September 7 (August 25, old style) will be the next anniversary of an event that, unlike more outstanding events, every Dagestani knows, or seems to know, about. We are talking about the anniversary of the imam's captivity Shamilya on Gunib.
Needless to say, this is a topic that is incredibly overgrown with all sorts of myths and some people are even quite tired of. Some love Shamil only for his “surrender,” while others hate him for this. Some remember the heroic end of the imam, who was thoroughly forgotten among us. Ghazi-Muhammad, sarcastically reproaching: “How could Shamil, after thirty years of war (1829-1859), surrender, betraying the idea of the imamate?” Others blush in confusion at the thought of Gunib, not knowing how to justify the “act of the imam.” But it is surprising that the “fact” of surrender itself is not disputed by anyone. And this is at a time when the very foundations of Russian, and indeed world history, are being actively revised, or even directly deformed, by such movements as the New Chronology and the New Geography.
The reason for the increased sensitivity of the revision of these events, of course, is the excessive politicization of the personality of Imam Shamil. Unfortunately, we inherited it from the Soviet era: when it was “good” (1917-1934); “deteriorated” (1934-1941); to raise patriotism during the war, “improved” (1941-1947); became “very bad” (1950-1956); and again began to slowly “improve” (since 1956), although those who spoke favorably of Shamil did not manage to win until the collapse of the USSR.
As for today, despite the abundance of various literature about Shamil, and the growing interest of young people in their history, the most important milestones, including the capture of Shamil, in the scientific sense, are passed over, giving way to all sorts of illiterate speculation. For example, in the two-volume academic publication “History of Dagestan from Ancient Times to the Present Day,” which was published several years ago, there are simply no events from 1851 to 1860. Thus, if we are transported to the “world of science” we will be forced to recite: “Gunib stands in ominous silence. And it is tightly cordoned off with three rings.”
Perhaps, few people in Dagestan, especially among young people, have not heard these words about Gunib, from the song of the same name by the famous Chechen bard Timur Mutsuraev, preaching the idea of holy war in his songs. The theme of Imam Shamil’s surrender on Gunib is heard in a number of his songs (“Gunib”, “Baysongur”, “O Rus', forget your past glory”, etc.), which reach us from the windows of passing cars, residential buildings, record stores, etc. .d., playing a significant role in shaping the historical ideas of the youth of Dagestan. Therefore, we will try, using reliable evidence from participants in those events and facts that are beyond doubt, to restore the picture of what happened. And although we omitted a detailed account of the difficult negotiations that preceded the assault on Gunib, it can be argued that Shamil was going to fight to the end, and certainly did not give up “before his time.”
As for the often heard reproaches that draw parallels with the heroic death of the first Imam Ghazi-Muhammad, they are completely frivolous, because to demand from a middle-aged man of sixty-three years old, who spent half his life in permanent hostilities, to repeat his own trick, which he performed at the age of 35 and with what Ghazi-Muhammad accomplished at the age of 37 with less success is too much. And the disposition of forces, this time, was much less successful for Shamil: if then in 1832, surrounded in a high tower, they jumped out on the head of the advancing Russian troops, now the imam was in an improvised half-dugout mosque, and the Russian troops stood in close formation around her “at pistol shot distance.”
In this regard, the idea of breaking through the wall of besiegers, thirty Chechen murids led by a one-armed and one-eyed Baysongur Benoevsky, sung by T. Mutsuraev, looks even less convincing. And not only because of the multinational contingent of the defenders of Gunib at the time of capture, only 40 people remained alive together with Shamil, but because, except perhaps Baysongur himself, who, however, was not found, according to written sources, there were no Chechens on Gunib at all . So Muhammad Tahir al-Qarahi in one of the paragraphs, the last (84) chapter of his work, entitled “A Chechen of the same faith,” he reports: “Of all the Chechens, only one did not leave the imam and accompanied him to Nagorno-Dagestan.” It was probably the indomitable Benoevsky naib Baysongur, but, unfortunately, al-Karahi does not name him, and we will not be able to find out whether this Chechen was on Gunib or not.
Finally, there was simply nowhere to break through from Gunib, since Chechnya was actually conquered back in 1858 (the last stronghold of the imam in Ichkeria, Vedeno, fell in April 1859), and there was no need, since after the capture of Imam Shamil no one caught them anymore, and the remaining murids calmly, fully armed and with flying banners descended and dispersed from Gunib Mountain, as can be clearly seen in the picture of an eyewitness to the events Theodor Gorschelt"The Descent of the Murids from Gunib." Only the Russians who went over to Shamil’s side were persecuted: there were 30 of them on Gunib - many converted to Islam and died in battle, only 8 of them were captured and beheaded as “traitors” to Orthodoxy, autocracy and their nationality. There is only one episode, unrelated to Baysongur, that we discovered in Hadji-Ali Chokhsky in his “An Eyewitness Account of Shamil and His Contemporaries,” could serve as material for the above song: “Shamil left the village, accompanied by foot murids. Seeing him, all the troops that were around the village shouted: “Hurray!” Shamil turned to the village, thinking that he would be deceived. But one, from among the murids, Muhammad Khudaynat-ogly Gotsatlinsky, said to Shamil: “If you run, you will not be saved; better let me kill now Lazarev, and let’s start the last gazavat.” At this time, Colonel Lazarev stood separately in front of the Russians, who, noticing us, said: “Where are you going back?!” Don’t be afraid!”... After that I never saw Shamil or the commander-in-chief. Thus, I was a mediator in the conclusion of peace... Our entire estate was plundered by the police, so that not even a needle was left... I have never seen a greater misfortune than on the day the peace was concluded...”
And all the same, the restless reader will say, if not saved, Shamil could at least die heroically, rushing at the enemy. With what? - we will ask in response. As the naib tells us Inkachilav Dibir: “In the surrounded mosque I found up to 40 men and up to 20 armed women. This was the entire (remaining after the battle) fighting element of the village. Shamil stood between them with the tails of his Circassian coat tucked into his belt.” The imam, turning to his companions, even asks and gives permission to kill himself with a dagger. In this regard, it is appropriate to recall the words Khaidarbek Genichutlinsky: “At this time, the ruler of the infidels gave an order to the wicked leaders subordinate to him so that they would continuously and relentlessly act against the leader of the faithful, Shamil: until they either captured him themselves or died by his hand, every single one of them. The damned Sardar, having gathered his troops, led them to the front. They were so numerous that the Muslims were clearly unable to resist them.”
Run out with a saber and dagger? For a line of thousands of soldiers dreaming of getting rich, to whom Prince Baryatinsky had already promised 10,000 rubles for the capture of a living imam, known to everyone by his clothes and face? Even if, waving a saber and a dagger, the imam would kill the first and second of the approaching Russian soldiers, the third and fourth would simply grab the old imam by the arms and carry him out of the field, then dividing the promised reward. Finally the question arises: die? But for what? In Gimry or Akhulgo, he understood that the whole struggle was ahead, and now, in August 1859, the situation was radically different from the situation in the summer of 1839 and even more so in the autumn of 1832. Everyone abandoned him, or rather, betrayed him, he remained almost one. Die to the joy of traitors?
Well, if even after this the stubborn reader still has questions, then I would just like to advise him to imagine himself besieged by a large army in a small rural mosque, but not with a machine gun or grenades, as usually happens with us, but with a knife, and each of the besiegers dreams take him alive.
While the “stubborn reader” imagines himself in the role Rambo, I propose to the rest to consider a more important and complicated problem, which for some reason has not yet attracted the attention of scientific researchers. Was it committed? A.I. Baryatinsky, so often mentioned in local chronicles, a deception and, if there was, then for what purpose and consequences for modern times? For example, the historian of the early 20th century Khaidarbek Genichutlinsky writes: “After the ruler of the faithful Shamil was in the hands of the infidels, their damned sardar (commander-in-chief A.I. Baryatinsky) committed a treacherous deception. Having betrayed the agreement, he sent Shamil and his family into exile in Russia.” Such a statement by Shamil’s associate was usually not taken into account by historians, they say, “it is tendentious, dictated by resentment and anger towards the victorious enemy, and has no confirmation in Russian archival documents.”
Everyone knows that after the capture of Gunib A.I. Baryatinsky showed special attention to his captive and his household, realizing that in the memory of his descendants he would remain, first of all, as the man who captivated Shamil, that is, he looked at himself from the future. It is reasonable to assume that this view of what was happening did not arise in the commander-in-chief on the day of the assault, but at least a little earlier.
Back in early August 1859, sick, just after an attack of gout, the governor of the Caucasus, Prince Baryatinsky, mounted a horse in Tiflis and, barely able to stay in the saddle, urgently caught up with the troops operating inside Dagestan. Excited by such a widespread success of operations, believing and not believing in the imminent end of the war and all the time afraid that it would end without him. A.I. climbs over the corpses of soldiers and murids. Baryatinsky on Gunib, and with the words “End quickly!”, as if on a throne, sits on a wide stone at the end of a birch grove. Therefore, in the behavior of A.I. Baryatinsky, both after and before the assault on Gunib, one should not look for random actions. He diligently imitates Caesar, who captured in Alesia, the leader of the Gallic resistance, the national hero of France, Vertsingetoriga, and the artist Theodor Gorschelt must only fix this similarity on canvas.
