150 years ago, Russia celebrated the end of the long Caucasian Wars. But the beginning of them date in different ways. You can meet 1817, 1829, or mention that they lasted "one and a half centuries". There was really no specific start date. Back in 1555, the embassies of Kabardians and the Grebensky Cossacks arrived to Ivan the Terrible, “they gave the truth to the whole earth” - they accepted the citizenship of Moscow. Russia established itself in the Caucasus, built fortresses: the Terek town, the Sunzhensky and the Koisinsky ostory. Under the authority of the king passed part of the Circassians and Dagestan princes. Citizenship remained nominal, they did not pay tribute, the royal administration was not assigned to them. But Transcaucasia was divided between Turkey and Persia. They were alarmed, began to drag the highlanders to themselves, set them on the Russians. Raids were committed, archers and Cossacks made retaliatory forays into the mountains. Periodically, hordes of Crimean Tatars, Nogais, and Persians rolled.
It so happened that the fortresses and Cossack settlements fenced off the Chechens from the Tatar and Persian attacks. By the beginning of the XVIII century. they intensified. The governors reported: "Chechens and Kumyks began to attack the towns, drive away livestock, horses and polonit people." And the Grebensky Cossacks numbered only 4 thousand along with their wives and children. In 1717, the 500 of the best Cossacks went on a tragic expedition to Khiva, where they died. Chechens ousted the remaining combi from Sunzha, forced to retreat to the left bank of the Terek.
In 1722, Peter I undertook a campaign on the Caspian. Some mountain rulers obeyed him, others broke. Russia subordinated part of Azerbaijan, in the North Caucasus built the fortress of the Holy Cross. Russian garrisons were stationed in Derbent, Baku, Astara, Shamakhi. But they got into a mess of wars. There were continuous clashes with supporters of the Turks, the Persians, just gangs of robbers. And malaria, dysentery, and plague epidemics claimed far more victims than battles. In 1732, Empress Anna Ivanovna considered that the retention of Transcaucasia leads only to costs and losses. With Persia signed an agreement, setting the border on the Terek. The troops from Azerbaijan and Dagestan were withdrawn, instead of the fortress of the Holy Cross, a new one was built - Kizlyar.
It was supposed that peace would now reign ... It was not there! Highlanders perceived a retreat as a sign of weakness. And with the weak in the Caucasus did not stand on ceremony. The attacks fell incessantly. For example, in 1741, the Kizlyar Cossacks appealed to the Astrakhan Bishop: “In the past, the sovereign, 1740, attacked us, servants and orphans of the great sovereign, Busurmane Tatars, burnt down the holy church, took away our servants and orphans of the great sovereign, Pop Lavra, and great ruin caused. Great lord, Reverend Hilarion of Astrakhan and Terek, perhaps we were ... led to build a new church in the name of Nicholas the Wonderworker and came to us, serfs and orphans of the great sovereign, another priest for Laurus ... ”
There was another reason for predation. Russia won another war with Turkey, and one of the clauses of the 1739 peace treaty provided for: the Crimean Khanate liberated all Russian slaves. And the Crimea was the main supplier of "live goods" to the markets of the East! Prices for slaves jumped steeply, and the Caucasian tribes took up hunting for them. The tsarist government began to build up defenses. In 1762 the Mozdok fortress was founded, friendly Kabardians settled in it. In the following years, 500 families of Volga Cossacks were transferred to Terek, they built a number of stanitsas adjacent to the Grebensky towns. And from the side of the Kuban, the border was covered by the Don Army.
The result of the next war with the Turks, in 1774, was the nomination of Russia to the Kuban. The raids did not stop, in 1777 a special article appeared in the state budget: 2 thousand rubles. silver for ransom from the mountaineers of Christian captives. In 1778, A.V. was appointed commander of the Kuban Corps. Suvorov. He was given the task of building a fortified line across the border. He reported to Potemkin: “I dug the Kuban from the Black Sea into the adjacency of the Caspian, under the roof of the sky, succeeded in one great post to establish a network of multiple fortresses like Mozdok, not with the worst taste.” But it did not help! Already in the fall of 1778, Mr. Suvorov indignantly wrote: “The troops, having come to relaxation, began to be plundered — shame to say — from the barbarians, they have a concept below military device!” Yes, the soldiers carried out the guard service. But it was enough to gape, they were “plundered” by the highlanders and dragged into captivity.
