Russian-Circassian War

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Russian-Circassian War
Part of The Caucasian Wars
Date 1763 - June 2 (May 21, O.S.) 1864 Location Circassia Result Russian victory, occupation of Circassia, mass deportation Casus belli Russia's invasion of the Circassian region to gain Black Sea coastline
Combatants
Russian Empire	Circassia, Ottoman Empire
Commanders
Alexander I, Nicholas I, Alexander II, Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov, Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, Aleksandr Baryatinskiy	Ghazi Mollah, Gamzat-bek, Hadji Murad, Imam Shamil
Casualties
1,500,000	300,000 - 4,000,000[1]

The Russian-Circassian War is the name given to the period of hostilities between the Russian Empire and the inhabitants of Circassia during the Russian invasion and occupation of the Circassian region. Circassia, (also known as Cherkessia in Russian) was a region in Caucasia which comprised of the coastline and most of the interior of the current territory of Krasnodar Krai. The historical region was named after the traditional inhabitants, the Circassians, Adyghe or Adiga, along with a number of smaller ethnic groups and tribes. The Russian-Circassian conflict took place from the initial arrival of Russian forces in 1763 to the signing of several Russian loyalty oaths by, among others, Circassian leaders on June 2, 1864, (May 21, O.S.), an event which ended the larger Caucasian War of which the Russian-Circassian conflict had become a part.

These loyalty oaths illustrated what had become a total occupation of the region by Russian forces, the result of over 100 years of conflict, which also involved the forced expulsion of millions of indigenous Circassians to areas of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Kosovo, with some historians citing that up to 4,000,000 civilians perished as a result of the exodus.

Contents 1 Previous hostilities 2 The opportunity for Russia 3 Events of the war 3.1 Occupation of Eastern Circassia 3.2 Forays into western Circassia 3.3 Invasion of western Circassia 3.4 The beginning of the end 4 Consequences of the conflict 5 Notes 6 References 6.1 Printed matter: 6.2 Websites:

[edit] Previous hostilities

The date of the outbreak of the Russian-Circassian conflict is difficult to define, as hostilities had begun between Russia and the Circassians 778 years prior to 1763 when in 985 Russian forces under Prince Sviatoslav invaded the region.^[2] The date of the outbreak of the conflict is thus debated by a number of historians.

Despite the long lasting hostilities, historians such as A. A. Gaspari in 1904 have argued that the conflict began in 1817 with the arrival of Russian General Yermolov,^[2] who took command of the Russian forces occupying the whole region of the Caucus. This start date is the same as that of the larger Caucusian War. A greater number of historians, however, agree that the conflict with Circassia alone began in 1763 with the arrival of Russian occupation forces in the Circassian region itself.^[2]

Following the invasion under Prince Sviatoslav, hostilities again broke out in 1022, when Prince Mstislav of the Princedom of Tamatarkha invaded Circassian Kasogia. In 1561, Ivan the Terrible, through marriage, brought eastern Circassia territory under his control and constructed a series of Cossack forts, at Tumen, Sunja, and Andreevo, which were completed by 1579. Although Ivan also annexed several other territories, including Siberia, his successor Tsar Feodor I of Russia gave himself the title “The ruler of the Iberian land, Georgian Tsars, Kabarda, Circassians, and mountaineer princes.”^[2] illustrating Russian control over the entire Circassian region. May 13, 1711 saw another Russian invasion of Circassia under the command of Araksin, Governor of Astrakhan, who was in turn under the orders of Tsar Peter Alexeyevich Romanov, or “Peter the Great”. 30,000 Russian soldiers captured towns and pillaged villages for 86 km along the Kuban River in Circassia. ^[3] Circassian cavalry, 7,000 strong, were defeated by the invasion forces on September 6. This style of conflict continued from 1716 to 1763, with 43, 247 Circassians, 39,200 horses, 190,000 cattle, and 227,000 sheep ^[2] being killed or driven away.

[edit] The opportunity for Russia

The Circassian region was a key strategic location amidst the power struggle between the emerging Russian Empire, established England and France, and the failing Ottoman Empire during the mid 18th Century. Russia had set her sights on expansion along the Black Sea, while England and France sought to reduce Russia’s ability to take advantage of the declining Ottoman Empire, a foreign policy known as the answer to the Eastern Question.

Peter the Great’s plans for expansion into India and the Black Sea included engaging both the Turks and Persia, the latter in particular in order to open trade routes to Syria. To facilitate the fall of Persia, Russia would require shipyards on the Black Sea, which made Circassia, with its coastline, a target. Having taken that coastline, as well as Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, Russia hoped to cripple the Ottoman empire as well as the trading interests of Great Britain.

