Caucasian War brief retelling. Caucasian war
Caucasian wars of Russia
Relations between Russia and the peoples living on both sides of the Caucasus Range began in ancient times. After the division of Georgia into several separate kingdoms and principalities, the weakest of them often resorted to the Russian government with requests for protection. The entry, in 1561, of Tsar Ivan the Terrible into marriage with the Kabardian princess Maria Temryukovna gave rise to the rapprochement of Russia with the Caucasian peoples. In 1552, the inhabitants of the vicinity of Beshtau, constrained by the raids of the Tatars, surrendered to the protection of the Russian Tsar. Kakhetian Tsar Alexander II, oppressed by the attacks of Shamkhal Tarkovsky, sent an embassy to Tsar Fyodor Mikhailovich in 1586, declaring his readiness to become a Russian citizen. Kartalin's tsar Georgy Simonovich also swore allegiance to Russia.
In the era of troubled times in Russia, relations with the Caucasus ceased for a long time. The repeated requests for help, with which the local rulers turned to Tsars Michael and Alexei, could not be fulfilled by Russia. Since the time of Peter I, Russia's influence on the affairs of the Caucasian region has become more definite and permanent. The border remained along the northeastern branch of the river. Terek, the so-called old Terek.
The troops of Peter I in Tarki 
Derbent fortress
Under Anna Ioannovna, the construction of the defensive Caucasian line was laid. In 1735 the Kizlyar fortress was founded, in 1739 the Kizlyar fortified line was created, in 1763 a new fortress was built - Mozdok, which laid the foundation for the Mozdok fortified line.
By a treatise of 1793, concluded with Porte, the Kabardians were recognized as independent and should serve as a “barrier to both powers,” and then the Mohammedan doctrine, which quickly spread among the mountaineers, completely alienated the latter from Russian influence. With the outbreak of the first war with Catherine II, the war with Turkey, Russia maintained continuous relations with Georgia; Tsar Heraclius II even helped our troops, which, under the command of Count Totleben, crossed the Caucasian ridge and entered Imereti through Georgia. According to the treaty concluded in Georgievsk, on July 24, 1783, Tsar Heraclius II was adopted under the patronage of Russia; in Georgia, it was supposed to contain 2 Russian battalions with 4 guns. With such weak forces it was impossible to protect the country from the constantly repeated raids of the Lezghins - and the Georgian militia was inactive. Turkish emissaries traveled throughout Transcaucasia, trying to incite the Muslim population against the Russians and Georgians. In 1785, Russian troops were busy pacifying the unrest on the northern slope of the Caucasian ridge by the preacher of the holy war, Sheikh-Mansur, who appeared in Chechnya. A rather strong detachment of Colonel Pieri sent against him was surrounded by Chechens in the Zasunzha forests and was almost completely exterminated, and Colonel Pieri himself was killed.
Defeat of Colonel Pieri's detachment
This raised the authority of Mansur among the mountaineers: the excitement spread from Chechnya to Kabarda and the Kuban. In 1787, the Russian troops in the Transcaucasus were recalled to the line, for the protection of which a number of fortifications were erected on the coast of the Kuban and 2 corps were formed: the Kuban Jaeger, under the command of General-in-Chief Tekeli, and the Caucasian, under the command of Lieutenant-General Potemkin. In 1791, General-in-Chief Gudovich took Yalta, while the false prophet Sheikh-Mansur was also captured (later, after the trial, he was executed). With the end of the Turkish War, the settlement of new Cossack villages was transgressed, and the coast of the Terek and the upper Kuban was populated mainly by the Don people, and the right bank of the Kuban, from the Ust-Labinsk fortress to the shores of the Azov and Black seas, was inhabited by the Black Sea Cossacks.
Cossacks
In 1798, George XII ascended the Georgian throne, who persistently asked Emperor Paul I to take Georgia under his protection and provide her with armed assistance. On December 22, 1800 in St. Petersburg, a manifesto was signed on the accession of Georgia to Russia... At the beginning of the reign of Alexander I, Russian administration was introduced in Georgia; General Knoring was appointed commander-in-chief, and Kovalensky was appointed the civil ruler of Georgia.
After the annexation of Georgia (1801-1810) and Azerbaijan (1803-1813), their territories were separated from Russia by the lands of Chechnya, Mountainous Dagestan and the North-Western Caucasus, inhabited by warlike mountain peoples who raided the Caucasian fortified lines. Systematic military operations in the Caucasus unfolded after the end of the Napoleonic wars.
General A.P. Ermolov moved from individual punitive operations to a systematic advance into the depths of Chechnya and Mountainous Dagestan.
