Caucasian War 1816 1864. Caucasian wars of Russia
Caucasian War (briefly)
Brief description of the Caucasian War (with tables):
Historians usually call the Caucasian War a long period of military actions between the North Caucasian Imamate and the Russian Empire. This confrontation was fought for the complete subjugation of all the mountainous territories of the North Caucasus, and was one of the most fierce in the nineteenth century. The war period covers the time 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. After all, starting from the sixteenth century, many states of the Caucasus range were forced to ask for protection from Russia.
As the main reason for the war, historians highlight the fact that Georgia was the only Christian power that was regularly attacked by nearby Muslim countries. More than once Georgian rulers asked for Russian protection. Thus, in 1801, Georgia was formally included in Russia, but was completely isolated from the Russian Empire by neighboring countries. In this case, there was an urgent need to form the integrity of Russian territory. This could be realized only if other peoples of the North Caucasus were subjugated.
Such Caucasian states as Ossetia and Kabarda became part of Russia almost voluntarily. But the rest (Dagestan, Chechnya and Adygea) put up 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 Ermolov’s appointment as army commander that the Caucasian War began. In the past, the Russian government treated the peoples of the North Caucasus rather softly.
The main difficulty in conducting military operations during this period was that at the same time Russia had to participate in the Russian-Iranian and Russian-Turkish war.
The second period of the Caucasian War is associated with the emergence of a common leader in Dagestan and Chechnya - Imam Shamil. He was able to unite disparate peoples dissatisfied with the empire and start a war of liberation 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 failures in 1859, Shamil was captured and then exiled with his family to a settlement in the Kaluga region. 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.
History of Russia from ancient times to the end of the 20th century Nikolaev Igor Mikhailovich
Caucasian War (1817–1864)
Caucasian War (1817–1864)
Russia's advance into the Caucasus began long before the 19th century. So, Kabarda back in the 16th century. accepted Russian citizenship. In 1783, Irakli II concluded the Treaty of Georgievsk with Russia, according to which Eastern Georgia accepted the patronage of Russia. At the beginning of the nineteenth century. all of Georgia became part of the Russian Empire. At the same time, Russia continued its advance in Transcaucasia and Northern Azerbaijan was annexed. However, Transcaucasia was separated from the main territory of Russia by the Caucasus Mountains, inhabited by warlike mountain peoples who raided lands that recognized Russian rule and interfered with communications with Transcaucasia. Gradually, these clashes turned into a struggle of the mountaineers who converted to Islam under the flag of ghazavat (jihad) - a “holy war” against the “infidels.” The main centers of resistance of the mountaineers in the east of the Caucasus were Chechnya and Mountainous Dagestan, in the west - the Abkhazians and Circassians.
Conventionally, we can distinguish five main periods of the Caucasian War in the 19th century. The first - from 1817 to 1827, associated with the beginning of large-scale military operations by the governor in the Caucasus and commander-in-chief of the Russian troops, General A.P. Ermolov; the second – 1827–1834, when the formation of a military-theocratic state of the highlanders in the North Caucasus was underway and resistance to Russian troops intensified; the third - from 1834 to 1855, when the movement of the highlanders was led by Imam Shamil, who achieved a number of major victories over the tsarist troops; fourth - from 1855 to 1859 - the internal crisis of the Shamil Imamate, the strengthening of the Russian offensive, the defeat and capture of Shamil; fifth – 1859–1864 – end of hostilities in the North Caucasus.
With the end of the Patriotic War and the foreign campaign, the Russian government intensified military operations against the highlanders. The hero of the Patriotic War and very popular in the army, General A.P., was appointed governor in the Caucasus and commander of the troops. Eromolov. He abandoned individual punitive expeditions and put forward a plan to advance deep into the Northern and Eastern Caucasus with the goal of “civilizing” the mountain peoples. Ermolov pursued a tough policy of ousting the rebellious mountaineers from the fertile valleys into the highlands. For this purpose, construction began on the Sunzha line (along the Sunzha River), which separated the breadbasket of Chechnya from the mountainous regions. The long and exhausting war became fierce on both sides. The advancement of Russian troops in the highlands, as a rule, was accompanied by the burning of rebellious villages and the resettlement of Chechens under the control of Russian troops. The mountaineers made constant raids on villages loyal to Russia, seized hostages, livestock and tried to destroy everything that they could not take with them, constantly threatening Russian communications with Georgia and Transcaucasia. The advantage of Russian troops in weapons and military training was compensated by difficult natural conditions. Impenetrable mountain forests served as good protection for the mountaineers, who were well versed in familiar terrain.
