Caucasian War
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Russian Invasion of the Caucasus, better known in Russia as the Caucasian War of 1817-1864, was a series of military actions of Imperial Russia against Chechnya, Dagestan and Northwestern Caucasus aimed at conquering these territories. Modern conflicts in this area of the Caucasus are rooted in this 19th-century war.
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[edit] History
Three Russian Tsars waged this war: Alexander I, Nicholas I, and Alexander II. The leading Russian commanders were Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov in 1816-1827, Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov in 1844-1853, and Aleksandr Baryatinskiy in 1853-1856. The writers Mikhail Lermontov and Leo Tolstoy took part in the hostilities, and the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin referred to it in his Byronic poem The Prisoner of Caucasus (1821).
The Russian invasion was met with fierce resistance. The first period, coincidentally ended with the death of Alexander I and Decembrist Revolt in 1825, achieved surprisingly little success against "a handful of savages", as compared with the then recent defeat of Napoleon.
During 1825-1830 there was little activity, since Russia was engaged in wars with Turkey and Persia. After considerable successes in both wars, Russia resumed the activity in the Caucasus, again met with resistance, notably led by Ghazi Mollah, Gamzat-bek and Hadji Murad. They were followed by Imam Shamil, who led the montaigneers from 1834 until his capture by Dmitry Milyutin in 1859. In 1845 Shamil's forces achieved their most dramatic success when they defeated a major Russian offensive led by Prince Vorontsov.
During the Crimean War, the Russians brokered a truce with Shamil, but hostilities resumed in 1855. Warfare in the Caucasus finally ended between 1856-1859, when a 250,000 strong army under General Baryatinsky broke down the mountaineers' resistance.
The Caucasian War ended with Russia conquering the North Caucasus, Shamil swearing allegiance to the Tsar and moving to live in Central Russia. The end was declared on June 2 (May 21 ((O.S.)), 1864, by Tsar's manifesto. Among the events after the end of the war, a tragic page in the history of indigenous peoples of Caucasus was Muhajirism, or population transfer of Muslim population into the Ottoman Empire.
[edit] Trivia
- The war scenes and appearance of Caucasian fighters are preserved in numerous realistic drawings and paintings of Theodor Horschelt.
[edit] See also
- Russian-Circassian War a conflict that formed part of the Caucasian War, between Russian and Circassia.
[edit] Further reading
- N. Dubrovin. Russian: Дубровин Н.Ф. История войны и владычества русских на Кавказе volumes 4-6. SPb, 1886-88
- The Russian conquest of the Caucasus / John F. Baddeley (1908).