Troops A.P. Ermolova in the Caucasus 
In 1817-1818, the left flank of the Caucasian fortified line was moved from the Terek to the river. Sunzha, in the middle reaches of which in October 1817 the fortification of Pregradny Stan was laid. This event was the first step towards the further advance of Russian troops in the Caucasus and actually marked the beginning of the Caucasian War. In 1819, the Separate Caucasian Corps numbered 50,000; Ermolov was also subordinate to the Black Sea Cossack army in the North-West Caucasus(40,000 people). In 1818, part of the Dagestan tribes, led by the feudal lords, united and in 1819 began a campaign against the Sunzhenskaya line, but suffered a series of defeats. His activities on the line Yermolov, in 1818, began from Chechnya, strengthening the located on the river. Sunzhe Nazran Redoubt and laying the Groznaya fortress on the lower reaches of this river. In Dagestan in 1819, the Vnezapnaya fortress was built. In Chechnya, Russian troops occupied recalcitrant auls and forced the mountaineers to move further and further from the river. Sunzhi. In Abkhazia, Prince Gorchakov defeated the rebellious crowds near Cape Kodor and brought Prince Dmitry Shervashidze into the possession of the country. In 1823-1824, the actions of the Russians were directed against the Trans-Kuban highlanders, who did not stop their raids.
Eviction of mountain auls
In 1925, a general uprising of Chechnya took place, during which the highlanders managed to seize the post of Amir-Adzhi-Yurt (July 8) and tried to take the Gerzel-aul fortification rescued by the detachment of Lieutenant General Lisanevich (July 15). The next day, Lisanevich and General Grekov, who was with him, were treacherously killed by Chechens during negotiations.
From the beginning of 1825, the coast of the Kuban began to be subject to raids by large detachments of Shapsuts and Abadzekhs; the Kabardians were also worried. In 1826, a number of expeditions were made to Chechnya, with the cutting of glades in dense forests, the laying of new roads and the punishment of rebellious auls. The Ermolov period (1816-1827) is rightly considered the most successful in the Caucasian War. Its results were: on the northern side of the Caucasian ridge - consolidation of the power of Russia in Kabarda and Kumyk lands; the conquest of many highlanders who lived on the foothills and plains against the left flank of the line; in Dagestan, the Russian government was supported by the obedience of the local rulers, who were afraid and at the same time respected General A.P. Ermolova.
Chechnya Map
Russian troops in the Caucasus pass 
In March 1827, Adjutant General I.F. Paskevich. According to the Turkmanchay peace of 1828, the Erivan and Nakhchivan khanates ceded to Russia, and according to the Adrianople peace treaty of 1829, the fortresses of Akhaltsikh, Akhalkalaki and the entire Black Sea coast from the mouth of the river. Kuban to the pier of St. Nicholas south of Poti. In connection with the construction of the Sukhum Military Highway, the territory of Karachay was annexed to Russia in 1828.
Adjutant General I.F. Paskevich
Taking the fortress of Kars 
Chechen and Lezgin
Since the late 1920s, the Caucasian War has expanded in scale due to the movement of highlanders that emerged in Chechnya and Dagestan under the reactionary banner of the religious and political doctrine of Muridism, of which ghazavat was a component - a “holy war” against “infidels,” that is, Russians. This movement was based on the desire of the top of the Muslim clergy to create a reactionary feudal-theocratic state - the imamate. First called for Gazi-Magomed (Kazi-mulla) ghazavat, proclaimed in December 1828 by imams and put forward the idea of uniting the peoples of Chechnya and Dagestan.
Gazi-Magomed
In May 1830, Gazi-Magomed and his disciple Shamil with an 8000 detachment tried to capture the capital of Avaria - the aul Khunzakh, but failed.
Gazi-Magomed and Shamil
The expedition of the tsarist troops sent to the village of Gimry also failed.(residence of the imam), which led to an increase in the influence of Gazi-Magomed. In 1831, the imam with 10,000 troops took Tarki and Kizlyar, laid siege to the fortresses Burnaya and Vnezapnaya, and then took Derbent. Fighting also broke out in Chechnya, on the outskirts of the Grozny fortress and Vladikavkaz. A significant territory (Chechnya and part of Dagestan) was under the rule of Gazi-Magomed. But from the end of 1831, the fighting began to decline due to the withdrawal from the murids of the peasantry, dissatisfied with the fact that the imam did not fulfill his promise to eliminate class inequality.
In September 1831, instead of I.F. Paskevich was appointed commander-in-chief in the Caucasus, General G.V. Rosen, who undertook a number of large expeditions of the tsarist troops in Chechnya, the detachments of Gazi-Magomed were driven back to Gorny Dagestan. The imam with a part of the murids fortified himself in the aul of Gimry, erecting several fortified lines built in tiers. On October 17, 1832, the tsarist troops took Gimry by storm. Imam Gazi-Magomed was killed in hand-to-hand combat.
