The empire cut and widened forest clearings (prosekas) in the woods of Lesser Chechnya (the lowland-piedmont western part of Chechnya). Historian N. I. Pokrovsky writes of 1848: "In January - February R. K. Freytag was clearing and widening the Goyta and Gekhi clearings"[1]. Vorontsov, viceroy and commander-in-chief in the Caucasus, reported the purpose of the clearings to Minister of War Chernyshev in an official letter (otnosheniye) of 25 October 1847: "These clearings, together with those cut in the winter of 1845-1846, make it possible to penetrate Chechnya from several directions and punish hostile auls; constrained in their means of life, seeing their constant failures, the Chechens waver, and a large number of families are already resettling into our bounds"[2]. Emperor Nicholas I placed the resolution "Agreed" on the dispatch (6 November 1847; with one organizational reservation - on the impossibility of forming new line battalions)[2].