It is on this basis that today we can assert that the words of Khaidarbek Genichutlinsky are confirmed, and not only by the testimony of the same “natives,” but by the Russian archival document, so coveted by modern historians, coming directly from A.I. himself. Baryatinsky, on the eve of the assault on Gunib Mountain.
“LETTER OF THE GOVERNOR OF THE CAUCASUS AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE CAUCASIAN ARMY GENERAL FROM INFANTRY A.I. BARYATINSKY TO THE RESIDENTS OF DAGESTAN August 24, 1859 All of Chechnya and Dagestan have now submitted to the power of the Russian emperor, and only Shamil personally persists in resisting the great sovereign. ...I demand that Shamil immediately put down his weapon. If he fulfills my demand, then in the name of the august sovereign I solemnly announce to him, with everyone who is now with him in Gunib, complete forgiveness and permission for him and his family to go to Mecca, so that he and his sons give written obligations to live there permanently, as well as those of his close associates whom he wishes to take with him. Travel costs and delivery to his place will be fully provided by the Russian government... If Shamil does not take advantage of it until tomorrow evening (that is, until the evening of August 25 - our emphasis Z.G.) by the magnanimous decision of the All-Russian Emperor, then all the disastrous consequences of his personal stubbornness will fall on his head and deprive him forever of the favors I have declared to him.” (Management fund of the IIAE DSC RAS. F. 1. Op. 1. D. 362. L. 41. Translation from Arabic)
The attentive reader has already understood A.I.’s cunning plan. Baryatinsky. The fact is that the assault on Gunib Mountain (on the night of August 24-25) was launched long before the ultimatum expired (before the evening of August 25), that is, when the mountaineers did not expect it, and more importantly, everything was calculated so that already in the afternoon of August 25, Shamil, after many hours of fighting, surrounded on the edge of the village, found himself in the hands of A.I. Baryatinsky. But no one talked to him about a trip to Mecca.
The amazing forgetfulness of all those present is noteworthy. Then no one could remember (!?) exactly what the imam said at the meeting and what the governor answered him. In any case, A.I. Baryatinsky immediately left, and Shamil sat down on a still warm stone and, covering his face with his hands, was silent for about an hour, apparently 154 years before us, realizing how cruelly he had been deceived, lured out of the village for negotiations, thereby blurring his entire heroic path .
A fairly strong escort of officers drove away those approaching from the imam. Thus, in the eyes of an ordinary Dagestani who lived at some distance from the theater of hostilities and did not receive operational information, everything looked as if Shamil had accepted the ultimatum published the day before - an unheard of thing in the Caucasus.
The hypocrisy of Commander-in-Chief A.I. Baryatinsky becomes finally clear from the report dated August 27, sent by him to the Minister of War BUT. Sukhozanet: “... From the previous review dated August 22, No. 379, Your Excellency knows that I ordered the end of fruitless negotiations with Shamil and on the 23rd to begin capturing Gunib. ..." (AKAK.T. XII. Doc. 1056. P. 1178-1179.)
Now it becomes obvious to us that the legends “about the imam who surrendered without a fight” are rooted in a cunning trap set by Commander-in-Chief A.I. Baryatinsky, and specifically in the Arabic-language “letter to the Dagestan residents” cited above, containing an ultimatum to the imam.
“As a result, the sun of Islam was eclipsed in the Caucasus,” the Avar historian Khaidarbek Genichutlinsky concluded his work, impressed by what happened, “the people were enveloped in darkness. The Muslims were confused. They became like people who became intoxicated when they saw that the day of the Last Judgment had arrived. The sabers of the fighters for the faith disappeared into their scabbards. The munafiks raised their heads. They behaved as if they had mastered the universe. It was amazing, amazing to see all this, oh, believing brothers! These events took place in (1859) beginning of 1276 AH of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)... Shamil, who fell into the hands of the infidels, was saved by the Almighty Allah from humiliation and revenge on their part. With honor, showing great respect, they delivered the imam to their capital St. Petersburg... Moreover, the Almighty forced them to act for free in favor of the imam - in the end, they themselves delivered Shamil along with his family to the holy city of Mecca, where, as is known, people They usually get there only with the greatest difficulty..."
P.S. Imam Shamil was buried at the Jannat al-Baki cemetery in Medina on February 23, 1871. May Allah Almighty be pleased with Imam Shamil and all Muslims.
For comparison, lost in a casino, A.I. Baryatinsky died of syphilis in 1879 in Geneva, at the age of sixty-five. “And this is food for those who know how to think”.
Zurab Gadzhiev,
Candidate of Historical Sciences
Under Alexander II, the half-century Caucasian War ended. Shamil, despite all his statesmanship talent, the wisdom of the leader, the ability to do the impossible - to unite in the fight against the Russians many mountain peoples and tribes that had been warring for centuries, could not cope with the enormous power of Russia. A new generation of Russian officers and generals grew up, learning to fight well in the mountains. Among them were real “Caucasians” who knew well the nature of the mountains and the psychology of the mountain people. Particularly famous were Colonel Baron Grigory Zass and General Yakov Baklanov, a native of the Don Cossacks, who terrified the highlanders. They adopted the tactics of the mountaineers, carried out good reconnaissance and acted proactively, not allowing the mountaineers to even gather into raiding detachments, at the same time burning and plundering “non-peaceful” villages.
Field Marshal Prince A.I. Baryatinsky was known as a great expert on the highlanders. Having begun his career in the Caucasus in 1845, he became famous for his desperate courage and in 1856 became the commander-in-chief of the Separate Caucasian Corps. After many unsuccessful attempts to defeat Shamil, Baryatinsky applied tactics of pressure on the territory of the Imamate from three directions, which did not allow Shamil to launch concentrated attacks on the Russian forces. Surrounded in 1859 in the village of Gunib, Shamil surrendered to the mercy of the winner on August 26. On this day, a short telegram from Baryatinsky to the Tsar was delivered by courier to the Simferopol telegraph station: “Gunib has been taken. Shamil is captured and sent to St. Petersburg." The war, which claimed 77 thousand Russian lives and hundreds of thousands of highlanders, ended. The captive Shamil was settled in Kaluga. According to Madame Drance, who was taken hostage by the mountaineers along with Princess Chavchavadze, the mountain leader was a man of “tall stature, his facial features are calm, not devoid of pleasantness and energy. Shamil looks like a lion in a calm position. His light brown and long beard adds a lot to the majesty of his posture. His eyes are gray and long, but he keeps them half-open, in an oriental manner. His lips are scarlet, his teeth are very beautiful, his hands are small and white, his gait is firm, but not slow; in him he reveals a person invested with high power.”
In the summer of 1861, Shamil was received by Emperor Alexander P. in Tsarskoye Selo. Shamil congratulated the Tsar on the liberation of the Russian people from slavery and asked to be allowed to go on the Hajj to Mecca, but the Emperor refused. The second time he asked to go to Mecca was in 1866, when he attended the wedding of the heir to the throne, Alexander Alexandrovich. To convince the Tsar that he would return, Shamil and his sons accepted Russian citizenship. He was granted hereditary nobility. Finally, in 1868, he was allowed to go on Hajj, and he and his sons set off. He visited Mecca and Medina, where he died on February 4, 1871. He was buried in Medina. The fate of his sons is interesting. The eldest son Gazi-Magomed did not return to Russia from the hajj and with the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war he headed the Turkish division. He distinguished himself during the siege of Bayazet, then became a marshal of the Turkish army and died in Medina in 1902. Another son of Shamil, Magomed-Kemal, also served in the Turkish army, also became a marshal, lived to be 87 years old and died in 1951.
On August 25, 1859, after the siege of Gunib and an offer to surrender, Imam Shamil surrendered. About how this event took place, there are testimonies from its participants and memories of Shamil himself, recorded by A. Runovsky (Shamil’s bailiff in Kaluga).
Shamil rode on horseback with a crowd of comrades to the exit from the village, where the envoys of the commander-in-chief Prince Baryatinsky - Danil-bek, Ismail and Colonel Lazarev, who knew the Avar language - were waiting for them. At the very exit from the village, a horseman galloped up to Shamil. This was the famous one-eyed, one-armed and one-legged Chechen naib Baysungur from Benoy, who, with his sons Olkhazur and Tahir and other Chechens, participated in the defense of Gunib. Baysungur called out to the imam and asked to talk to him. The two of them entered the hut, which stood on the outskirts of the village. Boishar tried his best to dissuade the imam. He said that not everything was over, that they could break through the ring of enemies with a detachment of Chechens, that they would go to Chechnya, and again raise the mountaineers to fight. But the discouraged Shamil was unshakable in his decision to surrender and went to the tsarist troops.
Baysungur pulled out a pistol and, pointing it at the retreating imam, called out to him by name: “Shemal!” (Calling an imam without a title, by name, was very disrespectful.) Shamil, without turning around, continued to walk. Baysungur called out to the imam twice more, but he did not turn around.
Later, when asked by the tsarist general Shamil why he did not turn around when the Chechen called him, the imam replied:
“If I had turned around, he would have shot me.”
- Couldn’t he have shot you anyway? - the general was surprised.
“Chechens don’t shoot in the back,” Shamil answered.
Irritated and deeply disappointed in Shamil, Baysungur with his two sons and his detachment fought their way through the ring of enemies and returned to Benoy in September. In Benoy, he told the Chechens about what happened in Gunib, about how Shamil surrendered. At the mention of the name of Shamil, Baysungur began to shake with rage, and curses were poured into the former imam. The gloomy Chechens silently listened to their illustrious naib. All of them were unanimous in the opinion that Shamil, like the rest of the naibs, was cowardly and betrayed the common cause of the struggle for freedom.
