THE PROJECT IS IMPLEMENTED BY THE GEORGIAN FOUNDATION FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES. The Expansion of Russia in the Caucasus and Georgia project offers the reader collection s Editor-in-chief: Giorgi Cheishvili of scientific-popular articles which Editor-corrector: Tinatin Evdoshvili aims to cover the Project author: Irakli Gegechkori Georgian-Russian relations of the Designer: Tornike Bokuchava XVIII-XX centuries in a manner different from the widely propagated perspective of the official Russia. © Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies All rights reserved The Muhajir Movement RUSSIA'S EXPANSION IN THE CAUCASUS AND GEORGIA XIX century in the Caucasus Otar Janelidze The Muhajir Movement in the Caucasus ne of the negative results of Russia’s rule in the Russia penetrated the South Caucasus while still not Caucasus was the Muhajir movement. This Arab- having a large part of the Caucasus Mountain Range under its language term is used in historiography to signify influence. While there was a possibility of complications in the O the mass, purposeful uprooting and exile of the rear in the form of the North Caucasus, a further expansion of local population of the Caucasus to the Ottoman the Empire towards the east could not be successful. That said, Empire in the 19th century.1 Despite the fact that a the issue of the east was very important in Russia’s geopolitical part of those who were exiled left their homelands of their own plans of the 1820s-1840s. The conquest of the Caucasus volition, the process as a whole was largely forceful. became bogged down and the Empire lost 25,000 people in The Muhajir movement mostly involved the peoples of the the permanent war while the number of wounded and maimed North Caucasus: the Abazin, Abadzekh, Bzhedug, Kuban reached 65,000. The casualties were much more numerous on Nogai, Circassian, Ubykh, Chechen, Karachay, Kabardin and the side of the mountaineers as they were desperately pushing Ossetian people; however, it was no less painfully reflected on back the attacks from the regular armies of the Empire.2 the fates of the Abkhaz people and Muslim Georgians living in Meanwhile, Russia was dealt a serious defeat in the Crimean the southern part of the country. War (1853-1856), being forced to review its priorities. External The migration of peoples was historically tied to natural defeat did not hinder the Empire from becoming more active disasters, wars, conflicts, famines, economic development, on the home front. Russia already considered the issue of the religious or political oppression and so on. The Muhajir Caucasus as a domestic one and it could be argued that the movement also had its prerequisites, the most important of external world was gradually getting used to this idea as well. which were political, social-economic, religious and ethno- Despite numerous attempts by England and the Ottoman psychological factors. Let us touch upon each of these Empire to use the fights for freedom in the Caucasus in separately. their own favor, the majority of the population of the North 1 The Muhajir Movement RUSSIA'S EXPANSION IN THE CAUCASUS AND GEORGIA XIX century in the Caucasus Caucasus did not get involved in the Crimean War.3 This was one of the reasons why at the final stages of the conquest of the Caucasus, the interest of the European powers towards the region had waned. The Russian ruling circles themselves considered that dominance in the Caucasus would not only ensure the security of the borders of the Russian Empire but also curtail the influence of Western states in the Middle East which was certainly no secondary problem for Tsarism. The same is remarked by English historiography, albeit from a different perspective (J. Bell; E. Spencer; D. Ukart; D. McNeil). British authors who consider the problem of the Evdraph Kovalevsky Muhajir movement from an international angle openly justify (1790 ‒ 1867) the resistance of the North Caucasus peoples towards Russian rule, painting it as a factor hindering Russia from entering the east which was in accordance with English and European interests.4 The Russian imperial government, as a part of the colonization process, turned the Muhajir movement into a state policy. Therefore, the exile of Caucasian mountaineers to the Ottoman Empire was not a private initiative of any general or administrative official of a certain Krai. It was planned in the government Alexsandr Suvorov (1729 ‒ 1800) offices of St. Petersburg and implemented in accordance with the said plan. A famous Russian public figure, the Minister of Education peninsula due to oppression and moved to the Ottoman Empire. of Russia in 1858-1861, E. Kovalevsky, pointed In the 1830s and 1840s, many high-ranking imperial officials out that the Muhajir movement was “caused by believed that Russia’s rule in the West Caucasus could only an unfortunate, yet extreme necessity.”5 be strengthened if both sides of the ridge and the adjacent territories were settled by an armed Cossack