Massacre as a means of intimidation was a conscious practice of the period - and the empire gave awards for it. Historian N. I. Pokrovsky writes of the strike on the hamlet of naib Duba (a deputy of Imam Shamil, leader of the highlanders' resistance to the Russian conquest): "the Russian command did not renounce separate short strikes aimed at terrifying the Chechens. The object of one such strike was the hamlet of naib Duba... What took place was an outright massacre"[1]. For this massacre the empire handed out awards: imperial officer Poltoratsky, a participant in the massacre, cites the order - "for the excellent courage and bravery shown in the action at the annihilation of the aul of Duba, such-and-such are promoted, and from ensign to second lieutenant - Poltoratsky," while Vorontsov, the viceroy in the Caucasus, sent the detachment "128 badges of the military order" for the soldiers[2]. An award for "the action at the annihilation of an aul" is official recognition of massacre as exemplary service.