The tsarist government celebrated the victory. Agents scoured all the villages, identifying and repressing the mountaineers who did not submit. The solemn promises to the Chechen people had already been forgotten, the tsarist authorities began to prepare to divide the lands of the mountaineers, to evict them from their homes and to populate the mountain lands with Cossacks.
The tsarist troops, freed from the war, began to converge on the rebellious Benoy. According to the scouts, there were 280 families in the village of Benoy. In the fall of 1859, by order of the head of the Terek region, General Evdokimov, troops surrounded Benoy and burned it, and the inhabitants of Benoy “were resettled in the surrounding villages.” Some of the Benoevites, led by Baysungur and Soltamurad, resisted and retreated into the forests, from where they continued to fight.
As punishment for their disobedience, the Benoev evictees were deprived of their land, which was transferred to the Russian treasury. But as the time for spring field work approached, settlers from the village of Benoy, despite the ban, voluntarily returned to their former places. The assistant to the commander-in-chief of the Caucasian Army, Prince Orbeliani, reported this to the Russian Minister of War Sukhozanet: “On the night of May 7-8, 50 Benoi families, evicted to the village of Dattykh and settled near oil wells, suddenly left these places and went back to Benoi.”
The very disobedience to the tsarist military command in the post-war conditions of the defeated and, as it seemed, conquered Chechnya was a daring challenge to tsarism and a cause of great concern for the Russian administration.
But just recently, the head of the Chechen district, Colonel Bellik, wrote reassuringly to the commander of the troops of the Terek region: “In Azamat-Yurt, I found Chechens who had moved from the villages of Akbulat-Yurt, Khamat-Yurt, Dzhaba-Yurt and Umakhan-Yurt, among 90 households.” After the deportees were given the order of General Evdokimov to immediately return to those villages where their superiors had assigned them, “the people, without the slightest resistance, harnessed their carts and went back,” Bellik stated with satisfaction.
The stubborn Benoevites did not obey the orders of the commanders of the Ichkerinsky district and Terek region. All exhortations and even threats turned out to be in vain, because representatives of the Benoev society, according to General Evdokimov, “having chosen a leader from among themselves, they pledged not to obey.”
The legend says: the decision to start gazavat was made in the Benoev mosque. Soltamurad's speech was short and poignant. He was supported by the one-eyed JaIpar, the son of Muskha; Bira, son of Barshkha; Arbi, son of Huh; Timarca, son of Bolat, and others. Baysungur was the last to speak. “It is better for us to die now than to submit and surrender to the royal power,” the meeting of the Benoiites decided. And then, quite unexpectedly, a lonely voice rang out: “We are tired of the war, we want to live in peace, having made peace with the tsarist power.” Soltamurad’s mighty brother Muna, who had been standing silently before, sharply grabbed the defeatist by the collar, lifted him up and threw him out over the heads of the people sitting in the mosque, saying: “That’s where you belong.” The doubt that crept into the hearts of some quickly disappeared. On the same day, all the inhabitants of Benoy stood under the banner of Gazavat - they again raised the green Benoy banner with a white crescent and a crossed saber and dagger over a white stripe.
Two days later a strong armed detachment was formed. The leaders of the Benoy uprising were Baysungur and Soltamurad.
In May 1860, the Benoyites were supported only in the Argun Gorge by the comrades of the former Shamilev naibs Uma, the son of Duy from Zumsoy, and the qadi Atabay-mullah, the son of Ati.
The rebels of Benoy began to prepare for defense, hid their families, grain and livestock in inaccessible mountainous places, and they themselves concentrated in the dense Benoi forests located between the Yaman-su and Aksai rivers.
At first, the rebels did not take offensive actions. Some residents still hoped that the royal authorities would leave them alone and everything would be resolved peacefully.
On May 26, Colonel Bellik reported to General Evdokimov: “The other day, Prince Temir-Bulat had Ichkerin residents who said that the Benoevites convincingly asked permission to settle in their old places, otherwise they all swore to die, but not to obey.”
The ultimatum of the Benoiites to leave them alone was conveyed by messengers from the tsarist administration, who received the task of persuading the Benoievites to submit, in their own way. So, on May 27, Colonel Bellik wrote to Evdokimov: “Now the Mayurtupa foreman Tsimako and his aul merchant Tasha, who were sent to the Benoevites (who took Magomed from Shuna with them) have returned and say that all the men and women ask Your Excellency for forgiveness and permission to return to their places."
However, the mood of the irritated Benoiites was far from what the tsarist envoys imagined it to be in their inventions. Through the efforts of Soltamurad, like-minded people in the surrounding villages began to join the Benoy uprising. 21 people from Tsentoroi, 11 people from Engenoi, 3 people from Gendergen, 1 person from Zandak-Ara, 4 people from Dattah, 5 from Khyochi-Ara arrived in Benoi. The auls of Baytarki and Simsir joined the rebels. The Simsirovites were led by Sheikh Gieza-khazha, uncle of the future imam Alibek-haji Aldamov. His brothers also took part in the uprising.
By June 1860, neighboring villages of Ichkeria joined the Benoev movement. Almost all of Chechnya was engulfed in an uprising, which spread to the mountainous region of Dagestan.
Although regular troops with the participation of local permanent militia were sent to suppress, the Russian authorities nevertheless failed to break the resistance of the mountaineers. Led by Baysungur and Soltamurad, the rebels boldly entered into battle with large military forces, repulsed their attacks, and went on the offensive. Under their onslaught, in June 1860, the regular punitive troops retreated.
The old people say that royal troops led by General Musa were sent to Benoi. Four battles took place between them and the Benois.
From Engenoy, the royal army headed to the town of Pkhachu, bordering Benoy, where there was a dense forest. Here Baysungur and Soltamurad led the Benoevites to Gazavat. Together with them were their friends: Oldam and his brothers from Simsir, Shaarani from Engenoi and others. After the massacre and a fierce battle, in which the Benoiites were victorious, the royal troops retreated with heavy losses. In this battle, Soltamurad's brother Khanmurad received a severe through bayonet wound.
The serious defeat of the tsarist troops gave Benoy 8 months of quiet, free life.
Inspired by the victory, the rebels went on the offensive. A number of fortified places were captured by the rebels. Dispossessed peasants from various regions of Chechnya and the North Caucasus began to flock to them.
Some Kumyk princes, economically and politically disadvantaged by the tsarist government, helped the rebels. According to the head of the Chechen district, Colonel Bellik, the Kumyk princes supplied the rebel Chechens with “gunpowder, lead, bread and various materials for clothing.” Among the Kumyk princes who “tried hard to disturb Chechnya,” Prince Ali-Sultan especially stood out, “sending 6 badges (flags)” to the rebels and promising them to raise an uprising in Kumykia.
The uprising in the Argun district also assumed a threatening character. The head of the Argun district, Major Stange, in his report to the head of the Terek region, complained that the administrative apparatus in the district does not exist, all officials (adjutants, qadi and people's judges) fled and no one wants to perform positions, “having neither strength, nor authority, nor means necessary to restore peace and order..."
The tsarist government sent huge military forces to suppress the Chechen uprising: 46 infantry battalions, three Don regiments and one dragoon regiment.
By the end of 1860, the tsarist military leaders managed to suppress the uprising on Argun. But the leaders of the uprising, Uma Duev and Atabay Atayev, again managed to hide in the wooded mountain gorges.
At the beginning of January 1861, the united troops of the Terek and Dagestan regions under the command of Major General Musa Kundukhov came out against the rebel Benoevites.
At the end of January 1861, the uprising in Ichkeria was crushed, about 15 villages involved in it were destroyed. The most irreconcilable rebels went into the Benoi forests. Benoy was burned again, and its inhabitants on January 29, 1861, numbering 1,218 people, were deported and resettled in 5-10 households in the flat villages of Chechnya indicated by him. The troops continued to blockade the forests with the goal of completely destroying the rebels.
On February 17, 1861, the Benoev detachment was surrounded by tsarist troops. After a fierce battle, Baysungur was captured. Soltamurad managed to break through the encirclement and leave with the Benoevites to Argun, where he became one of the leaders of the Argun rebels.
Baysungur was court-martialed and hanged in Khasav-Yurt in the spring of 1861. Other participants in the uprising, including his sons Olkhazur and Tahir, were exiled to Russia.
By the fall of 1861, the new head of the Terek region, Prince Svyatopolk-Mirsky, organized a large expedition against Uma Duev, Atabay Ataev and Soltamurad Solumgiriev. It included significant military forces: 15 infantry battalions, 7 hundred Cossacks, 1 dragoon division, 10 hundred Terek and Dagestan regiments, 9 hundred permanent police and up to 3 artillery divisions.
In addition to purely military measures, Svyatopolk-Mirsky cleverly used the force of pressure from the wealthy elite of flat Chechnya against the rebels. “These last measures,” he wrote, “contributed more to our successes than the strength of our weapons.”
