PART EIGHT

            The advance unites of the French forces marched against Russia in June 1812. The Russians withdrew at Vilna and Smolinsk.  One of the bloodiest battles in history took place in the vicinity of Borodino.  Czar’s forces were routed.  The French too suffered heavy causalities. 

            Napoleon went on pressing.  On September 14 at dusk time he entered Moscow. 

            The Russian forces and the civil population had been evacuated and the city set on fire.  The loafers and the drunks left behind, went on with arson.  three quarters  of the Russian capital had been destroyed. 

            It was a precarious situation for the French army.  Their food supply was rock bottom, and the supply lines were nearly cut off.   The expanse of their communication zone rendered delivery of supplies virtually impossible. 

            On October 20 Napoleon ordered his forces to evacuate Moscow.  The French forces troubled by the early frost, were constantly harassed by the Russian irregulars.  A major part of the French troops parished in a short time. 

            The four hundred thousand strong French Army which had been composed of various nationalities, was wiped out. 

            Meanwhile all of the European nations, except  Poland, had aligned against France.  So the Russian counter-offensive was widely welcomed in Europe.  The war, fought on a wide front for two years, was concluded with the fall of Paris.  Napoleon was deposed, and was exiled to the Elbe Island.

            Napoleon’s expedition to Moscow ended in disaster not only for him Russia too had been badly hurt.  Half of the Russian fighting force perished, and the towns and the villages  along the battle fields were devastated.

            The war had considerably reduced the Russian pressure on Caucasia.   Nevertheless Caucasia, which had been on the agenda of the Czars since Peter the Great, once again became the focus  of their attention, as a spring-board for their aggressive designs beyond. 

            Aleksey Petrrovich Yermelov  was dispatched to Caucacia in 1816, equipped with extraordinary powers.   He had been in the area earlier; and had earned fame in Europe falso for his exploits there.  He had received his initial military training under the command of General Suvarov.  He had advanced his combat experience during the Napoleon Wars.  He had been at the gates of Paris, chasing the routed French. 

            To the Russians he was an officer gifted with courage and integrity.  To the Caucasians, however, he was the personified Satan and a crook of the first order. 

            In September 1816 Yermelov arrived at the Fort Georgievski on the northern bank of the River  Kuma.  He spent some time there to be briefed on Northern Caucasia by his field commanders.  Then he proceeded to the Russian Command Headquarters in Tiflis.

            He wished to “settle the problems in the  southern frontier once for all.”    He met with the monarch of Iran, Fath Ali Shah, and other dignitaries. In dealing with them he made a show of courtesy and force at the same time.  He wanted  to eliminate possibility of an Iranian intervention in Azerbaijan, and he achieved that. 

            In fact Yermelov did not intend to be polite and conciliatory with Iran.  High handedness, however, would not pay.  It could cause a war with that country. So he adopted an ostensible benovelent attitute towards the Iranians.  His principal target was Northern Caucasia¹ .  A victory here would  enhance his fame, he had calculated.

            In the north the Russian cordon  was maintained as before.  The Adiğes and the highlanders had apparently been  “isolated and encircled”.    In practice  the situation was just the reverse of it.  The Caucasians in smaller groups occasionally crossed the rivers Terek and Kuban, and infiltrated through the cordon further to the north, where they raided the enemy farms and settlements, and destroyed the crop.  Excluding the forts  and the Stanitsar² , nowhere in the area security of life existed.

            Yermelov had made a thorough assessment of the whole situation. He was determined to render the natives obedient subjects of the Czar at any cost.  He would destroy the recalcitrant, and would show no mercy. 

            Traveling across the high mountains he  came to North Caucasia, and settled at Fort Georgievsk.  He sent directives to all the fortresses along the cordon.  Ordered the commanding officers to be ready for action.

            A larger part of Kabardey and Çeçenistan³ was covered with thick forests.  There were, however, no lack of plain areas, whose defense generally presented problems.  Therefore, the inhabitants of the plains tended to be relatively peaceful and submissive. 

            The plague epidemic of 1807 had weakened the Kabardey people.  The Çeçen people living in the areas between rivers Sunja and Terek had adopted a quiescent posture in view of the physical nature of their territory. 

            The docile attitude of the Kabardeys and Çeçens living in the plains was not enough for preservation of peace.  The inhabitants of the hinterland, who led an isolated life, challenged imposition of Russian authority.  So they went across the buffer zones and pressured the Russian Defense lines,  raided the settlements and pillaged property they came by. 

