Occupation and Controlled Administrations

The metropole's occupation administration abolished Nokhchi self-governance, forcibly subordinating them to an alien elite: historian E. N. Kusheva states that in 1614 Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich ordered the Kabardian prince Sunchaley Yanglychevich Cherkassky «to be prince over all the Okochans... to judge them and to have charge of them in military organization and in all matters»^[1].

The appointed administration forced the Indigenous population into unpaid labor: historian E. N. Kusheva points out that the Kabardian prince Sunchaley Yanglychevich Cherkassky compelled the service Okochans of the Terek town subordinate to him «to make all manner of wares for him, to plow the fields and to mow the hay»^[1]. The metropole itself went years without paying for the military service of the Indigenous population: a report from the Terek voivode Pyotr Petrovich Golovin to the Astrakhan voivode Ivan Nikitich Odoyevsky records that they «serve the sovereign tsar... in all manner of the sovereign's Terek... services... yet have not been granted the sovereign's monetary and grain salary for the tenth year now»^[2].

Representatives of the metropole's authorities openly seized property from the Nokhchi population, abusing their official position: in their petition to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, the service Okochans of the Terek town reported that the Kabardian prince Sunchaley Yanglychevich Cherkassky «having taken from us by force 8 good horses from the herd, sent them off to his kabaks (villages) in Kabarda»^[2][3].

The appointed occupation administration enslaved the Indigenous population: a petition submitted to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich by the service Okochans of the Terek town stated that the Kabardian prince Sunchaley Yanglychevich Cherkassky «wrongfully sold 4 of our fellow Okochans»^[2][3] and «took a wife into bondage and sent her off to his kabaks in Kabarda»^[2][3].

The appointed occupation administration used corporal punishment and unlawful arrests: a petition submitted to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich by the service Okochans of the Terek town stated that the Kabardian prince Sunchaley Yanglychevich Cherkassky «orders us to be thrown into prison and beaten with the knout without your sovereign knowledge and without guilt»^[2][3].

The appointed occupation administration used unlawful arrests to suppress the resisting Indigenous population: a petition submitted to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich by the service Okochans of the Terek town stated that the Kabardian prince Sunchaley Yanglychevich Cherkassky «orders us to be thrown into prison and beaten with the knout without your sovereign knowledge and without guilt»^[2][3].

The occupation administration forcibly sent subordinated Nokhchi to fight against their own compatriots: historian E. N. Kusheva indicates in the heading of a primary document that there took place a «campaign of Terek men-at-arms and Terek Okochans... against the Endirey ruler Saltan-Magmut and the people of the Okotsk and Michkiz kabaks who had joined him»^[3].

The occupation administration imposed tribute on the highland Nokhchi societies: an extract from the book of the Terek town's Prikaz office records that the administration sent people «to the Michkizes for the sovereign's yasak»^[3].

The metropole deliberately ignored official complaints by the Indigenous population about the arbitrary conduct of the appointed rulers, depriving them of the right to protection: the compilers of academic document collections state that, as regards the petition submitted to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, «the petition of the «Okochans» was not granted»^[2].

The occupation administration of Tersky Town mobilized the metropole's subordinate allies: in a petition to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, the Kabardian prince Sholokh reported that «the voivode Mikita Dmitreevich Velyaminov sent me... with my father on your sovereign's service... against your sovereign's disobedient ones — the Michkiz people, against their kabaks»^[3].

The occupation administration of Tersky Town dispatched armed detachments which, as the Kabardian prince Sunchaley Yanglychevich Cherkassky and his son the Kabardian prince Sholokh reported to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, made their way «across the mountains and through mountain crevices, impassable places»^[3] in order to suppress the defiant communities.

The occupation administration of Tersky Town deliberately organized a campaign of violent punishment: in his petition to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, the Kabardian prince Sholokh reported that the Terek voivode sent the armed detachments precisely «against your sovereign's disobedient ones — the Michkiz people, against their kabaks»^[3].

During the punitive campaign, the military detachments burned entire auls to the ground: in a petition to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, the Kabardian prince Sunchaley Yanglychevich Cherkassky reported that they «burned down and utterly ruined many Shibut and Kalkan and Erokhan and Michkiz kabaks»^[3].

The punitive detachments plundered and enslaved the population: in a petition to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, the Kabardian prince Sunchaley Yanglychevich Cherkassky reported that they «utterly ruined» the auls «and took many captives»^[3].

The occupation administration of Tersky Town employed mass terrorizing violence: in a petition to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, the Kabardian prince Sunchaley Yanglychevich Cherkassky reported that the military detachments «burned down and utterly ruined many Shibut and Kalkan and Erokhan and Michkiz kabaks»^[3] and «slew many peo[ple]»^[3].

The punitive detachments physically exterminated the local population: in a petition to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, the Kabardian prince Sunchaley Yanglychevich Cherkassky reported that in the settlements they «slew many other peo[ple]»^[3].

Under direct military threat, the mountain communities were forced to capitulate: in a petition to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, the Kabardian prince Sunchaley Yanglychevich Cherkassky reported that the mountaineers «brought their guilt... petitioned humbly and gave... the shert (oath of allegiance)»^[3].

As a result of the devastation of their settlements, the subordinated communities handed people over to the occupation administration: in a petition to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, the Kabardian prince Sunchaley Yanglychevich Cherkassky records that they «gave amanats (hostages) to Tersky Town»^[3].

The metropole's administration did not pay for forced labor and withheld food provisions for five years: a memorandum from the Posolsky Prikaz (Ambassadorial Office) to the Prikaz of the Kazan Palace records a complaint that the subordinate Okochans of Tersky Town «were not given the sovereign's grain allowance for the past years — for the 125th, and the 126th, and the 127th, and the 128th, and the 129th year»^[3].

The occupation administration deliberately exhausted the Indigenous population materially, forcing them to perform compulsory service at their own expense: in a petition submitted to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, the Okotsky murza Kokhostrov Biytemirov and the serving Okochans of Tersky Town reported that, because their allowance went unpaid, they «were left without grain, have utterly perished from hunger and every hardship, have fallen, sovereign, into great debt, and are dying a death of starvation together with our wives and little children»^[3].

Representatives of the metropole confiscated the personal property of a deceased Nokhchi delegate into the state treasury: a memorandum from the Posolsky Prikaz to the Prikaz of the Kazan Palace prescribed an investigation into the death of the drowned Okotsky murza Kokhostrov Biytemirov, while of what was found they «took his clothing and all his goods into our treasury»^[3].

The occupation administration used the physical loss of documents to artificially lower the social status of local residents for the purpose of taxing them economically: an extract of the Posolsky Prikaz concerning a petition to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich states that after «the sovereign's charter of grant was lost», the heirs of the deceased Nokhchi delegate were stripped of their privileges and «made equal in everything with the Okochans, with the plowing people, and carts and wagons are exacted from them», whereas previously «no taxes whatsoever had been taken» from them^[3].

The occupation administration compelled the subordinate Nokhchi to take part in armed conflicts: in their petition to Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, the Okotsky murza Kokhostrov Biytemirov and the serving Okochans of Tersky Town reported that «we, your sovereign's kholops (bonded servants), fight your sovereign's disobedient ones, not sparing our heads; for you, sovereign, we shed our blood and lay down our heads»^[3].

The occupation administration and forces loyal to it sent the subordinate Nokhchi (Okochans) to take part in armed conflicts, including against their own compatriots: the historian I. Kh. Tkhamokova states that in 1626 the voivodes sent «252 Okochans»^[4][2] on a campaign, and in 1628, during an armed incursion, the Kabardian murza Konshov-murza Bitemryukov «went against these "mountain people"... with the "Okochans"»^[4].

Armed detachments loyal to the metropole carried out incursions into the territories of the Nokhchi mountain communities in order to suppress their resistance: the historian I. Kh. Tkhamokova notes that in 1628 the Kabardian murza Konshov-murza Bitemryukov «went against these "mountain people" together with the "free" atamans and Cossacks and with the "Okochans"»^[4].

