Aggressors may carry out the forcible capture and detention of civilians or non-combatants. These actions are used for the operational neutralization of defenses (blackmailing resistance forces, shielding troops). At the consolidation stage, this technique may become institutionalized as a system of taking members of the elites and high-ranking figures (the "amanat" system), whose detention serves as the state's guarantee of the local population's loyalty and of the prevention of anti-colonial revolts.
| ID | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| C1112 | Beginning of the political subjugation of the Nokhchi (1588–1591) |
As a guarantee of submission, the occupation administration detained representatives of the Nokhchi elite: historian E. N. Kusheva writes that «his nephew Batai was left as an amanat (hostage) in the Terek town»[1]. |
| C1107 | Bribery of Elites, Coercion into Subjecthood, and the Taking of Amanats (1645–1658) |
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»[1]; the metropole instructed the voivodes «to order that amanats be taken from them — kinsmen of notable people»[1], as a result of which the Highlanders «gave a good amanat to the Terek town, Kasa»[1][2]. |
| C1133 | Bribery of the Nobility and Institutionalization of the Hostage System (1735) |
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»[3]. |
| C1140 | Bulgakov's Punitive Expedition: Devastation of Chechen Villages and Coercion into Allegiance (1807) |
The Russian Empire held hostages from among the Nokhchi inhabitants as a guarantee of submission. Under the resolution presented by the commander of the Caucasus Line, General Bulgakov, the Chechen elders undertook: "we give the foremost among us as amanats, at the choice of the Russian commander in this region"; the villages of Bolshaya Ataga, Malaya Ataga, and Gekhi "gave 3 amanats from the best families," whom the commander-in-chief in the Caucasus, General Gudovich, ordered "to send to Kizlyar… to keep watch over them and to issue for their maintenance 10 r. per month each"[4]. |
| C1119 | Comprehensive Reconnaissance of Territories and an Attempt to Coerce into Subjecthood (1658–1660) |
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»[1], after which the Terek voivodes Melenty Kvashnin and his associates ordered their military emissary «to take an amanat to the Terek»[1]; 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»[1]. |
| C1134 | Construction of Fortified Stanitsas, Settlement of Cossacks on the Borders, and Holding of Hostages (1736–1740) |
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»[3]. |
| C1150 | Deception and Forcible Detention of Beibulat Taimiev by Paskevich, Splitting Chechnya into Factions, and Coercion into an Oath of Allegiance (1828-1829) |
From spring until the end of summer 1829, Commander-in-Chief Paskevich forcibly kept with the field army the Chechen elders who had been summoned for negotiations, directly calling them hostages. In his instruction to Emanuel of May 16, 1829, he wrote: "The mere absence of these people, who will be with us in the manner of amanats, will restrain the unpacified Chechens from any hostile attempts"[5]. He summed up the result on August 2, 1829: "The Chechen elders, having been graciously received by me, remained with the detachment and were with me in military operations against the Turks. Having kept them in this way for a whole summer, I secured tranquility for the Line on their part"[5]. By the same document, hostage-taking was entrenched as a system of governing Chechnya: "As a pledge of the submission of the said Chechens, the amanats presented by each eldership are to be kept in the fortress of Grozny; and if from any one an amanat has not yet been delivered, then the elder, until the amanat is delivered, is obliged... to remain himself as a pledge in the fortress of Grozny"[5]. |
| C1021 | Destruction of the Nokhchi Villages along the Sunzha and Erection of the Groznaya Fortress in Their Place (1817–1818) |
The Regular Army of the Russian Empire held representatives of the villages along the Sunzha as a pledge of submission. Imperial general Yermolov testifies in his "Notes" that when the troops advanced to the Sunzha, "amanats (hostages) from their villages were taken into the camp"[6]. Imperial historian Potto confirms that Yermolov "took amanats from all the auls sitting along the Sunzha"[7]. |
| C1149 | Destruction of the Refugee Aul of Uzeni-Yurt, Extortion of Hostages from Geldigen, and Capture of Samashki Residents at Harvest (1826-1827) |