Tsar Alexander II was told by his advisors that:

“

The East must belong to us by right. We should not relax our activities in that direction for one moment. Constantinople has no knowledge of our real intentions. Having taken possession of it, we shall acquire the most important point of the world, and these gates to Asia should forever remain in our hands. Britain is the mistress of the seas since time immemorial. Leaning on the might we have achieved on land, we must have the same on the sea. We must take over the Black Sea coast, Bosphorus, and Dardanelles. The Black Sea ought to become the place for our manoeuvres... It is imperative to complete the war with the peoples of the Caucasus, which will still demand substantial expenses and a great perseverance[2].

”

[edit] Events of the war

The Russian-Circassian war lasted 101 years, and was divided into three chronological periods based on the military activities of the Russian occupation forces. The Circassia of the time was divided into two geographic and ethnic regions, both occupied by a large number of peaceful tribes and ruled by royal aristocracies. Eastern Circassia, also known as Kabardia, was inhabited by the Kabardians, a semi-nomadic eastern branch of what was once the Adyghe tribal fellowship that was the ethnic root of the majority of the Circassian population as a whole. The first period of the conflict was concerned with the invasion and subjugation of this region, and took place from 1763 onwards.

The latter two periods were those during which the Russian military concerned itself with forays into, and the later invasion and occupation of, western Circassia, known as Minor Kabardia and inhabited by numerous tribes, particularly the Abkhazs themselves. Between the occupation of eastern Circassia and the year of 1822, Russian armies periodically raided western Circassia and forcibly relocated many inhabitants.^[2] It was during this period that General Yermolov arrived in Circassia (1817), an event which for some historians marks the beginning of conflict. During the third period from 1822 onwards, the Russian army invaded and occupied western Circassia and eventually procured the loyalty of the tribes settling there.

[edit] Occupation of Eastern Circassia

In 1763, Russian forces in the Russian-occupied eastern fringes of Circassia began fortifying towns, to which the inhabitants objected. On August 21, 1765, the citizens of Circassia were instructed by Russian General De-Medem, to accept Russian control or face the Russian army.^[2]

With hostilities growing throughout the period, Russia dispatched several military expeditions, starting in 1779 under the command of General Yakobi. Kabardia, near the Balka River, was attacked on September 29, 1779, by Russian forces under the command of General Yakobi, and taken with the loss of the Kabardian defenders as well as 2,000 horses, 5,000 cattle, and 5,000 sheep.^[2] In 1804, the subjugated Kabardians, as well as the remaining Western Circassians and neighbouring Balkars, Karachays, Abazins, Ossetins, Ingushs, and Chechens, united in a military uprising. The rebels demanded the destruction of the Kislovodsk Russian fort and of the Cordon line. This was one of three defensive lines which were built during the whole conflict, which were: the Caucasian Line in 1780, Tthe Chernomorski Cordon Line in 1793, and the Sunja Line in 1817. With the refusal of these demands, and despite threats of bloodshed from Russian commander General Tsitsianov, the rebel forces began threatening the Kislovodsk fort.

Russian forces commanded by General Glazenap were pushed back to Georgievsk and then put under siege there, however the attacking Kabardian forces were eventually pushed back, and 80 Kabardian villages were torched as a reprisal.^[2] In October 1809, rebel forces attacked the Caucasian Line. Between 1809 and 1810, Russian reinforcements began arresting Kabardian princes for resisting colonial rule, which led to some resistance forces abandoning the war, and many of the princes submitting to Russian control. Later in 1810, a Russian army under General Bulgakov destroyed 200 Circassian and Balkar villages and drove away 20,000 cattle.^[2]

In 1811, petitions were sent to St. Petersburg in Russia, appealing for the rights of Kabardian aristocracy in the occupied areas. While many other points were agreed, requests for the return of land occupied by Russian fortresses was deliberated over. Russia encouraged the loyalty of subjugated Kabardian nobles with donations to the Circassian government, and honorary military ranks for the aristocracy in the Russian army. Meanwhile, on the military front, Russian forces in the Circassian region were united under the newly organised Caucasian corps in 1816 under the command of newly arrived General Yermolov. A year later, in May 1818, the village of Tramov was surrounded, burnt, and its inhabitants slaughtered by Russian forces under the command of General Delpotso, who took orders from Yermolov and who then wrote to the rebel forces: ““This time, I am limiting myself on this. In the future, I will have no mercy for the guilty brigands; their villages will be destroyed, properties taken, wives and children will be slaughtered."^[2] The Russians also constructed several more fortifications during that year. During the whole period from 1779 to 1818, 315'000 of the 350'000 Kabardinians (eastern Circassians) had reportedly been killed by the Russian armies.^[2]

