifest itself, the fact that the mountain population no longer believed in the achievability of victory. Social tension grew in the Imamate - many highlanders saw that Shamil's "state of justice" was based on repressions, and the naibs were gradually turning into a new nobility, interested only in personal enrichment and glory. Dissatisfaction with the rigid centralization of power in the Imamate grew - Chechen societies, accustomed to freedom, did not want to put up with a rigid hierarchy and unquestioning submission to Shamil's power. After the end of the Crimean War, the activity of the operations of the highlanders of Dagestan and Chechnya began to decline.

Prince Alexander Baryatinsky took advantage of these sentiments. He abandoned punitive expeditions to the mountains and continued the systematic work of building fortresses, cutting through clearings and resettling the Cossacks to develop the territories taken under control. In order to win over the highlanders, including the "new nobility" of the Imamate, Baryatinsky received significant sums from his personal friend, Emperor Alexander II. Peace, order, the preservation of the customs and religion of the highlanders in the territory subject to Baryatinsky allowed the highlanders to make comparisons not in favor of Shamil.

In 1856-1857, a detachment of General Nikolai Evdokimov drove Shamil out of Chechnya. In April 1859, the imam's new residence, the village of Vedeno, was stormed.

On September 6, 1859, Shamil surrendered to Prince Baryatinsky and was exiled to Kaluga. He died in 1871 during the pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca and is buried in Medina (Saudi Arabia). In the Northeast Caucasus, the war is over.

Operations in the Northwest Caucasus

Russian troops launched a massive concentric offensive from the east, from the Maykop fortification founded in 1857, and from the north, from Novorossiysk. Military operations were carried out very cruelly: the auls that resisted were destroyed, the population was expelled or moved to the plains.

Former opponents of Russia Crimean War- first of all, Turkey and partly Great Britain - continued to maintain ties with the Circassians, promising them military and diplomatic assistance. In February 1857, 374 foreign volunteers landed in Circassia, mostly Poles, under the leadership of the Pole Teofil Lapinsky.

However, the defense capability of the Circassians was weakened by traditional intertribal conflicts, as well as disagreements between the two main leaders of the resistance - the Shamilevsky naib Muhammad-Amin and the Circassian leader Zan Sefer-bey.

The end of the war in the Northwestern Caucasus (1859 - 1864)

In the North-Western, hostilities continued until May 1864. At the final stage, hostilities were distinguished by particular cruelty. The regular army was opposed by scattered detachments of the Adygs, who fought in the hard-to-reach mountainous regions of the North-Western Caucasus. Circassian auls were massively burned, their inhabitants were exterminated or expelled abroad (primarily to Turkey), partly moved to the plain. On the way, they died by the thousands from hunger and disease.

In November 1859, Imam Mohammed-Amin admitted his defeat and swore allegiance to Russia. In December of the same year, Sefer Bey suddenly died, and by the beginning of 1860, a detachment of European volunteers had left Circassia.

In 1860, the Natukhai resistance ceased. The struggle for independence was continued by the Abadzekhs, Shapsugs and Ubykhs.

In June 1861, representatives of these peoples gathered for a general meeting in the valley of the Sashe River (in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bmodern Sochi). They established the supreme body of power - the Mejlis of Circassia. The government of Circassia tried to achieve recognition of its independence and negotiate with the Russian command on the conditions for ending the war. For help and diplomatic recognition, the Majlis turned to Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire. But it was already too late, with the prevailing balance of power, the outcome of the war did not raise any doubts and no help was received from foreign powers.

In 1862, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich, the younger brother of Alexander II, replaced Prince Baryatinsky as commander of the Caucasian army.

Until 1864, the highlanders slowly retreated further and further southwest: from the plains to the foothills, from the foothills to the mountains, from the mountains to the Black Sea coast.

The Russian military command, using the "scorched earth" strategy, hoped to completely clear the entire Black Sea coast of recalcitrant Circassians, either exterminating them or driving them out of the region. The emigration of the Circassians was accompanied by the mass death of the exiles from hunger, cold and disease. Many historians and public figures interpret the events of the last stage of the Caucasian War as the genocide of the Circassians.