From the second half of the 20s. XIX century Muridism, a doctrine that preached religious fanaticism and “holy war with the infidels” (gazavat), was spreading among the peoples of Dagestan and the Chechens. On the basis of muridism, a theocratic state - the imamate - began to form. The first imam in 1828 was Gazi-Magomed, who sought to unite all the peoples of Dagestan and Chechnya in this state to fight the “infidels.”
At the same time (1827), General Ermolov, who managed to significantly stabilize the situation in the Caucasus, was replaced by I.F. Paskevich. The new commander decided to consolidate Ermolov's success with punitive expeditions. The actions of the latter and the formation of the theocratic state of the mountaineers again led to an intensification of the struggle. The government of Nicholas I relied mainly on military force, constantly increasing the number of Caucasian troops. The mountain nobility and clergy, on the one hand, with the help of muridism, tried to strengthen their power and influence among the mountain peoples; on the other hand, muridism made it possible to mobilize the mountain people to fight the newcomers from the North.
The Caucasian War took on a particularly fierce and stubborn character after Shamil came to power (1834). Having become an imam, Shamil, who had military talent, organizational skills and a strong will, managed to establish his power over the highlanders of Dagestan and Chechnya and organize persistent and effective resistance to Russian troops for 25 years.
The turning point in the struggle came only after the end of the Crimean War (1856). The Caucasian Corps was transformed into the Caucasian Army, numbering 200 thousand people. The new commander-in-chief A.I. Baryatinsky and his chief of staff D.A. Milyutin developed a plan for waging a continuous war against Shamil, moving from line to line in summer and winter. Shamil’s Imamate also experienced depletion of resources and a serious internal crisis. The denouement came in August 1859, when Russian troops blocked the last fortification of Shamil - the village of Gunib.
However, for another five years the resistance of the mountaineers of the North-Western Caucasus - Circassians, Abkhazians and Circassians - continued.
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19 . Russia and the Caucasus in the first half of the 19th century. Caucasian War. Muridism. Gazavat. Imamat of Shamil.
WITH 1817-1864. Russian troops fought in the North Caucasus to annex its territory. These military actions were called - "Caucasian War". This war began under Alexander I, the main burden fell on the shoulders of Nicholas I, and ended under Alexander II.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Georgia itself joined Russia (in Transcaucasia). At that time there was only one way to communicate with Georgia - the so-called Georgian Military Road, built by the Russians through the mountains of the North Caucasus. But movement along this road was in constant danger from robberies from the mountain peoples. The Russians could not limit themselves to repelling the raids. This constant defense was worth more than a major war.
Causes of the Caucasian War: Stop the raids of the mountaineers on the Georgian military road. Annex the territory of the North Caucasus. Do not allow the North Caucasus to pass to Turkey, Iran or England.
What was the North Caucasus like before joining Russia? The territory of the North Caucasus was distinguished by its geographical and ethnic originality.
In foothills and river valleys- in North Ossetia, Chechnya, Ingushetia, and also in Dagestan they were engaged in agriculture, viticulture, and gardening. State formations were formed here - the Avar Khanate, the Derbent Khanate, etc. In mountainous parts In Dagestan and Chechnya, the main branch of the economy was transhumance: in winter, cattle were grazed on the plains and in river valleys, and in the spring they were driven to mountain pastures. In the mountainous regions there were “free societies”, which consisted of unions of several neighboring communities. The free societies were headed by military leaders. The Muslim clergy had significant influence.
The annexation of the Caucasus began after the Patriotic War of 1812. The Russian government expected to solve this problem in a short time. But there was no quick victory. This was facilitated by: the geographical conditions of the North Caucasus and the unique mentality of its peoples; the commitment of individual peoples of the Caucasus to Islam and the idea of gazavat.
The hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, General A.P. Ermolov, was sent to the Caucasus as commander of the Caucasian Corps. He pursued a kind of “carrot and stick” policy. He expanded and strengthened ties with those peoples in the North Caucasus who supported Russia, and at the same time pushed the rebellious ones out of the fertile regions. As the Russians advanced deeper into Chechnya and Dagestan, roads and fortresses were built, such as the fortresses of Groznaya and Vnezapnaya. These fortresses made it possible to control the fertile valley of the Sunzha River.
