Russian conquest of Chechnya and Dagestan

The Russian conquest of Chechnya and Dagestan, also called the Murid War, was the eastern theatre of the Caucasian War of 1817–1864. In the Murid War, the Russian Empire conquered the independent peoples of the Eastern Caucasus.

When Russia annexed Georgia in 1801, it needed to control the Georgian Military Road in the central Caucasus – the only practical north–south route across the mountains. Russian control of the road meant the division of the fighting in the Caucasian War into two theatres. West of the road, in the Russo-Circassian War, the tribes did not unite and the war became very complex. In the east the tribes joined in the Caucasian Imamate, a military-theocratic state which held out for thirty years. This state, established by Ghazi Muhammad in 1829–1832, came under the rule of Imam Shamil from 1834 until his surrender in 1859.

The region of fighting formed a rough triangle or rectangle about 150 by 200 km.:

At first most of the fighting took place within a 50 or 75 kilometer radius of Gimry (42°45′36″N 46°50′17″E / 42.760°N 46.838°E / 42.760; 46.838). After 1839 the center of resistance moved northwest to the forests of Chechnya.

The basic geographic distinction separates the forests of Chechnya in the northwest and the high and barren plateaus of Dagestan in the east. In Dagestan, just north of Gimry, the east-flowing Andi Koysu joins the north-flowing Avar Koysu to form the Sulak River, which flows north and then east. All three streams flow in very deep canyons. To the east, plateaus and canyons run down to the narrow coastal plain of the Caspian Sea. To the south are more plateaus, canyons and mountains. This region, called Avaria (from its major language), was partly ruled by the Avar Khanate at Khunzakh and the Kazikumukh Khanate further south. North of Gimry and the Andi Koysu is the Salatau plateau and west of it is a lower area marked by the village of Andi. North of these are the forested north–south valleys of Chechnya, a region called Ichkeria. At about the line of the Terek the forests give way to steppe. The Chechens used this for winter pasture until the Russians pushed them south. Between the Terek and the mountains was a 30–70 km belt of forested flat country which has now been cleared for agriculture. The western boundary is the Georgian Military Highway which follows the north-flowing upper Terek River. The northwest bend of the Terek was the main area where forest-cutting and Cossack villages were pushed southeast into the Chechen forests.

Velyaminov, Yermolov's chief of staff, described the Caucasus as an enormous fortress with a 600,000-man garrison which could not be taken by storm and could only be taken by siege. The Caucasus War was basically a decades-long siege. The many campaigns into the interior only served to wear the mountaineers down and did not result in permanent occupation until the last year or so.

The Russian infantry had little difficulty with flat country that had been cleared for agriculture. These areas often had rulers who could be pressured and subjects who were used to obedience.

In the northwest, Chechnya extends from the high mountains down through a series of north–south valleys to the flat country. The whole region was forested to about the Terek River. The Russians could easily send a raiding party into the forest, burn a few villages and withdraw, but anything larger was nearly impossible. A large force with its baggage train would string out for a mile or more along a forest path where it would be attacked from both sides as soon as the mountaineers gathered enough men. This required skirmish lines on both sides, the so-called "column in a box". A large force could fight its way through or out, but at unacceptable cost. The only safe way to move through the forest was to cut down the trees for a musket shot on both sides of the road. Many of the trees were large beech trees that were hard to cut down and provided excellent sniper roosts. Forest cutting was a major activity during the whole period. Since lowland Chechnya is good farmland, Cossack military-agricultural villages were pushed southward as the trees were cut down. Forest fighting extended all along the north Caucasus and merged into the Circassian war further west. The Russians preferred to fight in winter when there was less cover.