The occupation administration demanded that the Nokhchi mountain communities (the Shibutians) legally formalize their subordinate status: a report from the Terek voivodes Ivan Andreyevich Dashkov and Bogdan Gerasimovich Priklonsky to the Posolsky Prikaz records information about «the oath given by the Shibutians Lavarsan Yazyev and Zatyshka Lavarsanov on behalf of 20 households in 1627»^[3], with a direct injunction that they «not fall away from the sovereign and remain under the sovereign's hand in outright bondage (kholopstvo)»^[3].

The occupation administration imposed an annual tribute in kind on the Nokhchi mountain communities (the Shibutians): a report from the Terek voivodes Ivan Andreyevich Dashkov and Bogdan Gerasimovich Priklonsky to the Posolsky Prikaz states that when subjecthood was formalized in 1627, the mountaineers were required «to give yasak at one kul (sack) of honey per year»^[3].

The occupation administration handed out privileges and transferred to loyal Nokhchi leaders power over dependent people in order to win them over to its side: the register of cases of the Posolsky Prikaz for 1645 records a petition from the serving Okotsk murza Chepan Kokhostrov to Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich and a report extract by the central apparatus «on granting him an increase to his salary and possession of the uzdens and «people» of his brother, murza Albir Kokhostrov»^[3].

The occupation administration forced the mountain societies of the Nokhchi into legal subordination: in 1647, under pressure from the Terek voivodes, the Shibutians «placed themselves under thy sovereign high hand in direct servitude... and swore the shert oath on the Quran»^[3], while the Michkiz people «with all the Michkiz land placed themselves in servitude under thy sovereign high hand... and swore the shert on the Quran»^[3].

The occupation administration used the taking of hostages from among the Indigenous population to guarantee the loyalty of the mountain societies of the Nokhchi: a dispatch from the Terek voivode Prince Venedikt Andreevich Obolensky and his associates to the Posolsky Prikaz in 1647 officially records the fact of «the giving of an amanat to the Terek town»^[3]; the metropole instructed the voivodes «to order that amanats be taken from them — kinsmen of notable people»^[3], as a result of which the Highlanders «gave a good amanat to the Terek town, Kasa»^[3][1].

The occupation administration dispatched emissaries to collect strategic, demographic, and economic data on the mountain societies of the Nokhchi: in 1658 the central apparatus of the Posolsky Prikaz instructed the Terek voivodes to find out «how many of them there are and what kind of people they are... and what fighting force they have... and what grows in their land, and what craftsmen there are»^[3], in execution of which in 1659 the Terek voivodes Melenty Kvashnin and his associates «sent a streltsy commander into the Shibut land and ordered him to inspect in the Shibut land... the towns and places»^[3], who, in an extract for the report of the Posolsky Prikaz to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich of 1660, reported that «[to]wns they have none, nor any fighting forces»^[3].

The occupation administration made attempts to force the independent societies of the Nokhchi (the Shibutians) into legal subordination: an extract for the report of the Posolsky Prikaz to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich of 1660 states that the Terek voivodes Melenty Kvashnin and his associates sent a military emissary to the Highlanders and ordered him «to bring them to the oath»^[3]; however, the attempt proved unsuccessful, and he «did not br[in]g the inhabitants of the Shibut land to the oath»^[3].

The occupation administration set itself the task of extracting hostages from the mountain societies of the Nokhchi (the Shibutians), but the attempt did not succeed: in 1658 the central apparatus of the Posolsky Prikaz directly instructed the Terek voivodes «to order that amanats be taken from them — kinsmen of notable people»^[3], after which the Terek voivodes Melenty Kvashnin and his associates ordered their military emissary «to take an amanat to the Terek»^[3]; however, the extract for the report of the Posolsky Prikaz to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich of 1660 records no handover of new hostages and merely states the old fact that «on the Terek [there is an amanat] of theirs»^[3].

The occupation administration of the Tsardom of Muscovy maintained the regime depriving the subordinated societies of the Nokhchi (the Okochans) of autonomy, officially formalizing the transfer of power over them to a new feudal lord loyal to the metropole: in 1661 Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich issued a charter of grant to the Kabardian prince Kaspulat Mutsalovich Cherkassky, instructing him «to be prince over the Okochans and over the Cherkas who serve us, the great sovereign, on the Terek, and to administer and judge them in military organization and in all our affairs»^[3].

The central authorities of the Tsardom of Muscovy used an appointed ruler for the legal subordination of the region: in 1676 the Posolsky Prikaz sent an instruction to the Kabardian prince Kaspulat Mutsalovich Cherkassky on the necessity of arriving at the Terek town «to administer the oath of the population of the North Caucasus to Tsars Ivan and Peter Alekseevich»^[2].

The appointed controlled administration sent subordinated Nokhchi (Okochans) to take part in the metropole's Crimean campaigns: a dispatch from the Kabardian prince Kaspulat Mutsalovich Cherkassky to the Posolsky Prikaz in 1675 states that for the campaign against the Crimean ulusy he had at his disposal «190 Okochan men»^[2]; the historian I. Kh. Tkhamokova adds that in 1675 detachments fought in Crimea alongside the prince «with uzdens, with the newly baptized, and with «Okochans»»^[4].

The occupation administration sent subordinated Nokhchi (Okochans) to take part in armed conflicts (the Chyhyryn campaigns) on the territory of Ukraine: the historian I. Kh. Tkhamokova notes that in 1678 the Kabardian prince Kaspulat Mutsalovich Cherkassky (under whose authority the Okochans were) received a tsar's charter «for having taken part in the Crimean and Chyhyryn campaigns»^[4]; the document registers for 1678 record a dispatch from the Chuhuiv voivode Ivan Rykhtarov to the Razryadny Prikaz «on the march of the regiment of Prince Kaspulat Mutsalovich Cherkassky to Chuhuiv»^[2]; and in 1679 Tsar Fedor Alekseevich issued a decree to the Posolsky Prikaz «on his regiment performing guard duty in the vicinity of Chuhuiv and Kharkiv»^[2].

The occupation administration of the Tsardom of Muscovy imposed discriminatory levies on Nokhchi societies for the internal movement of goods: the historian Sh. B. Akhmadov emphasizes that «the Okochans (Akkin Chechens) living in the town of Terki were obliged without exception to pay duty on the various goods and wares they took out for sale to their compatriots in Chechnya and Ingushetia»^[5].

The occupation administration of the Tsardom of Muscovy engaged in systemic lawless arbitrariness against the Indigenous population: the historian Sh. B. Akhmadov states that «the venality and bribe-taking of the voivodes, who permitted themselves great abuses — all this was far from a new phenomenon»^[5].

Preservation of tsarist representatives' oversight of the hetmanate's administrative apparatus: the articles "fully preserved the previously established control of the tsarist regime over local financing and the functioning of the administrative apparatus"^[6]. The institution of the tsar's resident was established alongside the hetman: "The first tsar's resident was stolnik A. Izmailov, who in his work was guided by official and secret tsarist articles"; the residents "were given the right to control the election and official appointments of representatives of the starshyna"^[6].

The occupation administration of the Russian Empire used religious pretexts for expansion: historian Michael Khodarkovsky cites a memorandum by Governor-General P. S. Potemkin, who in 1784 declared that under the pretext of returning the highlanders to the faith and sending priests to them, the empire would be able to shed "the light of divine bliss among all the peoples scattered in the mountains"^[7].

The occupation administration of the Russian Empire forcibly resettled the subordinated Indigenous population: historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov records that "by 1724 the Terek town had been razed, and all of its population, including the Okotsk sloboda, populated by natives of Chechnya... was transferred to the new fortress"^[8].

The occupation administration of the Russian Empire levied discriminatory duties on the movement of goods of the Indigenous population: historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov quotes the customs books, stating that in 1726 "on the travel document of the Terek resident, the Okochanin Kurman Bogomatov... duties of 24 altyns in money were collected by decree"^[8].

Blocking the election of a new leader and creating a hybrid administration for direct control: "The Governance included the tsar's resident in Ukraine, Prince O. Shakhovskoy, with 2 Russian officials… as well as general quartermaster Ya. Lyzohub with 2 Ukrainian officers"^[9] – a formally equal collegium actually headed by the tsar's resident.