Aul Gimry 
The assault of the aul of Gimry
General G.V. Rosen
The new imam Gamzat-bey, just like the previous one, asserted his power not only by propagating the ideas of muridism, but also by force of arms. In August 1843, he captured the village of Khunzakh and exterminated the entire family of the Avar Khan for refusing to oppose Russia. Soon Gamzat-bek was killed by the bloodlines of the Avar khan.
Instead of Gamzat-bek, Shamil became the imam in 1834, under which the hostilities acquired an especially large scale.
On October 18, 1834, the tsarist troops stormed Old and New Gotsatl (the main residence of the murids) and forced Shamil's troops to retreat from Avaria. In 1837, the detachment of General K.K. Fezi occupied Khunzakh, Untsukul and part of the village of Tilitl, where Shamil's troops withdrew. Due to heavy losses and lack of food, the detachment found itself in a difficult situation, and on July 3, 1837 Fezi concluded an armistice with Shamil.
Truce with Shamil
In 1839, hostilities resumed. General E.A. was appointed commander-in-chief in the Caucasus at that time. Golovin. Detachment of General P.Kh. Grabbe, after an 80-day siege on August 22, 1839, captured the residence of Shamil - Akhulgo; the wounded Shamil with a part of the murids broke through to Chechnya.
Aul Akhulgo
Storming the aul Akhulgo 
After stubborn battles in the area of the Gekhi forest and on the river. Valerik (July 11, 1840) Russian troops occupied the whole of Chechnya.
The battle on the r. Valerik 
In the battle at the river. Valerik was directly involved with the lieutenant of the Russian army M.Yu. Lermontov, who described it in one of his poems.
In 1840-1843, Shamil's troops managed to occupy Avaria and a significant part of Dagestan. Shamil took measures to increase the number of his troops and improve their organization. The entire male population between the ages of 15 and 50 was obliged to carry out military service. Troops were formed in thousands, hundreds and tens. The core of Shamil's army was light cavalry, the main part of which was the so-called murtazeks(horse fighters). Every 10 households Shamil ordered to exhibit and maintain one murtazek. The manufacture of artillery pieces, bullets and gunpowder was adjusted.
Raid of murtazeks 
The agile, adapted to actions in the mountains, the murtazeks of Shamil easily got out of the battle and eluded pursuit. From 1842 to 1846, they conducted active operations in the mountainous regions, and only in 1846 they began to suffer defeat from the tsarist troops (since 1844, General M.S. Vorontsov became the commander-in-chief in the Caucasus). In 1846, the breakthrough of Shamil's troops to Kabarga ended in failure, in 1848 they lost Gergibl, in 1849 they were defeated in the assault on Temir-Khan-Shura and an attempt to break through to Kakheti. In the North-West Caucasus in 1851, the action of the Circassian tribes led by the governor of Shamil, Mohammed-Emin, was suppressed. By this time, the governors (naibs) of Shamil turned into large feudal lords and began to cruelly exploit the subordinate population. Internal social contradictions in the imamate intensified, and the peasantry began to move away from Shamil.
Highlander's Saklya
On the eve of the Crimean War of 1853-1856, Shamil, counting on the help of England and Turkey, stepped up his actions and in August 1853 tried to break through the Lezgi line at New Zagatala, but was again defeated. In the summer of 1854, Turkish troops launched an offensive on Tiflis at the same time Shamil's detachments, breaking through the Lezgin line, invaded Kakheti, captured Tsinandali, but were detained by the Georgian militia, and then defeated by the approaching Russian army.
The Caucasian corps was transformed into an army (up to 200,000 men, 200 guns). The defeat of the Turkish army in 1854-1855 by Russian troops (since 1854, commander-in-chief General N.N. Muravyov) of the Turkish army finally dispelled Shamil's hopes for outside help. The internal crisis of the imamate, which had already begun in the late 1940s, deepened even more. The weakening of the imamate was also facilitated by very large human losses in the long war with Russia. In April 1859, Shamil's residence, the village of Vedeno, fell.
Russian army in the Caucasus
Shamil, seeing the danger threatening from everywhere, fled to his last refuge on Mount Gunib, having with him only 400 people of the most fanatical murids. On August 25, 1859, Gunib was taken after a fierce assault. Shamil himself with his sons surrendered to General A.I. Baryatinsky. He was pardoned by Tsar Alexander II and settled in Kaluga with his family. He was allowed the Hajj to Mecca where he died in 1871.
The assault of the aul Gunib 
Shamil surrenders 
Place of captivity of Imam Shamil
On November 20, 1859, the main forces of the Circassians (2000 Murids), led by Muhammad-Emin, were defeated and surrendered.