In the winter of 1826–1827, General Laptev, commander of the left flank of the Caucasian Line, extorted amanats (hostages) from the village of Geldigen, using a captured young man of Geldigen as leverage. The young man agreed to a staged "captivity" in order to avert the strike being prepared against the village: the occupation left the village no other way to buy safety than by handing over hostages. The imperial historian Potto admits: Laptev, having got the man into his hands, "rejected all offers and demanded one thing only — amanats. Willy-nilly this condition had to be accepted, and the people of Geldigen, who had always stood at the head of bloody movements, left in our hands the hostages of their tranquility"[8]. |
| C1135 | Expansion of the Bribery System and Coercion of Highland Societies into Subjecthood (1741–1748) |
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»[3]. |
| C1155 | Extermination of 61 settlements of lowland Chechnya and mountainous Ichkeria by Rosen's troops, burning alive of the defenders of Germenchuk, and extortion of hostages from 80 villages (1832) |
In August–September 1832, corps commander Baron Rosen coerced the villages of Chechnya and Ichkeria into handing over amanats (hostages) under direct threat of extermination. Rosen reported to Minister of War Chernyshev regarding the village of Miskit: "when it was announced to them that in the event of the slightest resistance the entire village, the grain and the hay would be exterminated, they immediately presented amanats"[9]. Rosen summed up the result in the same report: subjugation through hostage-taking covered "more than 80 Chechen and Ichkerian villages"[9]. |
| S0012 | Occupation and Controlled Administrations |
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»[1]. |
| S0012 | Occupation and Controlled Administrations |
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»[1]; the metropole instructed the voivodes «to order that amanats be taken from them — kinsmen of notable people»[1], as a result of which the Highlanders «gave a good amanat to the Terek town, Kasa»[1][2]. |
| S0012 | Occupation and Controlled Administrations |
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»[1], after which the Terek voivodes Melenty Kvashnin and his associates ordered their military emissary «to take an amanat to the Terek»[1]; 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»[1]. |
| S0012 | Occupation and Controlled Administrations |
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»[3]. |
| S0012 | Occupation and Controlled Administrations |
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»[3]. |
| S0012 | Occupation and Controlled Administrations |
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»[3]. |
| C1120 | Punitive campaign and the devastation of the Nokhchi mountain communities (1617–1618) |
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»[1]. |
| C1142 | Punitive devastation of the Nokhchi villages along the Sunzha and pitting neighboring peoples against them under Rtishchev (1813-1816) |
The Russian Empire used the devastation of villages to force the Nokhchi to hand over hostages. The imperial historian Potto writes that after Colonel Eristov had laid waste to the villages along the Sunzha, the Nokhchi «gave amanats (hostages), promising to trouble the Russian borders no more»[10]. |
| S0010 | Regular Army |
As a guarantee of submission, the occupation administration detained representatives of the Nokhchi elite: historian E. N. Kusheva writes that «his nephew Batai was left as an amanat (hostage) in the Terek town»[1]. |
| S0010 | Regular Army |
The Russian Empire held hostages from among the Nokhchi inhabitants as a guarantee of submission. Under the resolution presented by the commander of the Caucasus Line, General Bulgakov, the Chechen elders undertook: "we give the foremost among us as amanats, at the choice of the Russian commander in this region"; the villages of Bolshaya Ataga, Malaya Ataga, and Gekhi "gave 3 amanats from the best families," whom the commander-in-chief in the Caucasus, General Gudovich, ordered "to send to Kizlyar… to keep watch over them and to issue for their maintenance 10 r. per month each"[4]. |
| S0010 | Regular Army |
The Russian Empire used the devastation of villages to force the Nokhchi to hand over hostages. The imperial historian Potto writes that after Colonel Eristov had laid waste to the villages along the Sunzha, the Nokhchi «gave amanats (hostages), promising to trouble the Russian borders no more»[10]. |
| S0010 | Regular Army |
The Regular Army of the Russian Empire held representatives of the villages along the Sunzha as a pledge of submission. Imperial general Yermolov testifies in his "Notes" that when the troops advanced to the Sunzha, "amanats (hostages) from their villages were taken into the camp"[6]. Imperial historian Potto confirms that Yermolov "took amanats from all the auls sitting along the Sunzha"[7]. |
| S0010 | Regular Army |