On November 14, 1861, Atabay Atayev voluntarily came to the Shatoi fortification and personally surrendered to Prince Svyatopolk-Mirsky. Surrounded on all sides by detachments of tsarist troops who were advancing into the mountain gorges, cutting clearings in the forests, having lost his followers, on December 14, 1861 he came to Svyatopolk-Mirsky and Uma Duev. According to the prince, Uma Duev was distinguished by “remarkable spiritual qualities and abilities.” Being wounded, Soltamurad from Benoy was captured. Some of Soltamurad’s associates took refuge in the Argun villages (where they later founded the village of Ben near the village of Gaten-Kale).
In mid-December 1861, the uprising was finally suppressed. The leaders of the uprising were immediately exiled: Atabay - to the city of Porkhov, Pskov province, Uma - to Smolensk.
The indomitable Soltamurad managed to escape from captivity and, returning home to the Benoev forests, became an abrek.
Chechnya was in deep apathy and despondency. Ichkeria lay in ruins and ashes. The tsarist authorities bribed some of the mountaineers, took them into service, and distributed lands and privileges to them. Some were subjected to brutal repression. The redistribution of land continued, the mountaineers were resettled from place to place, the best Chechen lands were taken to the Russian treasury for transfer to fortifications, Cossack villages or local traitors.
In January 1864, by arresting Sheikh Kunta-haji and his relatives in the village of Shali, the tsarist authorities provoked the highlanders to perform and staged a massacre, shooting crowds of zikrist murids from cannons, with only daggers and empty sheaths of soldiers moving on a square.
From that time on, Chechens were especially intensively provoked to move to Turkey. Rumors that spread faster than the wind among the Chechens that the tsarist authorities were going to disarm them, resettle them beyond the Terek, to the steppes and sands, convert them to Christianity, make them Cossacks, etc., worried the people. Russian agents said that the only salvation for the Chechens was resettlement to Turkey, blessed by Allah, where heaven on earth awaits the Muslim mountaineers. They cited as an example the Trans-Kuban Circassians, who had already almost all resettled and were treated kindly by the Sultan himself. The Chechens could not even imagine that all these conversations were the result of a carefully developed secret operation by the tsarist authorities to “liberate” the Caucasus from the Caucasians. Russian troops were urgently transferred to Chechnya from the North-West Caucasus in order to support the operation with military measures if necessary.
In May 1865, a desperate attempt to raise an uprising was made by the zikrist Eaza Akmirzaev from the village of Kharachoy. Gathering around him up to 70 associates (mainly from the villages of Kharachoy, Elistanzhi, Khoy), on May 24, he bypassed the royal detachment and moved to the village of Tsentoroi, where on Mount Khetashon Korta, in the place of the traditional meeting of the Chechens, he proclaimed himself imam. But the Chechen traitors who were in the tsarist service did not even give the tsar’s troops the opportunity to use force, independently suppressing the uprising and dispersing the Zikrists. The first shot at the rebel Zikrists was fired by the chief mullah of the village of Tsentoroy, Arsanuko Khodaev. The efforts of the royal authorities, which fanned differences and contradictions between sects, achieved their goal. The uprising was so unprepared and fleeting that Soltamurad did not even have time to support it.
In the summer of 1865, 23 thousand Chechens moved to Turkey. There was a calm in Chechnya. In the restless Terek region, a “military-people’s” regime was established, which was essentially a state of emergency. The introduction of new orders, increased national-colonial and social oppression fueled a tense situation in the villages: the past was too fresh in the memory and new establishments were hated.
In the early 70s, rumors appeared about the preparation of a new uprising in Chechnya. Shamil’s son Gazi-Muhammad, who was released from captivity to the Ottoman Empire in 1871, began to play a huge role in his preparation in the Caucasus. He held meetings with pilgrims from the Caucasus. Alibek-haji Aldamov was present at one of these meetings.
In 1872, a special congress of regional commanders was convened under the commander-in-chief of the Caucasian troops to develop measures against possible protests by the mountaineers. It was decided to strengthen the fortifications in the mountains, as well as to form units from the most restless highlanders of Chechnya on their horses, with their weapons, and take them outside the Caucasus. By 1877 such units had been created. In April of this year, the Chechen regiment was sent to the Transcaucasian section of the Russian-Turkish Front.
After returning from Turkey in 1874, Alibek-haji Aldamov conveyed an oral message from Gazi-Mukhammed to his father’s friend Soltamurad Benoevsky and began preparations for the uprising.
Soltamurad's authority was very great. Secret meetings, conferences and gatherings of like-minded people took place in Benoy and other villages. Taking advantage of the information that a war between Russia and Turkey was about to begin, Soltamurad and Alibek-haji secretly decided to start an uprising on the day the war was declared.
On April 12, 1877, Alexander II signed a manifesto declaring war on Turkey. Immediately, on the night of April 13, Soltamurad and Alibek-haji gathered 60 people from different villages in the town of Savragan-mokhk, in the forest near the village of Sayasan. Alibek-Hadji’s friend and secretary Goytukin Rasu from Benoy wrote: “... having secretly gathered people, Alibek-Hadji held a meeting. Alibek-Hadji raised the issue of the obstacles created by Tsar Alexander II to the Muslim religion and Sharia, as well as other prohibitions. At that time, the royal authorities announced that it was forbidden to read dhikr loudly in mosques, for hajjis to wear robes and turbans of pilgrims, as well as for large crowds of people to gather in crowds to make rain or in other places. The people present at this meeting, and especially Alibek-Hadji, subjected all these prohibitions, incompatible with Sharia, to heated discussion, and having agreed, decided to elect Alibek-Hadji as imam and, strengthening his power, appoint his naibs in all places. Exactly two weeks later, on Monday afternoon, Alibek-Hadji, having revealed the general plan, blessed the matter with prayer.”
Alibek-haji was only 27 years old. Therefore, he proposed electing 70-year-old Soltamurad, an experienced organizer, a brave warrior and a respected person among the people, as imam. But Soltamurad refused, citing his years, and he, in turn, proposed electing as imam a young, stately scholar alim and haji, the son of worthy parents and nephew of Sheikh Beza-haji Alibek Aldamov. Soltamurad's opinion was decisive. Alibek-haji was elected unanimously. Soltamurad was elected chief of the naibs, that is, he became the commander-in-chief of the rebel army.
All naibs were young, aged 23-25. Alibek's main assistants at the beginning of the movement were his brother Alikhan, Dada Zalmaev from Cheberloy, Suleiman from Tsentoroi, Gubahan from Teza-kala and others. By April 18, there were already about 500 followers of the imam. The document dated April 21 said: “All 47 villages with a population of 18 thousand joined Alibek. The rebels crossed the Aksai River, burned the headquarters in the village of Gordali, and the movement spread across the Khul-Khulau River.” At the same time, an uprising broke out in the upper reaches of the Sharo-Argun River, in the Cheberloev society.
The Russian command had significant combat assets - up to 13,200 bayonets, 2,270 sabers and 92 guns. On April 19, the Terek region was declared under martial law. “Well-meaning individuals” from the bureaucratic top of the Chechen population were mobilized against the rebels. The head of the Terek region, Adjutant General Svistunov, ordered the troops to block the possible exit of the rebels to the plane.
On April 22, near the village of Mayrtup, on the banks of the Khumig River, a battle took place between the troops of Imam Alibek-Haji and the royal detachments of Colonel Nurid and Colonel Milov. Desperate frontal attacks by Soltamurad and other naibs, as well as rain, forced the Russians to retreat. The success of the rebels attracted the Kachkalykov villages and auls of the upper Chanty-Argun to their side. The friendship of Soltamurad and the foreman of the village Zumsoy (former naib of Shamil) Uma Duev played a big role in this.
The slowness of Alibek-haji gave the royal command the opportunity to bring up military and Cossack units. At the same time, funds were released to bribe spies and intensive work was carried out to win over the top of the Chechen people to the side of the tsarist government. For this purpose, Major General Artsu Chermoev, who had great authority among the wealthy stratum of Chechnya, was recalled from the Russian-Turkish Front. They also bring in the elderly, frozen Persian, Colonel Kasym Kurumov. Both of these officers were old enemies of Soltamurad. Chermoev and Kurumov helped the royal troops in the Caucasian War, helped in suppressing the Baysungur uprising, and now the proven royal servants were again called up by their masters. Subsequently, Kurumov received the rank of major general for his assistance in suppressing the Chechen uprising of 1877.
Seeing the growing power of the tsarist troops, the Chechen elders, most of the mullahs, large rich people and merchants, believing that resistance was useless, began to submit addresses assuring their loyal feelings.
At dawn on April 28, Alibek-khadzhi approached the village of Shali, but was met with gunfire from supporters of the Shali foreman Borshchik Khanbulatov, as well as Cossack units - and retreated. The tsarist command managed to cut off the rebels from the flat part of Chechnya. Alibek retreated to Guni and then with a small group went into the Simsir forest.
Large forces were concentrated in Chechnya (84 companies, 9 and a half Cossack hundreds and 32 guns). By the beginning of May, in the Terek region there were 28 infantry battalions and 6 teams with a total of 24,409 people, 16 Cossack hundreds of 2,261 people, 11 hundreds of permanent local police and 104 guns. In addition, Colonel Nakashidze’s detachment of 3 thousand people was sent from Dagestan. On May 10, an attack on Ichkeria began from three sides.
But on May 14, the Avar villages unexpectedly rebelled, and the troops had to head to Dagestan. The tsarist troops burned villages, destroyed crops and feed, and seized property and livestock. They destroyed and evicted the inhabitants to the plane, but, extinguished in one place, the fire of the uprising flared up with renewed vigor in another.