Russia's aggressive policy in the Caucasus aroused active opposition from the mountain peoples. There was a powerful surge of uprisings in Kabarda (1821-1826), Adygea (1821-1826) and Chechnya (1825-1826). They were suppressed by special punitive detachments.
Gradually, isolated clashes escalated into a war that engulfed the North-West Caucasus, Dagestan, and Chechnya and lasted almost 50 years. The liberation movement was complex. It intertwined: - general dissatisfaction with the arbitrariness of the tsarist administration, - the infringed national pride of the highlanders, - the struggle of the national elite and the Muslim clergy for power.
At the initial stage of the war, Russian troops easily suppressed the resistance of individual detachments of mountaineers. then we had to fight with Shamil’s troops.
In the 20s of the 19th century, among the Muslim peoples of the North Caucasus, especially in Chechnya and Dagestan, muridism(or novitiate). Muridism was led by the Muslim clergy and local feudal lords. This movement was distinguished by religious fanaticism and proclaimed holy war (ghazawat or jihad) against the infidels.In the late 1820s - early 1830s. a military-theocratic state was formed in Chechnya and mountainous Dagestan - imamat. All power in it was concentrated in the hands of the imam - the political and spiritual leader. The only law was Sharia. Arabic was recognized as the official language. In the 30s, imam Shamil became Dagestan. He managed to subjugate Chechnya to his influence. For 25 years Shamil ruled over the highlanders of Dagestan and Chechnya. A disciplined, trained army was created.
In the fight against Russia, Shamil tried to rely on Turkey and England, wanted to receive financial support from them. At first, England actively responded to this proposal. But when the Russians intercepted an English schooner with weapons on board off the Black Sea coast, the British hastened to quell the political scandal with a promise not to interfere in the Caucasian conflict. In the early 50s, Russian troops finally ousted Shamil’s troops into mountainous Dagestan, where they were virtually doomed to a half-starved existence. In 1859, Shamil surrendered to the commander-in-chief of the Russian army in the Caucasus, A.I. Baryatinsky. Shamil was not executed, not thrown into prison, not exiled to Siberia, shackled. He was seen as an outstanding commander and politician who lost with dignity and courage. Shamil was sent to St. Petersburg, where he was celebrated as a hero, to his utter amazement. Kaluga was assigned Shamil's permanent place of residence. There he and his large family were given a magnificent two-story mansion, the inhabitants of which did not feel the need for anything. After ten years of quiet life in this city, Shamil was allowed to fulfill his old dream - to make a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, where he died in 1871.
5 years after the capture of Shamil, the resistance of the mountaineers was broken. Russia began to develop new lands.
During the war, the peoples of the North-West Caucasus – the Circassians – fought independently against Russia.(Under this general name there were many different tribal and communal associations). The Circassians raided Kuban. The Caucasian War brought significant human and material losses to Russia. During this entire time, 77 thousand soldiers and officers of the Caucasian Corps died, were captured, or went missing. The material and financial costs were enormous, but they cannot be accurately accounted for. The war worsened Russia's financial situation. The peoples of the North Caucasus lost their independence and became part of Russia. If Russia had not annexed the Caucasus, then other states - Turkey, Iran, England - would still not have allowed the peoples of the Caucasus to exist independently.
Russia's relations with 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 a rapprochement between Russia and the Caucasian peoples. In 1552, residents of the Beshtau environs, constrained by Tatar raids, surrendered under the protection of the Russian Tsar. Kakheti Tsar Alexander II, oppressed by the attacks of Shamkhal Tarkovsky, sent an embassy to Tsar Fyodor Mikhailovich in 1586, expressing his readiness to enter into Russian citizenship. Kartala Tsar Georgy Simonovich also swore allegiance to Russia.
During the Time of Troubles in Rus', relations with the Caucasus ceased for a long time. The repeated requests for help that the local rulers made to Tsars Mikhail and Alexei could not be fulfilled by Russia. Since the time of Peter I, Russia's influence on the affairs of the Caucasus region has become more definite and constant. The border remained along the north-eastern branch of the river. Terek, the so-called old Terek.
