in the campaign “"Mow Down Everything, Beat and Hang Without Mercy": Suppression of the 1877 Uprising and the Executions in Grozny (1877-1878)”
In the instructions of Svistunov, head of the Terek oblast, to General Smekalov one demand was invariably repeated: "advance at least little by little, mercilessly destroying everything and everyone before you... Our forces will keep arriving; just mow down everything without pity, beat and hang without mercy" - the instructions are quoted by historian A. I. Ismailova from the imperial publication "Materials for the Description of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78"[1]. Historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov record: at the final stage the punitive forces "acted in full accordance" with this order[2].