Aggressors may deliberately and massively destroy the settlements of an indigenous people - homes, hospitals, schools, houses of worship, life-support systems - up to complete destruction. The people are deprived of housing, livelihood, and the physical environment of life on their own land.
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»[1].
Complete destruction of the Sich's buildings and neighboring fortifications: "the neighboring kurins were also burned and slaughtered"; "All the buildings were destroyed, as Menshikov wrote: 'To lay waste all their places, so that this treasonous nest be utterly uprooted'"[2].
The Regular Army of the Russian Empire destroyed the settlements and the food supply base of the highlanders: historian Sh. B. Akhmadov states that a tsarist detachment "came to Enderi and completely devastated and burned it, leaving nothing but ashes behind"[3], while during the August 1722 raid "3 thousand houses were destroyed and the grain in the fields was burned"[3].
The Regular Army of the Russian Empire physically eliminated a highlander settlement: historian Sh. B. Akhmadov states that the detachment under the command of Colonel Koch «entered the village of Chechen on July 7, burned it down completely, and began hastily withdrawing»[3].
The Russian Empire burned the villages of the Nokhchi, depriving the inhabitants of shelter and means of subsistence. General Ivelich reported that the village of Bolshaya Chechenskaya Ataga was "consigned to fire" by the detachment of the commander of the Caucasus Line, General Bulgakov, while the remaining inhabitants, "whose villages were destroyed by fire," agreed to subjecthood[4].
The Russian Empire razed and burned Nokhchi villages. The imperial historian Potto writes that Colonel Eristov, having crossed the Terek, after a stubborn battle burned and razed «several villages along the Sunzha»[5].
The Regular Army of the Russian Empire demolished Chechen villages to clear ground for a fortress. Historian D. A. Khozhayev records the destruction of eight villages: to make way for Groznaya, "eight flourishing Chechen villages (Bugun-Yurt, Amirkhan-Kichu, Kuli-Yurt, Sorochan-Yurt, Sunzha, N. Chechen, Topli, Alkhanchu) were destroyed"[6].
The Russian Empire wiped Nokhchi villages off the face of the earth. Historian D. A. Khozhaev writes that following Dadi-Yurt, the Kachkalyk villages of Isti-Su, Noiberdy, Alleroy, and others were "taken by storm and destroyed"[6]. General Yermolov writes in his "Notes" that Noyen-Berdy and Allayar-Aul were "utterly devastated"[7]. The imperial historian Potto confirms that "both villages were completely devastated"[8].
The imperial historian Potto writes that after the night attack the aul of Topli was left as "smoldering ruins," and at the close of the campaign the troops "advanced forward, burned Germenchug, and drew back to Groznaya," even though the aul stood empty[8].
Historian D. A. Khozhaev writes that the expedition of Grekov, commander of the left flank of the Caucasian Line, "destroyed… two auls — Shali and Malaya Ataga"[6]. The imperial historian Potto confirms: on March 1, 1821, the troops "destroyed completely" the village of Oisungur, and in February 1822 Grekov "burned the villages of Shali and Malye Atagi"[8].
On January 10, 1827, the troops of General Laptev, commander of the left flank of the Caucasus Line, razed the village of Uzeni-Yurt on the bank of the Argun, whose inhabitants had fled across the river. The imperial historian Potto acknowledges: «the village of Uzeni-Yurt, with all its property... was destroyed to its foundations»[9]. The village had served as home to people whose former auls had been exterminated by troops in Yermolov's punitive campaign of 1826 and who had refused to resettle under the conqueror's control.
Historian D. A. Khozhaev writes that after February 17, 1826, Yermolov's troops «ravaged and destroyed the auls of Lesser Chechnya - Urus-Martan, Roshni, Gekhi, Belakai, Daut-Martan, and Shelchikhi», and by the end of the campaign «flourishing villages had been destroyed»[6]. General Yermolov himself, in a report to Emperor Nicholas I dated May 28, 1826, confirmed: during the storming of Urus-Martan «the village was burned», Bolshaya Roshni was «put to the torch», and the village of Shali, whose inhabitants «give an amanat, asked for time, and deceived», he «ordered to be destroyed»[10]. The imperial historian Volkonsky specifies that Shali stood empty by the time the troops arrived: Yermolov «did not find a single inhabitant there: all had scattered through the forests», after which he «burned their dwellings»[11].
