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 cut down the forests of the Nokhchi to strip their villages of natural protection and open a path for the troops. The imperial historian Potto writes that the "dense forest" stretching from the Argun to the Dzhalka, which served as "an obstacle to the destruction of the Germenchug fields and pastures," was cut through in three days by a wide clearing "opening onto a large glade on which stood Germenchug and a multitude of auls"[1].