The Russians Who Weren’t: Why the North Caucasus still memorialize their Anti-Russian resistance

Prologue

In Makhachkala, Dagestan, two energetic prepubescents wrestled in the bleachers during an amateur Pankration tournament. The section the boys selected was desolate and they took advantage of their luck with a friendly skirmish. It was a productive way to pass the time as they waited for their brothers to compete in the tournament.

One day, they would be able to fight in competition as well.

As the two boys wrestled away alongside the indoor football court, teenage boys divided into four age groups amassed at the edge of the converted playing surface. The courts were camouflaged in blue and yellow wrestling mats where the budding fighters would compete in padded competition for their first taste of glory.

Dagestani locals of various ages filled the bleachers throughout the day. Some arrived with their sons and nephews, keen to capture their imaginations with small doses of regulated violence. It remains a rite of passage for many, one that would not be denied by a proud, vigilant father.

Caucasus men have fighting in their blood.

While 13-year-old boys in headgear and shin-pads sprawled and punched their way to victory, a bearded “mountaineer” watched silently from the far end of the room. The highlander’s eyes, cold, piercing, and unmoving, nonetheless seemed to follow the action intently. His magnificent beard, ambitious in length and devoid of colour, thrived on his grey face and connected perfectly with his infamous papakha – a ceremonial hat that never separated from his scalp.

It had been 145 years since Imam Shamil’s death, yet he continued to watch over his people in the form of this portrait. It was a chilling reminder of the anti-Russian resistance that rose up against Tsarist occupancy for half a century. Shamil’s hardened features, forever captured in an iconic photograph, were memorialized in his native Dagestan.

Yet his Dagestan no longer enjoys the freedom of his ancestors. They are Russian nationals – second class citizens in their own republic – with the country’s emblem emblazoned on their official uniforms.

Their only show of resistance is the portrait of Imam Shamil that watches over them – a rebellious provocation directed at their longstanding oppressors, and a poignant reminder of what could have been.

In Blood and War

The Circassians hate us. We have forced them out of their free and spacious pasturelands; their auls are in ruin, whole tribes have been annihilated. As time goes on, they move deeper into the mountains, and direct their raids from there…What can we do with such people?

Alexander Pushkin — Journey to Erzurum

As with many of the saddest tales, this one begins with war.

It is 1816, only four years after the Russian victory over Napoleon’s ‘Great Army’ in 1812; Tsar Alexander I sought to rekindle the Russo-Circassian War started by Peter the Great in 1763 and implement the plans for expansion into the mountains. With it began a near-fifty year conquest of the Northern mountain region known as the Caucasian War; one of Russia’s bloodiest conflicts that disfigured native populations and shaped their modern society.

Though many historians have labeled the conquest as a full-blown invasion of the Caucasus, it was actually divided into two separate conflicts according to the geographic location. The Russo-Circassian War took place in the West (Adyghe and Kabarday), while the Murid War was focused in the East, which included republics like Chechnya and Dagestan. The intention was to incorporate the regions into the Russian state and subject them to a Christian ruler, a move which would shrink the potential influence of the Ottoman Empire so close to the Russian border.

Some territories succumbed to the pressure; Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan were all influenced by the Russian wars with the Persian Empire. However, the aforementioned Northern territories (Chechnya, Dagestan and Circassia) brought significant resistance and refused to bow down to the Tsar.

The result was horrific bloodshed and longstanding tension that remains palpable to this very day.

Russian General Aleksey Yermolov – renowned for his achievements in the Napoleonic Wars and later named the “Butcher” for his exploits in the Caucasus — built several forts along the Sunja River in 1818, with the intention of creating suitable defence mechanism for the Russian army. One of those would later become the foundation for the capital city of Chechnya. Searching for a term to describe the savagery located in the region, the Russians named the site ‘Grozny’ to perfectly express their contempt towards the locals: terrible.

It would not take long for Yermolov to start destroying Chechen tribes and villages along the Sunja River.

Through the first decade of the war, Russia achieved little in terms of success; the casualties piled up and Tsar Alexander I’s death led to the Decembrist uprising, where soldiers protested Nicholas I’s claim to the throne after his elder brother Constantine removed himself from the line of succession. The uprising took place on December 26, 1825 and was suppressed by Nicholas I on the same day. While it was a surprisingly unsuccessful attempt to eliminate the current monarch, some scholars argue that it served as an inspiration for the 1917 Revolutions.

While Imperial Russia was focused on wars with Persia and the Ottomans until 1829, there was much rumbling in the mountains; Dagestan, which had been almost entirely under Russian control by 1824, was about to undergo radical changes. Religious activists began to emerge and challenge the local elites who had become complacent with Russian encroachment.

In 1825, Bey-Bulat captured the Amiradzhiiurt post in a spontaneous Chechen uprising, but was thwarted within a year. In his footsteps, charismatic Islamic scholars like Ghazi Muhammad emerged as leaders capable of mobilizing Islam to counterattack the Russians. Over the next five years, religious leaders in Chechnya and Dagestan who were hostile to Slavic invasion met to establish a supposed Caucasian religious alliance. Unity between the territories would more likely staunch the forthcoming Russian expeditions.

Ghazi Muhammad (also known as Qazi Mullah) became the first Imam of the loosely formed alliance. He was an islamic scholar who regularly appeared at great halls for the Caucasian elites, who marveled at the depth of his knowledge and the limitlessness of his piety. Eventually, he was elected Imam by a group …

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