Troops of Peter I in Tarki 
Derbent fortress
Under Anna Ioannovna, the construction of the defensive Caucasian line began. In 1735, the Kizlyar fortress was founded, in 1739 the Kizlyar fortified line was created, in 1763 a new fortress was built - Mozdok, which marked the beginning of the Mozdok fortified line.
By the treaty of 1793, concluded with the Porte, the Kabardians were recognized as independent and should serve as a “barrier to both powers,” and then the Mohammedan teaching, which quickly spread among the highlanders, completely alienated the latter from Russian influence. Since the outbreak of the first war with Turkey under Catherine II, Russia maintained continuous relations with Georgia; Tsar Irakli II even helped our troops, who, under the command of Count Totleben, crossed the Caucasus ridge and entered Imereti through Georgia. According to the agreement concluded in Georgievsk, on July 24, 1783, Tsar Irakli II was accepted under the protection 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 continuously repeated attacks of the Lezgins - 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 caused on the northern slope of the Caucasus 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 Zasunzhensky forests and almost completely exterminated; Colonel Pieri himself was killed.
The defeat of Colonel Pieri's detachment
This increased Mansur’s authority among the highlanders: the excitement spread from Chechnya to Kabarda and Kuban. In 1787, the Russian troops located in Transcaucasia were recalled to the line, to protect which a number of fortifications were erected on the Kuban coast and 2 corps were formed: the Kuban Jaeger Corps, under the command of Chief General Tekeli, and the Caucasian Corps, under the command of Lieutenant General Potemkin. In 1791, Chief General Gudovich took Yalta, and the false prophet Sheikh Mansur was also captured (later executed after the trial). With the end of the Turkish War, new Cossack villages began to be populated, and the coasts of the Terek and upper Kuban were populated primarily by Don people, and the right bank of the Kuban, from the Ust-Labinsk fortress to the shores of the Azov and Black Seas, was populated by 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 it with armed assistance. On December 22, 1800, a manifesto on the accession of Georgia to Russia was signed in St. Petersburg. 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 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-West Caucasus, inhabited by warlike mountain peoples who raided the Caucasian fortified lines. Systematic military operations in the Caucasus began after the end of the Napoleonic wars.
General A.P., appointed commander-in-chief in the Caucasus in 1816. 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 the Pregradny Stan fortification was founded in October 1817. 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 people; 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 feudal lords, united and in 1819 began a campaign against the Sunzha line, but suffered a number of defeats. Ermolov began his activities on the line in 1818 from Chechnya, strengthening the one located on the river. Sunzha redoubt of Nazran and founded the Grozny fortress on the lower reaches of this river. In Dagestan, the Vnezapnaya fortress was built in 1819. In Chechnya, Russian troops occupied rebellious villages 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 possession of the country. In 1823-1824, Russian actions were directed against the Trans-Kuban highlanders, who did not stop their raids.Eviction of mountain villages
In 1825, there was a general uprising of Chechnya, during which the highlanders managed to capture the Amir-Adzhi-Yurt post (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 the 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 also became worried. In 1826, a number of expeditions were made to Chechnya, cutting down clearings in dense forests, laying new roads and punishing rebellious villages. The Ermolov period (1816-1827) is rightly considered the most successful in the Caucasian War. Its results were: on the northern side of the Caucasus ridge - the consolidation of Russian power in Kabarda and the Kumyk lands; the subjugation of many highlanders who lived on the foothills and plains opposite the left flank of the line; in Dagestan, Russian power was supported by the obedience of the local rulers, who feared and at the same time respected General A.P. Ermolova.
Map of Chechnya
Russian troops at the Caucasus Pass 
In March 1827, Adjutant General I.F. was appointed commander-in-chief in the Caucasus. Paskevich. According to the Turkmanchay Peace of 1828, the Erivan and Nakhichivan khanates went to Russia, and according to the Adrianople Peace Treaty of 1829, the fortresses of Akhaltsikhe, Akhalkalaki and the entire Black Sea coast from the mouth of the river. Kuban to the St. Nicholas pier south of Poti. In connection with the construction of the Military-Sukhumi Road, the territory of Karachay was annexed to Russia in 1828.