In December 1830 – January 1831, General Velyaminov's troops razed and burned the villages of lowland Chechnya: Kiter-Yurt, Pkhan-Kichu, Edin-Yurt, Daut-Yurt, Engeli, Uzeken-Yurt, Besenber with its hamlets, Avtury, Geldigen, and Mairtup with the surrounding auls. The imperial historian Potto wrote: Kiter-Yurt "was immediately given over to the flames," "over the following two days the Butyrsky and Tarutinsky regiments burned the village of Pkhan-Kichu," "along the way they burned two more unsubmissive villages: Edin-Yurt and Daut-Yurt," the troops "managed to exterminate one more aul, Engeli," the regiments "burned the unsubmissive village of Uzeken-Yurt," "exterminated in the vicinity the aul of Besenber, with all the hamlets adjoining it," and on January 21, 1831, "the same fate befell Maiortup itself"[9]. The submission offered by the villages of Avtury, Geldigen, and Mairtup, together with the handing over of hostages, Velyaminov rejected, demanding the impossible — the surrender of all Russian captives and fugitives — in order to preserve a pretext for exterminating the villages: submission, as Potto admits, "was not at all part of Velyaminov's designs, as he understood the necessity of punishing these auls cruelly"[9].
From August 22 to September 23, 1832, the troops of corps commander Rosen razed dozens of villages of Chechnya and Ichkeria: Belgatoy and Dzhan-yurt, the houses of the six-hundred-household Germenchuk, Shali (except for 11 households), Alkhan-yurt, Sala-yurt, Katar-yurt, Lyalsin-yurt, Nazari-yurt, Uzden-yurt, Uruzbey-yurt, Khyzin-Erzo-yurt, Anzeli-yurt, Chingaroy-yurt, Said-yurt, Anto-yurt, Askhor-yurt, Taba-yurt, Kudish-yurt, Mairtup, Shoni, Tsentoroy, the hamlet of Khamer, Ali-yurt, Bey-Bulat-yurt, Bachin-yurt, Khelboyn-yurt, Benoy, and others. Rosen reported to Minister of War Chernyshev on the dispatch of Colonel Shumsky, by whom "Alkhan-yurt, Sala-yurt, Katar-yurt, Lyalsin-yurt, Nazari-yurt, Uzden-yurt, Uruzbey-yurt and Khyzin-Erzo-yurt have been exterminated"[12], and summed up the result himself: "Of unsubmitted villages, 61 have been exterminated"[12]. Historian D. A. Khozhaev wrote: "The general’s troops burned Benoy and other Chechen villages"[6].
On August 23, 1836, the detachment of Colonel Pullo, chief of the Sunzha fortified line, ravaged the aul of Zandak on the Yaman-su River. Corps commander Rosen reported to the Minister of War on the destruction in the aul of the houses of murids and of "other principal adherents of Tashev-Hajji"[12]. The Chechen writer Abuzar Aydamirov, in his "Chronology of the History of Checheno-Ingushetia," recorded: "Punitive expedition of Colonel Pullo to the auls on the Yaman-Su River. Destruction of the aul of Zandak"[13].
On 29-31 December 1836, Pullo's detachment completely destroyed Kishkeroy-Yurt: "the village of Kishkeroy, consisting of 63 households, with a considerable stock of grain and hay, was put to the torch", and on withdrawing on 31 December Pullo "marched out of Kishkeroy-Yurt, having set fire to the houses that remained undestroyed"[14].