The Russian Empire held hostages from among the Nokhchi and used them to compel submission. Historian D. A. Khozhaev cites Yermolov's «Address» to the Chechens containing a direct threat: at the slightest disobedience, «the amanats are hanged, villages are exterminated by fire, wives and children are slaughtered»[11]. The imperial historian Potto confirms that Grekov, commander of the left flank of the Caucasus Line, compelled submission precisely through hostages: any attack on a detachment «will inevitably entail the death penalty or exile to Siberia for the amanats», and therefore «the Chechens willy-nilly reconciled themselves to the fact that the forests — their age-old protection — were falling and disappearing»[7]. |
| S0010 | Regular Army |
In the winter of 1826–1827, General Laptev, commander of the left flank of the Caucasian Line, extorted amanats (hostages) from the village of Geldigen, using a captured young man of Geldigen as leverage. The young man agreed to a staged "captivity" in order to avert the strike being prepared against the village: the occupation left the village no other way to buy safety than by handing over hostages. The imperial historian Potto admits: Laptev, having got the man into his hands, "rejected all offers and demanded one thing only — amanats. Willy-nilly this condition had to be accepted, and the people of Geldigen, who had always stood at the head of bloody movements, left in our hands the hostages of their tranquility"[8]. |
| S0010 | Regular Army |
From spring until the end of summer 1829, Commander-in-Chief Paskevich forcibly kept with the field army the Chechen elders who had been summoned for negotiations, directly calling them hostages. In his instruction to Emanuel of May 16, 1829, he wrote: "The mere absence of these people, who will be with us in the manner of amanats, will restrain the unpacified Chechens from any hostile attempts"[5]. He summed up the result on August 2, 1829: "The Chechen elders, having been graciously received by me, remained with the detachment and were with me in military operations against the Turks. Having kept them in this way for a whole summer, I secured tranquility for the Line on their part"[5]. By the same document, hostage-taking was entrenched as a system of governing Chechnya: "As a pledge of the submission of the said Chechens, the amanats presented by each eldership are to be kept in the fortress of Grozny; and if from any one an amanat has not yet been delivered, then the elder, until the amanat is delivered, is obliged... to remain himself as a pledge in the fortress of Grozny"[5]. |
| S0010 | Regular Army |
In August–September 1832, corps commander Baron Rosen coerced the villages of Chechnya and Ichkeria into handing over amanats (hostages) under direct threat of extermination. Rosen reported to Minister of War Chernyshev regarding the village of Miskit: "when it was announced to them that in the event of the slightest resistance the entire village, the grain and the hay would be exterminated, they immediately presented amanats"[9]. Rosen summed up the result in the same report: subjugation through hostage-taking covered "more than 80 Chechen and Ichkerian villages"[9]. |
| G0009 | Russian Empire |
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»[3]. |
| G0009 | Russian Empire |
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»[3]. |
| G0009 | Russian Empire |
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»[3]. |
| G0009 | Russian Empire |
The Russian Empire held hostages from among the Nokhchi inhabitants as a guarantee of submission. Under the resolution presented by the commander of the Caucasus Line, General Bulgakov, the Chechen elders undertook: "we give the foremost among us as amanats, at the choice of the Russian commander in this region"; the villages of Bolshaya Ataga, Malaya Ataga, and Gekhi "gave 3 amanats from the best families," whom the commander-in-chief in the Caucasus, General Gudovich, ordered "to send to Kizlyar… to keep watch over them and to issue for their maintenance 10 r. per month each"[4]. |
| G0009 | Russian Empire |
The Russian Empire used the devastation of villages to force the Nokhchi to hand over hostages. The imperial historian Potto writes that after Colonel Eristov had laid waste to the villages along the Sunzha, the Nokhchi «gave amanats (hostages), promising to trouble the Russian borders no more»[10]. |
| G0009 | Russian Empire |
The Regular Army of the Russian Empire held representatives of the villages along the Sunzha as a pledge of submission. Imperial general Yermolov testifies in his "Notes" that when the troops advanced to the Sunzha, "amanats (hostages) from their villages were taken into the camp"[6]. Imperial historian Potto confirms that Yermolov "took amanats from all the auls sitting along the Sunzha"[7]. |
| G0009 | Russian Empire |