            Yermelov decided to establish a new line of defense.  He sent out surveillance squads, and got the area examined.  He was to set up fortresses or strongholds at Şereg, Urvan, Nalçik, Baksan and Magisk in the Kabardey region; and at Prigradi in Çeçenistan.  He devised plans for immediate action, and designated officers to implement them. 

            By the end of the Autumn season he ordered to immediately begin with construction of a fort at Frigradi, made necessary arrangements relevant to the operations, and set out for Tiflis. 

            The peaceful Çeçens received the development with concern; for the fort to be constructed  was a threat against the integrity of their territory.  Those strangers who would settle down in the fort would in due course of time claim as the proprietor over their land. 

            The Kabardeys therefore took up a negative stance relevant to the  construction of the fort.  They organized night raids destroying the temporary barracks of the soldiers and the laborers.  They also ambushed the Russian convoys transporting construction material.  Finally they managed to force the Russians to halt the construction work. 

            Yermelov was maddened by the situation, when he returned to cordon the following year.  He disgraced the commanders he described them as inefficient and responsible for the failure in executing his plans.  His dismissed a number of the officers.  He took certain decisions which he believed would prove more effective. 

             According to Yermelov opposition by the Çeçens was a reason enough to adopt  more drastic measures.  He was to build a bigger fort in the middle of Çeçenistan.  The site he selected was one on the bank of the River Sunja, which formed a border separating the “peaceful” and the “warlike” Çeçens. 

             He deliberately chose the name of “Grozny” for the fort yet to be built. If was the first name of Czar Ivan-IV, a Russian word, meaning “Imposing”.

            Yermelov, the Commander-in-Chief  of the Russian Forces in Caucasia, had arranged for the transfer to his command a force composed of the veterans, both men and officers, of the wars with Napoleon.  A strong elite unit of the same force was assigned to guard the  construction site of the fort.  It was reinforced with artillery batteries positioned in bunkers that would command all the four directions.

            Now it was the turn of the Çeçens to get madden.  What was intended to be done was very much conspicuous:  Cossacks and the Russian peasants were to be settled around the fort, once the construction work was over. 

            The Çeçens began striking at the Russian camps at random in the form of small independent voluntary groups.  They attacked the enemy in daylight as well as in darkness.  The attacks disrupted the moral of both the civilians and the military.

            Notwithstanding the artillery fire and the snipers, the raids persisted.  A lot of blood was shed.  The Çeçen fighters also suffered heavy causalities.  Nevertheless the construction of the Fort Grozny was continued. 

            Similar incidents also took place in Kabardey.  In 1819, when the Russians started building Fort Nalçik, the native population revolted.  Commanded by Hutujuko Mehmet and Jansetiyiko, they attacked not only the fort construction site, but also raided the Russian defense lines and the Cossack settlements . 

            The resistance forces destroyed most of the farms and dwellings around the forts, which were guarded by artillery units. 

            The Russian, superior both in arms and men, managed to repulse the Kabadeys as in they did the Çeçens.  Finally, the struggle that had been going on for three years, was interrupted, when the fighters, together with their leaders, were forced out of  the land. Hutujuko Mehmet and Jansetiyiko and their followers moved out to the Abzeh Region.  Determined to sustain resistance, they set up their own colonies in the areas where they took shelter. 

            While conducting an intensive military expedition in the east, Yermelov’s mind had been also busy with North-western Caucasia.  Being obliged to abide by the terms of the Peace Treaty concluded with the Ottoman Empire, he could not afford to disturb the situation in the Taman Region  and also in the Caucasian coasts of the Black Sea.  He had been trying to present a semblance of a peaceful policy in the said area. 

            It was a deceptive impressions he had been trying to give.  He had devised malignant plans to be implemented as opportunity permitted.  His discharging of Ataman Bursak was an example to the point. 

            Bursak was over excited during his early years as the Ataman of the Cossacks.  Encouraged by the Russian high command, he had committed certain accesses, and for some time had connived at crossing of the River Kuban by the Cossacks.   Later, however, having come in contact with the Adiğes more often, and having become  familiar with them; his attitude changed a great deal.  He increasingly  favored peace rather than war.

            Bursak was a career military officer of a Colonel’s rank.  He was, however, of Cossack ethnic background⁵ .   He did not see it fit for his people to remain in perpetual hostility with the Adiğes.  He wanted them to become a settled, productive and peaceful community.  He did his best to win them opportunities to become peasants and traders, and to promote education and religious indoctrination amongst them. 

            Ataman Bursak, however, failed to make a peaceful community of the Cossacks.  Having gotten used to serve as mercenaries, and to earn livelihood through pillage and robbery. They were enticed by the rich lands across the River Kuban; and as irregular bandits, they raided and robbed the well groomed Adiğe farms and villages. 