The occupation administration of the Russian Empire bought the loyalty of the local nobility with state payments: historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov states that, according to General-in-Chief V. Ya. Levashov, the senior Chechen prince Aidemir «was accepted into Russian subjecthood and was assigned a permanent tsarist stipend»^[8], and in general «The princes and their uzdens even began to receive monetary allowances from the Russian government»^[8].

The occupation administration of the Russian Empire institutionalized a system of holding relatives of the local elite: historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov records that «In 1735, two amanats from the Chechen domain were already being held in Kizlyar: from Aidemir - Bardykhan, and from the Chechen lord Alisultan Kazbulatov - Bamat»^[8].

The occupation administration of the Russian Empire continued to physically hold relatives of the Nokhchi elite: historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov records the existence of a document from 1738 identified as a «Letter from the Chechen lord A. Bartykhanov to Lieutenant Colonel Bunin regarding his loyal service to Russia and requesting the release of his sister from Kizlyar»^[8].

The occupation administration of the Russian Empire bought the loyalty of members of the local nobility with state payments: historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov records «the granting of Russian stipends to 4 Chechen princes and their uzdens»^[8].

The occupation administration of the Russian Empire imposed on the Indigenous population the legal codification of subordinate status, exploiting their economic need and presenting the oath as a rigid ultimatum: historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov states that in 1747, in response to the highlanders' requests for resettlement, «official consent of the imperial court was given («to admit and assign») on the condition that the highlanders take an oath of Russian subjecthood»^[8], while to those absent «officers were sent «to administer the oath»»^[8]; similarly in 1748, when the mountain communities petitioned for subjecthood so that «traveling with merchandise to the town of Kizlyar... under protection would be free»^[8], the administration «agreed to this proposal on the condition of the mandatory resettlement of the «Chebutlins» from the mountains to the lower reaches of the Sunzha»^[8].

The occupation administration of the Russian Empire expanded the system of holding relatives of the nobility: historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov states that, to control the territories, «amanats are handed over as a pledge of fidelity to the oath to the Russian authorities»^[8].

The occupation administration of the Russian Empire stripped the Indigenous population of the status of a legitimate adversary by applying an inversion of meanings: historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov states that lawful defense was labeled with criminal terms, and «The anti-colonial and anti-feudal uprisings of the population of Chechnya, referred to in official documents as 'mischief', 'robberies', and 'murders', were perceived by the Russian autocracy as a challenge and an insult»^[8], which served as a formal pretext for punitive actions.

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"^[10]. 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"^[10]. Over the 57 years of the tax-farming system, from 1833 to 1890, the host received 152,500 rubles in silver of net income^[10][11].

By orders for the Terek oblast of 15 August 1890 and March 1897 the Russian Empire forbade the Chechen village communities "to enter into any agreements with mining industrialists" without the government's permission - "The guilty, in the person of village officials, were brought to account, and suits were brought in the courts to annul the concluded contracts"^[10]. The ground of the ban is formulated by historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova: "The aul communities were deprived of the right to lease out oil-bearing plots - the land was granted to them not by right of property but only into use with the right of surface working; its subsoil was considered the property of the treasury"^[10]. When the Ministry of Agriculture confirmed rules that allowed peasant communities to lease out their own land for the working of the subsoil, the head of the Terek oblast, General Kakhanov, in 1894 "categorically objected to the extension to the Chechen lands" of these rules - and demanded that, even if the communities' rights were recognized, the resolution on leasing the land be confirmed by the uchastok chief and a third of the income go "to pay the podymnaya tax of the communities concerned"^[11]. For the Cossacks the opposite rule was in force: from 1891, when subsoil passed to the treasury, stanitsas were entitled to replacement land or compensation - "For the Chechen communities no reserve land allotments were provided by the state. Still less was there any question of material reward"^[10].

The Terek Cossack Host of the Russian Empire leased out the seized Chechen lands to oil companies and lived on rent from another people's subsoil: in 1899 about 21.9 million of the 26.22 million puds of total output were extracted on the host's lands, and in that year alone the companies paid the host 631.8 thousand rubles^[11]. Historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write: the largest owner of the oil-bearing plots turned out to be the host itself; it did no extraction of its own, and the usual terms of a lease were 150 rubles a year per desiatina (a desiatina is a little over a hectare) plus "from 2 to 6 kopecks for every pud of oil extracted"^[11]. Historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova records the dynamic: the host's capital grew from 400 thousand rubles in 1877 to 3 million in 1900 - "This was the result of receiving income from the oil-bearing lands"^[10]. The scale was set by the field itself: on 27 August 1895 well No. 7 of Akhverdov's company gave "a gusher of incredible force, yielding up to 1 million puds a day... The roar and the smell of oil could be sensed 15 versts from the field"^[12].

On 1 April 1858 the "Regulation on the Administration of the Caucasus Army" created a special section for the mountain peoples at the Main Staff - historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova calls this "the first legislative confirmation of the system of 'military-popular administration' that had in fact taken shape as the land was being conquered"^[13]. In 1859, "in connection with the reform of the local administration and the entry into force of the Regulation on the Main Directorate of the Viceroy of the Caucasus", State Control was "deprived of the ability to monitor the activities of the local authorities": within the viceroy's Main Directorate a special control department was set up, answerable not to the central agency but to the head of the Main Directorate himself^[13]. On 16 January 1860 Emperor Alexander II approved the regulation by which the Left Wing of the Caucasus Line (the chain of imperial fortifications on Nokhchi land) was renamed the Terek oblast^[13]. On 24 May 1860 Baryatinsky, viceroy in the Caucasus, ordered the creation at the Main Staff of the Caucasus Army of a "Chancellery for the Administration of the Caucasus Highlanders" - later it was called the "Caucasus Mountain Administration", then the "Caucasus Military-Popular Administration"^[13]. On 25 December 1860 the "provisional staffing tables of the military-popular administration of the Terek oblast" were approved: the oblast was divided into six okrugs (districts) - Kabardian, Vladikavkaz, Chechen, Kumyk, Ichkerian and Argun^[13].

Historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write: "in 1867 Major General Prince Tumanov was appointed head of the Middle military otdel, while of the eight heads of the mountain okrugs six were colonels and two were majors"^[11]. The head of the Terek oblast united civil, military and Cossack authority in one pair of hands and, in the words of the same historians, could against the highlanders "at his own will use... arms and raise against them the troops and Cossacks subordinate to him, hand highlanders over to a military court and administratively expel 'undesirable elements' from the oblast"^[11]. From September 1866 the viceroy received the right to replace highlanders in the posts of pristavs (superintendents appointed by the empire) with incomer officers - historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova records the result: for a long time highlanders could rise no higher in the administrative system of the Terek oblast than the office of village elder^[13]. The elders themselves were hand-picked by the authorities and sworn to "unquestioning execution... of all instructions and demands of the administration"; the population was left no choice - "The local authorities did not consider it possible to grant even the right to elect aul elders, since they 'found no sufficient guarantees that this would not entail serious inconveniences in the matter of governing the highlanders'"^[13]. The court system was crowned by the same officers: in 1862 an oblast Main People's Court was created, all of whose members were appointed by the head of the oblast, and in 1870 - okrug "Mountain verbal courts" chaired by officers of the administration; historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov conclude: "Thus the court system created for the highlanders of the Terek oblast was not merely not removed from the control of the military authorities but, on the contrary, directly subordinated to them"^[11]. The 1895 regulation on village communities handed the right of assembly to a limited number of "elected representatives", and the okrug head could strip an "elected representative" of his office and dissolve the entire village assembly^[11].

The oblast was recut in 1862, 1869, 1888 and 1899^[13]. From 1 May 1888 the Vedeno and Argun okrugs were merged into the Grozny okrug - under the formula quoted by historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova, "to shield the Cossacks from the 'corrupting' influence of the highlanders"^[13]. The Chechen villages on the right bank of the Terek, which were slated for transfer to the Kizlyar and Pyatigorsk otdels (Cossack divisions), were set apart as a special uchastok (sub-district) and temporarily left under the head of the Grozny okrug; the mountain okrugs were divided into uchastoks, while the Cossack otdels were divided by the pattern of manning military units, into sotnias (Cossack hundreds) and regiments^[13]. From 1 January 1899 the oblast was recut once more: four otdels - Pyatigorsk, Mozdok, Kizlyar, Sunzha - and four okrugs: Vladikavkaz, Khasav-Yurt, Nalchik, Grozny^[13].