Well, the Turks sent their emissaries to unite the Caucasian peoples to fight the Russians. The first preacher of the "holy war", Sheikh-Mansur, appeared. In 1790, the army of Batal Pasha landed in the Kuban. But he was smashed to smithereens, and in 1791 our troops stormed the main base of Sheikh Mansur, the fortress of Anapa. For severity, this operation was compared with the assault of Ishmael. In Anapa, Sheik-Mansur himself was captured. Accordingly, the Russian government increased its defense. Several parties of the Don Cossacks were resettled to the Caucasus, and in June 1792 of the city of Catherine II bestowed land on the Kuban Black Sea Forces, former Cossacks. Began to build Ekaterinodar, 40 Zaporozhye Kurena founded 40 villages: Plastunovsky, Bryukhovetskaya, Kushchevskaya, Kislyakovskaya, Ivanovo, Krylovskaya, etc.
In 1800, Georgia was transferred under the authority of the Russian Tsar. However, this rebelled the Persian Shah, unleashed a war. Our troops in Transcaucasia defended the Georgians, discarded their enemies. But they were actually cut off from their homeland by the array of the Caucasus. Some of the local peoples became for the Russian sincere friends and allies: the Ossetians, part of the Kabardians, the Abkhaz. Other Turks and Persians successfully used. Alexander I, in his rescript, noted: “To my great displeasure, I see that the lines of predation of the mountain peoples are becoming very strong and much more incomparable to the opposition of former times.” And the local chief, Knorring, reported to the sovereign: “From the time of my service as an inspector of the Caucasian line, I was most concerned about predatory robberies, villainous robberies and kidnappings ...”.
Reports retained a scant line about the then tragedies. In the village of Bogoyavlensky, more than 30 residents were slaughtered ... from the village of Vorovskolessky, people were driven into 200 mountains ... the village of Kamennobrodskoe was destroyed, Chechens killed 100 people in church, 350 was driven into slavery. And in the Kuban Circassians ravaged. The Black Sea people who moved here lived extremely poorly, but still, every winter, the highlanders crossed the Kuban across the ice, robbed the latter, killed, and took them captive. Saved only mutual assistance. At the first signal of danger, a shot, a shout, all combat-capable Cossacks threw cases, seized weapon and rushed to where it was bad. In January, 1810 on the Olginsky cordon and a half hundred Cossacks, led by Colonel Tikhovsky, took over the blow of 8 thousand Circassians. Fought 4 hours. When ran out of ammunition, rushed into the melee. Esaul Gadzhanov and 17 Cossacks made their way, all wounded, most soon died. Late help counted on the site of the battle 500 enemy corpses.
And the most effective form of protection was retaliatory campaigns. The mountaineers respected power and had to remember - a retribution would follow for each raid. It was especially hard in 1812. The troops left to defend the Fatherland from Napoleon. Activated the Persians, Chechens, Circassians. The newspapers did not write about the battles in the Caucasus at this time, they were not discussed in the social salons. But they were no less cruel, the wounds were no less painful, and the dead were mourned no less bitterly. Only by exerting all the forces our troops and Cossacks managed to fight back.
After the defeat of the French, additional forces went to the Caucasus, and the pupil of Suvorov, Alexei Petrovich Yermolov, became commander in chief. He appreciated: with half measures you will not achieve anything, the Caucasus must be conquered. He wrote: “The Caucasus is a huge fortress, protected by a half-million garrison. It is necessary either to storm it or to seize the trenches. The assault will be expensive. So let the siege. ” Yermolov established: each frontier must be secured with strongholds and road construction. The fortresses of Grozny, Sudden and Stormy began to be built. Between them, clearances were cut through, outposts were made. It did not do without fights. Although the losses were small - there were few troops in the Caucasus, but they were selected, professional fighters.
The forerunners of Yermolov inclined the mountain princes to take the oath in exchange for the officer and general's ranks, the high salary. If possible, they robbed and slaughtered the Russians, and then swore again, returning the same ranks. Yermolov stopped this practice. Violating the oath began to hang. The villages where the attacks came from brought punitive raids. But for the friendship of the door remained open. Yermolov formed detachments of Chechen, Dagestan, Kabardian militia. By the middle of 1820's, the situation seemed to stabilize. But to the incitement of war, except Turkey, England and France joined. To the mountaineers in large quantities were transferred money, weapons. Imam Kazi-Mohammed appeared, calling everyone to “Gazavat”.