            No doubt, the Adiğes  did counter the disturbance caused by the Cossacks.  They mounted incessant retaliatory raids at the Cossack settlements⁴. 

            Occasionally Bursak himself was unwillingly involved in action against the Adiğes as a manifestation of solidarity with his people.   He commanded a greater part of the bloody confrontations.  He avoided the Russian army as best as he could.  He cherished to secure peaceful co-existence of the Cossacks and the Adiğes, and at best to weld  the two communities together. 

            Ataman Bursak believed that the two communities could co-exist.  Of late there had been vivid instances supporting his conviction.   The Cossacks had partially adopted Adiğe  customs and traditions.   The male Cossacks had begun replacing their  outsized red trousers with tight pants of the Adiğe warriors.  Both the communities had been of democratic temperament.  They were independent minded peoples, disliked to be dictated.  The main aspect that separated the two communities was the religion. 

            Yermelov soon found out the practical distinctions and the building up contrasts in the east and the west.  An mild and peaceable attitude did not agree with his temperament as well as with his plans.  So he dismissed Bursak from the government position.  He divided the Western Front in to two, and appointed Russian commanders; General Lazarov to command the Black Sea Coastal Region, and General Vilyaminov to command the central and upper Kuban Basin. 

            Yermelov was convinced, as his predecessors did, that Caucasia could not be conquered and kept under control only by military means.  He  encouraged colonization of Caucasia by Russian population to be settled there.   He effected compulsory mass migration of the Cossacks from the basins of the rivers Don and Volga.  In the process over twenty-five thousand Cossacks were settled along the rivers Kuban and Terek.  He saw to it that a military order me maintained in the new settlements. 
 
 
 

O0O
 
 
 
 

            According to the Commander-in-Chief Yermelov, important steps had been taken for Russian Conquest  of Caucasia, and the final victory was imminent. 

            The arrogant general wrote in his petition to the Czar late in 1820, inter alia, as follows:

            “The operations to conquer Caucasia started a few years ago, are about to be concluded. The proud land claimed to be invincible, is breathing its last  under Your Majesty’s holy feet.” 

            It was his courtiers that had led him to indulge in such a hallucinations.  Many  younger officers, burning for  fame and quick promotion, exercised sycophancy.  His field commanders, however, competed with one another to show off as the most successful.  They oppressed the people.  At times they would destroy a whole village or a twon on an insignificant provocation,  massacre the population, and  submitted reports to Yermelov barging victory as if a regular army had been defeated. 

            The Russian poet Pushkin, who had settled at Yermelov’s headquarters, played “the kings joker” in the fairy tales.  He continually eulogized him in both poem and prose. One of his poems reads:

            “O, Caucaia!

            Thou must bend thy snow clad peaks,

            It is all over now.

            Because Yermelov is here!”

            To Yermelov there was only one impediment left on his way to launch the final assault.   That was the Ottoman forts on the Black Sea coasts.  He lacked the authority to attacking them.  That would mean terminating peace with the Ottoman Empire. 

            Caucasia was rich in natural resources.  Its mineral deposits and oil reserves, and its geopolitical position were highly important for Russia.

            According to him there was no need to wait nay longer.  There was no need to let time determine the course of events.  The existing international situation was ripe to get marching on.  The confusion brought about by Napoleon had not subsided in Europe yet.  The British-French confrontation was hot enough. Ottoman Tuekey was too weak to send a naval force into the Black Sea. 

            Yermelov covered the distance from Stavropol to Petersburg in one moth, brooding on such topics on his way to the Russian capital..

            He stayed in St.Petersburg for the whole summer.  He briefed the Czar, the  Ministers and the senior military officers about his plans more than once.  In essence he proposed a hard line.  His breath smelt blood and gunpowder.  He advocated that anyone who resisted ought to be killed and every village and town be burnt and destroyed. 

            Czar Alexander did not want to have a Caucasia whose population was massacred, and whose towns and villages destroyed.  Aggressive groups, he agreed, had to be eliminated.  But killing or banish the innocent aged men, women and children could not be an acceptable measure. 

            Yermelov was ready to advocate his own point as against the more lenient approach of the Czar.  Waving his big head, the size of which was grossly disproportionate with his body,  narrated fantastic stories, with his large and round eyes wide open. 

            -  The Caucasians are not as innocent as your majesty presume.  You ask me to spare their villages and towns; and also their women and children.  Bu they do not spare ours.  They kill our people and our soldiers without mercy; and take them away alive if they can. 