The Groznaya fortress, founded by General Yermolov on the Sunzha on 10 June 1818^[10], became the town of Grozny in 1870^[11]. On 21 March 1888, by decree of Emperor Alexander III, the names of peoples were erased from the names of the okrugs of the Terek oblast: the Chechen okrug was renamed the Grozny okrug, the Ingush - the Nazran, the Kabardian - the Nalchik, the Kumyk - the Khasav-Yurt, the Military-Ossetian - the Vladikavkaz^[13]. Okrugs named after the peoples living in them received the names of imperial fortresses and slobodas - the map of governance ceased to call the peoples by name.

From 1882 "especially important" cases in which the accused were highlanders were transferred to the field court-martial; in 1893, with the emperor's permission, a significant share of highlanders' criminal cases was withdrawn from the general civil courts - into whose jurisdiction these cases passed, the source does not specify^[13]. Punishment could also be imposed without any court: the head of the oblast jailed highlanders for up to one month at his personal discretion, and imposed penalties on aul communities for harbouring^[13]; on 19 November 1893 the rules of administrative deportation to Eastern Siberia on accusation or suspicion of stealing horses and livestock were extended to the Terek oblast^[13], and according to historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov the decision on administrative exile for a term of up to five years was taken by the commander of the Caucasus Army, and the place of exile was Chechen Island in the Caspian^[11]. The 1894 "Temporary Regulation on Measures to Restrain the Native Population of the Terek Oblast from 'Predation'" - its draft was submitted for approval by the head of the Terek oblast, general Kakhanov - according to historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova, wrote the collective liability of the village community for committed crimes into law^[13]; historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov record the mechanics: mountain villages paid for stolen livestock "if the tracks of the stolen livestock turned out to be lost near the given village", while "the possibility that the thieves might not be highlanders at all was completely ignored"^[11]. Indigenous inhabitants were barred from holding the posts of pristav and okrug head and from serving as justices of the peace^[13]; the 1888 regulation on the administration of the Terek and Kuban oblasts established, in the words of historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova, "a narrowly caste-based military-Cossack administration, without the participation not only of representatives of the mountain peoples but of the non-Cossack element as well... the highlanders were placed outside the operation of the general laws"^[13]. In the 1890s the administration, by a separate order, forbade Cossacks to keep kunachestvo with highlanders (kunachestvo - sworn brotherhood, an institution of friendship between households)^[13]. Service was segregated too: the "political unreliability" of the Caucasus Muslims led the authorities to give up forming line units from them, and from 1886, by order of the Minister of War, recruits from the Terek oblast were assigned only to troops stationed in the Caucasus^[13]. Zemstvos were never introduced in the oblast at all; the proposal on zemstvo institutions in the Terek oblast, submitted to the State Duma in 1914, was not adopted before the revolution^[13].

The 1894 "Regulation on Residence Permits" enshrined estate inequality: nobles, officials and merchants received passport books of unlimited duration, while highlanders ascribed to village communities received five-year books or short-term passports and bilets (written passes) for absence^[13]. Historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova states the regime's effect from the oblast's records: "Terek highlanders, should they appear beyond the Kuban or in other parts of the Russian Empire without passports, were considered vagrants and malefactors and were punished as such"; she also writes: "The passport system served the administration of the Terek oblast as a favourite means of constraining even persons well known to it"^[13]. Inside the oblast a regime of absences operated: leave of up to a month was granted by the village elder, for a longer term - by the okrug head; unauthorized absence was punished by fine, arrest or public works, and a highlander could not move from one community to another without the consent of two village communities - the one he was leaving and the one he was joining^[11].

As early as 1880, by decree of the viceroy, all highlanders were expelled from the Shatoy sloboda - "owing to the decrease of Russians in the sloboda" - with a ban on settling there henceforth^[13]. On 14 May 1893 the eviction of highlanders from the towns and slobodas of the oblast began; the bans were lifted piecemeal over decades: for Grozny - on 18 March 1901, for the Vozdvizhenskaya sloboda - on 27 February 1906, for Vedeno and Shatoy - only on 10 May 1916^[13]. The head of the oblast justified the repeal not by the rights of the evicted - he petitioned for the repeal of the law of 14 May 1893 as one "serving as a brake on the Russification of the tribes"^[13]. By order of 26 August 1898 the head of the garrison of the Shatoy fortification banned entry into the fortification without a bilet - the population of three uchastoks was left without access to the post and telegraph office, the savings bank and the pharmacy^[13].

On 17 August 1884 the "Binding Decree on the Sale, Storage and Carrying of Combat Firearms in the Caucasus Krai" was approved: combat rifles - only under police permits, and the sale and purchase of army-pattern weapons were banned^[13]. On 1 July 1899 the decree was tightened: previous permits were annulled, annual renewal was required, and weapons without a permit were confiscated and sold for the benefit of the treasury^[13]. In 1892, by order of the head of the Terek oblast, all weapons with which highlanders appeared in Russian settlements were confiscated, including weapons brought for sale; from 1893 the authorities were allowed to search homes for weapons^[13]. Historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov record the contrast: highlander militiamen in imperial service carried weapons at all times, "unlike ordinary highlanders, who could not appear armed outside their villages"^[11].

Historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova writes: from the 1860s the administrative apparatus in Chechnya and Ingushetia "was maintained chiefly on funds collected from the people"^[13]. The empire did not trust the highlanders with military service - and taxed them in money instead: by the laws of 2 and 9 June 1887 a monetary levy in place of military service was introduced for the Muslims of the Terek oblast, its size "did not exceed 22 kopecks per 'dym'"^[13] ("dym" - a separate household, homestead)^[13]; historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov confirm: "in 1887 the Russian government introduced a special monetary levy for them"^[11]. From then on the levies only grew: "From 1887 to 1905 the sum of taxes rose from 228.1 to 678.8 thousand rubles, that is, it nearly tripled over these years", while the podymnaya tax - the tax on each household - "in the Terek oblast reached in the 1890s up to 70 kopecks per desiatina, while at that time in the interior provinces of the country it was no more than 17 kopecks, or four times less"^[13]. On top of the levy, village communities bore obligations in kind: maintaining the elder and the village board, the roads, ditches and watch posts^[11].

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^[11]. 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"^[11].

On 15 March 1873 the coat of arms of the Terek oblast was approved: "In a black shield, a silver wavy bend to the right. An Imperial standard on a golden staff. The shield is crowned with the ancient Tsar's Crown and surrounded by golden oak leaves joined by the Alexander ribbon"^[13]. Historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova reads the meaning of the sign thus: the silver bend is the Terek, which had long been a border, and now "both its banks were united by the Imperial standard, and the Terek became fully Russian - such is the basic meaning of this coat of arms"^[13]. The draft coat of arms of the city of Grozny was made by B. V. Köhne, an official of the Heraldry Office: on an azure shield a silver mountain between two golden sea lilies, and in the dexter canton - the arms of the Terek oblast^[13], so that the city's emblem carried the imperial symbol of the oblast. The land was marked with the figure of the conqueror as well. The first monument to Yermolov in Grozny was "the carefully preserved dugout in which he lived during the founding of the Groznaya fortress"^[13], and later a bronze bust of the general was set up by the dugout. What this sign meant, Ibragimova puts thus: the bust recalled the most tragic years of the conquest of the Caucasus and was a symbol of the dramatic fate of the mountain peoples, and the monument to the general who "with barbaric cruelty exterminated whole peoples in the name of the conquest of the Caucasus" became for Chechens "a kind of 'eyesore'"^[13]. The sign outlived the empire: under Soviet rule the monument "was blown up by night with enviable regularity and just as regularly restored by night"^[13].