On May 21, 1864, in the town of Kbaada (modern Krasnaya Polyana) in the upper reaches of the Mzymta River, the end of the Caucasian War and the establishment of Russian rule in the Western Caucasus were celebrated with a solemn prayer service and a parade of troops.

Consequences of the Caucasian War

In 1864, the Caucasian War was formally declared over, but separate pockets of resistance to the Russian authorities remained until 1884.

For the period from 1801 to 1864, the total losses of the Russian army in the Caucasus amounted to:

• 804 officers and 24,143 lower ranks killed,
• 3,154 officers and 61,971 lower ranks wounded,
• 92 officers and 5915 lower ranks captured.

At the same time, servicemen who died from wounds or died in captivity are not included in the number of irretrievable losses. In addition, the number of deaths from diseases in places with an unfavorable climate for Europeans is three times higher than the number of deaths on the battlefield. It is also necessary to take into account that civilians also suffered losses, and they can reach several thousand killed and wounded.

According to modern estimates, during the Caucasian wars, the irretrievable losses of the military and civilian population of the Russian Empire, incurred during hostilities, as a result of illness and death in captivity, amount to at least 77 thousand people.

At the same time, from 1801 to 1830, combat losses Russian army in the Caucasus did not exceed several hundred people a year.

Data on the losses of the highlanders are purely estimated. Thus, estimates of the population of the Circassians at the beginning of the 19th century range from 307,478 people (K.F.Stal) to 1,700,000 people (I.F. Paskevich) and even 2,375,487 (G.Yu. Klaprot). The total number of Circassians who remained in the Kuban region after the war is about 60 thousand people, the total number of Muhajirs - immigrants to Turkey, the Balkans and Syria - is estimated at 500 - 600 thousand people. But, in addition to purely military losses and the death of the civilian population during the war years, the devastating plague epidemics at the beginning of the 19th century, as well as losses during the resettlement, influenced the population decline.

Russia, at the cost of significant bloodshed, was able to suppress the armed resistance of the Caucasian peoples and annex their territories. As a result of the war, many thousands of local people who did not accept Russian power were forced to leave their homes and move to Turkey and the Middle East.

As a result of the Caucasian War, the ethnic composition of the population was almost completely changed in the Northwestern Caucasus. Most of the Circassians were forced to settle in more than 40 countries of the world; according to various estimates, from 5 to 10% of the pre-war population remained in their homeland. To a large extent, although not so catastrophically, the ethnographic map of the North-Eastern Caucasus has changed, where ethnic Russians settled large areas cleared of the local population.

Huge mutual resentment and hatred gave rise to inter-ethnic tension, which then resulted in inter-ethnic conflicts during the Civil War, which turned into deportations of the 1940s, from which the roots of modern armed conflicts largely grow.

In the 1990s and 2000s, the Caucasian War was used by radical Islamists as an ideological argument in their fight against Russia.

XXI century: echoes of the Caucasian war

The question of the genocide of the Adygs

In the early 1990s, after the collapse of the USSR, in connection with the intensification of the search for national identity, the question arose of the legal qualification of the events of the Caucasian War.

On February 7, 1992, the Supreme Council of the Kabardino-Balkarian SSR adopted a resolution "On the condemnation of the genocide of the Circassians (Circassians) during the years of the Russian-Caucasian war." In 1994, the Parliament of the KBR addressed the State Duma of the Russian Federation with the issue of recognizing the genocide of the Circassians. In 1996, the State Council - Khase of the Republic of Adygea and the President of the Republic of Adygea addressed a similar issue. Representatives of Circassian public organizations have repeatedly applied for recognition of the genocide of the Circassians by Russia.

On May 20, 2011, the Georgian Parliament adopted a resolution recognizing the genocide of the Circassians by the Russian Empire during the Caucasian War.