The tsarist command, hoping to deal with the rebels at the hands of the Chechens themselves, appointed a reward of 25 rubles for each rebel caught or killed, and much more for the main “abreks” - Alibek-haji, Soltamurad and Dadu Zalmayev. But this plan failed.
On July 1, an uprising broke out in the Basov villages of Khatuni, Makhketa, Tauzen and Agishty, led by Abdul-haji. The Makhketian foreman Tangiy declared himself Alibek's naib. The uprising spread throughout the Argun district. The Argun Chechens were again led by Uma Duev, who had returned from exile.
In August 1877, the uprising reached its climax.
Large formations of tsarist troops were sent to Ichkeria. By the beginning of September, the tsarist command mobilized another 26 thousand people.
Five military columns of General Smekalov moved, sweeping away villages on their way. After bloody battles, Alibek with Soltamurad and a small group of comrades retreated to the Simsir forest. From here, through his people, Alibek informed the Ichkerin residents: “Don’t rely on me anymore, I can’t help you: now do what you know, I’m leaving with Sultan-Murad.”
The royal troops from Tsentoroi moved to Benoi, ruined its inhabitants and evicted them from there, distributing them among the lower villages. The traitor Bisoltan, saving his herds, showed the royal troops the path to Alibek’s refuge.
After the battle, Alibek and Soltamurad and their people went to Dagestan, to Sogratl, to Imam Magomed-Haji, where they continued the uprising.
On the way back from Simsir, the Russians burned and destroyed Zandak and, again, the village of Benoy - every last house, including the mosque, was razed to the ground. “...Both Benoy and Zandak must be deported to Siberia, or, if these scoundrels do not wish, they should all be killed in the winter like cockroaches and destroyed by starvation,” General Svistunov wrote with hatred about the rebellious residents of the villages.
In October, after the suppression of the uprising in the Argun Gorge, Uma-haji Zumsoevsky also left for Dagestan.
On October 16, 1877, Svistunov telegraphed to the commander-in-chief that the Terek region was “completely cleared of rebels.”
The envoy of Shamil's son Gazi-Muhammad Abbaz arrived in the village of Sogratl, where all the rebel leaders were located. This village was surrounded by Russian troops and Dagestan police. The rich people of Sogratl, having concluded a secret agreement with the royal military command, insidiously captured and handed over to the Russians Uma Duev, his sons and associates, as well as their fellow villager Magomed-Khadzhi.
Soltamurad, Alibek with their relatives and associates managed to escape from the encirclement and went to the Simsir forest.
Goytukin Rasu wrote in his narrative “The Story of How Alibek-Hadji Became an Imam”: “When Alibek-Hadji was in this forest, Alibek-Hadji’s friends and people he trusted informed him that if he came to the authorities with peace, then he will be left free. Believing their words and following these people who deceived him, he came to the commander of the Vedeno fortress. The chief immediately ordered him to be seized and, shackling his legs and arms, sent him to the city prison.”
The head of the Terek region, General Prince Loris-Melikov, deceived them by giving his word of honor to pardon all those who confessed. Numerous delegations of petitioners, including requests from women to Alibek's mother Khangaz and persistent requests from General Artsu Chermoev to Alibek's father Aldam, forced Alibek to surrender on November 27, because, according to him, he did not want his family and people to suffer for him. Soon 12 naibs of Alibek surrendered and 262 people who actively participated in the uprising were captured.
On March 4-6, 1878, a court-martial took place in Grozny. Of the 17 people brought to trial, 11 were sentenced to death by hanging. These were Alibek-haji Aldamov from Simsir, Kosum and Nurhaji from Chichilyukh, Tazarka from Turtiotar, Gubahan from Teza-kala, Kurku from Dishni-Vedeno, Lorsan-haji from Makhketa, the Zalmaev brothers Mita and Dada from Cheberloy, Uma-haji Duev and his son Dada from Zumsoy. On March 9, 1878, at 6 o’clock in the morning in the city of Grozny, at the fairgrounds, they were hanged and buried in a common pit.
The condemned met the execution very courageously. When, before execution, the condemned were given the right of last request, there was only one who wanted to use it. It was 70-year-old Naib Uma Duev from Zumsoy. “I, the old wolf,” he said, “would like to see how the wolf cub meets death first.” After these words, his son Dada, without flinching a single muscle and without lowering his gaze, left the bench. Following his son, Uma himself calmly and proudly met death with his comrades. According to legend, at night the Chechens dug up the bodies of the dead and buried them in a Muslim cemetery somewhere near Samashki.
Many villages (Simsir, Benoy, Zandak, Dattah and others) were evicted to the flat. Hundreds of people were expelled outside Chechnya, to the internal provinces of Russia.
The results of the Caucasian War were tragic. In Chechnya, 70% of the population died during the 19th century. The situation was the same in other regions of the Caucasus. Hundreds of thousands of tsarist soldiers died and were maimed in the war. More than half a million Caucasians were expelled from their homeland to Turkey. The North-Western Caucasus is depopulated. The economy and socio-economic structure of the highlanders was completely destroyed.
The Caucasians began to be forced out into the barren mountains and their fertile lands were settled by Cossacks. A colonial “military-people’s” regime was established in the region.
And yet, despite the defeat, the mountaineers achieved a lot. The anti-feudal revolution was completed in Dagestan. Through a heroic struggle, the highlanders avoided the imposition of Russian feudal-serfdom on their land, received a number of privileges and freedoms in the performance of their customs, the right to reside in their homeland, achieved exemption from military service, etc.
At the same time, the mountaineers, who had received a number of benefits and privileges during the war for their non-participation in Shamil’s movement, were now deprived of them and subjected to a harsher colonial regime than those who fought with weapons in their hands for their freedom. For example, the Ingush were deprived of the right to bear arms and, after the abolition of the Ossetian Military District and the allocation of the Nazran District, they became administratively subordinate to the Sunzha Cossack District. In addition, mountainous and flat Ingushetia were divided by a strip of Cossack villages, which deprived the Ingush of most of their territory and, as a result, they were forced to pay taxes several times higher than neighboring peoples.
And Ossetians even began to be recruited as soldiers into the tsarist army.
The resistance of the Caucasus mountaineers forced the tsarist government to abandon the forced Christianization of the mountaineers, converting them into Cossacks or deporting them to Siberia, and settling their lands with Cossacks.
The rebellious Caucasus, especially the Terek region, kept tsarism in tension until the February Revolution and, being in fact in a constant state of war, diverted huge forces of the autocracy to itself.
One of the tsarist generals wrote after the end of the Caucasian War: “Now, when the noise and excitement of the desperate struggle has fallen silent, when our power in the Caucasus has been completely consolidated, we can calmly pay tribute to the heroism and selfless courage of the defeated enemy, who honestly defended his Motherland and freedom to the fullest extent possible.” exhaustion."
(c) Nokhchalla.com, D. Khozhaev, historian.
After the end of the Crimean War, the Russian government launched a decisive offensive against Shamil. The size of the Russian army increased significantly. In August 1856, Alexander II appointed Prince A.I. as governor of the Caucasus and the new commander-in-chief of the Caucasian army. Baryatinsky. In 1856-1857 detachment of General N.I. Evdokimov knocked Shamil out of Chechnya. In April 1859, the new residence of the imam, the village of Vedeno, was stormed. In 1857-1859, Baryatinsky managed to conquer all of Chechnya and lead an offensive against Dagestan. In August 1859, after a fierce battle in the village of Gunib, Shamil surrendered and was captured. The Imamat ceased to exist. The last major center of resistance of the mountaineers - the Kbaade tract - was taken by Russian troops in 1864. The long-term Caucasian war has ended.
FOR THREE YEARS
In the summer of 1856, Baryatinsky was appointed commander of the Separate Caucasian Corps and first (from July 1, 1856) “correcting the position of Viceroy”, and already in August of the same year - Viceroy of the Caucasus with promotion to general of infantry...
For Alexander Ivanovich it was a great honor and a great responsibility. “I will work to justify great mercy, happiness and great honor for me.” He understood that the protracted bloody confrontation in the Caucasus required an end, and a victorious end. But how, by what means, by what forces?
Baryatinsky proposed dividing the Caucasus into military districts, putting commanders at the head of each. All of them were given greater rights, and special emphasis was placed on initiative and the ability to take responsibility. It was also proposed to urgently increase the number of troops concentrated in the Caucasian theater. Baryatinsky’s initiatives initially did not meet with support from both the military and financial departments. Where to get money from? And is it time for decisive action? Will these measures spoil relations with Europe? Wouldn't it be more profitable to mothball this ill-fated war until better times? Under pressure from the ministers, Alexander II also hesitated - no joke, Baryatinsky asked for almost a third of the country’s military budget for Caucasian affairs. But then the “proconsul” himself went on the offensive against the monarch. What he was talking about looked almost like an ultimatum - we must treat the Caucasian War as a matter of primary national importance or, by abandoning it, put an end to Russian influence in this region. Sluggish, scattered and weak military operations will only compromise Russia in the eyes of the Caucasian population, which is ready to join only the one who wins. And Russia must win. Then peaceful Chechens and Dagestanis will see in her a reliable protector, which will finally undermine Shamil’s influence. To remain in the Caucasus according to the principle “no peace, no war” means negating the results of many years of efforts by the Russian state to leave the Caucasus behind. And Alexander yielded to this pressure, promising all possible support.