Feze's expedition through Lesser Chechnya on 23-29 January 1837 destroyed housing and livelihood outright. The expedition journal, presented by Rozen to Minister of War Chernyshev on 11 February 1837, records: "Having burned Shalazh-yurt", the troops "destroyed the winter quarters... and the dwellings of the Chechens on both banks of the Shalazha", and "on the way back more than a thousand saklias were burned along the Martan and Tengin gorges" (saklia - a highlander's house)[12].
Feze's spring tour (February-April 1837) destroyed the housing and winter livelihood of the Chechen communities. Rozen's report to Minister of War Chernyshev of 23 February 1837: on 5 February "our troops annihilated the auls of Akhoy-yurt and Lyumik-yurt lying on the way and the khutors of the hostile Chechens"; on 9 February Seid-yurt and Avtur were annihilated[12]. In the March march up the Dzhalka, according to the report of 12 April, "the four auls they had abandoned were occupied and annihilated without resistance. Then the troops penetrated into the thick of the forest and destroyed the kutans (winter shelters for livestock)"; on 26 March the troops were destroying kutans near Shali, and Birzul's column did the same along its own route[12].
In 1839-1840 the imperial troops burned dozens of Chechen settlements. In the May 1839 invasion of Ichkeria (mountainous south-eastern Chechnya) the imperial officer Milyutin, a participant of the march, recorded day by day: "The nearby aul of Balansu was found abandoned by its inhabitants and given to the flames", "All the auls lying on either side of the road (Nake-Yurt, Tsezyn-Irzau, Doba-Yurt) were found abandoned by their inhabitants and given to the flames", and of the rout on 12 May of Sayasan, the residence of sheikh Tashu-Hadji (in 1834-1836 the imam of Chechnya, leader of the Chechen resistance): "The fortification was devastated, and the village given to the flames"[15]. In the January 1840 march the troops of general Pullo, who commanded the left flank of the Caucasus Line (the chain of imperial fortifications on the land of the Nokhchi), wiped out two auls: the imperial historian Yurov - "the auls of Kazbek-Yurt and Batash-Yurt, populated mostly by relatives and namesakes of Shuaib-Mulla, which met the detachment with weapons in hand. After a minor skirmish both villages were levelled to the ground"[16]; historian D. A. Khozhayev adds: "The Russians burned the Benoy hamlet of Gurzhiyn-mokhk and the neighbouring auls of Zandak-Ara and Genderghen, and retreated"[6]. In summer 1840 the detachment of general Galafeyev, who had taken over the troops of the left flank, burned the auls of Lesser Chechnya (the lowland-piedmont western part of Chechnya): historian D. A. Khozhayev lists the destroyed Bolshoy Chechen, Dudu-yurt, Akhshpatoy-Goyta, Chunguroy-yurt, Urus-Martan, Gurak-Roshni, Khazhi-Roshni, Taib and Achkhoy - the troops marched on, "leaving behind them destroyed and burned villages"[6]; the detachment's journal of military operations confirms the route and adds Peshkhoy-Roshni[17]. In autumn the same detachment burned Greater Chechnya (the lowland eastern part of Chechnya): the imperial survey of 27 October 1840 records - "on 3 and 4 October the troops... burned both villages" (Shali and Germenchuk), "on 7 October the detachment burned 5 hamlets attached to the aul of Shali", and of Said-Yurt, the hamlet of Ersenei and the village of Avtury on 10 October: "gave them to the flames and annihilated the houses and all the property of the inhabitants"[14]. Muhammad Tahir al-Qarakhi, Shamil's chronicler (Shamil - the imam, leader of the resistance of the highlanders of Dagestan and Chechnya to the Russian conquest), recorded that the inhabitants of Shali and Germenchuk abandoned and burned their own villages on Shamil's order long before the troops came: "Shamil ordered them to burn those ancient, well-settled and beautiful villages. It was hard for the lower Chechens, but they did it nonetheless" - part of the imperial burnings went through villages already empty; of Said-Yurt he gives the mirror version of the fight: the murids (the imam's disciples and warriors) "fought them and slew a great number of them. The murids put the Russians to flight"[18]. In the November marches of general Grabbe, commander of the troops of the Caucasus Line, Gekhi and the auls along the Sunzha were devastated - historian N. I. Pokrovsky: "On 27 October Grabbe marched into Lesser Chechnya, devastated Gekhi, on 4 November laid waste the auls situated along the Sunzha"[19]; the imperial historian Yurov recorded: "During the rearguard action general Galafeyev managed to take by fighting and annihilate to its foundations the village of Mirti-Irzau", then on 13 November Germenchuk with its hamlets was destroyed, on 15 November - Lachi-Yurt and Indi-Yurt, on 17 November the troops seized and burned Batash-Yurt, the home of Shuaib-Mulla (naib - the deputy of imam Shamil in Greater Chechnya)[16].