The battle in the Kbaada tract 
Only on the Black Sea coast did the leaders of Muridism still try to resist, hoping for the support of Turkey and England. In 1859-1862, the tsarist troops continued to advance (from 1856, commander-in-chief, General A.I.Baryatinsky) deep into the mountains. In 1863, they occupied the territory between the Belaya and Pshish rivers, and by mid-April 1864 - the entire coast to Navaginsky and the territory to the river. Laba. The occupation of the Kbaada (Krasnaya Polyana) tract by Russian troops on May 21, 1864, where the last base of the Circassians was located, completed the long history of the Caucasian wars, although in fact military operations in some areas continued until the end of 1864.
The historical significance of the Caucasian War was that it ensured the annexation of Chechnya, Mountainous Dagestan and the North-Western Caucasus to Russia, saving the mountain peoples from the danger of enslavement by the backward eastern dispotes of Iran and Turkey. The peoples of the Caucasus have found in the person of the Russian people a loyal ally and a mighty defender.
The hostilities lasted for almost fifty years - from 1817 to 1864. Many political scientists and historical figures are still arguing about the methods of conquering the Caucasus and assess this historical event ambiguously. Someone says that the mountaineers initially did not have a chance to resist the Russians, waging an unequal struggle with tsarism. Some historians, however, emphasized that the authorities of the empire did not set themselves the goal of establishing peaceful relations with the Caucasus, but its total conquest and the desire to subjugate the Russian Empire. It should be noted that for a long time the study of the history of the Russian-Caucasian War was in a deep crisis. These facts once again prove how difficult and stubborn this war turned out to be for the study of national history.
The beginning of the War and its causes
Relations between Russia and the mountain peoples had a long and difficult historical connection. On the part of the Russians, repeated attempts to impose their customs and traditions only angered the free highlanders, giving rise to their discontent. On the other hand, the Russian emperor wanted to end the raids and attacks, plunders of the Circassians and Chechens on the Russian cities and villages stretching on the border of the empire.
The clash of completely dissimilar cultures gradually grew, strengthening Russia's desire to subjugate the Caucasian people. With the strengthening of foreign policy, the ruling empire, Alexander the First, decided to expand Russian influence over the Caucasian peoples. The purpose of the war on the part of the Russian Empire was the annexation of the Caucasian lands, namely Chechnya, Dagestan, part of the Kuban region and the Black Sea coast. Another reason for joining the war was the maintenance of the stability of the Russian state, since the British, Persians and Turks peered into the Caucasian lands - this could turn into problems for the Russian people.
The conquest of the mountain people became a pressing problem for the emperor. It was planned to close the military issue with permission in its favor within a few years. However, the Caucasus stood against the interests of Alexander the First and two more subsequent rulers for half a century.
The course and stages of the war
Many historical sources describing the course of the war indicate its key stages.
Stage 1. Partisan movement (1817 - 1819)
The commander-in-chief of the Russian army, General Yermolov, waged a rather fierce struggle against the disobedience of the Caucasian people, resettling them to the plains among the mountains for total control. Such actions provoked violent discontent among the Caucasians, strengthening the partisan movement. The partisan war began in the mountainous regions of Chechnya and Abkhazia.
In the first years of the war, the Russian Empire used only a small part of its military forces to subdue the Caucasian population, as it was simultaneously waging a war with Persia and Turkey. Despite this, with the help of Yermolov's military literacy, the Russian army gradually drove out the Chechen fighters and conquered their lands.
Stage 2. The emergence of muridism. Unification of the ruling elite of Dagestan (1819-1828)
This stage was characterized by some agreements among the current elites of the Dagestani people. A union was organized in the fight against the Russian army. A little later, a new religious movement appears against the backdrop of an unfolding war.
The confession called Muridism was one of the branches of Sufism. In a way, Muridism was a national liberation movement of representatives of the Caucasian people with strict adherence to the rules prescribed by religion. The Muridians declared war on the Russians and their supporters, which only exacerbated the fierce struggle among the Russians and Caucasians. From the end of 1824, an organized Chechen uprising began. Russian troops were subjected to frequent raids from the highlanders. In 1825, the Russian army won a number of victories over the Chechens and Dagestanis.
Stage 3. Creation of the Imamate (1829 - 1859)
It was during this period that a new state was created, spreading over the territories of Chechnya and Dagestan. The founder of a separate state was the future monarch of the highlanders - Shamil. The creation of the imamate was prompted by the need for independence. The Imamate defended the territory not captured by the Russian army, built his own ideology and centralized system, created his own political postulates. Soon, under the leadership of Shamil, the progressing state became a serious enemy of the Russian Empire.
