in the campaign “Destruction of the Nokhchi Villages along the Sunzha and Construction of the Groznaya Fortress in Their Place (1817–1818)”
The Regular Army of the Russian Empire, having moved troops onto the Sunzha and occupied Chechen land, demanded that the elders of Chechen villages renew their oath of submission under threat of reprisal as against "open enemies." Imperial general Yermolov testifies in his "Notes" that in May 1818 "the elders of almost all the principal Chechen villages were summoned to me," to the military camp, and he demanded "that henceforth such [depredations] no longer be committed, and in confirmation they must renew their old oath of submission and return the captives held by them"[1]. The demand went unfulfilled: the elders "promised nothing"[1].