THE RUSSIAN CONQUEST OF THE CAUCASUS BY JOHN F. BADDELEY WITH MAPS, PLANS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS LONGMANS, GREEN AND GO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 1908 All rights reserved " The Caucasus may be likened to a mighty fortress, strong by nature, artificially protected by military •works, and defended by a numerous garrison. Only thoughtless men would attempt to escalade such a stronghold. A ivise commander -would see the necessity of having recourse to military art, and would lay his parallels, advance by sap and mine, and so master the place" —Veliameenoff PREFACE When a non-military writer deals with military affairs a word of explanation seems called for. Riding through and through the Caucasus unaccom- panied save by native tribesmen, living with them, accept- ing their hospitality, studying their way of life and character, conforming as far as possible to their customs, noting their superstitions and prejudices, writing down their songs and legends, I became interested, likewise, in all that related to that strife with Russia in which they or their fathers had, almost without exception, taken part. Nor is this surprising ; for the whole country teemed with memories of the fighting days, and wherever we rode, wherever we rested—in walled cities, in villages, on the hills or the plains, in forest depths, in mountain fastnesses —there were tales to tell of desperate deeds, of brave adventures, the battle shock of armies, the slaughter of thousands, the deaths of heroes. Dull, indeed, must he be whose blood is not stirred in a land so varied and beautiful, filled with memories so poignant. Coming back from each of many excursions with in- terest heightened by all I had seen and heard, I sought to complete from books the information gathered, locally, from word of mouth. And not in vain. In the voluminous literature of the Caucasus I found a wealth of material relating to the various wars, yet, strange to say, not, even in Russian, any complete history of the conquest. Thus Lieut-General Doubr6vin's great attempt breaks off in — vi PREFACE course 1827" 1 Potto's comprehensive work, still in 5 General of of publication, ends, so far, with the Turkish campaign 2 so much as 1829. By neither, therefore, is the Murid war and touched. Colonel Eomanovsky's lectures, delivered Shamil's published in 1860, cover the whole period up to subject. surrender, but are too brief to do full justice to the In languages other than Russian—and notably in English references, I could find little but fragmentary accounts and of or at most the record of some particular phase or episode the wars, and these for the most part full of prejudice and error. In these circumstances it seemed that a narrative of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus should have its interest for English readers, even though written by one who dis- claims all expert knowledge of military affairs, and leaves purely military deductions to be drawn by those better qualified for the task. It is in that hope, at all events, that I offer this book to the public, claiming for it only that it is a true statement of the facts, as far as I could discover them, soberly written, and free from bias. To the authors above-mentioned, in the periods treated by them, my acknowledgments are due for such information as I have been unable to trace to more original sources. My chief reliance throughout, however, has been on the vast collection of authentic documents published by the Caucasus Archseographical Commission, 3 the work referred " to in my text and notes as Akti " ; while next in im- portance come the twenty volumes of the Kavhazshy Sbornik, published under the supervision of the Grand 1 Istoria voinee ee vladeetchestva rousskikh na Kavkazye, St. Petersburg, 1871- 1888, 6 vols. 2 Kavkazskaya voind, St. Petersburg, 1887-1897, 4 vols., each in four parts. 3 Akti S6branniye KavkdzskoyouArkheografeetcheskoyou Kommissieyou, 13 vols. Tiflis (various dates). ; PREFACE vii Duke Michael, a collection of articles on the war by many hands and of very unequal merit, but on the whole a valuable source of information. 