The Russian Empire held hostages from among the Nokhchi and used them to compel submission. Historian D. A. Khozhaev cites Yermolov's «Address» to the Chechens containing a direct threat: at the slightest disobedience, «the amanats are hanged, villages are exterminated by fire, wives and children are slaughtered»[11]. The imperial historian Potto confirms that Grekov, commander of the left flank of the Caucasus Line, compelled submission precisely through hostages: any attack on a detachment «will inevitably entail the death penalty or exile to Siberia for the amanats», and therefore «the Chechens willy-nilly reconciled themselves to the fact that the forests — their age-old protection — were falling and disappearing»[7]. |
| G0009 | Russian Empire |
In the winter of 1826–1827, General Laptev, commander of the left flank of the Caucasian Line, extorted amanats (hostages) from the village of Geldigen, using a captured young man of Geldigen as leverage. The young man agreed to a staged "captivity" in order to avert the strike being prepared against the village: the occupation left the village no other way to buy safety than by handing over hostages. The imperial historian Potto admits: Laptev, having got the man into his hands, "rejected all offers and demanded one thing only — amanats. Willy-nilly this condition had to be accepted, and the people of Geldigen, who had always stood at the head of bloody movements, left in our hands the hostages of their tranquility"[8]. |
| G0009 | Russian Empire |
From spring until the end of summer 1829, Commander-in-Chief Paskevich forcibly kept with the field army the Chechen elders who had been summoned for negotiations, directly calling them hostages. In his instruction to Emanuel of May 16, 1829, he wrote: "The mere absence of these people, who will be with us in the manner of amanats, will restrain the unpacified Chechens from any hostile attempts"[5]. He summed up the result on August 2, 1829: "The Chechen elders, having been graciously received by me, remained with the detachment and were with me in military operations against the Turks. Having kept them in this way for a whole summer, I secured tranquility for the Line on their part"[5]. By the same document, hostage-taking was entrenched as a system of governing Chechnya: "As a pledge of the submission of the said Chechens, the amanats presented by each eldership are to be kept in the fortress of Grozny; and if from any one an amanat has not yet been delivered, then the elder, until the amanat is delivered, is obliged... to remain himself as a pledge in the fortress of Grozny"[5]. |
| G0009 | Russian Empire |
In August–September 1832, corps commander Baron Rosen coerced the villages of Chechnya and Ichkeria into handing over amanats (hostages) under direct threat of extermination. Rosen reported to Minister of War Chernyshev regarding the village of Miskit: "when it was announced to them that in the event of the slightest resistance the entire village, the grain and the hay would be exterminated, they immediately presented amanats"[9]. Rosen summed up the result in the same report: subjugation through hostage-taking covered "more than 80 Chechen and Ichkerian villages"[9]. |
| C1146 | Suppression of the Nokhchi Uprising: Devastation of Villages and Forced Forest Felling by Grekov (1821-1822) |
The Russian Empire held hostages from among the Nokhchi and used them to compel submission. Historian D. A. Khozhaev cites Yermolov's «Address» to the Chechens containing a direct threat: at the slightest disobedience, «the amanats are hanged, villages are exterminated by fire, wives and children are slaughtered»[11]. The imperial historian Potto confirms that Grekov, commander of the left flank of the Caucasus Line, compelled submission precisely through hostages: any attack on a detachment «will inevitably entail the death penalty or exile to Siberia for the amanats», and therefore «the Chechens willy-nilly reconciled themselves to the fact that the forests — their age-old protection — were falling and disappearing»[7]. |
| G0008 | Tsardom of Muscovy |
As a guarantee of submission, the occupation administration detained representatives of the Nokhchi elite: historian E. N. Kusheva writes that «his nephew Batai was left as an amanat (hostage) in the Terek town»[1]. |
| G0008 | Tsardom of Muscovy |
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»[1]. |
| G0008 | Tsardom of Muscovy |
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»[1]; the metropole instructed the voivodes «to order that amanats be taken from them — kinsmen of notable people»[1], as a result of which the Highlanders «gave a good amanat to the Terek town, Kasa»[1][2]. |
| G0008 | Tsardom of Muscovy |
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»[1], after which the Terek voivodes Melenty Kvashnin and his associates ordered their military emissary «to take an amanat to the Terek»[1]; 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»[1]. |