            After debates that last several days he finally managed to obtain the authorizations he needed.  He influenced the Czar and his Ministers.  He was back at his headquarters by the end of September; with additional power and reinforcement.  He had been so over-ambisious that he could not wait for the next Spring Season.  He ordered all units to prepare for a winter Offensive.

            Strike unites were set up at certain points along the front line.  The infantry and the cavalry units were supported by horse driven light artillery batteries. The pacifist Kabardeys and Çeçens were required to provide men to fight against their own people. 

            A severe winter had set in.  The River Kuban was covered with a thick layer of ice.  Russian offensive began on two flanks.  General Stal’s cavalrymen and artillery batteries surrounded Mahuko, Mohodho and Biberdo villages in the Lower Çeçen Region, whose inhabitants had refused to provide men to fight for the Russians.  Fierce fighting took place.  The entire population of the three villages were displaced. 

            A similar operation was mounted against villages of Bateşe and Anzora by Col. Katsiro, the commanding officer of Fort Yektrinograd.  After having destroyed the two pacifist villages, they attacked the avuls⁶   controlled by Ali Murza Kudyako. 

            It took the native population by surprise.  They did not expect an attach; they were caught unprepared.  The Kabardeys and the Çeçens received the attacks as humiliation.  Prince Aslanbek, badly stung, with his small cavalry tried to intercept General Stal’s forces; but was beaten back. 

            The invading Russian forces took away several hundred of the  villagers as prisoners of war , including women and children, and thousands of domestic animals to be distributed to the Cossack settlements. 

            What had been done was an outright heinous treachery, ought to be retaliated.  The Caucasians, disregarding the existing unfavorable conditions, were determined to resist to the end. In their hideouts deep inside the forests the fighters pledged to take revenge. 

            There were several factors which would adversely influence a successful resistance campaign to be put up by the chivalrous Çeçens and Kabadeys. 

            The age old feud among various Çeçen clans and families knew no end.  Instead of uniting their forces, they had been organized in smaller groups constantly bickering against each other.  The major families despised to be commanded by some one else.  The Village  Nayibs⁷   would not reconcile and unite because of  the inherent claim for superiority in the aristocratic hierarchy. 

            The situation with regard to the Kabardeys was no less intricate than in the case of the Çeçens.  All the four Princes, who had challenged Russian domination, were in dispute with one another, despite the  blood relationship binding  them together.  The Bak-Murzes and the Kantukins had retreated to the Oset Region.  The Hatujukos and the Misosts had temporarily moved to the hideouts in the forests of Upper Baskan, to a self imposed awful existence. 

            In addition; there were too many Princes in Kabardey, each captive of blind obstinacy.  Most of the ruling princes were the descendants of Prince Kaziy, who lived two centuries earlier. 

            Prince Aytekiyiko Kuçuk had come to terms with Yermelov and had been appointed as the Governor of Kabardey.  Nevertheless his position was highly precarious.  Several members of the aristocracy, his own sons in particular, who availed his protection, disapproved his policy.  They continually caused uneasiness.

            Yermelov had assessed the existing disparities and contradictions not only in Kabardey and Çeçen lands, but also in the whole of Caucasia; had devised plans to use them to his own advantage.  Prince Bekovich Cherkeski was the first man he chose to use in grinding his ax.

            Prince Cherkeski belonged to the Bekovich family, which once lived in Minor Kabardey.  He was a nephew of Price Tambot.  Mirza Bek of the same family, later called Bekovich, had left Caucasia during the reign of Peter the Great, and had entered the service of the Czar of Russia. 

            Aleksandr Bekvich, Cherkeski’s father, was a general of  the Russian Army. He was disgraced due to a quarrel he had with his Commander-in-Chief  Gudavich over a dog during a hunting party. 

            The young Prince, Bekovich Cherkeski, surpassed his father in loyalty to  the Russians.  He did not commit the same mistakes his father had committed.  In 1808 he was appointed Aid de Camp to the Governor General of Caucasia.   Took part in the expeditions in southern Caucasia.  In a short time he was focus of the attention of his authorities.  In recognition of his services during the campaigns in Georgia, Daghistan and Çeçenistan he was promoted to the rank of Colonel of the Army. 

            Yermelov had heard of his achievements.  Soon after assuming office in Caucasia, he got Prince Bekovich Cherkeski on his staff.  He assigned Bekovich to deal with Minor Kabardey in considerations of the family background of the Prince. 

            Yermelov contemplated to use Bekovich in the best possible manner.  He reminded him of the status his ancestors had enjoyed.  “They had been rulers of Minor Kabardey.  Now It was his right to rule area”, the Governor General suggested. 

            The greedy jumped on Yermelov’s offer.  At once he confiscated the landed properties of such leading families as the Mudoruks, Aklokos and Tavsultans.

