Forest clearings and famine: Yevdokimov's conquest of Chechnya (1857-1859)
In 1857-1859 the empire completed its conquest of Chechnya: forest clearings (prosekas) cut the country into pieces, auls and food stores were burned, exhausted societies were forced into capitulation one after another, and those who surrendered were herded down to the plain under surveillance. The method was formulated by General Yevdokimov himself, who commanded the Chechen Detachment - in a report to Minister of War Sukhozanet of 25 March 1857 he explained the purpose of the clearing: it "took away from the unsubmissive their broad fields, the places of their crops, and, having cut apart, so to speak, the unsubmissive population that nested in forests hitherto inaccessible, put it under the necessity of seeking salvation either by flight into the mountains or by coming out to us onto the glades"[1]. The imperial historian Volkonsky distilled the formula of the period: "wherever our foot steps – impassable forests are cut through, clearings are made... redoubts and fortifications are laid down: nature is overpowered – the Caucasus surrenders"[2]. What subordination would bring, imam Shamil (leader of the resistance of the highlanders of Dagestan and Chechnya to the Russian conquest) told the Chechens at a gathering in Shali in the autumn of 1858 - the speech was written down by his companion and chronicler Hadji-Ali: "they will take away your weapons and will not allow you even to have a knife, All your honored men they will exile to Siberia, and after that you will be like muzhiks"[3]. The condition of the country was conveyed to the imam in a letter by Talkhig Shalinsky, naib of Greater Chechnya: "Chechnya is burning, imam, come put it out"[4].
Actors
| ID | Name | Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| G0009 | Russian Empire | 8 |
Instruments Applied
| ID | Name | Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| S0010 | Regular Army | 8 |
Procedures Carried Out
The proseka - a wide swath cut through the forest to deprive the defenders of cover and send troops along it - was the load-bearing instrument of the conquest of 1857-1859: the forest that protected Chechen societies was felled systematically. The "Journal of Military Operations of the Chechen Detachment" from 15 January 1857 records the daily routine: "on the 21st all the troops... were engaged in the annihilation of auls, orchards and forest"; "on the 22nd the same occupations. The auls have been finally destroyed, the orchards felled, and the Geldygen clearing laid out 750 sazhens wide" - about one and a half kilometers (a sazhen is just over two meters)[1]. The purpose of the clearings was reported by General Yevdokimov, who commanded the Chechen Detachment, to Minister of War Sukhozanet in a report of 25 March 1857: the clearing "took away from the unsubmissive their broad fields, the places of their crops", and confronted the population with a choice - "to seek salvation either by flight into the mountains or by coming out to us onto the glades"[1]. On 19 March 1857 General Nikolai seized the Goytemir Gates - the passage into Aukh and Ichkeria (Chechen regions in the northeast and southeast): the report explains the task - "To destroy this nest of brigands and open the approaches into Aukh and Ichkeria, it was necessary to take possession of the Goytemir-Kapu tract and build a clearing there"[1]; historian D. A. Khozhayev confirms from the regimental history: "on 19 March 1857 these fortifications were captured by the tsarist troops and destroyed"[4]. In February 1859 the forest was already being felled at the walls of Vedeno - the capital of the Imamate, Shamil's state: "on 8 February 1859, despite the resistance of the Chechens and Dagestanis, the numerous tsarist troops, having cleared of forest the whole space between the villages of Tevzan and Elistanzhi, came out to the fortification of Vedeno"[4].
General Yevdokimov, who commanded the troops of the left wing of the Caucasus Line (the chain of imperial fortifications on Nokhchi land), recorded in the journal of military operations of the winter of 1857 that he sent General Mishchenko down the Khizy-Shavdon, "instructing him... to annihilate auls, so as to take away from the Chechens the very thought of the possibility of remaining at the site of their former dwelling"[1]. The execution is recorded there as well: "Major-general Mishchenko burned all the auls and hamlets in the area assigned to him; a multitude of those who had submitted came out to him... up to 400 households, under the cover of part of the troops... sent to Umakhan-yurt"[1]. To the report on this campaign Emperor Alexander II replied with approval "for the completely successful conclusion of the 1st period of the winter campaign"[1]. In November 1857 the same journal summed up the expedition against Salatavia, bordering on Chechnya: "Salatavia has been devastated and burned, so that its inhabitants will now have to settle at the sites of the former Salatavian auls along the Sulak"[1]. Having taken Vedeno, the capital of the Imamate - Shamil's state - the empire destroyed the fortress: "Occupied on 1 April 1859 by the tsarist troops, the Vedeno fortress was completely destroyed within five days"[4].
