in the campaign “Forest clearings and famine: Yevdokimov's conquest of Chechnya (1857-1859)”
In November 1858 General Yevdokimov, by his own journal, "found it more advantageous to put the peaceful native population to use": naib (district governor under the imam) Saib-Dulla with more than two thousand armed Chechens forced into surrender the auls of the upper Fortanga and Assa, which "handed over to Saib-Dulla 27 Russian captives and amanats from the best families" (an amanat - a person the empire took from a community as a hostage)[1]. Former naibs of the Imamate the authorities preserved for future service: Colonel Belik, according to Yevdokimov's report of 8 September 1858 cited by historian N. I. Pokrovsky, "was instilling order and establishing the first principles of administration in the newly submitting societies; victims persecuted by the people sought refuge with him"[2]. On 4 July 1859, according to historian D. A. Khozhayev, Chechen elders came to Baryatinsky, commander-in-chief of the Caucasus Army: "a Chechen deputation of honored men, among whom were the former naibs Talkhig, Eski, Edil, Duba, Umalat, appeared at the Groznaya fortress before Prince Baryatinsky" - that is Talkhig Shalinsky, naib of Greater Chechnya and chief of the Imamate's artillery, and Duba Vashendaroyevsky, naib of Lesser Chechnya; the naibs who went over "received tsarist ranks, awards, and were appointed naibs of the same districts where they had once served Shamil"[3]. On 19 August 1859 commander-in-chief Baryatinsky gave "preliminary consent to the allotment of lands in Chechnya and on the Kumyk plain" to Sub-lieutenant Askhanov, Lieutenant colonel Chermoyev and Penzulayev[4]. Historian N. I. Pokrovsky summed up the outcome: "the heads of the tsarist administration in Chechnya and Dagestan after 1859 are persons well known to us as Shamil's naibs"[2].