            Prince Mudoruk did not capitulate.  Accompanied with his family and his associates he went into hideout inside the forests, started a fierce insurrection.  Fighting went on for months.  When finally beaten, he took shelter in  the Çeçen Region. 

            Yermelov had achieved his goal; for  in the process he had managed to further enflame the feud among the Kabardey princes, and had pushed them in to a protracted infighting. 

            It was impossible to restrain Bekovich any more.  He surrounded the village of Prince Ali Murza, who resisted submission to the Russians, and shot him dead in front of his residence.  His men desperately fought for several hours. A handful of his supporters retreated out of the village.  At the end 600 bodies were found laying on the ground.  Hundred and forty  old men, women and children were taken away as war prisoners. 

            Women and young children also had taken part in the street fighting.  In fact more than half of the dead bodies counted were female ones. 

            Yermelov reported to the Czar such excesses of Bekovich as victory, and recommended that he be awarded with the St. George Medal.

            Czar Alexandr was horrified reading Yermelov report; as it was an open admission of the savagery in full details.  He rejected  the recommendation on the ground that it was inappropriate to reward a person who had destroyed hundreds of families of his own kind, and  who had mercilessly murdered women and children.

            Yermelov’s logic did not agree with that of the Czar.  While Petersburg wanted a flexible policy not that harsh be followed; Yermelov assumed all the more difficult.  The winter Campaigns of  1821-1822 were followed by no less savage operations.  There has been  relentless bloody fighting in both the Greater  and Minor Kabardey Regions, as well as in the Lower Çeçen Region and  in the Upper Kuban Basin. 
 
 
 

O0O
 
 
 
 

            Yermelov spent the winter months in Tiflis, and the summer months in the north.

            He departed his headquarters in Tiflis for the North in May 1822, disregarding the seasonal surge of the streams and the rivers.  He was accompanied by Cossack cavelry and a detachment of sharp-shooters.  At the rear were two horse driven light guns followed the Governor General’s entourage. 

            Hatujuko Muhammed and Jansetyiko, two of the Kabardey Princes in exile, had made up their mind to physically eliminate the Russian Commander-in-Chief.  They had been informed of his planned journey to the North sometime early in the spring.  They came down to the vicinity of Fort Viladikafkas., and camped in the forest between the rivers Ardan and Uruh, early in May of 1822. 

            Yermelov had one day in Viladikafkas, and was briefed by the Fort Commander on the situation in the North. 

            The Fort Commander, with a premonition of a danger,  pleaded Yermelov not to set out out for his onward journey immediately, and  suggested that his aid de camp should precede him in his disguise instead.  The famous commander, who had been rocking and terrifying the highlands and the valleys for six years now, momentarily turned pale out of rage.  He was furious at the young officer.  However, having recalled the tyranny he had exercised in the last few years, he could comprehend an attempt against his life. 

            As suggested an advance convoy was sent out of the fort. 

            Hatujuko Muhammed and Jansetyiko were so much charged with rancor that they attacked the bait convoy as it negotiated the first mountain pass.  The two hostile groups were immediately engaged in a fierce fight. 

            The fort was just a few kilometers away.  A rearguard Cossack cavalryman galloped back to the fort, and fired a warning shot as he reached the rampart. 

            By the time the reinforcement arrived at the spot, Hatujuko’s men had finished their job with the advance guards.  Within the sight of Yermelov, they crossed over the Ardan river, and disappeared inside the thick forest. 

            Yermelov was saved.  He, however, was stricken with fear worst than death.  He lost his erstwhile courage and aggressiveness.  Henceforth he has been constantly haunted by fear the he could be the target of an assassin’s bullet. 

            He exiled any person he assumed to bear quality of leadership.  Those accused of passive resistance were persecuted, and condemned on false accusations.  Hundreds of persons considered potential risk were deported to the Russian hinterland and to Siberia. 

            Yermelov was mostly sacred of the Kabardey Princes in the hideout.  Some of them had taken temporary residence the Çeçen and Asetin Regions, and some of them in the territories of Abzeh and Şaps?ğ.  The “recalcitrant princes” raided the Russian frontiers at every available opportunity.  To wipe them out had been a matter of top priority to the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Forces in Caucasia. 

            He ordered General Stal march to the upstream basins of the rivers Baksan and Malk; and assigned Col. Pohednov to gather intelligence. 

            General Stal combed the valleys of Üruh, Çerek, Nalçik and Şegem; destroyed the villages that offered resistance, and set the crop on fields on fire. 

