Land plunder: the colonial repartition of land, land hunger and Cossack colonization of the Terek oblast (1860-1917)

According to the summary by historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov, of the 643 thousand desiatinas (a desiatina is a little over a hectare) of lowland and piedmont Chechnya, Chechen villages were left 347 thousand, Cossack stanitsas were handed 222 thousand - a third, officers as private owners got 28 thousand, fortifications 17 thousand, and the treasury about 30 thousand desiatinas of "reserve" land^[2]. The same partition was described by the office itself: the Terek land-survey administration, counting only the lowland part of Greater and Lesser Chechnya (a narrower scope than the lowland and piedmont Chechnya of the historians' summary), summed up: "The entire lowland part of Greater and Lesser Chechnya, with the adjoining Lesser-Chechen forest, comprises an area of 271086 desiatinas. Of it, at various times, 650 desiatinas went to 6 Cossack stanitsas, 1560 desiatinas of forest to the Terek Cossack Host, 8645 desiatinas were granted into private ownership for the services of individual persons, 8266 desiatinas were given to towns and settlements, 234970 desiatinas were allotted to 43 Chechen auls, and 16965 desiatinas were held by the forestry department. Thus, there is no free land left…"^[3]. The forests were confiscated wholesale: "in Chechnya and Ingushetia tsarism appropriated forests with a total area of 225.5 thousand desiatinas (they became 'state' forests) and handed another 33.5 thousand desiatinas along the Sunzha and its tributaries to the Cossack host. The forests were placed under armed guard, and the unfortunate peasants caught felling wood were pursued with heavy penalties"^[2]. From the mountain auls, according to historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova, "50989 desiatinas of pasture were confiscated to the treasury", and the same pastures were then handed back to the communities "on terms of quitrent use"^[3]. What people had cleared with their own hands was taken too: in 1874 in the Vedeno okrug the owners of 250 desiatinas of plots cleared from under forest were told to swear on the Quran that the clearing had been done with the permission of the communities - "in the whole okrug only Sh. Dolatmurzayev, a resident of the village of Belgatoy, was able to swear... all the other plots, whose owners to their honor did not risk giving a false oath, were declared communal"^[2]; after the uprising of 1877 the residents of Dyshni-Vedeno had 74 certificates for cleared plots taken away "as punishment, for support of the insurgents"^[3]. In 1888 the Chechen communities petitioned the emperor: building materials and firewood they were "forced to buy from private owners or from the treasury, whereas formerly they had used them free of charge"^[3]. In 1891 the Vladikavkaz Railway Company received a concession for a branch line from Beslan station through Grozny to Petrovsk^[4]. On 15 June 1891 Alexander III, by a personal decree to the Minister of Ways of Communication, ordered the expropriation of land for the route: "Having authorized the construction of the Petrovsk railway, in place of its previously indicated direction from Vladikavkaz to Petrovsk, along the direction from Beslan station... to Petrovsk, we command: 1) that the proper arrangements be made for the expropriation... of the lands necessary for this purpose"^[5]. The trackbed, the station and the entire railway infrastructure landed on lands that by then were registered to the Terek Cossack Host and the Groznenskaya stanitsa - the very lowland land that had been taken from Chechen auls and handed to the host: historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write that "the railway trackbed (and, accordingly, the station and all the railway facilities) passed over lands belonging to the Terek Cossack Host", and "the Grozny city railway station was built on the land of the Groznenskaya stanitsa"^[2]. The bargaining over the price went on between the railway, the town and the Cossacks: the town authorities demanded "60 rubles for every square sazhen of town land expropriated for the construction of the station, the locomotive depot with workshops, the goods station and the access tracks", while the Cossacks of the Groznenskaya stanitsa offered the builders their plot free of charge - counting on oil-refining and other enterprises rising around the station^[2]. The money for the expropriation went to the holders of what had been seized; the Chechen communities had no part in that settlement.

The Kakhanovskaya stanitsa "was founded in 1860 on the site of the village of Umakhan-Yurt in the bend of the lower Sunzha" and found itself almost encircled by 14 Chechen villages, which took in the evicted people of Umakhan-Yurt^[3]. Six stanitsas of the Kizlyar otdel "were situated on the lands of the expelled Chechen population", and the Baryatinskaya stanitsa, planted right up against the large village of Stary Yurt, took away part of the Stary Yurt residents' lands^[3]. In all, on the Sunzha Line, by the count of historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova, "the highlanders lost 262946 desiatinas of lowland land"^[3].

