Administrative Corruption and Extortion

Historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write: fine moneys were spent on maintaining exiles and secret agents, and at times covered officials' embezzlement - in 1893 the head of the Nadterechny uchastok, lieutenant Tomashevsky, embezzled over 300 rubles collected from Chechen villages^[1]. The nature of the power was admitted from within by colonel Belik, appointed in 1860 the first head of the Chechen okrug; he later wrote: in Chechnya "there reigns for the most part not law but arbitrary rule, often founded on the dishonesty of the chief, and thereby we only sow in the people distrust of ourselves, even hatred"^[1].