in the campaign “"Neither plow nor sow": the pogrom of Chechnya, organized famine, the buying-up of elites and the institutions of subjugation (1852-1857)”
Even when receiving defectors from the top of the Imamate, the empire insured itself with hostages. When at the beginning of February 1854 Umayev, naib of Lesser Chechnya (a deputy of Imam Shamil, leader of the highlanders' resistance of Dagestan and Chechnya to the Russian conquest), was coming over to the imperial side, the pristav (an imperial superintendent) demanded a guarantee - Lieutenant Colonel Predemirov, in a report to General Vrevsky of 6 February 1854: "fearing treason on his part and not wishing thereby to suffer a loss in men because of him, I demanded that he first give an amanat. On 3 February the son of Endirey was delivered as an amanat to the pristav" (an amanat is a person whom the empire took from a community as a hostage)[1]. The naib's child became the price of the father's right to surrender.