in the campaign “Night Attack on the Aul of Topli, Burning of Germenchuk, and Coercion of the Nokhchi to Fell Their Own Forests (1820)”
The Russian Empire forcibly compelled the Nokhchi to work for the conqueror — to cut clearings through their own forests. The imperial historian Potto writes that Grekov, commander of the left flank, "gathered the elders of the surrounding villages and ordered them to send out workers with axes for the felling at once," and under threat of reprisal "compelled the Chechens to obey," after which the conscripted inhabitants cut a clearing through their own forest[1].