1 Other works referred to in the following pages need not be particularised here ; but a word of acknowledgment is due to Professor Miansaroff 2 for his Bibliographic Caucasica et Transcaucasica, a re- markable work, wherein any one may see at a glance what rich stores of literature have already accumulated round that fascinating subject the Caucasus, and, be it added, how little of any value is contributed by English writers. There is one notable exception, however. Englishmen will always cherish the fact that their countrymen were the first to set foot on the summits of Elbrouz and Kazbek, and such books as Freshfield's, 3 Grove's, 4 and Mummery's 5 will be read by coming generations when they have found—as they will find—in the mountain country between the Caspian and the Black Sea another and a larger " playground of Europe." Specifically, in regard to the warfare between the Russians and the tribesmen, as distinct from the Persian and Turkish wars, the only works by English writers of even slight interest are those in which Messrs. Longworth and Bell recount their dealings with the tribes of the 6 Black Sea coast and in this connection I must explain briefly why in the following pages so little has been said of 1 Kuvlcazsky Sbornik, 20 vols., Tiflis, 1876-1899. 2 St. Petersburg, 1874-1876, 1 vol. 3 " The Central Caucasus and Bashan," by Douglas W. Freshfield. London, 1869, 1 vol. The same author's " The Exploration of the Caucasus." London, 1902, 2 vols. Second Edition. 4 " The Frosty Caucasus," by F. C. Grove. London, 1875, 1 vol. 6 " My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus," by A. F. Mummery. London, 1895, 1 vol. 6 " A Year among the Circassians," by J. A. Longworth. 2 vols., London, 1840. "Journal of a Residence in Circassia during the years 1837-1839," by James Stanislaus Bell. 2 vols., London, 1840. viii PREFACE the warfare in the western Caucasus, which began as early as that in the east and lasted longer, namely, until 1864. l this The truth is (as Colonel Romanovsky puts it ) that western warfare never had anything like the importance for Russia that attached to the struggle in Daghestan and Tchetchnia; and when the Russian Government did con- centrate its attention mainly in that direction, as in the 'thirties, the mistake cost dear. Moreover, there was never the cohesion between the western tribes attained under Shamil in the east, nor was there ever amongst them a really great leader. The fighting was of a desultory nature, and to relate chronologically the events of what was practi- cally an independent war would have been to destroy the unity of my narrative. On the other hand, to tell the story separately, and subsequently, would, after the dramatic ending at Gouneeb, have been to risk an anti-climax. I decided, therefore, in the present work at least, to omit all but the briefest and most necessary references to it, yet the fact that the struggle took place and that it outlasted even Shamil's resistance must not be forgotten. In conclusion, I must put on record my gratitude to two kind friends, Colonel Ernest Pemberton, R.E., and Cecil Floersheim, Esq., for much good advice ; and to Mrs. Tyrrel Lewis for her beautiful drawing of Shamil. Note 1. —All dates, unless otherwise stated, are Old Style, i.e. twelve days later than the same dates, New Style, for the nineteenth century, eleven days later for the eighteenth century. Note 2. —Transliteration. As the whole of the Caucasus forms part and parcel of the Russian Empire, and has done since 1864, and as Russian is the official language of the country, it is only reasonable to follow the Russian nomenclature, except in cases where other names or spellings have acquired a prescriptive right and may continue in use 1 Op. cit., p, 226. PREFACE ix without inconvenience. Georgia and Georgian, for instance, need not be changed to Grouzia and Grouzeen, any more than Russia and Russian to Rosseeya and Rousski. But as the Russian alphabet differs greatly from the English, it is obvious that words and names transferred from one to the other must undergo transliteration. Now this is a difficult and much-vexed question, on which no authority holds at present ; but it is admitted on all sides that for any given book at least, a definite system should be chosen and kept to from first page to last. In the present work this condition has been observed or attempted, the system itself aiming merely at so ren- dering Russian words that the English reader may pronounce them colourably like the originals ; and as the main difficulty in doing so arises from the arbitrary incidence in Russian of the stress or emphasis " so strongly noted in nearly every word of the language, this " stress hasibeen marked throughout by an acute accent, except when it falls on the vowel usually rendered " i," which is then written " ee," lest it be taken for " i," as in " child." To this I will only add that, roughly, " a " has the sound of the second " a " in papa. "e" ,, „ "a" in paper. " "ou" ,, ,, ou" in through. " zh " „ „ French " j." "kh" „ „ German "ch." I am aware that the "t" and "d" I use before "ch" and "j" respectively are redundant, but they can do no harm and serve to guard against the pronounciation of those letters as in French.