For a long period of time, hostilities were conducted with varying success for the belligerents. During all kinds of battles, Shamil showed himself as a worthy commander and adversary. For a long time, Shamil raided Russian villages and fortresses.
The situation was changed by the tactics of General Vorontsov, who, instead of continuing to march to the mountain villages, sent soldiers to cut openings in rugged forests, erecting fortifications there and creating Cossack villages. Thus, the territory of the Imamate was soon surrounded. For some time, the troops under the command of Shamil gave a worthy rebuff to the Russian soldiers, but the confrontation lasted until 1859. In the summer of that year, Shamil, along with his associates, was besieged by the Russian army and captured. This moment became a turning point in the Russian-Caucasian War.
It is worth noting that the period of the struggle against Shamil was the most bloody. This period, like the war as a whole, suffered a huge amount of human and material losses.
Stage 4. End of the war (1859-1864)
The defeat of the Imamat and the enslavement of Shamil was followed by the end of hostilities in the Caucasus. In 1864, the Russian army broke the long resistance of the Caucasians. The exhausting war between the Russian Empire and the Circassian peoples ended.
Significant figures of military action
To conquer the mountaineers, they needed uncompromising, experienced and outstanding military commanders. Together with Emperor Alexander I, General Aleksey Petrovich Ermolov boldly entered the war. By the beginning of the war, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the troops of the Russian population on the territory of Georgia and the second Caucasian line.
Yermolov considered Dagestan and Chechnya to be the central place of the conquest of the highlanders, having established a military-economic blockade of mountainous Chechnya. The general believed that the task could be completed in a couple of years, but Chechnya turned out to be too active militarily. The commander-in-chief's tricky, and at the same time, uncomplicated plan was to conquer individual combat points, setting up garrisons there. He took away from the mountain inhabitants the most fertile pieces of land for subjugation or extinction of the enemy. However, with his authoritarian disposition towards foreigners, in the post-war period Yermolov improved the railway for small amounts allocated from the Russian treasury, established medical institutions, facilitating the influx of Russians into the mountains.
Raevsky Nikolai Nikolaevich was no less a valiant warrior of that time. With the rank of "General of Cavalry", he skillfully mastered combat tactics and honored combat traditions. It was noted that the Raevsky regiment always showed the best qualities in battle, always maintaining strict discipline and order in the battle formation.
Another of the commanders-in-chief - General Baryatinsky Alexander Ivanovich - was distinguished by military dexterity and competent tactics in commanding the army. Alexander Ivanovich brilliantly showed his mastery of command and military training in battles at the village of Gergebil, Kyuryuk-Dara. For his services to the empire, the general was awarded the Order of St. George the Victorious and St. Andrew the First-Called, and by the end of the war he was promoted to field marshal general.
The last of the Russian commanders, who bore the honorary title of Field Marshal Dmitry Alekseevich Milyutin, left his mark in the fight against Shamil. Even after being wounded by a bullet on a sortie, the commander remained to serve in the Caucasus, taking part in many battles with the mountaineers. He was awarded the Orders of St. Stanislav and St. Vladimir.
Results of the Russian-Caucasian War
Thus, the Russian Empire, as a result of a long struggle with the mountaineers, was able to establish its own legal system on the territory of the Caucasus. Since 1864, the administrative structure of the empire began to spread, strengthening its geopolitical position. For the Caucasians, a special political system was established with the preservation of their traditions, cultural heritage and religion.
Gradually, the anger of the highlanders subsided in relation to the Russians, which led to the strengthening of the authority of the empire. Fantastic sums were allocated for the improvement of the mountainous region, the construction of transport links, the construction of cultural heritage, the construction of educational institutions, mosques, orphanages, military orphan's departments for the inhabitants of the Caucasus.
The Caucasian battle was so long that it had a rather controversial assessment and results. The internecine invasions and periodic raids from the Persians and Turks stopped, human trafficking was eradicated, the economic rise of the Caucasus and its modernization began. It should be noted that any war brought about devastating losses for both the Caucasian people and the Russian Empire. Even after so many years, this page of history still requires study.
Caucasian War (briefly)
Brief description of the Caucasian War (with tables):
It is customary for historians to call the Caucasian War a long period of hostilities between the North Caucasian Imamate and the Russian Empire. This confrontation was fought for the complete subordination of all mountainous territories of the North Caucasus, and was one of the fiercest in the nineteenth century. The war period spans from 1817 to 1864.
Close political relations between the peoples of the Caucasus and Russia began immediately after the collapse of Georgia in the fifteenth century. Indeed, since the sixteenth century, many states of the Caucasian ridge were forced to ask for protection from Russia.