            The Defence lines set up by the Kabardey Princes with the help of the Asetins could not stand long against the artillery bombardment of the General Stal’s forces.  The Asetin villages also, therefore,  had to yield. 

            Yermelov was encourage by the apparent weak resistance.

             On the other hand many a young men, including three sons of Aytekiyiko Kuçuk, the Governor of Kabardey, who had declared allegiance to the Russians, had not been idle in the meantime. 

            In disguise, the three sons of the Governor, continually excited the people against the Russians.  The Governor’s elder son was drowned while attempting to cross the Kuban in the winter of 1823-1824.   His second son was wounded during as assault against Fort Georgievski and was taken prisoner by the Russians.  His identity, however, was not discovered by the time he died in captivity out of the negligence in caring his wounds. 

            The youngest of the brothers, named Canbolat, pledged to avenge the fate of his brothers.  He sent messenger in all directions seeking help. 

            One of the messengers traveled through the Şaps?ğ Region from one end to the other, and finally reached the coast to meet Geryiyiko Şemiz and Bastiko Pş?mef. 

            The leaders at the coast had a vague idea about what had been happening in Kabardey.  They were shocked to hear the story in details, and deeply regretted over the desperate situation. 

            To send a sizable force over such a long distance was dangerous.  Besides it was  impossible to providing it with logistic support. Geryiyiko Şemiz and Bastiko Pş?mef hastily mobilized a small contingent of cavalry force and set out for Kabardey. 

            When they arrived at the Ps?fabe Valley they were informed that the  Russians were preparing for an assault against the area.  Pş?mef, in view of a possible aggression remained in his home village to meet the threat.  Şemiz proceeded onwards along the volunteers who joined him.  On his way he met with Bek Sultan a famous leader of the Hodz Valley.  Through a messenger he then let the bearings of his station be known to Canbolat. 

            Canbolat had his headquarters in thick forest in the Baksan Valley.  He communicated his advice to Şemiz, through the same means, to the effect that they need not meet personally, and it would be better in they acted separately in order to avoid their movement being discovered by the enemy. 

            The young Prince had devised a two phased action plan:  One group would strike at the northern bank of the river Terek and atrack the enemy’s attention to that direction.  The other group would attack the main enemy force pressing against Kabardey. 

            Şemiz was in his sixties.  Yet he was incredibly energetic.  Şemiz and Bek Sultan together proceeded to the north;  and guided by Kabardey horsemen,  they entered the steppe. 

            Fort Geogiyevski was the second headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief after Tiflis.  As such it was well protected.  Col. Urniyovski, a reputable soldier, was the commanding officer of the area. 

            Şemiz and Bek Sultan pierced through the defense line set up by the famous Colonel.  Then they attacked the rich farms between the Ivanovski Patrol Post and the Temijbek Village. 

            The small strike force would not halt anywhere.  It moved very swiftly, continually changing position.  It meant to create panic in the enemy quarters. 

            The intended purpose was achieved.  The Cossack Stanitsas, strongholds set up like islands in the vast steppes, were cut off from one another, each one concerned wiyh its own fate.  The military units, supposed to guard the Stanitsas, too were panicked and dug in to defensive positions rather than chasing the intruders. 

            There lived a group of Nogays in the Kalaus Zone.  They had submitted to the Russians.  They reared horses, and supplied the forts with meat and milk.  The volunteers of Şemiz and Bek Sultan razed to the ground the dwellings of the Nogays.  Subsequently the Cossack settlements of  Kamenbrod, Songeleyevski and   Krugloleski in the neighborhood of Stavropol received their respective portion of the destruction by the raiding party. 

            An atmosphere of panic prevailed at the headquarters in Georgiyevski due to the terror caused by the Caucasian fighters.  The Russian troops on assignment along the River Terek withdrew, and were marshaled at the Fort. 

            In the meantime a decicive attack was mounted by Canbolat, the youngest son of the Governor.  He had a force of seven thousand mounted fighters at his headquarters. 

            Canbolat moved from the mouth of the river Urup and came up to the bank of the river Kuban, routed the troops of General Debu, and captured their guns.  He then advanced towards the Russian defense line at Nevinomski, and destroyed Fort Krugoleski and the settlements in the  neighborhood. 

            Yermelov spent the summer of 1823 in Tiflis.  He did not visit his summer headquarters that year.  He has been extremely cautious since the abortive attempt at his life.  He was very much surprised when he was reported about the incidents along the river Terek.  He didn’t want to believe it.  He wouldn’t comprehend  manifestation of that much of force by the already capitulated Kabardeys. 