And the Russian “advanced public” already in those times took the side of the enemies of its people. Metropolitan ladies and gentlemen read in English and French newspapers about the "Russian atrocities in the Caucasus." Not their relatives were killed, not their children were driven into slavery. They raised an outraged howl, and influenced the king. Yermolov was removed, the new administration received instructions to act "enlightenment". Although it has crossed all achievements. Again, terrible reports of burnt farms and villages began to fall. Chechens, led by Kazi-Mohammed, even destroyed Kizlyar, driving the population to the mountains. Here we realized. In 1832, the imam was besieged in the village of Gimry, Qazi-Muhammad and all his murids died. Only one escaped - Shamil, pretending to be dead.
He became a new leader, a talented organizer. It flared up everywhere - in the Kuban, in Kabarda, Chechnya, Dagestan. Russia sent reinforcements, deployed the Caucasian corps in the army. But it led to great losses. In thick columns bullets flew without a miss. And there was not enough of what Ermolov won - systematic and systematic. Separate operations became useless. Added and "policy". 17 June 1837 of Shamil was blocked in the village of Tilitl. He gave up. He took an oath, sent a son to Russia. And he was released on all four sides! The son of Shamil, by the way, met an excellent reception in Petersburg, he was determined to be an officer’s school. But his father gathered troops, the attacks resumed. By the way, the imam was by no means a disinterested “freedom fighter”, from all the highlanders he was one fifth of the spoils, he became one of the richest people of his time. The Turkish Sultan produced him into the “Generalissimuses of the Caucasus,” with English instructors acting under his command.
The Russian command was building fortresses along the Black Sea coast, preventing arms smuggling. Each step was given with incredible difficulty. In 1840, the Circassian masses poured into the seaside posts. The garrisons of the forts of Lazarevsky, Golovinsky, Veliyaminovsky, Nikolaev were killed. In the Mikhailovsky fortification, when almost all 500 defenders fell, ordinary Arkhip Osipov blew up a powder magazine. He became the first Russian soldier, forever enrolled in the lists of parts. And Shamil, having found a common language with the Dagestan leader Hadji Murad, launched an offensive on the eastern flank. In Dagestan, the garrisons died or were difficult to get out of the siege.
But gradually, new brilliant commanders were put forward. In the Kuban - the generals Grigori Khristoforovich Zass, Felix Antonovich Krukovsky, the "father" of the Black Sea army Nikolai Stepanovich Zavodovsky. "Legend of the Terek" was Nikolai Ivanovich Sleptsov. Cossacks did not mind the soul in it. When the Blind men rushed in front of them with the call: “On the horse, after me, Sunzha”, they rushed after him into the fire and into the water. And especially famous "Don Bogatyr" Yakov Petrovich Baklanov. He raised a real special forces from his Cossacks. He taught sniper shooting, the art of intelligence, used rocket batteries. He invented his special banner, black, with a skull and bones and the inscription “I look at the resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century. Amen". It terrified the enemies. No one could take Baklanov by surprise, on the contrary, he himself unexpectedly fell on the head of the Murids, ruined the rebellious villages.
In the middle of 1840, the new Commander-in-Chief, MS Vorontsov returned to the Ermolov plan of the “siege”. Two "extra" corps were withdrawn from the Caucasus. The abandoned troops led to clear cutting of forests, laying roads. Relying on the bases under construction, they struck the following blows. Shamil was driven further into the mountains. In 1852, when the clearing was cut on the river. Michick, he decided to give a big battle. Huge masses of cavalry descended on Baryatinsky's expedition between Goncal and Michik. But that was what suited the Russians! To the epicenter of the battle quickly came in time Cormorants. On the move, he deployed a rocket battery, made the installation himself, and 18 rockets crashed into clusters of enemies. And then the Cossacks and dragoons, headed by Baklanov, rushed to the attack, overthrew the army of Shamil, drove and hacked. The victory was complete.
The Crimean War gave a deferment to hostile tribes. The best Russian troops were transferred to the Crimea or to the Transcaucasus. And the British and the French and the Turks made plans: after defeating the Russians, to create a "caliphate" of Shamil in the Caucasus. Help flooded in a wide stream, the murids intensified. In November 1856, a gang of Kaplan Esizov broke through to the Stavropol region, carved out the entire adult population of the villages of Konstantinovskoye and Kugulty, and led the children into slavery. And yet, there has already been a turning point. Shamil suffered defeat. The mountaineers are fed up with endless war and the brutal dictatorship of the Imam. And the Russian command skillfully complemented diplomatic military measures. Attracted the Highlanders to their side, opposing the customary law of Dagestanis and Chechens to the Sharia law introduced by Shamil.