Baryatinsky switched to powerful offensive tactics. Every military operation was developed and discussed down to the smallest detail. The commander-in-chief despised those supposedly victorious attacks on the enemy, which did not give the Russian troops any strategic advantages, but brought considerable and meaningless losses. Now the main task for him was to pacify the Caucasus with minimal losses and as quickly as possible, and also to neutralize encroachments on the Caucasian territories of England, Persia and Turkey, which also sought to extend their influence over them. By the end of the summer of 1858, Greater and Lesser Chechnya were occupied and Shamil with the remnants of troops loyal to him was forced to retreat to Dagestan. Massive attacks were soon launched on its territory, and in August 1859 the final act of the long-term drama known as the “Caucasian War” took place. The last refuge of Imam Shamil, located on Mount Gunib-Dag, was surrounded by a dense ring; there was nowhere to wait for help for those holed up in the mountains. On August 25, the assault on the village of Gunib took place, Shamil surrendered to the mercy of the winner.
It must be said that the name of Baryatinsky was already widely known among the mountaineers and was pronounced with respect - he was invariably generous, fair, and had sincere respect for Caucasians who were capable of working and not banditry. Baryatinsky acted as a far-sighted and experienced diplomat, without offending the national feelings of the highlanders and more than once setting examples of complete trust in honest and efficient people. He constantly helped the local population with money, food, and medicine. Apparently, this is why Shamil, surrounded in Gunib, in vain appealed to the inhabitants of the village to lie down as one, but not to give themselves into the hands of the infidels. This was Shamil’s response to Baryatinsky’s proposal to surrender and not to waste in vain the women and children hiding behind the walls of this mountain village. The assault that began showed Shamil that his position was hopeless. The Russians gave another quarter of an hour to think about it. Of course, nothing prevented Baryatinsky from destroying the beast driven into his lair, but a surrendered Shamil was much preferable to Baryatinsky than a dead one. It is easy to understand his feelings when they reported from the fortress: “Shamil has laid down his arms. Shamil will come out to the Russians.” In three years, Baryatinsky managed to pacify the rebellious region.
Now the date of August 25, 1859 is firmly forgotten. For Russia at that time, what happened in Gunib was of epochal significance. At three o'clock in the afternoon the army of thousands rejoiced. The victorious banners of the state fluttered over the heads of these people - the idea that they were doing a great state work was probably the guarantee that “victory will be ours.” The echo of Baryatinsky's cannons, saluting the new world, reached Moscow, St. Petersburg, Smolensk, and all cities. For the capture of Shamil, Prince Alexander Ivanovich received the highest military rank - field marshal. He was 44 years old...
Field Marshal Baryatinsky remained in the Caucasus for another three years. It was hard to expect that, having achieved everything, Alexander Ivanovich would remain resting on his laurels without adding another daring line to his biography. And so it happened. The 45-year-old field marshal and governor of the Caucasus fell in love passionately, as only happens in youth, although he had to pay dearly for this feeling. Baryatinsky’s game was always big: in order not to marry one woman, he had to part with his wealth in order to marry another - with the post of governor of the Caucasus. In May 1860, Alexander Ivanovich left the Caucasus on a long vacation abroad due to “disordered health.” This formulation hid the dramatic vicissitudes of his personal life: if something did not come true, it was his dreams of love “not for marital pleasures, but for the sake of drinking tea with his wife.” No, it was just about love.
Here is what the famous political figure Count Sergei Yulievich Witte wrote about this story: “...Among his adjutants was Colonel Davydov; he was married to Princess Orbeliani. Princess Orbeliani was of short stature, with a rather ordinary figure, but with a very expressive face of the Caucasian type... Baryatinsky began to court the wife of his adjutant Davydov. Since in general Prince Baryatinsky was very fond of courting ladies, no one thought that this courtship would end in anything serious. This courtship ended (in reality) with the fact that one fine day Baryatinsky left the Caucasus, to a certain extent kidnapping the wife of his adjutant.”
The governor, like a highlander, snatched away and hid the beloved Georgian princess where the strict Russian laws in this regard could not take her away from him. This is what, in essence, was hidden behind the words “treatment abroad.” It is clear that this escape with someone else’s wife did not imply a quick return. It was necessary to give up his career: Baryatinsky resigned, but received it only in 1862. He had to stand at gunpoint: the offended husband came to demand satisfaction. A field marshal fighting a duel is an extraordinary case in the turbulent Russian history. The fight blocked Baryatinsky’s return to Russia for a long time, for which he was terribly homesick.
They lived with Elizaveta Dmitrievna, née Princess Dzhambakur-Orbeliani, for almost 20 years. The prince died in Geneva, but bequeathed to bury himself in the Kursk province, in the ancestral village of Ivanovskoye, which was carried out. On his tombstone with the Baryatinsky family coat of arms and the motto “With God and Honor” is inscribed: “General Field Marshal. Adjutant General Prince Alexander Ivanovich Baryatinsky. Genus. May 2, 1815. Died on February 25, 1879.”
L. Tretyakova. The principle of the proconsul. Around the World, 2002, No. 6
EYEWITNESS' STORY ABOUT SHAMIL
When the cries increased from all sides for one of Shamil’s trustees to be sent to the commander-in-chief, Shamil called me and ordered me to go make peace with the Russians and ask for mercy. I left the village with comrade Yunus Chirkeevsky. Some murids fired at the Russians - I ordered them to stop. I looked at all four sides: everything was covered with Russians. When they saw me, they suddenly shouted: “Come here! Come here!" I went to the one who was closer. It was some kind of general. I asked, “Who is this?” I was told it was General Kessler. Then Lieutenant Smirnov and the Armenian Zakhar came up to me and said that General Kessler had ordered that our weapons be taken away from us and returned when peace was concluded. I gave the saber to Zakhar, and the rifle and pistol to Ibrahim Chokhsky. Noticing that our business could not be finished through Kessler, I said to Yunus: “Let's leave him; he seemed to have no other goal than to take our weapons away!” Having left Kessler and our weapons in the hands of his translators, who have not returned them to us to this day, we met another general, with whom Daniel Sultan was. This general asked us: “Where is Shamil, why doesn’t he surrender and why did you come?” I answered: “You called us.” Then this general ordered Hasan Khan of Kazikumukh to send us to the commander-in-chief. From Daniel Sultan I learned that it was Baron Wrangel. I found him to be an intelligent man. On the way we met Colonel Lazarev, who showed us the way to the commander-in-chief. Prince Baryatinsky received us very kindly and told us to introduce Shamil to him. Returning to the village, we found Shamil, Kazi-Muhammad with his family and murids in the mosque. We told Shamil that the commander-in-chief asked him to come and that there would be no treason. But Shamil had already prepared to defend himself, placing his saber in front of him and tucking the tails into his belt. He decided to die, and therefore answered us: “You must fight, and not tell me to go to the commander-in-chief! I want to fight and die on this day." Kazi-Muhammad said to Shamil: “I don’t want to fight, I will go out to the Russians; and you, if you want, then fight!” Shamil became very angry; even the women who were in the mosque with weapons in their hands began to shame and scold Kazi-Muhammad for his cowardice, and some cursed him. We remained in this position for up to four hours. Then, Shamil, seeing his son’s betrayal, agreed to go to the commander-in-chief. We were all happy. Having dressed Shamil, we put him on a horse, and he, turning to his children, said to them: “Be at peace now, Kazi-Muhammad and Muhammad-Shafi! You began to spoil my affairs and ended them with cowardice.” Shamil left the village, accompanied by foot murids. Seeing him, all the troops that were around the village shouted: “Hurray!” Shamil got scared and returned to the village, thinking that he would be deceived and killed. But one, from among the murids, Muhammad Khudanat-ogly of Gotsatlin, said to Shamil: “If you run, you will not be saved; I’d rather kill Lazarev now and start gazing (fighting for the faith).” At this time, Colonel Lazarev stood separately in front of the Russians, who, noticing us, said: “Where are you going back?!” Do not be afraid! There will be no betrayal between us." Shamil returned and drove up to Baron Wrangel, who greeted him and sent him to the commander-in-chief. Having reached the headquarters of the commander-in-chief, Shamil dismounted from his horse; Here they took him and presented him to the commander-in-chief. Meanwhile, Baron Wrangel ordered me to bring Kazi-Muhammad and Muhammad-Shafi with their wives, and the entire Shamil family to him. I entered the mosque and found Kazi-Muhammad and his brother there with the murids. When he saw me, he asked: “Where did you leave my father?” I answered him: “Don’t you know that I left your father with the Sardar, who took him to his tent.” Then he said to him: “What do you want now?” Kazi Muhammad replied: “I want to fight until they kill me!” I told him: “If you wanted to fight, you would have fought before, but now the war is over. Get up and come with me!” I took him with his brother and the whole family and took him to Baron Wrangel, who was waiting for them not far from the village. Baron Wrangel, having received them, told me: “I am very pleased with your service and will never forget it.” After that, I no longer saw Shamil, the commander-in-chief, or Baron Wrangel. Thus, I was a mediator in concluding peace. At sunset I went to my family and found my wife and children crying. Our entire estate was plundered by the police, so that not even a needle remained. My wife began to reproach me and said: “You served Shamil for so many years, what did you get?” And on this day, when everyone was guarding their things, you were an intermediary between Shamil and the Russians, and your estate was robbed by the police.” That night, my wife and children, almost naked, with bare heads and barefoot, I went and at midnight, reaching Hindakh, we stopped there with our kunaks. I then suffered a loss of 2,250 rubles, in addition to weapons, a horse and a watch; In addition, 137 books that I received from my father were lost. I didn’t even have anything left to buy, except for the clothes and the dagger that I was wearing. Although my wife managed to save, by tying it under her shirt, almost 280 rubles worth of things and money. but after seven days both these things and the money disappeared in the house of my kunak, where I stayed and gave them to him for safekeeping when I went to see Colonel Lazarev. I know and now I see how the thief is wasting my money and things, and I ask God to help me return them. I have never seen greater misfortune than on the day of the conclusion of peace; especially since my wife and children had previously become accustomed to a somewhat decent life, but after that they were left hungry, naked and barefoot. But, however, I tried to forget this misfortune, because I was glad that I myself remained alive and did not dare to complain that the property was stolen. The Russian bosses helped me and gave me the means to support my family.