            He thought of a number of possibilities.  Finally he inferred that it couldn’t be the work of the Kabardeys.  Rather it could be the work of the Abzehs, Abazins and Şapsiğs, instigated by the fugitive Princes.  Therefore the tribes had to be punished.  Under that impulse Yermelov ordered General Vilyaminov to attack the territories of Şaps?ğ and Bjeduğ.

            In January 1824 a Russian force commanded by Col. Katsirev and Prince Bekovich crossed the river Kuban.  The Bjeduğs were caught unawares.  Nevertheless Prince Psıkuy of Bjeduğ offered very stiff resistance.  A fierce fighting took place. 

            Şemiz and Pşımef had earlier returned the coast.  They had reported the incidents in Kabardey to the Paşa⁸  in Fort Anapa.  The Paşa was not sure whether his jurisdiction extended to the areas in question.  He had serious reservations against involvement in the affairs there

            He changed his stance when he received the news that Col. Katsirev and Prince Bekovich  had crossed Kuban. 

            He wrote out a Protest Note  and sent it to the advancing Russian Colonels rather to their Commander-in-Chief, due to urgency of the matter. 

            Bastiko Pşımef and a Janissary Sergeant, carrying the Paşa’s Protest Note, confronted the Russian troops in the Shagoşe Valley at a very critical moment,  because  the Russians were planning to attack the town of Miyekope. 

            Pşımef and the Sergeant handed over the Paşa’s Protest Note to the Russian Colonels.

            The Commander of Fort Anapa, in his massage, reminded the Russians that  there was a peace treaty binding the Ottoman State and Russia, and that their activities constituted a violation of the terms of the  instrument.  He warned that should they continue with the violations, he would take necessary actions to counter it. 

            The Paşa’s Protest Note had its effect on the Russian side.  The two Colonels withdrew to their lines, and set free the prisoners they held.
 
 

O0O
 
 
 
 

           Canbolat disbanded his force, as it was not a regular army, and had been organized on voluntary basis to meet the emergency.  A few fighters were left with him.  Nevertheless he continued his hit and run assaults on Russian fortifications without leaving any trace of himself  behind. 

            Nothing could be kept secret for ever.  The Russians finally discovered his actual  identity on the occasion of his assault at Fort Soldatski in the summer of 1825.  He was identified by some of the Russian officers at the battle, who had been at his fathers estate in the past.  It was to be the last drop to spill the glass of water, an episode that brought the end of the drama. 

            General Vilyaminov was absolutely certain that the son of Governor Kuçuk and certain princes around him were responsible for the insurrection.

            The General set a command post at  Fort Nalçik.  He invited Aytekiyiko, his son and other princes to the Fort.

            The princes who resisted the Russians and therefore had had to leave their home, despised Governor Kuçuk.  To them he was a quisling. 

            Aytekiyiko Kuçuk, however, looked at the affair through a different angle:  Kabardey was a land difficult to defend.  It was impossible for them to stand against the Russian power. Peace was the only means to help thousands of the innocent people to survive.  And that was exactly what he had been doing. 

            Kabardey was rocked by the news that the Governor had been invited to the Fort and was going to be interrogated. 

            The Prices and the Vorks⁹ took up arms, and went to the residence of the Grand Prince, while thousands of Fekol¹⁰ , too declared that was the end of everything, and therefore they must die by the side of the man who had been their last hope. 

            Aytekiyiko Kuçuk had been seeking a way out for salvation of his land and people.  He had been in distress.  He did not want to spoil everything at the last moment.  If need be he could sacrifice his own son and some of his relatives.

            He persuaded his son to accompany him.  He also persuaded Prince Kasay and Botoko Roslanbek to come along with him.  He allowed a group of Vorks to walk up to the approaches of the Fort. He wished patience to the large crowd that bade him farewell, and asked them to disperse. 

            When they reachedthe Fort, only four were admitted.  The Vorks were left outside. 

            Vilyaminov received Governor Kuçuk with due esteem.  Thanked him to have accepted his invitation. 

            The General, however, announced that Canbolat and the princes had to face a trial, and therefore had to surrender their arm.  He ordered his aid de camp to take them to his office.

            The Princes had not been disarmed while entering the fort to avoid them being alarmed.  When they were asked to hand over their arms lerter they refused, saying that they had come to the fort to talk not to surrender the weapons. 

            A clash was likely to break out at any moment.  The corridors and the doors were guarded by young Russian officers.  Besides, extensive security measures had been taken outside the building.  Soldiers armed with rifles had been posted on top of all the buildings within the Fort. 

            Governor Kuçuk, hoping that he might be able to persuade his son, with the permission of the General went in to the room where his son and the two princes were held. 