There is also an opposite trend. Thus, the Charter of the Krasnodar Territory says: "The Krasnodar Territory is the historical territory of the formation of the Kuban Cossacks, the original place of residence of the Russian people, who make up the majority of the population of the region". Thus, the fact that before the Caucasian War the main population of the territory of the region was the Circassian peoples is completely ignored.

Olympics - 2014 in Sochi

An additional aggravation of the Circassian issue was associated with the holding of the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014.

Details about the connection of the Olympics with the Caucasian War, the position of the Circassian society and official bodies are set out in the reference prepared by the "Caucasian Knot" "The Circassian question in Sochi: the capital of the Olympics or the land of genocide?"

Monuments to the heroes of the Caucasian War

An ambiguous assessment is caused by the installation of monuments to various military and political figures of the times of the Caucasian War.

In 2003, in the city of Armavir, Krasnodar Territory, a monument was unveiled to General Zass, who in the Adyghe space is commonly called "the collector of Circassian heads." Decembrist Nikolai Lorer wrote about Zass: "In support of the idea of ​​fear preached by Zass, Circassian heads constantly stuck out on peaks on the mound at the Strong Trench under Zass, and their beards developed in the wind". The installation of the monument caused a negative reaction of the Circassian society.

In October 2008 in Mineralnye Vody Stavropol Territory a monument to General Yermolov was erected. He caused a mixed reaction among representatives of various nationalities of the Stavropol Territory and the entire North Caucasus. On October 22, 2011, unknown people desecrated the monument.

In January 2014, the mayor's office of Vladikavkaz announced plans to restore a pre-existing monument to Russian soldier Arkhip Osipov. A number of Circassian activists spoke out categorically against this intention, calling it militaristic propaganda, and the monument itself - a symbol of empire and colonialism.

Notes

The "Caucasian War" is the longest military conflict involving the Russian Empire, which dragged on for almost 100 years and was accompanied by heavy casualties from both the Russian and Caucasian peoples. The pacification of the Caucasus did not happen even after the parade of Russian troops in Krasnaya Polyana on May 21, 1864 officially marked the end of the subjugation of the Circassian tribes of the Western Caucasus and the end of the Caucasian war. The armed conflict that lasted until the end of the 19th century gave rise to many problems and conflicts, the echoes of which are still heard at the beginning of the 21st century.

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200 years ago, in October 1817, the Russian fortress Pregradny Stan (now the village of Sernovodskoye in the Chechen Republic) was built on the Sunzha River. This event is considered the beginning of the Caucasian War, which lasted until 1864.

Why did the highlanders of Chechnya and Dagestan declare jihad on Russia in the 19th century? Can the resettlement of Circassians after the Caucasian War be considered genocide? Was the conquest of the Caucasus a colonial war of the Russian Empire? The candidate said historical sciences Vladimir Bobrovnikov, Senior Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Atypical conquest

Lenta.ru: How did it happen that the Russian Empire first annexed the Transcaucasus and only then the North Caucasus?

Bobrovnikov: Transcaucasia was of great geopolitical significance, which is why it was conquered earlier. The principalities and kingdoms of Georgia, the khanates on the territory of Azerbaijan and Armenia became part of Russia at the end of the 18th - the first quarter of the 19th century. The Caucasian war was largely caused by the need to establish communications with Transcaucasia, which had already become part of the Russian Empire. Shortly before its start, the Georgian Military Road was laid, linking Tiflis (the name of the city of Tbilisi until 1936 was approx. "Tapes.ru") with a fortress built by the Russians in Vladikavkaz.

Why did Russia need Transcaucasia so much?

This region was very important from a geopolitical point of view, so Persia, the Ottoman and Russian empires fought for it. As a result, Russia won this rivalry, but after the annexation of Transcaucasia, the unreconciled, as they said then, North Caucasus prevented establishing communications with the region. So I had to conquer it too.

Painting by Franz Roubaud

A well-known publicist of the 19th century justified the conquest of the Caucasus by the fact that its inhabitants are "natural predators and robbers who never left and cannot leave their neighbors alone." What do you think - was it a typical colonial war or forced pacification of "wild and aggressive" mountain tribes?

