Bribery of Elites, Coercion into Subjecthood, and the Taking of Amanats (1645–1658)

The occupation administration of the Tsardom of Muscovy expanded legal control over the societies of the Nokhchi, bribed loyal elites, and coerced the mountain societies into vassalage. The metropole officially rewarded the leaders who served it, granting them privileges and power over dependent people: the register of files of the Ambassadorial Prikaz for 1645 records a petition from the serving Okotsk murza Chepan Kokhostrov to Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich and a report memorandum of the central apparatus «on granting him an increase to his salary and ownership of the uzdens and «people» of his brother, murza Albir Kokhostrov»^[1]. In parallel, the administration forced the mountain societies of the Nokhchi (the Shibutians and the Michkizians) into legal subordination. In 1647, under pressure from the Terek voivodes, the Shibutians «placed themselves under your lofty sovereign hand in direct servitude... and swore the shert on the Quran»^[1], while the Michkiz people «together with the entire Michkiz land placed themselves in servitude under your lofty sovereign hand... and swore the shert on the Quran»^[1]. To guarantee the fulfillment of the imposed obligations, the representatives of the metropole demanded hostages: a dispatch from the Terek voivode Prince Venedikt Andreevich Obolensky and his associates to the Ambassadorial Prikaz of 1647 dryly records the fact of «the giving of an amanat to the Terek town»^[1]. The documents record that the metropole instructed the voivodes «to order that amanats be taken from among their kin, men of note... to order that they be kept and given food and drink in the same way as other such amanats»^[1], as a result of which the mountaineers «gave a good amanat to the Terek town, Kasa»^[1][2].