Almost all Dagestan has disappeared from it. Even the “leader number two” Hadji Murad, an undeservedly romanticized Tolstoy bandit, has spread to the Russians. He realized that it smelled like fried. Laid Shamil base, weapons depots, places of storage finance. Although he soon died in strange circumstances. Well, the end of the Crimean War was a sentence for the Murids. They were needed by the British and the French only as long as they were planning to dismember Russia. And the colossal losses sobered off the West. Nobody remembered about Shamil and his soldiers at peace conferences. For Europe, they now represented only propaganda value. Support has declined. And those whom the Imam raised for the war, it became clear - in the near future there was nothing to expect from the Western and Turkish allies.
The last attack on Shamil was led by Prince Alexander Ivanovich Baryatinsky and his assistant, Lieutenant-General Nikolai Ivanovich Evdokimov - the son of a simple soldier and a Cossack, who had tied up his whole life with the Caucasus. Shamil was pushed back into the highlands. The Chechen and Dagestan auls one after another pacified. Imam was angry, attacked them. But by doing so, he turned the highlanders into his natural enemies. In 1858, Mr. Yevdokimov took Shatoi by storm. Shamil took refuge in Vedeno. But Evdokimov also came here, the aul was captured. Imam went to Avaria. There he was overtaken by the expedition of General Wrangel. He managed to slip away into the village of Gunib, where he was besieged. Baryatinsky and Evdokimov arrived here. They offered to surrender on the conditions of free travel to Mecca. Shamil refused, was preparing for defense, forced to wear stones to strengthen even his wives and daughters-in-law. Then the Russians attacked, captured the first line of defense. Surrounded by the imam after the negotiations capitulated. September 8 Baryatinsky gave the order: “Shamil is taken, I congratulate the Caucasian army!”
Conquest of the Western Caucasus headed Evdokimov. The same systematic offensive unfolded as in Shamil. In 1860, tribal resistance was crushed along the Il, Ubin, Shebsha, and Afipsu rivers. Fortified lines were built, enclosing the "non-peaceful" areas with an almost closed ring. Attempts to prevent construction turned around for the attackers with serious losses. In 1862, detachments of soldiers and Cossacks advanced upward along White, Kurdipsu and Pshekha. The peaceful Circassians Evdokimov moved to the plain. They were not subjected to any harassment. On the contrary, they were provided with all possible benefits from normal business management, trade with the Russians.
At this time, another factor affected. Turkey conceived to create its own kind of Cossacks, bashi-bazouks. To settle in the Balkans among the subservient Christians, to keep them in obedience. And after the Crimean War, when the hope to break through to the Caucasus disappeared, a project to attract Circassians and Abkhazians to Bashibuzuki in Istanbul matured in Istanbul. Emissaries were sent to them, recruiting to move to Turkey. It was believed that they act in secret. But Evdokimov through his agents knew this very well. However, he did not hinder, but on the contrary, encouraged him. The most warlike, irreconcilable ones left - well, good riddance! The Russian posts closed their eyes when the caravans were moving to the Turkish borders or were loading ships, the troops were diverted from their route.
In 1863, on the post of commander-in-chief, Baryatinsky was replaced by the king's brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich. He came not only to reap laurels. He and the commander were good. But his appointment was a psychological move. The highlanders were given to understand that now they could not resist. And to submit to the king's brother was far more honorable than the “simple” generals. The troops moved to the final assault. In January, 1864 suppressed the resistance of the Abadzekhs in the upper reaches of the Belaya and Laba and captured the Goytha Pass. In February, conquered shapsugs. And on June 2, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich took the oath of the Abkhaz in the Kbaad (Krasnaya Polyana) tract the day before. Held a solemn review of the troops, saluted. This was the end of the war.
Although I must say that the Russian liberal public still despised the conquerors of the Caucasus. Again pyzhilis adapt to the views of the West. Heroes ohayali. Evdokimov, who arrived in St. Petersburg to receive awards, metropolitan beau monde arranged obstruction. He was not invited to visit, left the routs where he appeared. However, this did not embarrass the general, he said that it was not their relatives who were slaughtered by mountain bandits. But when Evdokimov arrived in the Stavropol region, the residents organized a triumphal meeting for him, flocked from young to old, threw flowers. Well, they could be understood. Damocles sword of constant danger, which hung over the local edges, has disappeared. The south of the country has finally got an opportunity for peaceful development ...