Caucasian War

History

Main article: Russian conquest of the Caucasus

The war took place during the administrations of three successive Russian Tsars: Alexander I (reigned 1801–1825), Nicholas I (1825–1855), and Alexander II (1855–1881). The leading Russian commanders included Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov in 1816–1827, Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov in 1844–1853, and Aleksandr Baryatinskiy in 1853–1856. The famous Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, who gained much of his knowledge and experience of war for his book War and Peace from these encounters, took part in the hostilities. The Russian poet Alexander Pushkin referred to the war in his Byronic poem The Prisoner of the Caucasus (), written in 1821. Mikhail Lermontov, often referred to as "the poet of the Caucasus", participated in the battle near the river Valerik which inspired him to write the poem of the same name. In general, the Russian armies that served in the Caucasian wars were very eclectic. They included ethnic Russians from various parts of the empire, as well as Cossacks, Armenians, Georgians, Caucasus Greeks, Ossetians, and even soldiers of Muslim background like Tatars, Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Uyghurs, Turkmen. Some Caucasian Muslim tribes also sided with the Russians against fellow Muslims of the Caucasus. Muslim soldiers of the Imperial Russian Army had played a role in religious discussion and wooing allies for Russia against their Muslim counterparts in the Caucasus.

The Russian invasion encountered fierce resistance. The first period of the invasion ended coincidentally with the death of Alexander I and the Decembrist Revolt in 1825. It achieved surprisingly little success, especially compared with the then recent Russian victory over the "Grande Armée" of Napoleon in 1812.

Between 1825 and 1833, little military activity took place in the Caucasus against the native North Caucasians as wars with Turkey (1828/1829) and with Persia (1826–1828) demanded the Empire's attention. After considerable successes in both wars, Russia resumed fighting in the Caucasus against the various rebelling native ethnic groups in the North Caucasus. This marked the beginning of what is now referred to as the Circassian genocide. Russian units again met resistance, notably led by Ghazi Mollah, Hamzat Bek, and Hadji Murad. Imam Shamil followed them. He led the mountaineers from 1834 until his capture by Dmitry Milyutin in 1859. In 1843, Shamil launched a sweeping offensive aimed at the Russian outposts in Avaria. On 28 August 1843, 10,000 men converged from three different directions, on a Russian column in Untsukul, killing 486 men. In the next four weeks, Shamil captured every Russian outpost in Avaria except one, exacting over 2,000 casualties on the Russian defenders. He feigned an invasion north to capture a key chokepoint at the convergence of the Avar and Kazi-Kumukh rivers. Robert F Baumann and Combat Studies Institute (U.S.), Russian-Soviet Unconventional Wars in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Afghanistan (Fort Leavenworth, Kan: Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, n.d.) In 1845, Shamil's forces achieved their most dramatic success when they withstood a major Russian offensive led by Prince Vorontsov.

During the Crimean War of 1853–1856, the Russians brokered a truce with Shamil, but hostilities resumed in 1855. Warfare in the Caucasus finally ended between 1856 and 1859, when a 250,000 strong army under General Baryatinsky broke the mountaineers' resistance.

The war in the Eastern part of the North Caucasus ended in 1859; the Russians captured Shamil, forced him to surrender, to swear allegiance to the Tsar, and then exiled him to Central Russia. However, the war in the Western part of the North Caucasus resumed with the Circassians (i.e. Adyghe, but the term is often used to include their Abaza kin as well) resuming the fight. A manifesto of Tsar Alexander II declared hostilities at an end on June 2 (May 21 OS), 1864.

Aftermath

Main article: Circassian genocide, Chechen genocide

One of the most dramatic consequences was the mass forced emigration, or muhâjirism, of predominantly Muslim mountain populations from their homeland to the territories of the Ottoman Empire, and to a lesser degree Persia. Yale University paper

According to one source, the population in Kabardia decreased from 350,000, before the war, to 50,000 by 1818. According to another version, in 1790 the population was 200,000 people and in 1830 30,000 people. As a percentage of the total population of the North Caucasus, the number of the remaining Circassians was 40% (1795), 30% (1835) and 25% (1858). Similarly: Chechens 9%, 10% and 8.5%; Avars 11%, 7% and 2%; Dargins 9.5%, 7.3% and 5.8%; Lezghins 4.4%, 3.6% and 3.9%.