According to the summary by historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov, of the 643 thousand desiatinas (a desiatina is a little over a hectare) of lowland and piedmont Chechnya, Chechen villages were left 347 thousand, Cossack stanitsas were handed 222 thousand - a third, officers as private owners got 28 thousand, fortifications 17 thousand, and the treasury about 30 thousand desiatinas of "reserve" land^[11]. The same partition was described by the office itself: the Terek land-survey administration, counting only the lowland part of Greater and Lesser Chechnya (a narrower scope than the lowland and piedmont Chechnya of the historians' summary), summed up: "The entire lowland part of Greater and Lesser Chechnya, with the adjoining Lesser-Chechen forest, comprises an area of 271086 desiatinas. Of it, at various times, 650 desiatinas went to 6 Cossack stanitsas, 1560 desiatinas of forest to the Terek Cossack Host, 8645 desiatinas were granted into private ownership for the services of individual persons, 8266 desiatinas were given to towns and settlements, 234970 desiatinas were allotted to 43 Chechen auls, and 16965 desiatinas were held by the forestry department. Thus, there is no free land left…"^[10]. The forests were confiscated wholesale: "in Chechnya and Ingushetia tsarism appropriated forests with a total area of 225.5 thousand desiatinas (they became 'state' forests) and handed another 33.5 thousand desiatinas along the Sunzha and its tributaries to the Cossack host. The forests were placed under armed guard, and the unfortunate peasants caught felling wood were pursued with heavy penalties"^[11]. From the mountain auls, according to historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova, "50989 desiatinas of pasture were confiscated to the treasury", and the same pastures were then handed back to the communities "on terms of quitrent use"^[10]. What people had cleared with their own hands was taken too: in 1874 in the Vedeno okrug the owners of 250 desiatinas of plots cleared from under forest were told to swear on the Quran that the clearing had been done with the permission of the communities - "in the whole okrug only Sh. Dolatmurzayev, a resident of the village of Belgatoy, was able to swear... all the other plots, whose owners to their honor did not risk giving a false oath, were declared communal"^[11]; after the uprising of 1877 the residents of Dyshni-Vedeno had 74 certificates for cleared plots taken away "as punishment, for support of the insurgents"^[10]. In 1888 the Chechen communities petitioned the emperor: building materials and firewood they were "forced to buy from private owners or from the treasury, whereas formerly they had used them free of charge"^[10]. In 1891 the Vladikavkaz Railway Company received a concession for a branch line from Beslan station through Grozny to Petrovsk^[14]. On 15 June 1891 Alexander III, by a personal decree to the Minister of Ways of Communication, ordered the expropriation of land for the route: "Having authorized the construction of the Petrovsk railway, in place of its previously indicated direction from Vladikavkaz to Petrovsk, along the direction from Beslan station... to Petrovsk, we command: 1) that the proper arrangements be made for the expropriation... of the lands necessary for this purpose"^[15]. The trackbed, the station and the entire railway infrastructure landed on lands that by then were registered to the Terek Cossack Host and the Groznenskaya stanitsa - the very lowland land that had been taken from Chechen auls and handed to the host: historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write that "the railway trackbed (and, accordingly, the station and all the railway facilities) passed over lands belonging to the Terek Cossack Host", and "the Grozny city railway station was built on the land of the Groznenskaya stanitsa"^[11]. The bargaining over the price went on between the railway, the town and the Cossacks: the town authorities demanded "60 rubles for every square sazhen of town land expropriated for the construction of the station, the locomotive depot with workshops, the goods station and the access tracks", while the Cossacks of the Groznenskaya stanitsa offered the builders their plot free of charge - counting on oil-refining and other enterprises rising around the station^[11]. The money for the expropriation went to the holders of what had been seized; the Chechen communities had no part in that settlement.

The Kakhanovskaya stanitsa "was founded in 1860 on the site of the village of Umakhan-Yurt in the bend of the lower Sunzha" and found itself almost encircled by 14 Chechen villages, which took in the evicted people of Umakhan-Yurt^[10]. Six stanitsas of the Kizlyar otdel "were situated on the lands of the expelled Chechen population", and the Baryatinskaya stanitsa, planted right up against the large village of Stary Yurt, took away part of the Stary Yurt residents' lands^[10]. In all, on the Sunzha Line, by the count of historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova, "the highlanders lost 262946 desiatinas of lowland land"^[10].

The allotment norm was written out by estate and origin: "Cossacks are allotted 30 desiatinas (a desiatina is a little over a hectare) per soul, while natives get no more than 2-5 desiatinas"^[10]; the gap was also entrenched by the general rules of allotment: by the count of the newspaper Kazachy Vestnik for 1884, on which historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova relies, Russian residents of the Caucasus krai received "24–30 desiatinas of land allotment per soul, whereas natives got 12–18 desiatinas per dym, which on average numbered 5 men" (a dym is a hearth, a household)^[10]. In 1886 in the Grozny okrug "an average Chechen family with many children... had 11 desiatinas of land, while the average Cossack family owned more than 92 desiatinas"^[11]. By Order No. 418 of the viceroy of 1863, "the right to buy land plots from the local population was received by Russian officers and officials of the oblast administration"^[10] - an ordinary Chechen could not be a buyer of that same category of land; the rules of 1 March 1902 instituted the buying-up of privately owned lands "for the needs of the Caucasus Cossack hosts, at the expense of their capital funds"^[10].

Historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov give a summary based on the materials of the Caucasus Military District (RGVIA, f. 1300, op. 7, d. 3) and the work of A. I. Khasbulatov: "According to the data of 1877, in Mountain Chechnya, including Ichkeria, with a population of almost 100 thousand people, there was on average 0.3 desiatinas (a desiatina is a little over a hectare) of arable land per capita... such fantastic landlessness as in Mountain Chechnya was known to no other region of the Russian Empire"^[11]. In 1901 on the Chechen plain "a family (usually quite numerous) had from 7 to 14 desiatinas"^[10]. The count by family budget was kept by the oblast statistics service itself: "A Cossack family had a gross income of 918 rubles from its land allotment... and was left with a surplus of 140 rubles. The richest Chechen family on the plain, according to the Terek Oblast Statistical Committee (1903), received an income of 262 rubles from its land allotment while spending 414 rubles on its upkeep; the deficit came to 152 rubles"^[10].

In 1895 the Cossacks leased out 420 thousand desiatinas (a desiatina is a little over a hectare) of "yurt" (stanitsa allotment) lands, the official rent for which came to over 140 thousand rubles a year; on top of that, "reserve" lands went out on lease - up to 65 thousand desiatinas annually^[11]. By 1913 the stanitsas were leasing out 424 thousand desiatinas of host lands and collecting 806.5 thousand rubles in rent, and the main tenants were Chechens - up to 77 percent of peasant households^[11]. Leasing became so widespread that the administration of the Terek oblast grew alarmed: historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write that the authorities "seriously feared that, by renting the same plots for many years, the highlanders might in the end lay claim to them", and, besides, sought to attach to the oblast as many "out-of-town" peasants as possible, "and therefore at the end of the 19th century an ordinance came out forbidding Cossacks to lease their land directly to the highlanders"^[11]. The use of land taken from the Chechens was made conditional on the authorities' permission, and that permission was revoked as soon as use threatened to turn into right.

The ban on leasing land directly to the highlanders, introduced at the end of the 19th century, produced middlemen: "The result of this decision was the appearance of a large number of intermediaries through whom the land still reached the highlanders, but at a higher price"^[11]. Who profited from it is named by historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova: "Speculative leasing became widespread; it was practiced by officials of the government and administration and by officers, who rented large areas at 10-15 kopecks per desiatina and sublet them to the highland population at a price several times the original"^[10]. The difference in price was pocketed by officials and officers of the very administration that had taken the land away.

"In 1867 alone, 8674 desiatinas (a desiatina is a little over a hectare) were transferred into private ownership across Chechnya for various kinds of 'services'" - according to historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova, 57 Chechens received it, and she names the viceroy in the Caucasus, Baryatinsky, as the initiator of the handouts^[10]; the largest allotments went to the Chechen ruling families - the Taymazovs (6550 desiatinas), the Bekovich-Cherkasskys (over 6350), the Turlovs, the Eldarovs; land was also handed out to Russian officers - "Colonel Ippolitov received more than 1 thousand desiatinas of land in the Argun okrug"^[11]. The hierarchy of the handouts followed estate lines: to the largest highland owners - "from 1 to 5 thousand desiatinas, depending 'on the degree of significance and the services rendered by each to the government'", to persons of the second category (the highland notability, the first being Russian nobles) - up to 1 thousand^[10]. Land also paid the lower administration: "village elders received five shares each of arable and hay lands"^[11], aul secretaries - up to 75 desiatinas^[13].