Danilevsky's opinion is not unique. Britain, France, and other European colonial powers described their new colonial subjects similarly. Already in the late Soviet era and in the 1990s, the historian from North Ossetia Mark Bliev tried to revive the rationale for the Caucasian war by fighting the raids of the highlanders and created an original theory of the raiding system, due to which, in his opinion, the mountain society lived. However, his point of view in science was not accepted. It does not stand up to criticism from the point of view of sources indicating that the highlanders got their livelihood from cattle breeding and agriculture. The Caucasian war for Russia was a colonial war, but not quite typical.

What does it mean?

It was a colonial war with all the atrocities that accompanied it. It can be compared with the conquest of India by the British Empire or the conquest of Algeria by France, which also dragged on for decades, if not half a century. Participation in the war on the side of Russia of the Christian and partly Muslim elites of Transcaucasia was atypical. Well-known Russian politicians emerged from them - for example, Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov from the Armenians of Tiflis, who rose to the post of head of the Terek region, was later appointed Governor-General of Kharkov and, finally, the head of the Russian Empire.

After the end of the Caucasian War, a regime was established in the region, which can not always be described as colonial. Transcaucasia received an all-Russian provincial system of government, and various regimes of military and indirect government were created in the North Caucasus.

The concept of "Caucasian war" is very conditional. In fact, it was a series of military campaigns of the Russian Empire against the mountaineers, between which there were periods of truces, sometimes long ones. The term "Caucasian War", coined by the pre-revolutionary military historian Rostislav Andreevich Fadeev, who wrote the book "Sixty Years of the Caucasian War" by order of the Caucasian viceroy in 1860, settled down only in the later Soviet literature. Until the middle of the twentieth century, historians wrote about the "Caucasian wars".

From Adat to Sharia

Was the Sharia movement in Chechnya and Dagestan a reaction of the highlanders to the onslaught of the Russian Empire and the policies of General Yermolov? Or vice versa - Imam Shamil and his murids only spurred Russia to take more decisive action in the Caucasus?

The Sharia movement in the North-Eastern Caucasus began long before the penetration of Russia into the region and was associated with the Islamization of public life, life and rights of the mountaineers in XVII-XVIII centuries. Rural communities were increasingly inclined to replace mountain customs (adat) with the legal and everyday norms of Sharia. Russian penetration into the Caucasus was initially perceived by the highlanders loyally. Only the construction of the Caucasian line across the entire North Caucasus, which began from its northwestern part in the last third of the 18th century, led to the displacement of the highlanders from their lands, retaliatory resistance and a protracted war.

Pretty soon, resistance to Russian conquest took the form of jihad. Under its slogans, at the end of the 18th century, an uprising of the Chechen sheikh Mansur (Ushurma) took place, which the Russian Empire suppressed with difficulty. The construction of the Caucasian Line in Chechnya and Dagestan contributed to the beginning of a new jihad, on the wave of which an imamate was created, which resisted the empire for more than a quarter of a century. Its most famous leader was Imam Shamil, who ruled the state of jihad from 1834 to 1859.

Why did the war in the northeast of the Caucasus end earlier than in the northwest?

In the North-Eastern Caucasus, where the center of Russian resistance had long been (mountainous Chechnya and Dagestan), the war ended thanks to the successful policy of the governor of the Caucasian prince, who blocked and captured Shamil in the Dagestan village of Gunib in 1859. After that, the imamat of Dagestan and Chechnya ceased to exist. But the highlanders of the North-Western Caucasus (Trans-Kuban Circassia) practically did not obey Shamil and continued to wage partisan struggle against the Caucasian army until 1864. They lived in hard-to-reach mountain gorges near the Black Sea coast, through which they received help from the Ottoman Empire and Western powers.

Painting by Alexei Kivshenko "Surrender of Imam Shamil"

Tell us about Circassian Muhajirism. Was it a voluntary resettlement of the highlanders or their forced deportation?