In 1841-1846 expeditions wiped out Chechen settlements by the dozen. The Aukh village of Kishen the troops of general Grabbe, commander of the troops of the Caucasus Line (the chain of imperial fortifications on the land of the Nokhchi), destroyed over three days: the imperial historian Yurov recorded - "by evening the village and its orchards existed no more; out of the heap of charred ruins rose only two mosques and two saklias... spared at the request of Dukai-qadi" (saklia - a highlander's house; qadi - a Muslim judge)[16]. In the march to the Assa river at the end of September 1841 the detachment, according to Yurov, "took by fighting and destroyed 8 auls" - among them Gapurgoy-Yurt, Adilgeri-Yurt, Sha-Yurt - and "the stores of maize and hay were burned"[16]. In the October expedition of 15-30 October 1841 Phan-Kichu, Shalazhi, Magoma-Irzau, Magoma-Yurt, Terga-Yurt, Shuaib-khutor and the auls near Goyta were burned; on 16 October Nurikoy-Yurt was destroyed - Yurov calls it "the most populous and richest Chechen aul"[16]. In December 1846 the troops burned out the Aldy hamlets and the auls of Lesser Chechnya (the lowland-piedmont western part of Chechnya). The imperial officer Poltoratsky, a participant of the expedition, recorded on 15 December 1846: "at the order of the column's commander all the saklias around us burst into flame" (saklia - a highlander's house)[20]. The result of the sweep he summed up thus: "The goal of the expedition in Lesser Chechnya was achieved in full... the plain of Lesser Chechnya in the triangle between the fortresses of Groznaya, Vozdvizhenskaya and Zakan-Yurt has been cleared completely of dwellings and forests"[20].
The empire destroyed the auls and hamlets of Lesser Chechnya (the lowland-piedmont western part of Chechnya) blow after blow. In November-December 1847 Golen-Goyta and the aul of naib Saib-dula (a deputy of Imam Shamil, leader of the highlanders' resistance to the Russian conquest) were destroyed: imperial officer Poltoratsky, a participant in the winter expedition of 1847-1848, wrote of the burned highlander houses (saklias) - "the charred skeletons of saklias and, on the ground, blackened thick pools of blood and human corpses scattered everywhere recalled the rich aul of Golen-Goyta that had existed so recently," and of the aul of Saib-dula: the column "took the aul by storm, annihilated everything in it and burned it to the ground"[20]. On the night of 17 February 1850, under an order of the commander-in-chief in the Caucasus conveyed by the journal of military events of General Ilyinsky - "to annihilate there the dwellings of the harmful population stubborn in its insubmission" - the detachment of Colonel Sleptsov burned the hamlets of Muzuroyev and Nekhloyev and the aul Yasan-yurt: "Few of the inhabitants managed to save themselves... Having finished the annihilation of the hamlets and the aul in two hours' time, Colonel Sleptsov began his withdrawal"[21]. On 15 June 1851 "a series of hamlets and auls" of the Gekhi gorge was annihilated[19], and on 16 November 1851 - the aul Dakhin-Irzau: General Kozlovsky's report notes "the turning to ashes of the aul Dakhin-Irzau with enormous stores of grain and hay"[21].
