in the campaign “"Constriction of Chechnya from all sides": blockade, secret war, punitive expeditions and the Sunzha Line (1840-1846)”
The empire demanded that Chechen communities hand over soldiers who had fled to them from the imperial army, and set salt as the price of that surrender. Minister of War Chernyshev, in an official service letter (otnoshenie) of 6 September 1842, conveyed to general Golovin, commander of the Separate Caucasus Corps (head of the imperial troops and administration in the Caucasus), the order of emperor Nicholas I: the local command was to ""demand the return of the servicemen who had hidden among the highlanders who had declared their submission to us"", and from the communities that had not submitted to obtain the surrender through need - ""to endeavour to induce the unsubmitted to hand over deserters in exchange for salt""[1]. The emperor expressly forbade ransoming the fugitives with money: the payment for the people handed over was access to the salt the empire kept under embargo.