The resettlement of the Circassians (or Circassians) from the Russian Caucasus to the territory of the Ottoman Empire was voluntary. No wonder they likened themselves to the first Muslims, who in 622 voluntarily left together with the Prophet Muhammad from pagan Mecca to Yathrib, where they built the first Muslim state. Both of them called themselves Muhajirs who made the resettlement (hijra).

No one deported the Circassians inside Russia, although entire families were exiled there for criminal offenses and disobedience to the authorities. But at the same time, Muhajirism itself was a forced expulsion from the homeland, since its main reason was the drive from the mountains to the plains at the end of the Caucasian War and after it. The military authorities of the northwestern part of the Caucasian line saw in the Circassians elements harmful to the Russian government and pushed them to emigrate.

Didn't the Adyghe Circassians originally live on the plain around the Kuban River?

During the Russian conquest, which lasted from the end of the 18th century to the mid-1860s, the place of residence of the Circassians and other indigenous peoples of the North-Western and Central Caucasus changed more than once. Military operations forced them to seek refuge in the mountains, from where they, in turn, were evicted by the Russian authorities, forming large settlements from the Circassians on the plain and in the foothills within the Caucasian line.

Caucasian Muhajirs

But were there plans to evict the highlanders from the Caucasus? Let us recall, for example, the project of Russkaya Pravda by Pavel Pestel, one of the leaders of the Decembrists.

The first mass migrations took place during the Caucasian War, but they were limited to the North Caucasus and Ciscaucasia. The Russian military authorities resettled the peaceful highlanders in whole villages within the limits of the Caucasian line. A similar policy was pursued by the imams of Dagestan and Chechnya, creating settlements in the mountains of their supporters from the plains and resettling recalcitrant villages. The exodus of the highlanders from the Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire began at the end of the war and went on until the fall of the tsarist regime, mainly in the second third of the 19th century. It affected the North-Western Caucasus especially strongly, the vast majority of the indigenous population of which left for Turkey. The impetus for Muhajirism was forced migration from the mountains to the plain, surrounded by Cossack villages.

Why did Russia drive only Circassians to the plains, while pursuing a completely different policy in Chechnya and Dagestan?

Among the Muhajirs were also Chechens and Dagestanis. There are many documents about this, and I personally know their descendants. But the vast majority of emigrants were from Circassia. This is due to disagreements in the military administration of the region. Supporters of the eviction of the highlanders to the plain and further, to the Ottoman Empire, prevailed in the Kuban region, created in 1861 on the territory of the present Krasnodar Territory. The authorities of the Dagestan region opposed the resettlement of the highlanders to Turkey. The chiefs of the divisions of the Caucasian line, transformed after the war in the region, had broad powers. Supporters of the eviction of the Circassians were able to convince the Caucasian governor in Tiflis of their rightness.

The resettlement later affected the North-Eastern Caucasus: the Chechens were deported from the Caucasus by Stalin in 1944, the mass resettlement of Dagestanis to the plain took place in the 1950-1990s. But this is a completely different story, not related to Muhajirism.

Why was the policy of the Russian Empire regarding the resettlement of the highlanders so inconsistent? At first, she encouraged the resettlement of the highlanders to Turkey, and then suddenly decided to limit it.

This was due to changes in the Russian administration of the Caucasus region. IN late XIX centuries, opponents of Muhajirism, who considered it inappropriate, came to power here. But by this time, most of the highlanders of the North-Western Caucasus had already left for the Ottoman Empire, and their lands were occupied by Cossacks and colonists from Russia. Similar changes in colonization policy can be found in other European powers, notably France in Algeria.

Tragedy of the Circassians

How many Circassians died during the resettlement in Turkey?

No one really counted. Historians from the Circassian diaspora speak of the extermination of entire nations. This point of view appeared even among the contemporaries of Muhajirism. The expression of the pre-revolutionary Caucasian scholar Adolf Berger that "Circassians ... were laid in the cemetery of peoples" became winged. But not everyone agrees with this, and the size of emigration is estimated differently. The well-known Turkish researcher Kemal Karpat has up to two million Muhajirs, and Russian historians speak of several hundred thousand emigrants.