After the shooting near Shali the empire demanded that the Chechen societies hand over the survivors. On 26 January 1864 Loris-Melikov, head of the Terek oblast, assembled the naibs and "honorable" residents in the Groznaya fortress: the historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova writes - he "announced to the assembled Chechens that they were obliged to hand over all the zikrists [followers of Sheikh Kunta-Haji]. A final deadline was set - 1 February, after which the head of the oblast threatened to commence military operations. He also forbade the performance of zikrist rites"^[10]. The historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov quote the demand verbatim: "...to assist in restoring the order disrupted by the zikrists...", and record the ban on the "loud" zikr, compliance with which was to be watched over by the clergy and the village elders^[11].

In Kundukhov's operation in the winter of 1860-1861 marched the "7 hundreds of Chechen militia" of Colonel Chermoyev^[11]; Atabi-Mullah Atayev, naib of Lesser Chechnya (Atabai in the imperial documents), surrendered in November 1861, according to a document, "to the commander of the Chechen irregular cavalry divizion, Vagap Aduyev" - Aduyev, who served the empire holding its rank^[11]. Against Sheikh Kunta-Haji the authorities mobilized loyal clergy: the historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write - "measures were taken to induce the most prominent representatives of the Chechen Muslim clergy to come out openly against Kunta-Haji and the teaching he preached"^[11].

The starshina (headman) of Shali, Borshchik Khambulatov, who organized the repulse of the insurgents in April 1877, "was granted the rank of ensign of the militia and an annual salary of 600 rubles, and received a lifelong pension - 100 rubles a year"^[11]; historian A. I. Ismailova puts the pension at "about 400 r. a year"^[16].

Following the Chervlyonnaya conferences of 1905-1906 the Russian Empire established a mechanism of circular monetary responsibility: fines on the guilty, "and in the event of their financial insolvency - the penal sanctions passed to the village community to which the guilty party belonged"^[11]. Starye Atagi was fined twice for sheltering its fellow villager, an abrek - 3, then 6 thousand rubles; the same village was ordered, within three days, to hand over "100 rifles, two thousand cartridges and 500 daggers", to give up the abreks Tomayev and Khorsiev who were sheltering in the village, and "to collect funds for equipping the village police station with telephone communication"^[11]. Tsatsan-Yurt in 1908 paid a "contribution" for undelivered weapons - 7 thousand rubles^[11]. In 1911, by order of the Viceroy, "100 thousand rubles were exacted" from the entire Chechen population of the Grozny and Vedeno okrugs in compensation to those who had suffered "...during the attack of Zelimkhan's band"^[11].

In 1911 the Russian Empire appointed "government elders" in the zone of Zelimkhan's operations and put troops on the residents' own upkeep: "Military teams were sent to be quartered in the villages of Kharachoy, Dyshne-Vedeno, Mekhkety, Zavirkhi, Khattuni, Eshelkhotoy, Elistandzhi, Tauzen, Isti-Su, Mayrtup, Khoy, Ikharoy, Rigakhoy, Makazhoy, Avtury and the Varanda hamlets"^[11]. Historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write of this practice: "the sending of military units into Chechen villages was widely practiced, and their upkeep lay as a heavy burden on the local residents"^[11].

In 1911 the Russian Empire demolished the Chechen hamlets of two okrugs: "A forcible demolition was begun of all the hamlets built 'without permission' (and there were no others here) in the Vedeno and Grozny okrugs"^[11]; Chechen hamlets "were repeatedly demolished, including under the pretext of 'punishment' for sheltering abreks"^[11].

In 1906 the head of the Vedeno okrug, Lieutenant colonel Dobrovolsky, as historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write, "found nothing smarter than to give the command to seize the women relatives of the abrek Zelimkhan in Kharachoy"^[11]. "In the autumn of 1910 Zelimkhan's family was seized and exiled", and in November 1911 "24 relatives of Zelimkhan were exiled together with their families, after they failed to comply with the demand to hand over or kill Zelimkhan" - by the authorities' report, these people had also "...agitated among the rest of the population of Khorochoy that this should not be done"^[11].

By 1913 the Russian Empire had arrested and exiled from the Terek oblast thousands of people "on the charge of sheltering the abrek"^[11]. "In the course of suppressing the actions in the mountainous part of Chechnya, hundreds of peasants were exiled from the Vedeno okrug alone. As a result a great number of families lost their main breadwinners and found themselves on the brink of destitution" - part of his takings Zelimkhan spent on supporting the families of the exiled^[11].

On 24 October 1905 the Russian Empire imposed martial law "in the Grozny, Vedeno and Khasav-Yurt okrugs of the Terek oblast, that is, in the whole of Chechnya", and on 23 December extended it to the entire oblast^[11]. The weapons ban "applied exclusively to the highlanders and the out-of-town settlers and did not extend to the Cossacks. Moreover... the Viceroy of the Caucasus ordered that 10 thousand single-shot Berdan rifles and a million cartridges be distributed to the Cossacks of the Terek oblast free of charge"^[11]. On 22 June 1909 martial law was lifted - but "in the Terek oblast a 'state of reinforced protection' was introduced at the same time", whose ordinances "effectively reduced to 'nought' the democratic rights and freedoms 'granted' by the imperial decree of 17 October 1905"^[11].

From 10 January 1906 the Russian Empire introduced field courts-martial in the Terek oblast - to them were handed over "...persons who have committed murder, brigandage, robbery and attack on a sentry or military guard, as well as armed resistance to the authorities and attack on the ranks of the troops and the police and on all officials in general..."; during the work of these courts, until 19 April 1907, 195 people in the Caucasus were sentenced to death and another 47 condemned to katorga^[11].

The purge of Ukrainian institutions and the persecution of the movement's leaders. Hrushevsky was "arrested by the gendarmerie in Kyiv on December 11, 1914, and accused of Austrophilia and involvement in creating the Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen. He was sent into exile to Simbirsk"^[17], then transferred to Kazan with a teaching ban and stripped of his professorship.

In May 1916 the Russian Empire mobilized into the army the striking workers of the Grozny oil fields - those who held a deferral from military service and took part in the strike. Historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write: "an order was issued on the immediate mobilization of all Grozny workers holding a deferral from military service and taking part in the strike"^[11]. The strike began with a wage dispute: on 12 May the workers handed the Council of the Congress of Terek Oil Industrialists written demands for a wage rise of 50% on average, on 21 May at two in the afternoon the oil fields stopped at the alarm whistles of the plants, and on 31 May, the same historians write, "the workers everywhere began to return to work"^[11]. Those already recruited did not want to fight either: of the one and a half thousand men of the fourth draft of the "Savage Division" training in the reserve regiment, only 553 reached the combat units - the rest the military command returned to the Caucasus "in view of their 'unreliability'"^[11].

From the formation of the Chechen regiment in 1914 the Russian Empire laid its upkeep on the Chechen communities themselves: the full equipment of each horseman cost 300 rubles, and it was paid not by the treasury but by the village communities that had recommended the man into the regiment. Historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write: "the upkeep of the national regiments lay as a heavy burden on the peasant-highlanders"^[11]. State funds did not suffice for the rest either: the new horses assembled to replenish the division in the autumn of 1916 were, as the same historians write, "very poor", and the division's command sought the allocation of funds to buy horses^[11].

On 13 August 1914 the Russian Empire placed the Terek oblast under the regime of "extraordinary security" - an imperial regime that handed the residents over to the extrajudicial powers of the administration - and then the oblast administration issued an order "on the protection of tranquility at the enterprises", under which the fate of "violators of tranquility" was decided by military courts^[11]. How this worked can be seen from the strike of May 1916 at the Grozny oil fields: the administration brought armed Cossacks onto the fields, they arrested 13 workers, and, as historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov remark, "all those arrested turned out to be Muslims"^[11]. The police arrested nine more workers on the first day of the strike - for sounding the alarm whistles of the plants^[11].

On 16 August 1914, three days after placing the Terek oblast under "extraordinary security", the Russian Empire introduced in the oblast a provisional statute on military censorship^[11][18].

