Punitive Expeditions

In 1841-1846 punitive marches of imperial troops against Chechnya went on yearly. In June 1841 general Grabbe, commander of the troops of the Caucasus Line (the chain of imperial fortifications on the land of the Nokhchi), entered Aukh (the Chechen region in the north-east): historian N. I. Pokrovsky writes - "on 6 June he occupied Yaryksu, on the 7th - Kishen, which was being devastated for three days"^[1]. At the end of September 1841 the detachments of Grabbe and lieutenant colonel Nesterov passed through the upper reaches of the Assa river - a march which, according to Pokrovsky, "was accompanied by annihilations of auls"^[1]; from 15 to 30 October Grabbe's expedition passed through Greater and Lesser Chechnya (the lowland eastern and western parts of Chechnya). Pokrovsky states the goal of these marches: "to intimidate the Chechens by expeditions"^[1]. In spring 1844 raids were ordered by general Neidhardt, head of the empire's troops in the Caucasus: to gather troops in the Groznaya fortress "for the conduct of brief and sudden raids into the nearest auls of Greater Chechnya" and to act "not only for menacing, but also for the punishment of unsubmissive auls" (instruction to the commander of the Nazran detachment of 5 April 1844)^[2]. The sweeping of Lesser Chechnya (the lowland-piedmont western part of Chechnya) in December 1846 was carried out by a specially assigned column. The imperial officer Poltoratsky, a participant of the expedition, recorded the order of 14 December 1846: "for tomorrow... a column of three battalions [of the Jaeger Prince Vorontsov regiment], eight guns and a cavalry regiment under the command of colonel Meller-Zakomelsky was assigned to go and burn the enemy auls"^[3]. The task "to go and burn" auls was set by order as a routine assignment for the next day.