These demographic losses were accompanied by the confiscation of lands, resettlement of Cossack and Russian military colonists, and the re-organisation of the region’s ethnic composition in ways favourable to the imperial authorities. In the Ottoman territories, the exiled Circassians found themselves in a precarious survival situation. Many landed via Black Sea ports such as Trabzon, Samsun, and Varna, and were placed in camps or transit settlements under extremely harsh conditions of overcrowding, disease, hunger and exposure. For example, in Samsun alone, up to 110,000 refugees were gathered and more than 200 people died each day during certain phases of the transit. The Ottoman state sometimes used the Circassian newcomers for strategic settlement, such as establishing them as militia along border zones in the Danubian and Anatolian provinces.

Small numbers of the exiled did return, under conditional or partial circumstances. Documentation shows that in 1861-67 a few thousand individuals or families applied to return from exile to the Terek or Caucasus region, but the numbers were greatly reduced compared to the scale of the original movement.

Gallery

File:Karte des Kaukasischen Isthmus - Entworfen und gezeichnet von J-Grassl - 1856.jpg|Map of the Caucasus isthmus. Created and drawn by J. Grassl, 1856. File:Georgianroad.jpg|Construction of the Georgian Military Road through disputed territories was a key factor in the eventual Russian success File:Sturm aul Gimry 1891.jpg|Assault of Gimry, by Franz Alekseyevich Roubaud File:Штурм аула Салта.jpg|Caucasian tribesmen fight against the Cossacks, 1847 File:Storm of the fortress of Akhty 1848.jpg|Storm of the fortress of Akhty in 1848 File:Theodor Horschelt Tscherkessen.jpg|Circassians by Theodor Horschelt File:Battle in the mountains (1890).jpg|Battle in the mountains, by Franz Roubaud, 1890. File:Pyotr Nikolayevich Gruzinsky - The mountaineers leave the aul.jpg|Mountaineers leave the aul, by Pyotr Gruzinsky File:Russian medal for subjugation of Western Caucasus 1859-1864.PNG|Russian medal for subjugation of Western Caucasus 1859–1864 File:Мюрид с наибским знаменем.jpg|Murid with the naib banner, by Theodor Horschelt 1858–1861. File:Feldwebel Vasily Ivanov.jpg|Officer of the Separate Caucasian сorps by A. L. Zisserman File:Артиллерист фейервейкер Отдельного кавказского корпуса.jpg|Artillery fireworker of the Separate Caucasian сorps File:Oskar Schmerling. Caucasian Soldier Riding at a Gallop.jpg|Caucasian horseman warrior, by Oskar Schmerling 1893. File:Бой с Чеченцами под Акбулат-Юртом.jpg|Fight with the сhechens under Akbulat-Urt, by D. Koenig (1849) File:Наибы Шамиля.jpg|Naibs of Imam Shamil, by Giorgio Corradini 19th century. File:Черкес стреляет из винтовки с коня на скаку.jpg|Circassian warrior, by Alfred Kowalski, 1895. File:Caucasian rider in fight with russian soldier (1892).jpg|Caucasian rider in fight with Russian soldier, by Roubaud. F. (1892) File:Виллевальде, Богдан Павлович. Охотники Ширванского полка на Гунибе.jpg|Soldiers of the Shirvan regiment on Gunib, by Bogdan Willewalde (1870). File:Pyotr Nikolayevich Gruzinsky. Assault of Gunib.jpg|Assault of Gunib, by Pyotr Gruzinsky 1862. File:Теодор Горшельт. Штурм укреплений Гуниба. 1867.jpg|Battle of Ghunib, painting by Theodor Horschelt 1867. File:Horschelt. Surrender of Shamil. 1863.jpg|Capture of Shamil, painting by Theodor Horschelt 1859. File:The illustrated London News December 24 1859. Schamyl (front page).png|Shamil (front page). Illustrated London News of December 24, 1859. File:British News on the Russo circassian war.pdf|Article of Illustrated London News about Russo-Circassian War.

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Pokrovsky N. I. Caucasian Wars and the Imamate of Shamil / Foreword. N. N. Pokrovsky, introduction. and approx. V. G. Gadzhiev. — M.: ROSSPEN, 2000. — 511 p. — .
• Bell, J.S Journal of a residence in Circassia during the years 1837, 1838, and 1839 (English)
• Dubrovin, N. История войны и владычества русских на Кавказе, volumes 4–6. SPb, 1886–88.
• Kaziev, Shapi. Imam Shamil, Molodaya Gvardiya publishers: Moscow, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2010
• Kaziev, Shapi. Akhoulgo. Caucasian War of 19th century.
• The historical novel Epoch Publishing house. Makhachkala, 2008.
• Gammer, Moshe. Muslim Resistance to the Tsar: Shamil and the Conquest of Chechnia and Daghestan. Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., 1994. 247 p. — .

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