The holding of an alternative congress in Kharkiv and the creation of a Moscow-controlled "People's Secretariat" to imitate an internal struggle: it was created "as an alternative to the Ukrainian Central Rada and the General Secretariat of the Ukrainian Central Rada" and "acted in close contact with and under the direct leadership of the highest state and party institutions of Soviet Russia"^[19]. The congress declared Ukraine part of Russia. In the resolution on the self-determination of Ukraine, adopted in Kharkiv on 12 (25) December 1917, the congress recognized "the Ukrainian Republic as a federative part of the Russian Republic" and declared "a resolute struggle against the policy of the Central Rada, ruinous for the worker-peasant masses, exposing its bourgeois, counter-revolutionary character"^[20]. The congress derived its mandate from the decisions of Petrograd: in the words of the resolution, "the principle of the right of nations to self-determination, proclaimed by the February Revolution, could be brought to life only thanks to the October Revolution, which led to the creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Government — the Council of People's Commissars"^[20]. The secretariat's own power came down to another state's decrees: it "announced the overthrow of the UCR and the recognition of only its own decrees as valid. It introduced the decrees of the Council of People's Commissars of Russia in Ukraine"^[19][21]. Moscow kept its man inside the government as well: Serhii Bakynskyi, people's secretary for inter-national affairs, was simultaneously "the representative of the CPC of Russia"^[19]. Historian Stanislav Kulchytsky describes the direct oversight: "since a Ukrainian party center did not exist, Lenin placed a temporary extraordinary commissar over the Kharkiv government" - Georgii Ordzhonikidze, an official of the central party apparatus^[22]. The journal of the Istpart of the CP(b)U "Letopis revoliutsii" wrote in 1924: "The All-Ukrainian government was a center without a periphery, a staff without an army, when it had neither territory, nor a population subordinate to it, nor an armed force"^[23].

On 1 June 1919 the central Soviet authority of Russia (the VTsIK) resolved to carry out "a close unification of 1) the military organization and military command, 2) the councils of the national economy, 3) railway administration and management, 4) finances and 5) the commissariats of labour" of Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Crimea - "so that the direction of the said branches of national life be concentrated in the hands of single collegiums." The resolution was signed by Kalinin, chairman of the VTsIK, and by secretary Serebryakov, while preserving the formula of independence word for word: the unification was carried out "standing fully on the ground of recognition of the independence, freedom and self-determination of the toiling masses of Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Crimea"^[24]. Ukraine's economy, railways, finances and labour passed under Moscow's management; independence remained a word on paper.

The food ministry was not on that list: Lenin, head of the RSFSR government, subordinated it separately and in secret. On 12 June 1919 he sent a note to Kyiv: the food ministry of the colonial administration of Ukraine (the UkrSSR) was passing under the all-Russian one in both money and management - without any announcement; at the bottom of the note stood the instruction to encipher the underlined part and transmit it immediately, and on 14 June the question was put before the plenum of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik party^[25].

On 3 August 1919 general Mai-Maevsky, head of the Whites' administration in Katerynoslav, Kharkiv, Kursk and Poltava provinces, issued in Kharkiv order No. 22, opening it thus: "I announce the basic provisions adopted by the Special Council on the question of 'Ukrainian schools.'" The first point was reversal: "All schools in which, before the appearance of the 'Ukrainian' authorities, instruction was conducted in Russian, and then, by order of the Ukrainian authority, the Little Russian language was made the language of instruction, must return again to instruction in Russian"^[26].

The history and geography of Ukraine the order struck from the curricula: "The teaching of 'Ukrainian studies' (the history and geography of Ukraine) is abolished"^[26].

Nine days later the commander-in-chief confirmed the same norm: in the address "To the Population of Little Russia" Denikin declared Russian the state language "over the whole expanse of Russia," leaving to Ukrainian the private schools and the first years of primary school - "to ease the pupils' assimilation of the first rudiments of knowledge"^[27]. In Kyiv order No. 22 was applied in the autumn as well: a summary of the Soviet side on the situation in the city records that "in all schools the Russian language is being introduced as the state language"^[28].

Denikin, commander-in-chief of the White army, vouched in his address "To the Population of Little Russia": "there will be no restrictions whatsoever in relation to the Little Russian language in print"^[27]. The ban came three weeks after the capture of Kyiv and was built as a system of permits: by order of general Mai-Maevsky, head of the Whites' administration, "all Kyiv newspapers and other periodicals appear only with the permission of the Kyiv governor," every publication is presented to the prosecutor and the governor straight from the printing house, "strict preliminary military censorship" is in force, and any deviation is punished with a fine of 20,000 roubles and six months in prison^[29][28].

To the Ukrainian press this system gave no permits. The Information Bureau of the UkrSSR Defence Council reported from captured Kyiv: the Whites' newspapers - Kievlyanin under the editorship of Shulgin, Ekho, Vechernyaya Gazeta "and a number of other sheets" - came out daily, but "not a single Ukrainian newspaper appears in Kyiv," and "in the streets of Kyiv Ukrainian speech is not heard at all"^[30]. Historians of the Institute of History of Ukraine confirm the outcome: under the Whites Ukrainian newspapers were closed down and Ukrainian books were removed from the shops^[17]. The promise not to touch the Ukrainian word lasted exactly until the Whites entered Kyiv.

On 10 September 1919 colonel Matveev, temporary head of the Whites' administration in the city of Mykolaiv, issued an ordinance: all unions and societies that had not submitted their charters or had not been confirmed by the circuit court were deemed closed^[31]. The Ukrainian enlightenment societies, grown up over the years of the revolution without confirmation under the pre-revolutionary procedure, fell under this condition wholesale: no separate order was needed to close them - it was precisely thus, by a formally neutral condition, that the Whites closed the Ukrainian societies. Historians of the Institute of History of Ukraine confirm the outcome: Ukrainian institutions under the Whites were liquidated, and Russian ones were set up in their place^[17].

On 28 November 1918 the Central Committee of the Bolshevik party (the CC RCP(b)) created in the Russian city of Kursk a puppet government for Ukraine, which named itself the "Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government of Ukraine" - political cover for the invasion by the troops of Soviet Russia into Ukraine. By a manifesto of 29 November it proclaimed the establishment of Soviet power in Ukraine, and on 29 January 1919 it was reorganized into the Council of People's Commissars of the UkrSSR on the Russian model^[32]. By a decree of 3 December 1918 - a month before the capture of Kharkiv - this government set up its own secret police: the All-Ukrainian Extraordinary Commission^[33].

In the summer of 1919 Moscow took even the punitive apparatus away from the front it had created. On 11 June 1919 Shishkov, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian secret police, telegraphed the CC RCP(b) that it had no organizational ties whatsoever with the Russian one and that all local commissions in Ukraine were subordinate only to the Ukrainian, not the Moscow one^[34]. On 22 July 1919 Dzerzhinsky, head of the Russian secret police, wrote to Latsis, head of the Ukrainian one, that the Ukrainian commission's business was to carry out in Ukraine the policy of the party's Moscow centre: "in relation to us You have become a samostiynik, become one objectively," and its task was "to be the conductor of the policy of the CC RCP [the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party] in Ukraine"^[35]. On 13 August 1919 the politburo of the CC RCP(b) resolved to dissolve the Ukrainian secret police, merging it with the Russian one, and charged Peters with the execution; on 14 August the politburo of the party's Ukrainian branch (the CC CP(b)U) submitted, and on 16 August Peters was appointed representative of the Russian commission attached to the colonial administration of Ukraine (the UkrSSR)^[36].

On 29 June 1919 the central organ of the colonial administration of Ukraine (the VUTsIK) resolved "to carry out a general mobilization of workers and peasants of call-up age, beginning at 19, and in the front-line zone at 18," and to draft the entire "non-labouring element" from 18 to 45 into the rear militia - captured Ukraine was to fight for its captor - and by the same resolution it declared: "All who resist the carrying out of the mobilization are to be deemed enemies of the people"; it was signed for the chairman of the organ by Polozov and by secretary Lapchinsky^[37]. On 26 July 1919 Skrypnyk, plenipotentiary of the same administration's Defence Council, reporting on the Trypillia district, where the army had just crushed the risen peasants, wrote: "there now remains the mobilization of the entire population of this district" - the men of villages that had just risen were taken into the very army that had crushed them^[38].