Adjutant General I.F. Paskevich
Capture of Kars fortress 
Chechen and Lezgin
Since the end of the 20s, the Caucasian War has been expanding in scope due to the movement of highlanders that arose in Chechnya and Dagestan under the reactionary banner of the religious and political doctrine of Muridism, an integral part of which was gazavat - the “holy war” against the “infidels,” that is, the Russians. At the heart of this movement was the desire of the top of the Muslim clergy to create a reactionary feudal-theocratic state - the imamate. For the first time Gazi-Magomed (Kazi-mullah) called for ghazavat, proclaimed in December 1828 by imams and putting forward the idea of unifying the peoples of Chechnya and Dagestan.
Gazi-Magomed
In May 1830, Gazi-Magomed and his student Shamil with a detachment of 8,000 tried to capture the capital of Avaria - the village of 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 the strengthening of the influence of Gazi-Magomed. In 1831, the imam with 10,000 troops took Tarki and Kizlyar, besieged the fortresses of Burnaya and Vnezapnaya, and then took Derbent. Fighting also broke out in Chechnya, on the approaches to the Grozny fortress and Vladikavkaz. A significant territory (Chechnya and part of Dagestan) came under the rule of Gazi-Magomed. But from the end of 1831, the fighting began to decline due to the desertion of the peasantry from the murids, dissatisfied with the fact that the imam had not fulfilled his promise to eliminate class inequality.In September 1831, instead of I.F. Paskevich, General G.V. was appointed commander-in-chief in the Caucasus. Rosen, who undertook a number of large expeditions of the tsarist troops in Chechnya, the detachments of Gazi-Magomed were pushed back to Mountainous Dagestan. The imam with part of the murids fortified himself in the village of Gimry, building several fortified lines built in tiers. On October 17, 1832, tsarist troops captured Gimry by storm. Imam Gazi-Magomed was killed in hand-to-hand combat.
Aul Gimry 
Assault on the village of Gimry 
General G.V. Rosen
The new imam Gamzat-bek, like the previous one, asserted his power not only by promoting the ideas of muridism, but also by force of arms. In August 1843, he captured the village of Khunzakh and, for refusing to oppose Russia, exterminated the entire family of the Avar Khan. Soon Gamzat-bek was killed by the bloodlines of the Avar Khan.
Instead of Gamzat-bek, Shamil became the imam in 1834, under whom the fighting acquired a particularly large scale.
On October 18, 1834, tsarist troops stormed Old and New Gotsatl (the main residence of the Murids) and forced Shamil’s troops to retreat from Avaria. In 1837, a detachment of General K.K. Fezi occupied Khunzakh, Untsukul and part of the village of Tilitl, where Shamil’s troops retreated. Due to heavy losses and lack of food, the detachment found itself in a difficult situation, and on July 3, 1837, Fezi concluded a truce with Shamil.
Truce with Shamil
In 1839, hostilities resumed. General E.A. was appointed commander-in-chief in the Caucasus at this time. Golovin. Detachment of General P.Kh. Grabbe, after an 80-day siege, on August 22, 1839, captured Shamil’s residence – Akhulgo; The wounded Shamil with part of the murids broke into Chechnya.
Aul Ahulgo
Assault on the village of Akhulgo 
After stubborn battles in the area of the Gekhinsky forest and on the river. Valerik (July 11, 1840) Russian troops occupied all of Chechnya.
Battle on the river Valerik 
In the battle of the river. Valerik was directly involved by 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 required to perform military service. The troops were formed in thousands, hundreds and dozens. The core of Shamil's army was the light cavalry, the main part of which were the so-called murtazeks
(horse fighters). Shamil obliged every 10 households to exhibit and maintain one murtazek. The production of artillery pieces, bullets and gunpowder was established.Murtazek raid 
Mobile, adapted to action in the mountains, Shamil’s murtazeks easily got out of the battle and eluded pursuit. From 1842 to 1846 they were active in the mountainous regions, and only in 1846 they began to suffer defeats 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 into Kabarga ended in failure, in 1848 they lost Gergibl, and in 1849 they were defeated during the assault on Temir-Khan-Shura and an attempt to break through to Kakheti. In the North-Western Caucasus in 1851, the uprising of the Circassian tribes led by Shamil's governor Muhammad-Emin was suppressed. By this time, the governors (naibs) of Shamil had turned into large feudal lords and began to cruelly exploit the subject 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, intensified his actions and in August 1853 tried to break through the Lezgin 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 troops, 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 people, 200 guns). The defeat of the Turkish army in 1854-1855 by Russian troops (since 1854, commander-in-chief General N.N. Muravyov) finally dispelled Shamil’s hopes for outside help. The internal crisis of the Imamate, which began in the late 40s, 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 danger threatening from everywhere, fled to his last refuge on Mount Gunib, having with him only 400 of the most fanatical murids. On August 25, 1859, Gunib was captured after a fierce assault. Shamil himself and 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 to go on Hajj to Mecca, where he died in 1871.