Historian N. I. Pokrovsky writes of Lesser Chechnya (the lowland-piedmont western part of Chechnya): its inhabitants "as early as the beginning of the fifties had been driven by Russian troops into the mountain wilds and doomed to starvation" (campaign C1166)[5]. The clearings continued the same work: "The clearing of the Gekhi proseka gives Yevdokimov the opportunity to lay waste the fields of those of the Lesser Chechnya people who had not yet brought submission, hiding in the mountains"[5]. The choice the policy left open is formulated in the report of General Yevdokimov, who commanded the Chechen Detachment, of 25 March 1857: flight into the mountains - or coming out "to us onto the glades"[1]; famine in the mountains made the first path lethal.
Historian N. I. Pokrovsky writes: "Throughout January 1857 the Chechen and Kumyk detachments are cutting clearings", and "On 10 November a new expedition into Aukh began. The Aukhovites could not hold out and surrendered, 'brought submission'"[5]. In 1858 General Yevdokimov's troops entered the Argun gorge: "The tsarist troops are advancing along the Argun valley. In January the Chechen detachment occupied the exit from the Argun gorge onto the plain... only in July 1858 did Yevdokimov move further... on 4 July he crossed Mesken-Duk and penetrated into the Shatoy society"[5]. The course of the summer expedition can be seen from the journal of General Yevdokimov himself, submitted to Minister of War Sukhozanet with a report of 11 August 1858, No. 237: on 4 August imam Shamil approached the Argun "with all his cavalry from the Nazran expedition" and took position with two guns beyond the Verdy-akhk ravine; "having satisfied himself of our intention to remain on the right bank of the Chanty-Argun, he ordered the camp to be struck", after which the imperial "2 light guns and 2 half-pud mortars opened, at my order, fire on the highlanders". That same day Yevdokimov "inspected the site on which the main fortification was to be erected, and at once ordered that its laying-out begin"[1]. In February 1859 the troops approached Vedeno, the capital of the Imamate and residence of imam Shamil (leader of the resistance of the highlanders of Dagestan and Chechnya to the Russian conquest) - the fortress fell on 1 April 1859[5].
On 7 December 1857, according to the journal of General Yevdokimov, who commanded the Chechen Detachment, "deputies appeared from the entire population of the Khulkhulau valley with an offer to bring submission and to resettle within our bounds" - the entry is cited by historian N. I. Pokrovsky[5]. "In April 1858 the Goyta people surrender, followed by the Gekhi people. By mid-April the Russian command can definitively declare the conquest of Lesser Chechnya completed"[5]. "In August 1858 the Shatoy people laid down their arms"[4] - the same journal of Yevdokimov dates this to 7 August and explains the cause: "As soon as the Shatoy people saw that the Tavlintsy were abandoning them and that we intended to entrench ourselves firmly in the territory we had occupied, they at once sent deputies to me with an offer of submission and a request for permission to settle at the sites of their former auls"[1]; "on 5 April the Cheberloy people expelled the naib and submitted", while "on 12 April the Aukh Chechens acknowledged their powerlessness before the Russian army"[4]. Capitulation was also formalized by paper bearing promises: in January 1859, during the advance on Vedeno, a proclamation by commander-in-chief Baryatinsky to the Chechen people was circulated - the full text is given by historian D. A. Khozhayev: "the Russian government grants you complete freedom to practice forever the faith of your fathers", "you will never be called up as soldiers and will not be turned into Cossacks", "you are granted an exemption for three years... upon expiry of this term you will have to contribute three rubles per household for the upkeep of your popular administrations", "the governors set over you will rule according to sharia and adat" (sharia - Islamic law; adat - customary law of the highlanders)[4].
