in the campaign “Colonial oil: the seizure of the Grozny subsoil and the rent of the Cossack host (1845-1917)”
The Russian Empire took the oil wells near the Groznaya fortress away from the Chechens and on 16 February 1845 sealed the seizure by law: paragraph 154 of the "Regulations on the Caucasus Line Host", confirmed by Emperor Nicholas I, read: "as a mark of special favor…the host is granted the income most graciously bestowed upon it from the oil springs near the Groznaya fortress"[1]. Before the seizure the oil fed the Chechens themselves - historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova writes from the documents: in 1788 the Chechen ruler Kazbulat "traded and had a certain income from the oil wells located in his domains"; the Mozdok Cossacks recalled in a petition of 1811 how oil "was brought for sale... and sold at a free price"; "Later, the oil was taken away from the Chechens and became the property of the Caucasus Line regiment, which farmed it out"[1]. Over the 57 years of the tax-farming system, from 1833 to 1890, the host received 152,500 rubles in silver of net income[1][2].