Aggressors force the leaders of colonized societies to formally codify their subordinate status in law. This process takes place under economic or military pressure, and the terms of the pre-drafted treaties are not open to negotiation[1]. To ensure legitimacy in the eyes of the local population, the colonizer often demands that an oath of allegiance be sworn according to the religious customs of the subjugated peoples themselves[2]. A historical example of this practice is the shert — an oath of allegiance whose legal codification was often accompanied by the surrender of hostages from among relatives or the local nobility[3][1]. In some cases, citizenship of the metropole is a necessary condition for freedom of movement, for the ability to go to court, or for not being expelled on the grounds of illegal presence in territory annexed by the colonizer[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)»[5].
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»[5], with a direct injunction that they «not fall away from the sovereign and remain under the sovereign's hand in outright bondage (kholopstvo)»[5].
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»[5], 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»[5].
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»[5]; however, the attempt proved unsuccessful, and he «did not br[in]g the inhabitants of the Shibut land to the oath»[5].
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»[6].
The diplomatic apparatus of the Tsardom of Muscovy expanded the legal subordination of Nokhchi territories: the historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov records that in 1696 the metropole formalized «the expression of Russia's protection over the Braguny principality in Chechnya»[7].
The diplomatic apparatus of the Russian Empire expanded the legal subjugation of the Nokhchi territories under threat of military annihilation: historian Ya. Z. Akhmadov states that having suffered defeat in 1722, the local princes took an oath of allegiance, "'including in it for the first time also their Chechens'"[7].
The return of the Zaporozhian Sich under the empire's authority on the crown's terms: "For tactical reasons, in the course of preparations for the next Turkish war, Anna amnestied the Zaporozhians and allowed them to return to the old Sich grounds (1734) and found the New Sich"[8] – the amnesty formalized the Cossacks' passage under Russian authority with an obligation of military service.
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»[7], while to those absent «officers were sent «to administer the oath»»[7]; 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»[7], 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»[7].
The Russian Empire compelled the Nokhchi communities by force of arms to swear an oath of subjecthood. After the devastation of the villages, the commander of the Caucasus Line, General Bulgakov, presented the Chechen people with a resolution by which the elders declared: "we submit ourselves with the whole Chechen people… into eternal loyal subjecthood… in witness whereof we give an oath according to our custom on the Holy Quran," and for any violation the people subjected itself "to the strictest punishment and to the devastation of our dwellings without resistance"; the commander-in-chief in the Caucasus, General Gudovich, reported that the Chechens had been "completely subdued by force of arms and brought to an oath of eternal fidelity of subjecthood"[9].
The Regular Army of the Russian Empire, having moved troops onto the Sunzha and occupied Chechen land, demanded that the elders of Chechen villages renew their oath of submission under threat of reprisal as against "open enemies." Imperial general Yermolov testifies in his "Notes" that in May 1818 "the elders of almost all the principal Chechen villages were summoned to me," to the military camp, and he demanded "that henceforth such [depredations] no longer be committed, and in confirmation they must renew their old oath of submission and return the captives held by them"[10]. The demand went unfulfilled: the elders "promised nothing"[10].
On March 6, 1829, in Tarki, Beibulat Taimiev and 120 elders of Chechnya were forced to take an oath of allegiance through the Shamkhal of Tarki. The historian D. A. Khozhaev recorded the coerced nature of this step: the elders "tried to avoid subordination to the tsarist superintendents, to avert from Chechnya the threat of constant raids"[11]. The Chechens themselves, in a petition to Paskevich in April 1829, documented the backdrop against which the submission was being signed: the imperial command "arrested, took captive, hanged and exiled to Siberia and to other places many of those who, being obedient, served the great Sovereign"[12]. Emanuel, commander of the troops on the Caucasian Line, in a report to Paskevich of May 15, 1829, made the recognition of submission conditional: it "will be recognized as well-intentioned only when they unconditionally take the oath and hand over amanats"[12]. Holding Beibulat in Tiflis, Paskevich sealed the subjecthood with the "Regulation on the Submission of the Chechens to Russia" and the statute of August 2, 1829[11][12].
On 27 August 1836, Colonel Pullo accepted at the Groznaya fortress the forced "submission" of the aul of Zandak on the Yaman-su river, devastated by his detachment on 23 August 1836 (campaign C1156). The subordination was engineered by the devastation itself: in a report to General Petrov dated 27 August 1836, Pullo admitted: "Being certain that the inhabitants of Zandak, following the common custom of the Chechens, would ask for submission after punishment, and considering such submission useful for the government, I did not order the village burned"[13]. The same report recorded the state in which the village went to its subordination: the devastation "brought both the inhabitants of the village and all those living in its vicinity into fear and despondency"[13]. The elders sent "a plea to be accepted into submission to the Russian government", and subjecthood was formalized on terms dictated by the empire: loyalty, a complete break with Tashu-Hadji, the leader of the Chechen resistance, a ban on assemblies, the handover of Russian captives in exchange for the inhabitants of Zandak seized during the devastation, and the established tribute[13]. Rozen recorded the fact and the date of the formalization in a dispatch to the Minister of War: "On 27 August the Zandak elders appeared before the commander of the Sunzha Line declaring their submission, which was accepted from them in the established order"[14].