[edit] Forays into western Circassia

Minor Kabardia, or western Circassia, was targeted for a new offensive by General Stal, who was given command of the Caucasian Line in 1819. In September 1820, Stal and his forces began to forcibly resettle inhabitants of western Circassia. Throughout the conflict, Russia had employed a tactic of divide and rule, and following this, Yermolov instructed Stal on July 1, 1821 to encourage the Ingushs and Taugur tribes, who had previously been subjugated by the Circassians, to rise up and join the Russian efforts.^[2] Military forces were sent into Kabardia, killing cattle and displacing large numbers of inhabitants into the mountains, with the land these inhabitants had once lived on being acquired for the Cossacks. Throughout that year, Kabardia was subject to further pillaging, with the entirety of Kabardia (eastern Circassia) being declared as property of the Russian government.

Yermolov accelerated his efforts, with the month of March 1822 alone seeing fourteen Kabardian villages being displaced^[2] as Yermolov led expeditions into western Circassia. The construction of new defensive lines in Kabardia led to renewed uprisings, which were eventually crushed and the rebellious lords had their much needed peasant work forces freed by the Russian forces. Circassia was placed under Russian military rule in 1822, with the nobility being forced to carry out the orders of Russian generals and with a Temporary Kabardian Court also being established. In 1827, further petitions were submitted to the Russian government appealing against this.

Yermolov, together with lieutenant-colonel Kotsarev, Colonel Pobednov, and General Stal, launched a renewed offensive into western Circassia in the spring of 1822, where they “spread a great horror” as Yermolov recorded.^[2] In a letter of April 29, 1822 he wrote:

“

The Kabardinians are playing dirty tricks on [us in] inciting... beyond the Kubans [Circassians], who are coming in groups to help them and are attacking the Line. I intend to teach them quite well.[2]

”

[edit] Invasion of western Circassia

While eastern Circassia was being occupied, Russia was also engaged in a war with the Turks in order to free Black Sea coastline from Turkish control, and sporadic wars had also flared up with other neighbours, including the Chechens. In western Circassia, which Russia had previously been merely foraying into, a number of tribes were dominant; the Besleneys, Abadzekhs, Ubykhs, Shapsughs, and Natkhuagias, portrayed by Russian propaganda as savages in a possible attempt to curry favour from the international community.^[2] The first of these were particularly involved in raiding Russian outposts in former eastern Circassia, or Kabardia.

These raids continued for several years, while the Russians continued to fortify their position, which eventually led to them constructing the Labinski Line in 1840, and began to developea new form of scout, known as a plastun. Russian and Circassian forces clashed repeatedly, particularly on the Kuban plains, where cavalry from both sides could manoeuvre freely.^[4]

With the Russo-Turkish War raging, Circassia and Turkey united in resisting the Russians, particularly as the Russian forces began to capture positions in western Circassia, with Turkish commanders fleeing under the protection of Circassian forces, such as on April 29, 1807 when the fortress of Anapa fell to Russian forces and the Turkish Pasha fled along with the Circassians. However, on September 2, 1829, the Russians and the Turks signed the Treaty of Adrianople, and with this the Turkish influence was removed from western Circassia and the Russian occupation went on unhindered.^[2]

However, trade between the two factions could not be prevented, and both the Turkish and the English supplied Circassia with firearms and ammunition with which to fight the Russians. England also supplied several advisors, while Turkey attempted to persuade Circassia to start a Holy War, which would draw support for them from other nations.^[2] In 1836 the Russian navy captured an English merchant ship supplying ammunition to the Circassians, supplies which helped inspire the remaining free Circassians to resist the Russian occupation.

