Occupation and Controlled Administrations

Mass unlawful detentions and abductions of civilians: "people who take to the streets with Ukrainian flags are persecuted and detained"^[1].

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»^[2].

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»^[3], which served as a formal pretext for punitive actions.

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»^[4].

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»^[4], 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»^[4], 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»^[4].

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»^[4].

The occupation administration of the Russian Empire forcibly resettled the subjugated 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"^[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»^[5].

Introduction of a state monopoly on the grain trade and centralized control over the distribution of goods^[6].

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.

Large-scale plundering of economic resources: the removal of expensive industrial equipment (including steel from the Azovstal plant), illegal extraction of mineral resources, and the theft of more than 15 million tons of Ukrainian grain^[7].

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»^[4].

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)»^[4].

As a result of the devastation of their settlements, the subjugated 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»^[4].

Establishment of the institution of a ministerial resident for permanent surveillance of the hetman and his correspondence^[8][9].

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»^[4].

Blocking the election of a new leader and creating a hybrid administration for direct manual control. The body "consisted of 3 Russian and 3 Ukrainian officials... headed by the Russian prince Shakhovskoy"^[10].

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"^[11].

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»^[12]. 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»^[5].

Total purge of Ukrainian institutions in the occupied territories of Galicia: closure of newspapers, persecution of figures of the movement, arrest and exile of Mykhailo Hrushevsky^[14][15].

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]»^[4].

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»^[4] in order to suppress the defiant communities.

Physical elimination of legitimate representatives of local government who put up open political resistance to the occupation (in particular, the brutal murder of Horlivka city council deputy V. Rybak for attempting to restore the Ukrainian flag)^[1].

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»^[4].

Using the Kharkiv government as a formal cover for external aggression, in order to present the military invasion as a civil war within Ukraine^[13].

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»^[4].

Holding a fake alternative congress in Kharkiv and creating the Moscow-controlled "People's Secretariat" to simulate an internal struggle^[13].

Organization of fake, no-alternative "People's Assemblies" under the control of occupation troops to give the seizure a legal form^[14].

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»^[5][4] and «took a wife into bondage and sent her off to his kabaks in Kabarda»^[5][4].

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»^[4].

Use of crude physical force by representatives of the party nomenklatura: secretaries of CPU district committees and collective farm chairmen personally took part in brutal beatings of Rukh activists and dissidents (in particular, V. Ovsiienko and O. Hudyma) to intimidate the population^[16].

Systematic plundering of historical and cultural heritage, archaeological theft, and the mass removal of the collections of Ukrainian museums from the occupied territories to the Russian Federation^[7].

Systematic use of torture and physical violence against civilians in the occupied territories for any display of Ukrainian symbols or a pro-Ukrainian position^[1].

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»^[4].