On 18 November 1919 the Whites' city administration in Mykolaiv ordered preliminary censorship of printed publications^[39]. So it was in Kyiv as well: an order of general Mai-Maevsky, head of the Whites' administration, subjected all publications to military censorship - publishing only with the governor's permission, with every issue presented to the prosecutor^[29].

General Mai-Maevsky, head of the Whites' administration in Katerynoslav, Kharkiv, Kursk and Poltava provinces, by order No. 22 of 3 August 1919 returned the schools of Ukraine to compulsory instruction in Russian, leaving the native language the place of an elective: "The teaching of the Little Russian language and literature is permitted as non-compulsory subjects on general grounds" - Russian became the compulsory language of instruction, Ukrainian was studied only at will^[26].

General Mai-Maevsky, head of the Whites' administration in Katerynoslav, Kharkiv, Kursk and Poltava provinces, by order No. 22 of 3 August 1919 cut the Ukrainian school off from state money: "The release of credits from the treasury for the maintenance of educational institutions with instruction in the Little Russian language is not permitted"; the zemstvos - the organs of local self-government - and the towns he forbade to open or support such schools, and those already open he allowed to exist only "on condition of their being taken over for maintenance by private persons and societies." To the teachers the order closed off state standing as well: "the right of state service" was granted only to the teachers of schools recognized as "strengthening the idea of a single Russian statehood"^[26]. In Kyiv that same autumn, by a summary of the Soviet side, "the release of credit to schools for the teaching of the Ukrainian language is discontinued"^[28].

Soviet Russia placed an unelected extraordinary body over Chechnya: on 3 April 1920 a congress in Grozny "proclaimed the transfer of all power to the Chechen Revolutionary Committee of five members"^[11]. When at the elections to the Soviets in July 1920 "the overwhelming majority of seats in the Soviets went to... representatives of the so-called 'kulak-mullah and nationalist elements'", the elected Soviets were dissolved - historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov record: "within a short span the peasant Soviets were dissolved twice (in August 1921 and in July 1922) and the power of the revkom was restored again"^[11]. In the autumn of 1920 "the Aldy congress was dispersed, and several Grozny party workers... arrested" on the orders of Ordzhonikidze, head of the Caucasus Bureau of the Communist Party's Central Committee^[11]. The Mountain ASSR, which had given legal form to the highlanders' autonomy, "did not last long and in 1924, having fulfilled its tasks as conceived by the party leadership, ceased to exist"^[11].

In 1923-1924 the Chechen revkom made hostage-taking an official practice of the fight against "banditry": "Measures were taken to register all criminals present in Chechnya, and the practice was introduced of taking hostages from among the close relatives of bandits in hiding"^[11].

Soviet Russia gave the sharia courts official status and took it away within a month: the constituent congress of Soviets of the Mountain Republic in April 1921 resolved to introduce a sharia court system (sharia - Islamic law) - historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov call this "a clear (and temporary) concession to the Muslim clergy of Chechnya and Ingushetia": "Already in May 1921 the TsIK of the GASSR by its resolution deprived the sharia courts of financing from the state budget and of the support of state bodies"^[11].

The staging of a no-alternative "People's Assembly" under the control of occupation troops to give the seizure legal form: "On October 27 in Lviv, the People's Assembly of Western Ukraine of 1939 adopted the Declaration on the reunification of Western Ukraine with the Ukrainian SSR, and on November 1 the Supreme Soviet of the USSR passed the law admitting Western Ukraine, as part of the Ukrainian SSR, into the USSR"^[40].

The use of brute force by party activists against Rukh activists: when Rukh members attempted to install a cross on the grave of those executed near Bazar, "the activists were not allowed into the village" "with the help of KGB men and provocations about the Rukh members' 'Banderite' intentions"; some participants "were dragged out of the car, beaten, and the flags were torn to shreds," while the role of "protesting peasants" was played by men in disguise: "in reality these were communist party activists from nearby districts"^[41]. The political prisoner Vasyl Ovsienko ended up in the hospital: "the communists thrashed me near Bazar on November 17"^[42].

The manufacturing of an appearance of mass pro-Russian mobilization on the peninsula: behind the "self-defense forces," in whose name the operation was conducted, stood Russian troops, as Putin admitted on 17 April 2014: "behind the backs of Crimea's self-defense forces, our servicemen, of course, stood"^[43]. Rally and "volunteer" crowds supplied the picture of a popular impulse whose legal significance the UN rejected^[44].

Mass unlawful detentions and abductions of civilians in the occupied territories: "armed groups continued to commit abductions, to subject people to physical and psychological torture and ill-treatment," and "people were abducted for ransom, for forced labor, and for exchange for fighters captured by the Ukrainian authorities"^[45].

The systematic use of torture and physical violence against civilians for a pro-Ukrainian stance: the UN recorded that "armed groups continued to commit abductions, to subject people to physical and psychological torture and ill-treatment, and to commit other grave human rights violations"^[45]. Abducted Automaidan activists were held in a basement where they were "allegedly beaten several times, with their hands bound," and their hair was cut off in reprisal^[46].

The physical elimination of legitimate representatives of local government who resisted the occupation: "the mutilated body of Volodomyr Rybak, a member of the 'Batkivshchyna' party and deputy of the Municipal Council of Horlivka (Donetsk region), was found near the village of Raihorodok," and "Rybak was abducted on April 17 by pro-Russians, following a pro-Ukrainian gathering in Horlivka. He was then tortured and murdered"^[46].

Engagement in combat operations of Russian neo-Nazi groups (such as the "Rusich" sabotage and reconnaissance group under the command of A. Milchakov), whose ringleaders openly called for unmotivated sadistic violence against civilians ("Slaughter the homeless, the puppies, and the children!")^[47].

Deliberate restoration of old Soviet or imperial names to captured cities and streets (in particular, the renaming of Bakhmut to Artemovsk) in order to erase Ukrainian national memory and visually integrate them into the space of the Russian Federation.

Artificial alteration of the demographic composition of the population in the occupied territories (for example, in destroyed Mariupol) by incentivizing the relocation of citizens of the Russian Federation and their mass purchase of housing, against the backdrop of squeezing out the indigenous residents.

From April 2022 the Russian occupation administrations marked the seized territories with imperial signs - in stone and on paper. In Kherson oblast more than 110 Lenin monuments had been dismantled before the invasion, with practically none left; after the occupation the invaders erected ten new ones: the first in Henichesk in April 2022 - the first Lenin monument on Ukrainian territory since 2014 - and at the end of that same month a monument was returned to its pedestal by the city council in Nova Kakhovka^[48]. In Mariupol on 5 May 2022 a monument to a woman with a red flag was unveiled, and the ceremony was published in his Telegram channel by Andrei Turchak, secretary of the general council of "United Russia"; the Square of the Warrior-Liberators, named in honor of those who freed the city from the Nazis, was given back its Soviet name of "Lenin Komsomol Square" by the occupiers^[49]. In parallel the occupation administration papered the territory with banners: in Kherson and Nova Kakhovka hung Russian-language billboards reading "Russia is here forever!," "Kherson - forever with Russia," "Kherson is a Russian city," and for them they bought, for twenty cents on a stock-photo site, a picture by the Ukrainian photographer Anna Pasichnyk - her son Yaroslav with a friend in vyshyvankas in a rapeseed field near Kyiv - painting a Russian flag in behind the children's backs^[50]. In Balakliia in Kharkiv oblast the occupiers pasted over a city banner: first they hung "Ukraine and Russia are 'one'" on top of it, then a poster with a tricolor reading "We are one people with Russia!". On 10 September 2022 Ukrainian soldiers tore the tricolor down - and beneath it emerged the lines of Shevchenko that had stood there through the entire occupation: "Fight - and you shall prevail! God is helping you! Truth is with you, glory is with you, and holy freedom!"^[51]. The signs held only until de-occupation: on 11 November 2022, a "Russia is here forever" poster in liberated Bilozerka in the Kherson region was torn down by local residents - the video was published by the Telegram channel "Nikolaevsky Vanek"^[52].