At this time, the current Russian Tsar, Nicholas I, ordered construction to begin on the coastline, by building fortresses at every point on the captured Black Sea coast that was able to accommodate Russian naval vessels. Cape Adler was one of these locations. On June 3, 1837, Russian naval forces under the command Rear-Admiral Esmont, with troops commanded by General Volkhovskiin, began to head towards Cape Adler, arriving on June 6. A Russian commander, Baron Rozen, sent a scout ship to locate a place for landing, but it was driven back by Circassian defenders.^[2]

On June 7, 1837, General Volkhovski landed at Cape Adler and entered a nearby forest, through which Circassian defenders had retreated after being bombarded by the Russian ships. In the dense forest, however, the Circassian defenders quietly approached the Russian positions and attacked. They were driven back, but the pursuing Russian forces ran into more Circassian defenders and the messengers sent back for instructions were found by Circassian parties and killed. The Russians were then engaged in hand-to-hand combat by their enemy, and only with the late arrival of reinforcements managed to push the Circassians back and secure Cape Alder. Later that year, Nicholas I visited the area to see the situation for himself.^[2]

On April 13, 1838, Russian forces engaged the Circassian army in the estuary of River Sochi, and on May 12, 1838 the Russians landed at Tuapse. The majority of engagements during this part of the conflict took place in the form of either amphibious landings on coastal towns in accordance with the directive laid out by the Tsar to secure possible ports, or by routing out Circassian forces entrenched in mountain strongholds. At Taupse, it was not until 5:00 in the afternoon that the Circassians were beaten back from their positions, the landing having begun at 10:00 that morning. On the following day, May 13, when arriving to request permission to remove their dead from the battlefield, the Circassians were lectured on the benefits of staying under Russian control by the Russian commanders, one Colonel Olshevski and Lieutenant Colonel Baron Grach.^[2]

In 1839, Russian forces landed at Subash and began construction of a fort, where they faced charges by Ubykh forces who were eventually driven back by shellfire from the Russian navy. Over 1000^[2] soldiers then charged the Russian positions, however they were outflanked and overrun as they attempted to retreat. This pattern of attack by the Russian forces went on for several years.^[5]

On February 7, 1840, Circassian forces surrounded the Russian fort of Lazarev, stormed it and massacred the defenders. This victory was inspirational to them, and they went on to capture the Veliaminovski fortress and then attack the Mikhailovski fortress with an army of 11'000 men. At this bastion, Russian Staff Captain Liko, Lieutenant Kraumzgold and Ensign Gaevski commanded a handful of companies as a defence force. Liko, upon learning of the fall of the other two fortresses, and knowing the size of the attack force he faced, divided his fortress in half and set about defending the one half that he suspected would be attacked. Staff Captain Liko was badly wounded and other officers were killed at dawn when the attack came, and command fell to an officer cadet named Miroslavski. With the Mikhailovski fortress ablaze and under the control of the Circassians, a Russian soldier ran with a blazing torch into the ammunition cellar, destroying the fort, the surviving defenders, and a significant portion of the Circassian army. The wounded Staff Captain Liko, another second lieutenant, an Russian Orthodox Chaplain, and 80 other soldiers were taken prisoner.^[2] The remaining Circassian forces moved on to attack the fort of Golovinski, but were beaten back by the Russian defenders there.^[2]

[edit] The beginning of the end

Later that year, the Russian Tsesarevich visited his forces. The fall of Gunib and capture of Imam Shamil, a rebel religious leader, by Dmitry Milyutin in 1859, marked the final conquest of the eastern Circassia lands. Between 1856 and 1859, two defensive lines were built to contain the remaining hostile tribes, the Adagumski Line and the Belorechenski Line. In May 1859, elders from the Bjedughs negotiated a peace with the Russia and submitted to the Tsar, with the oath of loyalty to the Tsar being taken at assembly points beyond the Kuban River. Many of the remaining tribes soon followed the example and submitted to the Russians, including the Abadzekhs on November 20, 1859.

The Natkhuagias also swore loyalty to the Tsar after they were defeated in January 1860 in battle against Colonel Babich, where their leader was killed. In 1861, the remaining tribes formed a new government called “The Mejlis of Free Circassia", and while this did not succeed in bringing British aid as has been hoped, it did result in the defection of exiled Poles to the Circassian cause.^[2]

At this time, due to the pacification of Dahgestan and Chechnia in the wider theatres of what was now the much larger Caucasian War, fresh Russian troops were available and were sent into western Circassia, and the remaining Ubykhs were killed or forced to flee into the Ottoman Empire. With the capture of and later loyalty pledge by Iman Shamil, the Caucasian War, which the Russian-Circassian War grew to be a part of, ended on June 2, 1864, (May 21, 1896 (O.S.)), in Akhchipsou, as declared by the Tsar's manifesto. Great Prince Michail, overall commander of Russian forces in the region, recognized this as the “conquest of the Western Caucasus and the end of the Caucasian War.”^[2]