IMAM SHAMIL IN RUSSIA
With the appointment of Prince Baryatinsky as commander-in-chief of the Caucasian army, Shamil's defeats and various failures began to become more frequent, the number of despotically controlled and loyal mountaineers began to decrease every day, and with them his power and importance. With the end of the Caucasian War, which lasted for decades, the former ruler of Chechnya and Dagestan, long protected by fate, Shamil, surrounded in his last refuge, the village of Gunib, and surrendering to the victors, a week later, on September 2, left Dagestan with his family and on the 26th On September 1st he arrived in St. Petersburg, where he soon had the good fortune to be introduced and graciously received by Emperor Alexander II, then, by imperial command, he was sent to Kaluga...
To live in Kaluga at the end of 1859, the captive Shamil and his family were rented at public expense in the city a large house with outbuildings and a garden, which belonged to the retired Colonel Sukhotin. To arrange the furnishings in a pre-prepared apartment, i.e., to purchase furniture, mirrors, dishes, etc., 5,086 rubles were spent and paid from the amounts of the Kaluga Treasury. Hiring, repairing and heating the premises of the imam and his numerous servants was the responsibility of the Kaluga Apartment Commission, chaired by the local governor. Money for this was allocated from the state treasury. From there, Shamil received, through a special officer who was with him as a military bailiff, who lived near the captive Shamil in Laneev’s house, assigned to him by the highest order of a lifelong pension of 15,000 rubles, which were issued in advance for three months, each time 3,750 rubles, in full and unaccountable order. In addition, 300 rubles were allocated annually for renting a dacha in the summer for Shamil, and from 15 to 20 horses were required to travel with his family to the dacha.
Under Shamil, also by the highest order, there were a bailiff officer and his assistant, who were entrusted with the supervision of the prisoner. According to the instructions given to the bailiff, he was supposed to be an adviser to the imam, secretly monitoring him so as not to burden or embarrass the prisoner in any way; in addition, the bailiff had to be his intercessor in all cases and, if possible, prevent his legitimate desires, protecting the imam from everything that could burden his position in a foreign country. Staff Captain Runovsky, who was in the army infantry, was appointed to this position. The imam and his family were allowed to visit theaters, concerts, public and private meetings, as well as walk, in carriages and on horseback in the city and its environs, no further than 30 miles from the city limits. For explanations with Shamil, who did not know the Russian language at all, he had two translators with him, subordinate to the bailiff; one of them - candidate of St. Petersburg University Turminsky (from January 1, 1860 to February 1864) - was appointed with civil service rights for the first transmission of conversations, views and even thoughts of the prisoner about various matters that did not concern his home life; and the other - the state peasant Mustafa Yakh-In - served as a free agent as an executor of the imam’s orders and translator in his home life. As a resident of Kaluga, the imam and his family were subordinate, on a general basis, to the Kaluga governor, and as a prisoner of war - to the provincial military commander, who, in important cases that required special permission, submitted the requests of the captive imam to the Minister of War for reporting to the sovereign emperor. These same persons were entrusted with supervising the precise performance of their duties by the bailiff and translators who were under Shamil. Shamil's house was guarded by specially appointed policemen. To entertain the prisoner, at the request of the military bailiff, rare oriental manuscripts were sent from the Imperial Public Library, for example, the Al-Quran of 1790, and various books in Arabic, which, after reading, were returned to the library. Shamil spent the summer at a comfortable dacha with an orchard, specially hired by the treasury for him. The first years, in the summer, he lived near Kaluga at the dacha of the landowner Ermolov, and then at the Pertsovo dacha, owned by Dr. Becker, 8 versts from the city.
By the highest order on April 8, 1861, Shamil's son Mukhamed-Shafi was assigned to serve in the Life Guards Caucasian squadron of His Majesty's own convoy with the rank of cornet, where he was enrolled in the 2nd platoon. Soon after this, the young guards cornet Magomed, having received a travel document from the Kaluga governor, went to his place of service in St. Petersburg, where upon arrival he received a significant monetary allowance. Two months after Mohamed’s departure, Shamil and the bailiff, Captain Runovsky, traveled to St. Petersburg and there had the good fortune to introduce himself to the late sovereign emperor and express gratitude for the highest favor shown to him again. On November 12 of the same year, the military bailiff, Captain Runovsky, was transferred to the Caucasus , with the appointment to serve on special assignments under the commander-in-chief of the army, Prince Baryatinsky; Instead, Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Gillarovich Przhetslavsky, assistant to the chief of Central Dagestan, was appointed. The following year, Shamil’s family suffered grief: the wife of Kazi-Magomed’s eldest son, Karimat, died. The body of the deceased, hermetically sealed in a metal coffin, was sent to Northern Dagestan, to the cemetery of Shamil’s ancestors, near the city of Temir-Khan-Shura, to the village of Gimry. To accompany the body and all orders along the way, staff captain Guzey Razumov was appointed to the courier corps, who was given 2,000 rubles from the treasury for the arrangement of the coffin, the purchase of a crew and in general for travel expenses.
The opinions of contemporaries, historians, and Caucasian experts were divided. Some believe that Shamil betrayed the idea of the Imamate by surrendering “in captivity.” Others do not know how to justify Imam Shamil’s decision.
The stereotype of tsarist propaganda about the end of the Caucasian War still dominates the minds and consciousness of contemporaries, causing bewilderment and a question among sensible people: why is the very fact of Shamil’s “captivity” not disputed by anyone?
The true circumstances of the reconciliation of the mountaineers of the Caucasus and Russia are hushed up, giving way to the victorious reports of imperial Russia.
With all the free interpretations of historical events, the conclusion of peace between Shamil and Russia cannot be shown as the “capture” of Shamil. It is impossible to rewrite and silence history with recognition of the merits, activities, life, and exploits of Imam Shamil, who, despite the twenty-five-year bloody war, did not become an enemy of the Russian people.
The “capture” of Shamil did not take place, since it objectively did not correspond to real events. It was initially unacceptable for Shamil - with an unequivocal negative answer, Shamil always came out of hopeless situations with honor and continued the fight.
Shamil took refuge in Gunib with 400 murids and four cannons.
From August 10 to 19, tsarist troops unsuccessfully besieged Gunib. Up to 40,000 well-armed soldiers took part in the operation. It was impossible to storm Gunib, a natural fortress, even with such a numerical superiority: in narrow mountain passes, one murid, accustomed from childhood to fighting in such conditions, could cope with any number of opponents.
The Caucasian War is the longest war Russia has ever waged.
Russian combat losses in the Caucasian War amounted to 96,275 people, including 4,050 officers and 13 generals. Non-combat - at least three times more. The war completely upset the finances of the empire and brought Russia to the brink of bankruptcy.
The conclusion of peace was the highest order of the emperor. In a handwritten letter dated July 28, the sovereign wrote: “Reconciliation with Shamil would be the most brilliant completion of the great services already rendered by Prince Baryatinsky.”
Alexander II understood that the brutal reprisal against Shamil could lead to irreconcilable hostility between the peoples of the mountains and Russia. It was more profitable for the tsar to moderate the hostility of the mountaineers towards the autocracy with all sorts of concerns and attention to Shamil.
Shamil did not share the fate of Pugachev, the Decembrists, Shevchenko and others only because he was not a class enemy within the state, but was precisely a military adversary. And at the same time, the spiritual and political leader of peoples not subject to tsarism.”
Baryatinsky, fulfilling the order of the emperor, himself was well aware: no assaults, sieges, or even the murder of Shamil would lead to the end of the war. The only way to end, stop the Caucasian War is to conclude a peace treaty with Shamil.
Any other option was unacceptable for Russia: the defeat of the highlanders in Gunib, the capture of Shamil, the death of Shamil did not mean the end of the Caucasian War, which could and would have begun with even greater bitterness and resistance in the event of Shamil’s defeat or death.
“Iron” Chancellor A. M. Gorchakov wrote to Baryatinsky:
“Dear prince!
...If you had given us peace in the Caucasus, Russia would immediately, by this circumstance alone, acquire ten times more weight in the meetings of Europe, achieving this without sacrificing blood and money. In all respects, this moment is extremely important for us, dear prince. No one is called upon to render Russia a greater service than the one that is now being presented to you. History opens one of the best pages for you.
May God inspire you.
July 26, 1859."