population.8 The official stage of exiling Caucasian mountaineers to the Ottoman Empire started from the spring of 1862 when on The Muhajir movement, as a necessary May 10 the Emperor approved the decision of the Caucasus precondition for colonization, was a priorly Committee on this issue, creating the District Commission for prepared and planned out project of the Exiling Mountaineers to the Ottoman Empire.6 Russian imperial migration policy. The economic Tsarism wanted to get rid of the “rebellious” part of the effect of implementing it was also calculated population which could hinder the establishment of the political and determined in advance. Using the newly and economic influence of the Empire over the North Caucasus. freed-up space and ensuring the border villages On the freed-up arable land they planned to settle Cossacks with land was an important task. By removing brought from the internal governorates of the country in order Caucasian mountaineers, the government of to create a strong base of support for the government. Russia was avoiding the burden of resolving the The mass rooting up and exile of people to other places problems with regard to land, finance and the was not foreign to the Russian Empire even before the Muhajir military in the region. movement. Back in 1778, before acquiring the Crimean Khanate, during its temporary occupation period, Alexander Suvorov exiled 31,000 Greeks and Armenians from Crimea to No less notable is the fact that in this way the government the Azov governorate under the order from Catherine the Great. was saving funds and other resources necessary for controlling This forced migration was not much different from deportation.7 the disloyal population. Not ten years had passed from these events that in 1783, As already pointed out, the Cossack people were given when the Crimean Khanate was already within the boundaries a special role in colonizing the Caucasus. Back in 1857, the of Russia, tens of thousands of local Crimean Tatars left the Commander-in-Chief of the General Headquarter of the 2 The Muhajir Movement RUSSIA'S EXPANSION IN THE CAUCASUS AND GEORGIA XIX century in the Caucasus Caucasian Army, General D. Miliutin, proposed the idea of colonizing the South-Western Caucasus by using Cossacks and other people from the internal regions of Russia. In order to do this, it was first necessary to free-up the land on which the local mountaineers resided. Exiling the mountaineers to the Ottoman Empire was determined to be an effective way of resolving the problem. Soon, D. Miliutin was appointed as the Military Minister of the Empire and his views became more prominent as well. The Viceroy of the Caucasus, Duke A. Bariatinsky, shared the idea of exiling the mountaineers and even planned to involve Shamil in it.9 Imam Shamil It is considered that it was the Ottoman Empire where the (1797 ‒ 1871) idea of the mass resettlement of Caucasian mountaineers originated10 and that the Muhajir movement was inspired by Turkish emissaries, higher social classes among the mountaineers and spiritual circles.11 In addition to all of this, it is important to underline that the oppression and conquest of the region by Russia also laid the groundwork for the Muhajir movement. It was precisely the conquest of the Caucasus that was the basis for hundreds of thousands of people being forced to leave the lands of their forefathers to run from the oppressor and move elsewhere. The uprooting of Caucasian mountaineers from their original homes was also determined by enormous Alexsandr Bariatinsky losses resulting from the war, the burning down of the auls, (1815 ‒ 1879) destruction, devastation and the disappearance of income sources. they would lose their traditional social and political privileges while in the Ottoman Empire it seemed more realistic to be able The population already oppressed by the to maintain titles and a dependent peasantry.13 war also saw its taxes and levies increased. The mountain aristocracy saw moving to the Ottoman Empire “Mountaineers were being seen as secondary as a way of avoiding this new challenge. They were convinced people in their own homeland. They no longer that their dependent peasants would not leave them and follow had almost any human or civil rights.”12 them wherever they went.14 At the same time, they hoped that in the Ottoman Empire, they would live as freely as they used to in their homeland without having a state but rather according to The population was prohibited from carrying any weapons the mountain customs. which was very insulting for the mountaineers and so on. If it As a famous Russian historian, A. Berzhe, pointed out: were not for the anti-human colonial policies of the Russian after freeing the peasants in the Russian Empire, powerful Empire, the scale of the Muhajir movement would have been representatives of the mountain aristocracy started moving negligible and would not have had any dramatic influence on to the Ottoman Empire so that they would not lose their serfs.