Assault on the village of Gunib 
Shamil surrenders 
Place of captivity of Imam Shamil
On November 20, 1859, the main forces of the Circassians (2,000 murids) led by Muhammad-Emin were defeated and capitulated.
Fight 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 advance of the tsarist troops (since 1856, commander-in-chief General A.I. Baryatinsky) continued into the depths of 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 Circassian base was located, ended 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-West Caucasus to Russia, saving the mountain peoples from the danger of enslavement by the backward eastern dispotates of Iran and Turkey. The peoples of the Caucasus have found a faithful ally and a powerful defender in the Russian people.
The concept of “Caucasian war” was introduced by the publicist and historian R. Fadeev.
In the history of our country, it refers to the events associated with the annexation of Chechnya and Circassia to the empire.
The Caucasian War lasted 47 years, from 1817 to 1864, and ended with the victory of the Russians, giving rise to many legends and myths, sometimes very far from reality.
What are the reasons for the Caucasian war?
As in all wars - in the redistribution of territories: three powerful powers - Persia, Russia and Turkey - fought for dominion over the “gates” from Europe to Asia, i.e. over the Caucasus. At the same time, the attitude of the local population was not taken into account at all.
In the early 1800s, Russia was able to defend its rights to Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan from Persia and Turkey, and the peoples of the North and Western Caucasus went to it as if “automatically”.
But the mountaineers, with their rebellious spirit and love of independence, could not come to terms with the fact that Turkey simply ceded the Caucasus to the king as a gift.
The Caucasian War began with the appearance of General Ermolov in this region, who suggested that the Tsar take active action with the aim of creating fortress settlements in remote mountainous areas where Russian garrisons would be located.
The mountaineers resisted fiercely, having the advantage of the war on their territory. But nevertheless, Russian losses in the Caucasus until the 30s amounted to several hundred per year, and even those were associated with armed uprisings.
But then the situation changed dramatically.
In 1834, Shamil became the head of the Muslim mountaineers. It was under him that the Caucasian war took on its greatest scope.
Shamil led a simultaneous struggle both against the tsarist garrisons and against those feudal lords who recognized the power of the Russians. It was on his orders that the only heir of the Avar Khanate was killed, and the captured treasury of Gamzat Bek made it possible to significantly increase military spending.
In fact, Shamil’s main support was the murids and the local clergy. He repeatedly raided Russian fortresses and renegade villages.
However, the Russians also responded with the same measure: in the summer of 1839, a military expedition captured the residence of the imam, and the wounded Shamil managed to move to Chechnya, which became a new arena of military action.
General Vorontsov, who became the head of the tsarist troops, completely changed the situation by stopping expeditions to mountain villages, which were always accompanied by large material and human losses. The soldiers began to cut clearings in the forests, build fortifications, and create Cossack villages.
And the mountaineers themselves no longer trusted the imam. And at the end of the 40s of the 19th century, the territory of the imamate began to shrink, resulting in a complete blockade.
In 1848, the Russians captured one of the strategically important villages - Gergebil, and then Georgian Kakheti. They managed to repel the attempts of the murids to destroy the fortifications in the mountains.
The despotism of the imam, military exactions, and repressive policies pushed the mountaineers away from the muridism movement, which only intensified internal confrontation.
With its end, the Caucasian War entered its final stage. General Baryatinsky became the tsar's deputy and commander of the troops, and the future minister of war and reformer Milyutin became the chief of staff.
The Russians switched from defense to offensive actions. Shamil found himself cut off from Chechnya in Mountainous Dagestan.
At the same time, Baryatinsky, who knew the Caucasus well, as a result of his rather active policy of establishing peaceful relations with the mountaineers, soon became very popular in the North Caucasus. The mountaineers were inclined towards the Russian orientation: uprisings began to break out everywhere.
By May 1864, the last center of resistance of the murids was broken, and Shamil himself surrendered in August.
On this day the Caucasian War ended, the results of which were reaped by contemporaries.