Intelligence și Cultura de Securitate (Jan 2022)
RĂZBOIUL CAUCAZIAN (1817 – 1864) – EPOPEEA LUI ȘAMIL ȘI PACIFICAREA DEFINITIVĂ A CAUCAZULUI DE CĂTRE RUȘI
Abstract
At the beginning of the 19th century in the Caucasus, a number of populations, mostly Muslim, considered themselves free and independent. The penetration of Russia into the territory inhabited by them, especially after the annexation of Georgia in 1801, created the conditions for a harsh and bloody conflict. The 'Caucasian War' is remembered in scholarly literature as the longest war in Russian history. This article examines the reasons why the 'mountain peoples' (as the Caucasian peoples appear in the history of the 'Caucasian War' written by Russian authors prior to 1917) refused to cohabit with the new conquerors of the Caucasus. Mention is made of the great campaigns waged by the separate Caucasian Corps (the name of the Russian troops stationed in Georgia and Transcaucasia) against the Imam Shamil movement in Dagestan. The campaigns to conquer the aulas (villages) of Ahulgo (in 1839), Dargo (in 1845) and Gunib (in 1859) eventually led to the pacification of the Caucasus. An important point for understanding this article is also developed: what motivated the Russians to conquer the Caucasus. For the research I used mainly documents from the archive „Акты, собранные Кавказской археографической комиссией” (Proceedings of the Archaeological Commission of the Caucasus - AKAK) but also works by Russian authors, some contemporary with the events. The results of my research, after the AKAK archive has been exploited, provide new information about Shamil's actions, about the motivation that made him resist the attacks of the Russian troops for more than twenty years and about his desire to unite all the Caucasian Muslim tribes under one leadership. The end of the 'Caucasian War' with the defeat of Shamil and the Circassian peoples (1859-1864) and the exile of part of the Caucasian Muslim population to the Ottoman Empire did nothing to resolve the continuing conflict between the Russian conquerors and their subjects in the Caucasus. The result was visible during the great uprising of 1877. The author of the article notes at the end that a brutal conquest of a territory cannot be a basis for peaceful coexistence in the future.