Historians point to the fact that Georgia was the only Christian state that was regularly attacked by neighboring Muslim countries as the main reason for the war. More than once, Georgian rulers have asked for Russian protection. So, in 1801, Georgia was formally included in Russia, but was completely isolated from the Russian Empire by neighboring countries. In this case, an urgent need arose to form the integrity of the Russian territory. This could be realized only under the condition of the subordination of other peoples of the North Caucasus.
Such Caucasian states as Ossetia and Kabarda became part of Russia almost voluntarily. But the rest (Dagestan, Chechnya and Adygea), offered fierce resistance, categorically refusing to submit to the empire.
In 1817, the main stage of the conquest of the Caucasus by Russian troops under the command of General A. Ermolov began. It is interesting that it was after the appointment of Yermolov as commander of the army that the Caucasian War began. In the past, the Russian government was rather soft on the peoples of the North Caucasus.
The main difficulty in conducting military operations in this period was the fact that at the same time Russia had to participate in the Russian-Iranian and Russian-Turkish wars.
The second period of the Caucasian War is associated with the appearance in Dagestan and Chechnya of a common leader - Imam Shamil. He was able to unite the scattered peoples dissatisfied with the empire and start a liberation war against Russia. Shamil managed to quickly form a powerful army and wage successful military operations against Russia for more than thirty years.
After a series of setbacks in 1859, Shamil was taken prisoner, after which he was exiled with his family to the Kaluga region for settlement. With his removal from military affairs, Russia managed to win a lot of victories, and by 1864 the entire territory of the North Caucasus became part of the empire.
May 21, 2007 marks 143 years since the end of the Russian-Caucasian War. It was one of the bloodiest wars and the longest in the history of Russia. According to some researchers, the war has been fought since 1763 - from the moment Russia laid the foundation for the city of Mozdok in the Kabardian lands. According to other authors, it lasted from 1816 - from the time of the appointment of General A.P. Ermolov. governor of the Caucasus and commander of the Caucasian army.
Regardless of the date of its beginning, in this war the question was decided who should belong to the Caucasus. In the geopolitical aspirations of Russia, Turkey, Persia, England and others, this was of fundamental importance. The Caucasus, in the conditions of the colonial division of the globe by the leading world powers, could not remain outside the limits of their rivalry. In this case, we are interested not so much in the fact itself and the reasons for the outbreak of the Caucasian War. We should be concerned with delicate, "inconvenient" topics that politicians do not want to talk about - about the methods of ending the war on the lands of Western Circassia in 1860-1864. It was they who led to the tragedy of the Circassian people. Therefore, the peace in the Caucasus, proclaimed 143 years ago in the region of Kvaaba (Krasnaya Polyana) on the Black Sea coast by the governor of the Caucasus, the commander of the Caucasian army, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, brother of Tsar Alexander II, could only be heard by 3% of the Circassian ethnos. The remaining 97% of the four million Circassian population, according to N.F. Dubrovin (Circassians. - Nalchik, 1991), died in this century-old war or were expelled from their native land to a foreign land - to Turkey. The Circassians and their descendants saw what national inequality means and what the slave market in the east is, where they were forced to sell some children in order to feed others. The descendants of the exiles are still fighting for survival in an environment alien to them, for the preservation of their language and culture.
I would like to cite extracts from the book "The Caucasian War", published in 2003 in Moscow, by the publishing house "Algorithm". The author of the book, Lieutenant General Fadeev Rostislav Andreevich, is one of those who personally participated in the Caucasian War, and knows how it ended on the right flank, in Trans-Kuban region, in the lands of the Western Circassians. Fadeev was for "special assignments" under the governor of the Caucasus, commander of the Caucasian army, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich. Fadeev writes:
"The purpose and mode of action in the planned war (the author means at its final stage, on the land of the Western Circassians - U.T.) were completely different from the conquest of the eastern Caucasus and in all previous campaigns. The exclusive geographical position of the Circassian side on the European coast the sea, which brought it into contact with the whole world, did not allow confining itself to the conquest of the peoples who inhabited it in the ordinary sense of the word ... There was no other way to strengthen this land behind Russia, no doubt, how to make it a truly Russian land. were not suitable for the western one: we had to turn the eastern coast of the Black Sea into Russian land and in order to clear the entire coastal area of the mountaineers ... We had to exterminate a significant part of the Trans-Kuban population in order to force the other part to lay down their arms unconditionally ... The expulsion of the highlanders and the settlement of the western The Caucasus by the Russians - that was the war plan for the last four years. "
According to the testimony of the same author, “dense masses of the Circassian population occupied the plains and foothills: there were few inhabitants in the mountains themselves ... The main task of the Circassian war was to bring down the enemy population from the forest plain and hilly foothills and drive it into the mountains it was impossible for him to feed himself for a long time; and then to transfer the very foundation of our operations to the foot of the mountains. " And the meaning of these operations was to exterminate the population, free the lands from the Circassians, populate them with stanitsas following the troops. As a result of this policy, as the author testifies, "from the spring of 1861 to the spring of 1862 alone, 35 villages with a population of 5482 families were erected in the Trans-Kuban region, which formed 4 cavalry regiments." Further, Fadeev R.A. concludes:
"The highlanders suffered a terrible calamity: there is nothing to lock up in this (that is, make excuses - U.T.), because it could not have been otherwise ... It was necessary to exterminate the mountaineers in half to force the other half to lay down their weapons. women, children. When the highlanders gathered on the coast for eviction to Turkey, at first glance, an unnaturally small proportion of women and children against adult men was noticeable. During our pogroms, many people scattered through the forest alone; never been. "
After the defeat and capture of Imam Shamil in 1859, a significant part of the Adygs (Circassians) of western Circassia, primarily the most powerful tribe, the Abadzekhs, expressed their readiness to submit to the Russian Empire. However, this turn of events at the end of the war did not suit part of the top of the Kuban and Caucasian lines. She wanted to get estates on the lands of the Circassians, which, as they believed, were to be exterminated, and the remnants were resettled in the arid eastern lands of Stavropol, and best of all, in Turkey. Count Evdokimov was the author of such a barbaric plan to end the war in the west of Circassia.