[edit] Consequences of the conflict

Main article: Circassian ethnic cleansing

Towards the end of the conflict, Russian General Yevdokimov was tasked with forcing the remaining Circassian inhabitants to relocate outside of the region, primarily in the Ottoman Empire. This policy was enforced by mobile columns of Russian riflemen and Cossack cavalry, and Ottoman Empire figured show nearly 1.75 million migrants entering their land by 1879. Other sources show that as many as 3 million Circassians were forced to flee in total.^[6]

This forced migration, along with the actions of the Russian military in burning villages and the killing of Circassian civilians,^[7] has brought about questions of genocide regarding the Russian-Circassian War. Karl Friedrich Neumann, professor at Munich University in 1839, estimated the Circassian casualties to be around 1.5 million,^[8] with other sources stating that hundreds of thousands of others died during the exodus.^[9]

A Russian Historian, Sulujiyen, stated that “We wouldn’t abandon our cause just because Mountaineers are not surrendering. Half of them needed to be crashed in order to take their weapons. Many tribes were totally annihilated during the bloody war.” while another historian, Zaharyan, observed: “Circassians do not like us. We exiled them from their free meadowlands. We destroyed their houses and many tribes were totally destructed.”^[10] Other Russian sources stated that "Half of those who left to go to Ottoman Empire died before they reached there."^[11] Circassian casualty figures lie near the 4 million mark, while official Russian figures are near 300'000. If Neumann's estimations were correct, it would make it the largest civilian death toll of the 19th century,^[12] and indeed, the Russian census of 1897 records only 150,000 Circassians, one tenth of the original number, still remainging in the now conquered region.^[13]

Aside from the the strongly debated question of genocide, the war also had extensive consequences in the form of mass migration, both forced and voluntary. Some sources state that 3'000'000 Circassians were evicted from Circassia up until 1911.^[14] Other sources cite upwards of 2'000'000 Circassian refugees fleeing Circassia by 1914 and entering nations and regions such as the Balkans, Turkey, what was the Ottoman Empire until its collapse in 1922, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kosovo (until they were repatriated in 1998, after receiving threats from the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army), Egypt (Circassians were part of the Mamluk armies), Israel (in the villages of Kfar Kama and Rikhaniya, since 1880) and as far a field as upstate New York and New Jersey. In 1911, 216'950 Circassians were found in Armenia during a census.^[15] An exile map here depicts the routes taken by Circassian refugees and the recipient countries.

According to historians who support the concept of a Circassian genocide, 90 percent of people with Circassian decent now live in other countries, primarily in Turkey, Jordan and other countries of the Middle East, with only 300'000-400'000 remaining in what is now Russia.^[16] The depleted Circassian lands were resettled by numerous ethnic groups, including Russians, Ukrainians and Georgians.^[17] Friction developed between the latter group and the remaining Circassians (the Abkhaz tribes), a factor later contributing to the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict^[18] (also see the War in Abkhazia).

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

[edit] Printed matter:

• The Annual Register, 1836, United Kingdom
• The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition (Cambridge 1911)
• The Place of the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Circassian War (1830-1864), 2004
• Bradley, John F The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus, London, 1908
• Butkov, P.G. Materials for New History of the Caucasus 1722-1803, 1869
• Karpat, Kemal H. Ottoman population 1830-1914, 1985
• Khodarkovsky, Michael Of Christianity, Enlightenment and Colonialism: Russia in the North Caucasus, 1550-1800, 1999, ASIN B0006QX92O
• Neumann, Karl Friedrich Russland und die Tscherkessen, 1840
• Shenfield, Stephen D. The Circassians: A Forgotten Genocide?, 1999

[edit] Websites:

• A collection of cited reports on the conflict, from this page retrieved on March 11, 2007
• A history of Circassia, from this page retrieved on March 11, 2007
• Abzakh, Edris Circassian History, School of Arts and Sciences, 1996 retrieved on March 11, 2007
• Hatk, Isam Journal "Al-Waha"-"Oasis", Amman, 1992 found here, retrieved on March 19, 2007
• Henze, Paul B. The North Caucasus Barrier: The Russian Advance Towards The Muslim World, London, Husrt and Co., 1992, ISBN 1-850-65069-1 part of which can be found here, retrieved on March 11, 2007
• Leitzinger, Antero The Circassian Genocide in The Eurasian Politician -Issue 2 (October 2000) retrieved from this page on March 11, 2007
• Natho, Kadir Russian-Circassian War, 2005 retrieved from this page on March 11, 2007