The auls of Greater Chechnya (the lowland eastern part of Chechnya) were burned out throughout the period. On 6 January 1852 Avtury was burned - imperial historian Volkonsky, a participant in the pogrom, wrote: "The aul Avtury had at that time up to nine hundred households and belonged to the number of the richest auls," and of the detachment's withdrawal: "all the auls and hamlets that lay on the path of our retreat blazed up like their metropole"[22]. On 27 March 1852, at the storming of the aul of naib Talgik (a naib is a deputy of Imam Shamil), "the aul itself was turned into a heap of ashes and ruins"[22]. In December 1852 the commander-in-chief in the Caucasus ordered Baryatinsky, who commanded the left flank of the Caucasus Line (the chain of imperial fortifications on the land of the Nokhchi), to destroy Khan-Kala - Volkonsky conveys the order: "the commander-in-chief insistently ordered Prince Baryatinsky to take this aul and raze it from the face of the earth," and the execution: "The aul, numbering ninety-five houses, was given to the flames, and by the evening of that same day not one sound stone remained of it"[22]. The result of 1853 was summed up by Vorontsov, viceroy and commander-in-chief in the Caucasus: in a letter to the Emperor of 1-20 March 1854 he reported that Baryatinsky "took possession of the Michik, cut a clearing of enormous width through the Qachqalyq ridge down to the plains of Greater Chechnya and annihilated the greater part of the villages that still remained unsubdued along the Michik and other streams in the direction of Umakhan-yurt"[21]. In January 1854 the auls along the rivers Dzhalka and Khabi-Shovdan were devastated - the imperial chronicle of "outstanding events" counts the resettlement of "418 families of Chechens"[23].
General Yevdokimov, who commanded the troops of the left wing of the Caucasus Line (the chain of imperial fortifications on Nokhchi land), recorded in the journal of military operations of the winter of 1857 that he sent General Mishchenko down the Khizy-Shavdon, "instructing him... to annihilate auls, so as to take away from the Chechens the very thought of the possibility of remaining at the site of their former dwelling"[24]. The execution is recorded there as well: "Major-general Mishchenko burned all the auls and hamlets in the area assigned to him; a multitude of those who had submitted came out to him... up to 400 households, under the cover of part of the troops... sent to Umakhan-yurt"[24]. To the report on this campaign Emperor Alexander II replied with approval "for the completely successful conclusion of the 1st period of the winter campaign"[24]. In November 1857 the same journal summed up the expedition against Salatavia, bordering on Chechnya: "Salatavia has been devastated and burned, so that its inhabitants will now have to settle at the sites of the former Salatavian auls along the Sulak"[24]. Having taken Vedeno, the capital of the Imamate - Shamil's state - the empire destroyed the fortress: "Occupied on 1 April 1859 by the tsarist troops, the Vedeno fortress was completely destroyed within five days"[6].
In June 1860 the troops devastated the aul of Dzhumsoy, abandoned by its inhabitants: according to a July 1860 report from the commander of the troops of the Terek oblast to the Viceroy, it was "devastated to the ground, and part of the crops annihilated"[24]. The outcome of Kundukhov's operation in the winter of 1860-1861 is summed up in his own report, quoted by the historian Z. Kh. Ibragimova: "All the buildings, in the auls as well as in the khutors, have been burned to the ground... the hay not only in the auls but even on the very summits of the mountains has been annihilated by fire, at which the inhabitants themselves marveled, seeing that in inaccessible thickets and on the heights the hay was burning"; General Bazhenov reported on 29 November 1860: "Today I have finished with the Termoy people. All the auls are destroyed. In Ezi you cannot even recognize the place, so thoroughly has it been taken apart"[25]. In all, according to the historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov, "15 villages and a multitude of mountain khutors were left destroyed"[26]; the historian D. A. Khozhayev writes: "about 15 auls implicated in it [the uprising] were destroyed... Benoy was burned once again"[6].