The amanat-and-tribute system of Pullo, commander of the left flank of the Caucasus Line (a chain of imperial fortifications on the land of the Nokhchi), formalized the subordination of Chechen communities as "submission" with obligations to the empire. The 1840 register of the highland peoples, published in the documentary collection «Движение горцев северо-восточного Кавказа в 20-50 гг. XIX века», records the outcome for the Ako community (the Akintsy - a Chechen community in the upper reaches of the Gekhi river): "Declared submission in 1839, handed over amanats and pledged to pay a tribute of one silver ruble per house" (amanats - hostages whom the empire took away from the auls to control them)[13]. The formalization proceeded under the system of fear that Pullo described in a memorandum of 1840: "by threatening all the unsubmissive communities with the annihilation of their property, I instilled in them such fear... that one after another they began to submit"[13].
On 26 January 1837, on the fourth day of the annihilation of Lesser Chechnya by Feze's expedition - two days after the taking of neighboring Shalazh-yurt with 14 killed - the troops, entering the aul of Achkhoy, took from it an oath "of submission" and 6 amanats (amanat - a person whom the empire took from a community as a guarantee of subordination)[14]. The frame is spelled out by the expedition journal itself, presented by Rozen to Minister of War Chernyshev on 11 February 1837: "the troops are proceeding to them not to punish them, but properly to confirm them in submission"[14] - subordination secured under military pressure and framed by the empire as a voluntary act of those who had submitted.
In February-March 1837, Feze's troops, annihilating the auls of those who evaded, took oaths to the empire from the Chechen communities one after another - Rozen's reports to Minister of War Chernyshev count them by date: on 6 February Shali ("brought an oath of submission to our government and presented amanats as its pledge"), on 8 February Germenchuk ("the oath of subjecthood was renewed"), on 15 February Geldigen ("brought an oath of allegiance and handed over amanats chosen from the best families"), on 21 February six auls of the Michik, on 25 February the auls along the Yaman-su from Balan-su to Biletli and on the Aksai[14]. By 24 February, according to the report of 11 March, Feze "brought to submission the Chechens dwelling along the Michik river"; at the end of March, at the camp at Ustar-khan, the troops took an oath from the elders of the Goyta forest and the Martan gorge - they "brought an oath of allegiance to the Sovereign Emperor and presented amanats as security for their submission"[14]. An oath taken under the guns of troops that had just annihilated the neighboring auls fixed subordination as a legal fact (amanat - a person whom the empire took from a community as a guarantee of subordination).
The empire registered the subordination of the Chechen communities as "submission" (the imperial formula of subjecthood). After the invasion of Ichkeria (mountainous south-eastern Chechnya) in May 1839 by general Grabbe, commander of the troops of the Caucasus Line (the chain of imperial fortifications on the land of the Nokhchi), the imperial survey of 1840 recorded: "The Ichkerians, in consequence of gen. Grabbe's expedition against them in 1839, declared their submission, but such is hardly consolidated" - the doubt about the firmness of the "submission" belongs to the imperial document itself[13]. After the suppression of the uprising Grabbe on 14 June 1840 issued a proclamation to the insurgents: "Come to your senses and save yourselves now by sincere repentance and immediate submission. Otherwise our troops will pass everywhere...", and on 15 June - the twelve points of the "Conditions prescribed to submitting highlanders", whose second point is the oath: "To take an oath of submission to the Russian emperor, and to present the oath sheets through the elders to the Russian authorities" (elders - the heads of aul communities)[13].
On 7 December 1857, according to the journal of General Yevdokimov, who commanded the Chechen Detachment, "deputies appeared from the entire population of the Khulkhulau valley with an offer to bring submission and to resettle within our bounds" - the entry is cited by historian N. I. Pokrovsky[15]. "In April 1858 the Goyta people surrender, followed by the Gekhi people. By mid-April the Russian command can definitively declare the conquest of Lesser Chechnya completed"[15]. "In August 1858 the Shatoy people laid down their arms"[11] - the same journal of Yevdokimov dates this to 7 August and explains the cause: "As soon as the Shatoy people saw that the Tavlintsy were abandoning them and that we intended to entrench ourselves firmly in the territory we had occupied, they at once sent deputies to me with an offer of submission and a request for permission to settle at the sites of their former auls"[16]; "on 5 April the Cheberloy people expelled the naib and submitted", while "on 12 April the Aukh Chechens acknowledged their powerlessness before the Russian army"[11]. Capitulation was also formalized by paper bearing promises: in January 1859, during the advance on Vedeno, a proclamation by commander-in-chief Baryatinsky to the Chechen people was circulated - the full text is given by historian D. A. Khozhayev: "the Russian government grants you complete freedom to practice forever the faith of your fathers", "you will never be called up as soldiers and will not be turned into Cossacks", "you are granted an exemption for three years... upon expiry of this term you will have to contribute three rubles per household for the upkeep of your popular administrations", "the governors set over you will rule according to sharia and adat" (sharia - Islamic law; adat - customary law of the highlanders)[11].
On 19 February 1919 General Lyakhov, at a congress of Chechnya's representatives in Aldy, announced the demands of the Volunteer Army, including mobilization: "These demands were put forward in the form of an ultimatum and were not subject to discussion," write historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov, and the congress left the ultimatum without an answer[17]. In April 1919 the command put forward a new ultimatum: "the complete submission of the Chechens to the appointed ruler of Chechnya, the handing over of all Red Army men, Bolsheviks and abreks, as well as of all the valuables carried off into Chechnya by the Red Army... the return of the pilfered materials from the railway and the organization of deliveries of provisions and fodder for the army"; for failure to fulfill a separate demand - to immediately return a group of Cossacks captured in the vicinity of the village - the army took Tsatsan-Yurt by storm[17].