Historian D. A. Khozhayev writes of the springs of 1859: "All the subdued highlanders were immediately, under convoy of the tsarist troops, resettled onto the plain for surveillance"[4]. To the plain, that is down to the lowland under surveillance, people were driven at once: in December 1857 up to 400 households that had come out of the auls being annihilated were sent under troop cover to Umakhan-yurt[1]. After the taking of Vedeno General Yevdokimov ordered his subordinate Nostitz "to proceed with the resettlement of the Chechens living between the Khulkhulau and the Gudermes": on 8 April 1859 "up to 300 families who lived in the nearest hamlets on the right bank of the Khulkhulau at once appeared in the camp with their belongings and livestock"[1]. Resistance to the resettlement is recorded by the imperial documents themselves: naib (district governor under the imam) Osman "several times attempted to pass by the detachment onto the plain and tried to obstruct the resettlement of the Chechens"[1]; separately, according to the journal of military operations of no later than 9 April 1859, "the Ichkerians, Aukhovites and Salatavians, having gathered in great numbers, wanted to obstruct the resettlement" of the inhabitants from the Aksai[6]. For the auls of the upper Fortanga and Assa, forced into capitulation in November 1858, the eviction was set with a deferral: "to remain in the places they occupy for another three months; with early spring they will move out onto the plain of Lesser Chechnya into the Galash society"[1]. Benoy held out longest: historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write that Yevdokimov "in the autumn of 1859 and at the beginning of 1860 set about the inhabitants of the mountain society of Benoy", part of whom "were dispersed among the surrounding auls and hamlets"[7].
General Yevdokimov recorded in the journal of military operations up to 22 June 1859 (report to Minister of War Sukhozanet, No. 544): for the refusal to hand over captives "I declared the Benoy people and their neighbors unsubmissive, deprived of the protection of Russian laws, and ordered the surrounding population to seize them as captives and to take away their livestock"[1]. Historian D. A. Khozhayev relays the same policy: "The temporary administration of the surrounding villages was directly instructed to cease all contacts with Benoy, to take the Benoy people captive and to destroy them"[4].
In November 1858 General Yevdokimov, by his own journal, "found it more advantageous to put the peaceful native population to use": naib (district governor under the imam) Saib-Dulla with more than two thousand armed Chechens forced into surrender the auls of the upper Fortanga and Assa, which "handed over to Saib-Dulla 27 Russian captives and amanats from the best families" (an amanat - a person the empire took from a community as a hostage)[1]. Former naibs of the Imamate the authorities preserved for future service: Colonel Belik, according to Yevdokimov's report of 8 September 1858 cited by historian N. I. Pokrovsky, "was instilling order and establishing the first principles of administration in the newly submitting societies; victims persecuted by the people sought refuge with him"[5]. On 4 July 1859, according to historian D. A. Khozhayev, Chechen elders came to Baryatinsky, commander-in-chief of the Caucasus Army: "a Chechen deputation of honored men, among whom were the former naibs Talkhig, Eski, Edil, Duba, Umalat, appeared at the Groznaya fortress before Prince Baryatinsky" - that is Talkhig Shalinsky, naib of Greater Chechnya and chief of the Imamate's artillery, and Duba Vashendaroyevsky, naib of Lesser Chechnya; the naibs who went over "received tsarist ranks, awards, and were appointed naibs of the same districts where they had once served Shamil"[4]. On 19 August 1859 commander-in-chief Baryatinsky gave "preliminary consent to the allotment of lands in Chechnya and on the Kumyk plain" to Sub-lieutenant Askhanov, Lieutenant colonel Chermoyev and Penzulayev[6]. Historian N. I. Pokrovsky summed up the outcome: "the heads of the tsarist administration in Chechnya and Dagestan after 1859 are persons well known to us as Shamil's naibs"[5].