Administrative Corruption and Extortion

The overseers appointed by the empire over the auls (the pristavs), within the amanat-and-tribute system of Pullo, commander of the left flank of the Caucasus Line (a chain of imperial fortifications on the land of the Nokhchi), systematically robbed the inhabitants of the seized auls of Chechnya under the guise of collections. The imperial historian Yurov described the mechanism - the pristavs lived off exactions, since "not all pristavs received a salary": from the Chechens, "under the pretext of collecting tributes and fines, the best weapons were taken away, and other entirely harmless but valuable articles of everyday use; it happened that people innocent of anything were arrested at the prompting of simple and often ill-intentioned interpreters... and during expeditions forced collections were permitted"^[1]. The empire knew and would not listen: the historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write from archival documents that two Chechen elders brought to the Kabardian prince Bekovich-Cherkassky, who served the empire and was influential on the Terek river, "a petition drawn up on behalf of many Chechens, in which they complain of the oppressions and injustices of major-general Pullo" - the prince refused to accept the petition^[2]; according to Yurov, the Chechens "had prepared a petition against him, but did not dare to set it in motion for fear that this general would remain their superior as before"^[1]. The empire's survey "The Region in Political and Military Respects", sent by the empire's Minister of War Chernyshev to general Neidhardt, who soon headed the empire's troops in the Caucasus, on 2 April 1842, summed it up: "taking advantage of the abuses, the exactions and the indignation arising from the confiscation of weapons, Shamil little by little stirred all Chechnya to revolt" (Shamil - imam, leader of the resistance of the highlanders of Dagestan and Chechnya to the Russian conquest)^[3].