Many opposed the expulsion and genocide of the Circassians: Generals Phillipson, Rudanovsky, Raevsky Jr., Prince Orbeliani and others. But Alexander II's support for the barbaric methods of conquering western Circassia by Evdokimov did its job. Moreover, the emperor urged Evdokimov so that the European powers did not have time to prevent the extermination and deportation of the Circassians (Circassians). The gene pool of the Circassian people in the North Caucasus was essentially undermined. The remaining small part of the people was resettled at the discretion of the tsarist authorities in less habitable lands. Evdokimov wrote the following to Alexander II about the results of his atrocity:
"In the present 1864, a fact, which had almost no example in history, took place, a huge Circassian population, possessing once great wealth, armed and capable of military craft, occupying the vast Zakuban region from the upper Kuban to Anapa and the southern slope of the Caucasian ridge from the Sudzhuk Bay to the river .Bzyba, owning the most inaccessible areas in the region, suddenly disappears from this land ... ".
Count Evdokimov was awarded the Order of George 2nd degree, received the rank of general from infantry, and also became the owner of two estates: near Anapa in 7000 dessiatines, near Zheleznovodsk at 7800 dessiatines. But Petersburg society, to his credit, did not share the emperor's delight. It coldly greeted Evdokimov, accusing him of a barbaric method of waging war, indiscriminate means, cruelty towards the Circassians, who had many merits before Russia in the past Russian-Adyghe history, especially under Ivan the Terrible and Peter I.
The measures taken in the USSR to revive the Circassians (Circassians) in their historical homeland after the 1917 revolution arouse the gratitude and gratitude of the Circassians (Circassians) in their homeland, as well as the Circassian diaspora abroad. However, created in the 20s of the last century, Adygea, Circassia, Kabarda and Shapsugia remained scattered. And each part of the Circassian ethnos, deprived of a single historical memory, a single territory, a single economy and culture, spirituality in its integral form, develops not along a converging, but, on the contrary, along a diverging vector of movement. This causes another irreparable damage to the unity and revival of the Circassian people.
And most importantly, the genocide and expulsion of the Circassian ethnos from their historical homeland have not yet received an assessment in the official state acts of Russia, England, France, Turkey and other states. The solidarity of states and peoples made it possible to condemn the Armenian genocide during the First World War and the genocide of the Jews during the Second World War. And the fact of the genocide of the Circassians has not received an appropriate assessment either in the UN or in the OSCE. Only the Organization of Peoples not represented in the UN, a few years ago, adopted a resolution on this issue and an appeal to the President of the Russian Federation ( part 1, part 2).
On the basis of written historical evidence, as well as international documents adopted after two world wars on the protection of human and civil rights and similar laws of the new democratic Russia, the results of the Caucasian war at its final stage in Western Circassia must be evaluated objectively.
And this should not be seen as an attempt to accuse the Russian ethnos of committed atrocities. Nations are never guilty of such deeds, because the rulers never ask them how to start a war, how to wage it, and what methods to use in this case. But there is the wisdom of descendants. They correct the mistakes of their rulers in the past.
A significant event in our time, which clarified the assessment of the results of the Caucasian War and the definition of tasks for the future, was telegram of the first President of Russia Yeltsin B.N. dated May 21, 1994... In it, for the first time in 130 years, a top official of the Russian state recognized the ambiguity of the results of the war, the need to resolve the remaining problems and, above all, the issue of returning the descendants of the exiles to their historical homeland.