            Roslanbek had already assessed that resistance would be of no avail.  He readily accepted the suggestion of the Grand Prince.  Canbolat and Kanamir Kasay, however, did not agree.  They refused to budge in the face of the  old man’s desperate persuasion.  They had made up their mind to fight out to death. 

            No sooner Governor Aytekiyiko Kuçuk left the room, the Princes began shooting through the window aiming at the soldiers who had surrounded the building.  Several of them were hit.  Having depleted their supply of shots and gunpowder, the Princes broke the window-pan and jumped in to the courtyard; pulled out their daggers, and looked around to for the enemy to engage with .  At that very moment the two were target of hundreds of bullets at once.

            Aytekiyiko Kuçuk had no excuse to offer any more.   His looks cast down and extremely distressed, he walked out of the Fort. 

            General Vilyaminov standing on top of the fort,for a while watched the grieved old man.  His slow ride, and the quiescence of the Vorkas appeared to the Vilyamiov as the future of the Kabardey people. 

            The Grand Prince had accepted the accomplished fact, and had to yield.  It was tantamount to the surrender of entire Kabardey. 

            Vilyaminov reported Yermelov in Tiflis that “the Kabardey resistance has been tragically terminated.”

             Canbolat was popular with the masses, and had inspired hope in them.  Everyone regretted his being killed cornered within the confine of the fort, rather than in an battle field.

            He was remembered by his people for long years.  Poems and songs were composed in his memory, all of which reflected the grief and distress the people felt over his loss.
 

                                                  O0O
 

            Kabardey had really been silenced.  Prince Aytekiyiko and his like minded fellows,  could see no other way out except coming to terms with the Russians,  who were unquestionably far superior a military might. 

            The Princes, who sustained resistance and therefore had to go on self-imposed exile,  lived a distressing life.  They set up new colonies partly in the Çeçen region and partly in the territories of Abzeh and Şapsığ.  The raids, which they occasionally mounted against  the Russians, bothered their own people back at home. 

            The Kabardeys were not the only people that had to capitulate.  The Kumuks, and the Çeçens in the coastal areas of Daghistan and the Terek  basin also had given up resistance. 

            Yermelov attributed his victory to his hard-line policy, and the drastic measures he had taken.  He kept on dispatching orders to his commanders in the field in the same vein.  He wanted the people in the occupied territories be kept under constant pressure. 

            The villages were frequently searched,  weapons were seized and the recalcitrant was taken prisoner.  Any slightest manifestation of resistance was suppressed with bloodshed. 

            Generals Lissanievish and Grakov, who were  in charge of  controlling the Çeçen Region,  maintained the tension and the highest point.  Particularly the former, while very well aware of  the pride of Çeçen people and of their attachment to their traditions,  continually insulted them in the native language, which he could only smatter. 

            The abuse of power by the two Russian Generals reached to the extent that they had to pay for it with their own lives. 

            The Çeçen fighters besieged the Fort Gerzel.  The inhabitants of the neighboring Aksay Village remained neutral.  They did not interfere. 

            Immediately after having repulsed the Çeçen insurgents, the Russians gathered the  inhabitants of Aksay inside the fort, insulted them in a most unacceptable manner, and demanded them to surrender their weapons. 

            Uçtar Haci, a native of the Aksay Village present at the gathering refused to hand over his weapon.  General Grakov attempted to slap Uçtar, who suddenly pulled his dagger and fatally stabbed Grakov and Lissanievich, who stood side by side.  He wounded a few more officers before he was hit by multiple rifle and pistol shots. 

            Such incidents induced the pacifists to indecision.  Peace did not promise security to either side. 

           As time went b, minor incidents increasingly tended to cause the emergence of more widespread  resistance.  The repressive regime proved conducive of uninterrupted warfare. 

            Bipolat, a leader highly regarded by the youth, revolted against the occupation and against the repression that followed.  The new leader commanded political as well as religious influence.  He was not a leader of a limited area.  He possessed a powerful logic ability to influence the masses.  Within a short span of time he started a movement that enveloped the whole of Çeçenistan. 

            In Daghistan too there emerged another movement.  Gazi Molla and his associates, through their fiery speeches, encouraged the people to rise against the Russians occupation.  They had devoted themselves to start a strong and  widespread movement. 

            Though Yermelov and his Staff officers were more or less aware of the development,  they did not care much about it.  On the contrary, they were pleased.  The believed that it would provide them with justification in repressing and destroying the native population.

            The information the Russians had mistaken a notion of the movement.  For the force they were to encounter was not one of defenseless peasants and feeble local bands.  They were to confront a mass  movement, led by men of vision, who sought religious and national solidarity.