in the campaign “Forcing Chechnya into submission after the fall of Akhulgo and suppression of the general uprising of 1840 (1838-1840)”
In 1839-1840 punitive marches of imperial troops swept across Chechnya in waves. In May 1839 general Grabbe, commander of the troops of the Caucasus Line (the chain of imperial fortifications on the land of the Nokhchi), invaded Ichkeria (mountainous south-eastern Chechnya); he named the goal himself in a report to Minister of War Chernyshev of 10 May 1839: "to punish both this village [Benoy] and all other unsubmissive villages"[1]. The imperial officer Milyutin, a participant of the invasion, admitted the outcome: "The burning of several Aukh and Ichkerian villages only embittered the nearest highlanders still more, and the very end of our raid nonetheless looked as if they had driven out uninvited guests"[2]. In winter the troops of general Pullo, who commanded the left flank of the Caucasus Line, twice marched through the auls that had submitted: on 18-30 December 1839 - 28 auls of Lesser Chechnya (the lowland-piedmont western part of Chechnya), from 26 January 1840 - the auls along the Michik river; historian Sh. A. Gapurov writes of these marches: "He exacted tribute from the destitute people wholesale, disarmed them, demanded the surrender of captives, forced them to fell timber"[3]. After the uprising the punitive actions continued: in late April 1840 the troops marched into Aukh (the Chechen region in the north-east) - the imperial historian Yurov recorded: "Having destroyed the orchards and given the saklias to the flames..." (saklia - a highlander's house)[4]; on 6-14 July the detachment of general Galafeyev, who had taken over the troops of the left flank after Pullo, marched across Lesser Chechnya - historian N. I. Pokrovsky: "From 6 to 14 July general Galafeyev passed through Lesser Chechnya with fire and sword"[5]; historian D. A. Khozhayev cites the imperial goal: to "punish exemplarily" the Chechens "who had joined Shamil" (Shamil - the imam, leader of the resistance of the highlanders of Dagestan and Chechnya to the Russian conquest)[6]. The autumn marches were sanctioned by general Golovin, commander of the Separate Caucasus Corps, in an instruction to general Grabbe of 17 August 1840 "to employ the troops... for the strict punishment of the mutinous Chechens"[1]; Nicholas I approved the plan through Minister of War Chernyshev on 10 September 1840[7]. Galafeyev's detachment passed through Greater Chechnya (the lowland eastern part of Chechnya) from 26 September to 18 October; Grabbe's detachments - through Lesser Chechnya from 27 October to 5 November and through Greater Chechnya from 10 to 18 November[5]. Historian N. I. Pokrovsky conveys the calculation of the last expedition from Grabbe's dispatches: "He counted on the stunning impression of this expedition"[5].