The allotment norm was written out by estate and origin: "Cossacks are allotted 30 desiatinas (a desiatina is a little over a hectare) per soul, while natives get no more than 2-5 desiatinas"^[3]; the gap was also entrenched by the general rules of allotment: by the count of the newspaper Kazachy Vestnik for 1884, on which historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova relies, Russian residents of the Caucasus krai received "24–30 desiatinas of land allotment per soul, whereas natives got 12–18 desiatinas per dym, which on average numbered 5 men" (a dym is a hearth, a household)^[3]. In 1886 in the Grozny okrug "an average Chechen family with many children... had 11 desiatinas of land, while the average Cossack family owned more than 92 desiatinas"^[2]. By Order No. 418 of the viceroy of 1863, "the right to buy land plots from the local population was received by Russian officers and officials of the oblast administration"^[3] - an ordinary Chechen could not be a buyer of that same category of land; the rules of 1 March 1902 instituted the buying-up of privately owned lands "for the needs of the Caucasus Cossack hosts, at the expense of their capital funds"^[3].

Historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov give a summary based on the materials of the Caucasus Military District (RGVIA, f. 1300, op. 7, d. 3) and the work of A. I. Khasbulatov: "According to the data of 1877, in Mountain Chechnya, including Ichkeria, with a population of almost 100 thousand people, there was on average 0.3 desiatinas (a desiatina is a little over a hectare) of arable land per capita... such fantastic landlessness as in Mountain Chechnya was known to no other region of the Russian Empire"^[2]. In 1901 on the Chechen plain "a family (usually quite numerous) had from 7 to 14 desiatinas"^[3]. The count by family budget was kept by the oblast statistics service itself: "A Cossack family had a gross income of 918 rubles from its land allotment... and was left with a surplus of 140 rubles. The richest Chechen family on the plain, according to the Terek Oblast Statistical Committee (1903), received an income of 262 rubles from its land allotment while spending 414 rubles on its upkeep; the deficit came to 152 rubles"^[3].

In 1895 the Cossacks leased out 420 thousand desiatinas (a desiatina is a little over a hectare) of "yurt" (stanitsa allotment) lands, the official rent for which came to over 140 thousand rubles a year; on top of that, "reserve" lands went out on lease - up to 65 thousand desiatinas annually^[2]. By 1913 the stanitsas were leasing out 424 thousand desiatinas of host lands and collecting 806.5 thousand rubles in rent, and the main tenants were Chechens - up to 77 percent of peasant households^[2]. Leasing became so widespread that the administration of the Terek oblast grew alarmed: historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write that the authorities "seriously feared that, by renting the same plots for many years, the highlanders might in the end lay claim to them", and, besides, sought to attach to the oblast as many "out-of-town" peasants as possible, "and therefore at the end of the 19th century an ordinance came out forbidding Cossacks to lease their land directly to the highlanders"^[2]. The use of land taken from the Chechens was made conditional on the authorities' permission, and that permission was revoked as soon as use threatened to turn into right.

The ban on leasing land directly to the highlanders, introduced at the end of the 19th century, produced middlemen: "The result of this decision was the appearance of a large number of intermediaries through whom the land still reached the highlanders, but at a higher price"^[2]. Who profited from it is named by historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova: "Speculative leasing became widespread; it was practiced by officials of the government and administration and by officers, who rented large areas at 10-15 kopecks per desiatina and sublet them to the highland population at a price several times the original"^[3]. The difference in price was pocketed by officials and officers of the very administration that had taken the land away.

"In 1867 alone, 8674 desiatinas (a desiatina is a little over a hectare) were transferred into private ownership across Chechnya for various kinds of 'services'" - according to historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova, 57 Chechens received it, and she names the viceroy in the Caucasus, Baryatinsky, as the initiator of the handouts^[3]; the largest allotments went to the Chechen ruling families - the Taymazovs (6550 desiatinas), the Bekovich-Cherkasskys (over 6350), the Turlovs, the Eldarovs; land was also handed out to Russian officers - "Colonel Ippolitov received more than 1 thousand desiatinas of land in the Argun okrug"^[2]. The hierarchy of the handouts followed estate lines: to the largest highland owners - "from 1 to 5 thousand desiatinas, depending 'on the degree of significance and the services rendered by each to the government'", to persons of the second category (the highland notability, the first being Russian nobles) - up to 1 thousand^[3]. Land also paid the lower administration: "village elders received five shares each of arable and hay lands"^[2], aul secretaries - up to 75 desiatinas^[6].