in the campaign “"Constriction of Chechnya from all sides": blockade, secret war, punitive expeditions and the Sunzha Line (1840-1846)”
General Neidhardt, head of the imperial troops in the Caucasus, in an instruction to the commander of the Nazran detachment of 5 April 1844 prescribed fear as the goal of the troops' actions: "by the simultaneous appearance and actions of detachments from different sides, along the whole extent of the theatres of revolt, to spread fear over the entire population, and, keeping the Chechens in their homes, to prevent them from giving help to the Lezgin tribes" (Lezgin tribes - in the imperial lexicon, the highlanders of Dagestan)[1]. The population's fear here is not a side effect of military operations but their declared goal, set for the troops by written order.