To calm down the skeptics or opponents of such a step, it is important to note that this will not lead to a massive return of the Adygs (Circassians) to their historical homeland. The vast majority of the descendants of the Adygs (Circassians) living in more than 50 countries of the planet have adapted to their countries of residence and do not ask for return. The Adygs (Circassians), both in Russia and abroad, are asked to equalize their rights with those peoples who have been repressed in the past. The Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Caucasian War obliges us to focus on the necessity and validity of raising the issue of the legal, political and moral rehabilitation of the Circassian people following the results of the Caucasian War before the federal authorities of the Russian Federation.
Recently, a federal law "On the rehabilitation of repressed peoples and the Cossacks" has been adopted. This law was perceived by the Russian public and the world community as a just legal, political and moral act of the official authorities of democratic Russia.
The repressions of Stalinism, like the repressions of tsarism, are equally cruel and unjust. Therefore, our state must overcome them, regardless of when and who committed them - the king or the general secretary. Double standards are unacceptable if we adhere to the positions of objectivity and protection of human and civil rights.
According to the United Nations Declaration, responsibility for the genocide committed has no statute of limitations.
It would be completely logical to adopt a federal law of the Russian Federation, in which it is necessary to recognize the fact of genocide and forced deportation from the historical homeland of the Adygs (Circassians) during the years of the Caucasian War. And then, together with foreign states, who are also responsible for everything that happened, as rightly stated in B.N. Yeltsin, it is necessary to determine how to overcome the consequences of the tragedy.
Do not think that the North Caucasus independently decided to ask Russia for citizenship, and without any problems became part of it. The reason and consequence of the fact that today Chechnya, Dagestan and others belong to the Russian Federation was the Caucasian War of 1817, which lasted about 50 years and was ended only in 1864.
The main reasons for the Caucasian war
Many modern historians call the desire of the Russian Emperor Alexander I by any means to annex the Caucasus to the territory of the country as the main prerequisite for the start of the war. However, if you look at the situation deeper, this intention was caused by fears for the future of the southern borders of the Russian Empire.
Indeed, for many centuries such strong rivals as Persia and Turkey have looked at the Caucasus with envy. Allowing them to spread their influence over and take control of it was a constant threat to their own country. That is why military confrontation was the only way to solve the problem.
Akhulgo translated from the Avar language means "Nabatnaya Gora". There were two auls on the mountain - Old and New Akhulgo. The siege by Russian troops, led by General Grabbe, lasted for 80 long days (from June 12 to August 22, 1839). The purpose of this military operation was the blockade and the capture of the imam's headquarters. The aul was stormed 5 times, after the third assault, the terms of surrender were offered, but Shamil did not agree to them. After the fifth assault, the village fell, but people did not want to surrender, they fought to the last drop of blood.
The battle was terrible, women took an active part in it with weapons in their hands, children threw stones at the storming men, they had no thought of mercy, they preferred death to captivity. Huge losses were suffered by both sides. Only a few dozen companions, led by the imam, managed to escape from the aul.
Shamil was wounded, in this battle he lost one of his wives and their infant son, and the eldest son was taken hostage. Akhulgo was completely destroyed and to this day the village has not been rebuilt. After this battle, the highlanders briefly began to doubt the victory of Imam Shamil, since the aul was considered an unshakable fortress, but despite its fall, the resistance continued for about 20 more years.
From the second half of the 1850s, St. Petersburg intensified its actions in an effort to break the resistance, generals Baryatinsky and Muravyov managed to take Shamil and his army into a ring. Finally, in September 1859, the imam surrendered. In St. Petersburg, he met with Emperor Alexander II, and then was settled in Kaluga. In 1866, Shamil, already an elderly man, accepted Russian citizenship there and received hereditary nobility.
Results and outcomes of the 1817-1864 campaign
The conquest of the southern territories by Russia took about 50 years. It was one of the most protracted wars in the country. The history of the Caucasian War of 1817-1864 was long, researchers are still studying documents, collecting information and chronicling military operations.
Despite its duration, it ended in victory for Russia. The Caucasus accepted Russian citizenship, and Turkey and Persia henceforth had no opportunity to influence local rulers and incite them to unrest. Results of the Caucasian War of 1817-1864 are well known. It:
- consolidation of Russia in the Caucasus;
- strengthening of the southern borders;
- elimination of mountain raids on Slavic settlements;
- the ability to influence Middle East politics.
Another important result is the gradual fusion of the Caucasian and Slavic cultures. Despite the fact that each of them has its own characteristics, today the Caucasian spiritual heritage has firmly entered the general cultural environment of Russia. And today the Russian people live peacefully side by side with the indigenous population of the Caucasus.
