Annihilation of Lesser Chechnya by Feze's Expedition: 92 Captives, More Than a Thousand Saklias Burned (January 1837)
On 23-29 January 1837, the command of the Russian Caucasus Corps sent from the Groznaya fortress into Lesser Chechnya (the lowland-piedmont western part of Chechnya) a detachment under General Feze - 3249 men with 12 guns. Rozen stated the purpose of the campaign in a report to Minister of War Chernyshev of 11 February 1837: "to punish the Chechens of the western part of Chechnya who have evaded obedience"[1]. The expedition journal appended to the report records the week day by day: on the night of 24 January Shalazh-yurt was surrounded - the village was taken "without a shot, laying 14 souls on the spot", 67 inhabitants were led away into captivity, and the village was burned; on 25 January Feze dispatched columns "to discover and destroy the population in the dense forests up both banks of the Shalazha river"; in all, 92 people were taken captive over the campaign, "on the way back more than a thousand saklias were burned along the Martan and Tengin gorges" (saklia - a highlander's house), and the stores of grain and hay were destroyed in the middle of winter[1]. Within the detachment the empire led highlanders against highlanders - 800 horsemen of the Ossetian and Ingush militia (militia - auxiliary units of highlanders in the empire's service): the expedition journal lists in Colonel Shiroky's column "a hundred Cossacks and 800 horsemen of Ossetians and Ingush"[1]. From the aul of Achkhoy, which the troops entered on the fourth day of the annihilation of its neighbors, by the record of the same journal an oath "of submission" and six hostages-amanats were taken (amanat - a person whom the empire took from a community as a guarantee of subordination)[1].
Actors
| ID | Name | Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| G0009 | Russian Empire | 8 |
Instruments Applied
| ID | Name | Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| S0010 | Regular Army | 8 |
Procedures Carried Out
On 23-29 January 1837, a detachment under General Feze - 4 battalions of the Kurinsky and 2 of the Apsheronsky regiments, 257 Cossacks, 3249 men in all with 12 guns - marched out of the Groznaya fortress into Lesser Chechnya. Rozen, in a report to Minister of War Chernyshev of 11 February 1837, named the purpose plainly: "to punish the Chechens of the western part of Chechnya who have evaded obedience"[1]. The campaign continued the winter punitive operations after the December extermination of Kishkeroy-Yurt (campaign C1158): within a week, according to the expedition journal appended to the same report, Shalazh-yurt and the dwellings on both banks of the Shalazha were destroyed, more than a thousand saklias (saklia - a highlander's house) were burned, and 92 captives were taken[1].
During the annihilation of Lesser Chechnya by Feze's expedition in January 1837, the troops killed inhabitants who offered no armed resistance. The expedition journal, presented by Rozen to Minister of War Chernyshev on 11 February 1837, records: Shalazh-yurt, surrounded on the night of 24 January, was taken "without a shot, laying 14 souls on the spot"[1] - killings in a village that put up no armed fight. On 25 January Feze, according to the same journal, dispatched columns "to discover and destroy the population in the dense forests up both banks of the Shalazha river" - an order for the destruction of the population in so many words[1]. At Urus-Martan, after the inhabitants had fled, the journal records, "23 enemy bodies remained on the spot"[1]. The total number of the killed is not summed up by episode in the journal; some of the fallen fought an armed defense - the technique is recorded on the basis of the killings in a village taken without a shot and of the order to destroy the population.
In the course of the annihilation of Lesser Chechnya by Feze's expedition in January 1837, the troops took hostages from auls faced with the choice between subjugation and the fate of their neighbors. According to the expedition journal presented by Rozen to Minister of War Chernyshev on 11 February 1837, on 26 January 6 amanats "from the families of the most honored elders" were taken in Achkhoy, and 4 in Phan-kichu (amanat - a person whom the empire took from a community as a guarantee of subjugation; the journal frames the seizure of people with the word "handed over")[1]. Hostages from the most influential families made every community answerable to the empire with the lives of its own people.
During the annihilation of Lesser Chechnya by Feze's expedition on 23-29 January 1837, the troops led 92 inhabitants away into captivity. The expedition journal, presented by Rozen to Minister of War Chernyshev on 11 February 1837, counts by episode: at the taking of Shalazh-yurt "67 souls were taken captive", at Urus-Martan "13 souls were captured", at Khankharik-Roshnya and Birzul the detachment "took 12 souls captive"[1].
Feze's expedition through Lesser Chechnya on 23-29 January 1837 destroyed housing and livelihood outright. The expedition journal, presented by Rozen to Minister of War Chernyshev on 11 February 1837, records: "Having burned Shalazh-yurt", the troops "destroyed the winter quarters... and the dwellings of the Chechens on both banks of the Shalazha", and "on the way back more than a thousand saklias were burned along the Martan and Tengin gorges" (saklia - a highlander's house)[1].
Completing the annihilation of Lesser Chechnya, Feze's troops destroyed the survivors' food as well: on 29 January 1837, according to the expedition journal appended to Rozen's report to Minister of War Chernyshev of 11 February 1837, "by noon the detachment completed the destruction of the dwellings and of the stores of grain and hay along the Martan gorge"[1]. The destruction of food and fodder in the middle of winter left the survivors without means to live through it.
In Feze's annihilating expedition through Lesser Chechnya in January 1837, the empire led highlanders against highlanders. The expedition journal, presented by Rozen to Minister of War Chernyshev on 11 February 1837, names the composition of Colonel Shiroky's column: "a hundred Cossacks and 800 horsemen of Ossetians and Ingush" (the Ossetian and Ingush militia - auxiliary units of highlanders in the empire's service)[1]. The use of neighboring peoples in a punitive campaign shifted part of the suppression onto the colonized themselves and entrenched enmity between them.
On 26 January 1837, on the fourth day of the annihilation of Lesser Chechnya by Feze's expedition - two days after the taking of neighboring Shalazh-yurt with 14 killed - the troops, entering the aul of Achkhoy, took from it an oath "of submission" and 6 amanats (amanat - a person whom the empire took from a community as a guarantee of subordination)[1]. The frame is spelled out by the expedition journal itself, presented by Rozen to Minister of War Chernyshev on 11 February 1837: "the troops are proceeding to them not to punish them, but properly to confirm them in submission"[1] - subordination secured under military pressure and framed by the empire as a voluntary act of those who had submitted.