Prince Baryatinsky himself found it desirable to end Shamil with a peace agreement, at least on the most favorable terms for him.
On the morning of August 19, the commander of the Caucasian Army, Baryatinsky, made the first attempt to conclude peace with Shamil.
“After we settled on Gunib, a regiment arrived here to negotiate peace with Shamil. Lazarev, Daniel Bek Elisuysky and several people from the former naibs of the imam.”
“...the parliamentarians were met with cannon fire, but were accepted by Shamil.
...Shamil ordered to answer the prince: “Gunib-dag is high, Allah is even higher, and you are below, the saber is sharpened and your hand is ready!”
“...the answer received was extremely daring: “We do not ask you for peace and will never make peace with you; we asked only for free passage on the conditions we stated; if consent follows, then good; if not, then we place our hope in Almighty God. The saber is sharpened and the hand is ready!”
Thus, the negotiations were fruitless; our hopes for a peaceful outcome have disappeared.”
Shamil was not going to give up and, despite the small number of Gunib’s defenders, he was absolutely confident in his superiority. Peace negotiations continued from 19 to 22 August. Shamil refused to negotiate peace with Lazarev and Daniyal-bek, suspecting them of deception. Gunib was well fortified, and Shamil could successfully hold it, despite the numerical superiority of the Russian troops.
This came as a complete surprise to Baryatinsky, who was already celebrating the conclusion of peace, the end of the Caucasian War, composing victorious reports to Emperor Alexander II for his coronation day (August 26, 1856), and anticipating glory, honors and awards. Russian troops were preparing for a long siege.
General Baryatinsky climbed Gunib on August 25, 1859. It was about 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Not reaching the village about a mile, he dismounted and sat down on a stone lying near the road, ordered his generals to stop the offensive and begin negotiations again.
“...from the side of the imam they sent Yunus Chirkeevsky and Hadji-Ali Chokhsky to the Russians... They both left... Then Yunus returned to us, and Hadji-Ali remained with the Russians. Yunus brought the news that the Russians want the Imam to come to the Sardar for oral negotiations with him and so that he informs him of his position and wishes and, in turn, learns about the state of affairs from the Russians.”
The negotiations lasted more than two hours. On August 25, 1859, at sunset at eight o’clock in the evening, Shamil, at the head of a cavalry detachment of 40–50 armed murids, left Gunib and headed to the birch grove, where Baryatinsky was waiting for him.
“...a thick line of people appeared between the houses. It was Shamil, surrounded by forty murids, armed from head to toe, wild fellows, ready for anything.”
“[Shamil]…armed with a saber, a dagger, one pistol in his belt at the back, the other in a case in front.”
A. Zisserman, newspaper “Caucasus” dated September 17. 1859
If we objectively evaluate the events taking place, we must state with confidence that Shamil, armed with a dagger, saber, and pistols, proudly marched to negotiations with Baryatinsky to conclude peace as a full-fledged, empowered leader of the highlanders, and not to surrender. Shamil’s forced refusal to fight, to continue the war, to conclude peace on honorable, mutually beneficial terms cannot be regarded as surrender and arrest.
“Baron Wrangel was the first to meet Shamil. He extended his hand to him and said: “Until now we were enemies, but now we will be friends.”
“Prince Baryatinsky appeared before Shamil not as a formidable and vain conqueror of the highlanders, but as an equal warrior endowed with the power of the emperor.”
During the preliminary negotiations and in the presence of Shamil, Baryatinsky, generals and associates showed him honors and respect in everything. The “Diplomatic Protocol” corresponded to the relations between the parties during the conclusion of peace, and not capture or surrender. Shamil was calm and behaved with dignity.
The myth of the capture of Shamil is a political trick of the tsarist military propaganda.
The derogatory discourse for Shamil and the mountaineers, set by the first newspaper publications - “captivity” - without the slightest attempt to support the fabrications with real documents, testimonies of the mountaineers and Shamil himself, under the watchful eye of censorship, was abundantly replicated and quoted in the works of “marauder” historians of the second half of the 19th century - the beginning XX century, who carried out this “social order” - V. Potto, M. Chichagova, A. Kalinin, N. Krovyakov, P. Alferev, N. Dubrovin, A. Berger, S. Esadze, A. Zisserman.
But it is impossible to sin against truth and truth. Everyone involuntarily has the phrases “peace”, “peace negotiations”.
“Just a month before the fall of Gunib, having received information about the possibility of concluding peace with Shamil, the Minister of War and Alexander II himself joyfully seized on this hope.
... the Minister of War wrote to Baryatinsky that concluding peace with Shamil was highly desirable and would be greeted with satisfaction in St. Petersburg.”
What really happened during the few minutes of negotiations between Shamil and Baryatinsky, what the governor said and what Shamil answered him is still a mystery of history.
“The explanation was very short: two minutes, maybe three. The boss announced to Shamil that he must go to St. Petersburg and await the Highest decision there.”
The truth of history is that no mythical, far-fetched, lengthy, pompous monologues and ultimatums of Baryatinsky, provided with pathos by tsarist propaganda, and Shamil’s supposedly “incomprehensible” answers could not occur as a real event due to limited time (night was falling).
Shamil did not speak Russian, Baryatinsky did not speak Avar. The translator, Colonel Alibek Penzulaev, was from the Kumyk village of Aksai. The circumstances of the negotiations, dialogues and even words remained a mystery. 
The very fact of Shamil’s exit from the Gunib fortification is an unequivocal answer and consent to the conclusion of peace. By the time Shamil arrived at Prince Baryatinsky, the issue of concluding peace by the commander-in-chief had been resolved, and the conditions of Shamil and Baryatinsky were known from a number of previous negotiations. All that remained was to record the mutual agreement of the parties during the meeting.
Shamil’s murids were not captured either.
“... Colonel Lazarev, as the head of the newly conquered region, within half an hour distributed tickets to all the murids (only the name and surname of the person being released was indicated on the tickets, the seal of the chief, highly respected by the mountaineers, was attached) for free residence, ordering them to immediately disperse with their families to their auls.”
V. Filippov. “A few words about the capture of Gunib and the captivity of Shamil (Temir-Khan-Shura, November 29, 1865). Afterwards, the murids calmly, fully armed, with flying banners, descended from Gunib, dispersed and were not subjected to further persecution.
Peaceful negotiations presuppose trust between the parties, but do not imply treachery, violence, disarmament, imprisonment, or detention. Shamil acted as an equal party in the negotiations, and his word was decisive in the conditions of concluding peace, freely expressing his will under the terms of the peace treaty. Shamil would never agree to captivity, no matter how shameful or honorable it might be.
Shamil had only one choice and three possibilities. For Shamil, the spiritual ruler of Muslims, death in battle is deliverance from earthly suffering and hardships, and given his heroic and righteous life of a true Muslim, illuminated by the Prophet, immortality and a direct path to heaven. Death in battle - Glory, Greatness, Highest Honor and Valor. Shamil had 19 wounds with cold steel and three bullet wounds; one Russian bullet remained in him forever and was buried with him.
One could try to escape the encirclement, as was possible more than once, to hide to continue the fight and again raise the banner of Islam for the sacred struggle. But Shamil understood that the highlanders of Dagestan and Chechnya were bled dry by the war and further resistance could lead to the physical destruction of the population.
Making peace with Russia. This was Shamil’s most difficult and responsible choice - he was deceived more than once when signing peace agreements, but in this case too much was at stake. Shamil could not help but understand his full responsibility before history, before his own people and before the Almighty. Shamil thought for a long time to make the right decision and turned to the Almighty in prayers. And a revelation was sent down to him: his life’s journey is not over, he is the chosen one, he has been granted the power by the Almighty to make peace with Russia.
Thanks to Shamil’s military leadership and civilizing mission, Tsarist Russia became convinced that the highlanders were not savages and “natives,” but a proud, freedom-loving people who must be respected and taken into account. It was on such a mutually acceptable foundation that Shamil made peace with Baryatinsky and ended the war.
This decision of Shamil made it possible to save the peoples of Dagestan and Chechnya from complete extermination, resettlement to Turkey, as happened with the Circassians, and preserve the gene pool of Chechnya and Dagestan.
The Almighty rewarded Imam Shamil - he was buried in the sacred Baqiya cemetery in Medina next to the uncle of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) Abas.
After the annexation of the Caucasus, thousands of representatives of the Russian elite, scientific and creative intelligentsia - teachers, doctors, geologists, professional specialists - were sent into the midst of the local population - the mountaineers - to create and build schools, educational institutions, hospitals, public, cultural, humanitarian institutions, development of industry and agriculture.
This policy of the tsarist government became a powerful integrator of the highlanders into a single state and socio-cultural community of Russia. Secular schools, classical and real gymnasiums, which brought mountain and Russian children closer together, played a major role in the enlightenment and education of the mountain people.
We are still reaping the fruits of this asceticism, brotherhood, self-sacrifice, love for one’s neighbor and the grateful memory of the Caucasus mountaineers towards the Russians. In 2006, a monument to a Russian teacher was erected in the capital of Dagestan, Makhachkala. Children of the local nobility and ordinary highlanders were accepted into the most prestigious universities and higher educational institutions in Russia, Moscow, St. Petersburg, integrated, achieved success, honors and respect.
This “contributed to their awareness of themselves as subjects of Russia, the formation of a sense of involvement in the life of the Empire, and the recognition of Russia as their Motherland.”