| The Caucasian War | ||||||||||
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Franz Roubaud's A Scene from the Caucasian War |
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| Belligerents | ||||||||||
| Russian Empire, Principality of Mingrelia, Principality of Svaneti, Principality of Guria |
Caucasian Imamate (1829 - 1859) | Circassia, Abkhazian insurgents, Big Kabarda (to 1825), Khanate of Kazi-Kumukh, Dagestan free people Avar Khanate |
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| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||||
| Tsar Nicholas I, Tsar Alexander I, Tsar Alexander II, Aleksey Yermolov, Mikhail Vorontsov, Aleksandr Baryatinskiy, Nikolai Evdokimov |
Imam Shamil, Ghazi Mullah † |
Kazbich Tugozhuko, Akhmat Aublaa, Ismail Ajapua, Shabat Marshan, Haji Kerantukh Berzek |
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| Strength | ||||||||||
| about 250,000 | roughly 7,000 | unknown, probably around 500-1000 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||||
| roughly 4,000 | about 5,000 | unknown | ||||||||
The Caucasian War of 1817–1864, also known as the Russian conquest of the Caucasus[1] was an invasion of the Caucasus by the Russian Empire which ended with the annexation of the areas of the North Caucasus to Russia and the Ethnic cleansing of Circassians. It consisted of a series of military actions waged by Russia against territories and tribal groups in Caucasia including Chechnya, Dagestan, Karachay and the Circassians (Adyghe, Abkhaz and Ubykh) as Russia sought to expand southward.[2]
The Russian-Circassian War, a conflict between Russia and Circassia, was part of the Caucasian War.
Other territories of the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan) were incorporated into the Russian empire at various times in the 19th century as a result of Russian wars with the Ottoman Empire and Persia.
Three Russian Tsars sparked the 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, who gained much of his knowledge and experience of war for his book War and Peace from these encounters, took part in the hostilities. The Russian poet Alexander Pushkin referred to it in his Byronic poem The Prisoner of the 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. It achieved surprisingly little success, especially as compared with the then recent Russian victory over the "Great Army" of Napoleon.
During 1825–1833 there was little activity, since Russia was engaged in its wars with Turkey and Persia. After considerable successes in both wars, Russia resumed fighting in the Caucasus. They were again met with resistance, notably led by Ghazi Mollah, Gamzat-bek and Hadji Murad. Imam Shamil followed them. He led the mountaineers from 1834 until his capture by Dmitry Milyutin in 1859. In 1843, Shamil launched a sweeping offensive aimed at the Russian outposts in Avaria. On the 28th of August, 10,000 men converged from three different directions on a Russian column in Untsoikul, killing 486 men. In the next four weeks, Shamil captured every Russian outpost in Avaria except one, exacting over 2,000 casualties on the Russian defenders. He feigned an invasion north to capture a key chokepoint at the convergence of the Avar and Kazi-Kumuh rivers.[3] In 1845, Shamil's forces achieved their most dramatic success when they withstood 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 war in the Eastern part of the North Caucasus ended in 1859 when Shamil was caught by the Russians to surrender and swear allegiance to the Tsar and move to live in Central Russia. The war in the Western part of the North Caucasus resumed however with the Circassians (Adyghe, Abkhazian, and Ubykh) resuming the fight. The end was declared on June 2, 1864 (May 21 O.S.), 1864, by manifesto of the Tsar. Among the post-war events, a tragic page in the history of the indigenous peoples of the Caucasus especially the Circassians was Muhajirism, or population transfer of the Muslim population into the Ottoman Empire.[4]