Why such a difference in numbers?

No statistics were kept in the North Caucasus before its Russian conquest. The Ottoman side recorded only legal immigrants, but there were still many illegal immigrants. Those who died on the way from the mountain villages to the coast or on ships, no one really counted. And there were also Muhajirs who died during quarantine in the ports of the Ottoman Empire.

The painting "Storm of the village of Gimry" by Franz Roubaud

In addition, Russia and the Ottoman Empire were not immediately able to agree on joint actions to organize resettlement. When Muhajirism passed into history, the study of it in the USSR until the late Soviet period was under an unspoken ban. During the Cold War, cooperation between Turkish and Soviet historians in this area was almost impossible. Serious study of Muhajirism in the North Caucasus began only at the end of the 20th century.

That is, this question is still poorly understood?

No, quite a lot has already been written about this and seriously over the past quarter of a century. But there is still room for a comparative study of archival data on the Muhajirs in the Russian and Ottoman empires - no one has yet specifically carried out such a study. Any figures on the number of muhajirs and those who died during emigration, which appear in the press and on the Internet, must be treated with caution: they are either greatly underestimated, since they do not take into account illegal emigration, or they are very overestimated. A small part of the Circassians then returned to the Caucasus, but the Caucasian war and the Muhajir movement completely changed the confessional and ethnic map of the region. Muhajirs largely shaped the population of the modern Middle East and Turkey.

Before the Olympics in Sochi, they tried to use this topic for political purposes. For example, in 2011, Georgia officially recognized “the mass extermination of Circassians (Adygs) during the Russian-Caucasian war and their forcible expulsion from their historical homeland as an act of genocide.”

Genocide is an anachronistic for the 19th century and, most importantly, an overly politicized term, associated primarily with the Holocaust. Behind him is the demand for the political rehabilitation of the nation and financial compensation from the successors of the perpetrators of the genocide, as is done for the Jewish diaspora in Germany. This, probably, was the reason for the popularity of this term among activists from the Circassian diaspora and the Adygs of the North Caucasus. On the other hand, the organizers of the Olympics in Sochi unforgivably forgot that the place and date of the Olympics are linked in the historical memory of the Circassians with the end of the Caucasian War.

Painting by Peter Gruzinsky “Abandonment of the village by the highlanders”

The trauma inflicted on the Circassians in the course of Muhajirism cannot be hushed up. I cannot forgive this to the bureaucrats who were in charge of organizing the Olympics. At the same time, the concept of genocide is also disgusting to me - it is inconvenient for a historian to work with it, it limits the freedom of research and does not correspond well to the realities of the 19th century - by the way, no less cruel in relation to Europeans to the inhabitants of the colonies. After all, the natives were simply not considered human, which justified any cruelty of conquest and colonial administration. In this regard, Russia behaved in the North Caucasus no worse than the French in Algeria or the Belgians in the Congo. Therefore, the term "muhajirism" seems to me much more adequate.

Caucasus is ours

Sometimes one hears that the Caucasus has never completely reconciled itself and has always remained hostile to Russia. It is known, for example, that even under Soviet rule in the post-war years it was not always calm there, and the last abrek of Chechnya was shot dead only in 1976. What do you think about this?

The age-old Russian-Caucasian confrontation is not a historical fact, but an anachronistic propaganda cliche, again in demand during the two Russian-Chechen campaigns of the 1990-2000s. Yes, the Caucasus survived the conquest by the Russian Empire in the 19th century. Then the Bolsheviks again and no less bloodily conquered it in 1918-1921. However, the works of historians today show that conquest and resistance did not determine the situation in the region. Much more important here was interaction with Russian society. Even chronologically, the periods of peaceful coexistence were longer.

The modern Caucasus is largely a product of imperial and Soviet history. As a region, it was formed precisely at that time. Already in the Soviet era, it was modernized and Russified.

It is significant that even Islamic and other radicals who oppose Russia often publish their materials in Russian. The words that the North Caucasus was not voluntarily part of Russia and will not come out of it voluntarily seem more true to me.