The order of Colonel Lokhvitsky of 17 July 1877 for the Cheberloy uchastok (administrative section) prescribed: "to raze to the ground the villages of Nizheloy, Rigakhoy and Nuy-Khoy"[27]; historian A. I. Ismailova sums up: "The auls and crops of the Cheberloy uchastok were destroyed wholesale; the same fate befell many auls of the Shatoy and Evdokimovsky uchastoks. The inhabitants hid in the forests"[27]. In October 1877, on the way back from the Simsir hamlets, historian D. A. Khozhaev records: "the Russians burned and destroyed Zandak and, for the second time, the village of Benoy - everything, down to the last house, including the mosques, they leveled to the ground"[6].
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"[26]; Chechen hamlets "were repeatedly demolished, including under the pretext of 'punishment' for sheltering abreks"[26].
In its March offensive along the railway the Volunteer Army destroyed villages to the ground: "for several days stubborn battles went on, in the course of which the villages of Berdykel and Ustar-Gordoy ended up completely destroyed, and a number of other villages were captured"[26]. The year's count is kept by the Soviet survey cited by historian E. F. Zhupikova: 21 destroyed auls (27 in another publication of the same source) with 15 thousand dead[28]. The Chechen historian A. G. Avtorkhanov, who wrote of these events in emigration, gives both the motive and a list by name: the highlanders' desire "to arrange their state life at their own discretion" Denikin construed as "national Bolshevism", "hence the policy of burning auls and the extermination of the unsubmissive highlanders", and "to break the resistance of the Chechens and the Ingush, Denikin burned to the ground dozens of the largest centers of Chechnya-Ingushetia - Ekazhevo, Dolakovo, Alkhan-Yurt, Chechen-Aul, Ustar-Gardoy, Gudermes, Gerzel-Aul, Stary-Yurt and others" (Ekazhevo and Dolakovo are Ingush villages)[29].
Disarming Chechnya, the troops of the USSR destroyed the villages that had not met the ultimatum, up to complete demolition: the aul of Khakmedy - more than 300 households - was destroyed entirely, in the aul of Dai 20 houses were destroyed, Urus-Martan stood for three days under artillery fire and air strikes. A surviving companion of imam Nazhmuddin Gotsinsky - the spiritual head of the resistance in Dagestan and Chechnya, whom the troops pursued into the mountains - related in 1936 in the Warsaw journal Severny Kavkaz: "Then the fire was transferred to the nearest auls, of which the aul of Khakmedy (more than 300 households) was completely destroyed"[30]. The aul of Dai, the center of resistance of the fifth combat sector, historian A. Yu. Lashkov describes from the documents of the military archive: "From the shelling and bombings the aul of Dai suffered substantially: 20 houses turned out destroyed, there were a small number of human casualties"[31]. Historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write: "...the aul of Urus-Martan was subjected to artillery shelling and air strikes for three days, the aul of Dai was bombed three times, for two days artillery shelled the auls of the Zumsoy society"[26].
The 1941 scorched-earth tactic under the directive of the USSR Sovnarkom and the Central Committee of 29 June 1941: "In the forced withdrawal of Red Army units, drive off the rolling railway stock, leave the enemy not a single locomotive, not a single railcar"[32]; the Dnipro hydroelectric station was "destroyed at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War… (see the Directive of the USSR Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the VKP(b) of June 29, 1941)"[33].
During the deportation - Operation "Chechevitsa" - the troops of the Soviet NKVD (predecessors of today's Rosgvardia) burned the mountain auls of the Chechens as soon as they had driven the residents under convoy to the trains bound for Kazakhstan and Kirghizia (today's Kyrgyzstan) and had driven off their livestock. The Chechen historian A. G. Avtorkhanov cites the testimony of a Russian student of the Grozny Petroleum Institute who was sent to one of the auls on the day of the deportation: "In the mountain auls this action was carried out differently. All the livestock was evacuated from there, and then the auls were burned, to deprive the 'bandits' of a base for existence. For days on end one could watch auls burning in the mountains"[29].