Pitting Neighboring Peoples Against Each Other

The viceroy in the Caucasus, Mikhail Romanov, expressed the wish to bring the Dagestani militia (militia - armed detachments of highlanders in the empire's service) into the military operations in Chechnya, and on the Dagestan side, near the village of Botlikh, a detachment of regular infantry and 12 sotnias of mounted and foot Dagestani militia was concentrated^[1]. At the beginning of May a detachment under Colonel Nakashidze was assembled in neighboring Dagestan - two battalions of the Apsheronsky and Samursky regiments, 6 druzhinas and 3 sotnias of militia with guns^[1]. The rout was completed in the same manner: the village of Sogratl in Dagestan, where the leaders of the uprising had taken refuge, was surrounded by Russian troops and the Dagestani militia^[2]. Part of the suppression the empire shifted onto the colonized themselves, keeping for itself the role of arbiter and entrenching enmity between neighbors.