In May 1839, the Russian command decided to inflict a crushing blow on the main stronghold of the imamate, the capital Akhulgo. Departing from Chechnya Grabbe’s detachment made a dangerous journey to the fortress through the territories under Shamil’s control over the course of a month. On the way to Akhulgo, the Grabbe detachment repeatedly fought with the highlanders, led by Imam Shamil. The largest battle on the outskirts of Akhulgo took place in the village of Argvani.[1]
Throughout the winter and early spring, the imam drew the attention of Chechens, Salatavians and Dagestanis to the village of Arguani, foreseeing that the Russians would certainly move here, and managed to convince the highlanders to rally in order to prevent the further movement of the detachment.[2] In the battle of Argvani against the Grabbe detachment, in addition to the inhabitants of the village, a detachment of Dagestanis and Chechens under the command of Shamil participated. Approximately from 2900 to 4000 thousand from different free societies between the rivers Avar Koisu, Sulak and Argun[3]
Onslaught Start
Expedition in the mountains in the Caucasus by A. P. Berge, (1874)
The constant rise over 12 versts exhausted the troops. It took two days until the development of the descent from the top of Suuk-Bulak to a small platform, which is one of the ledges of the southern slope of the ridge, continued. The road had to be carved into the rocks, the cliffs had to be torn with gunpowder.[2]
On 30 May 1839, Russian troops approached the village of Argvani by noon. Shamil thoroughly fortified the village. The village itself consisted of 500 thick-walled stone houses located in six tiers along the slopes of the mountain. Each house was like a separate fortress that could not be taken without an assault. All streets were fortified with stone blockages. The aul itself had natural protection, any mistake when moving along narrow paths could cost a lot, falling into the abyss.[3]
At 5 pm the battery opened heavy fire on the village. Neither mountain nor light guns could cause significant harm to the highlanders, closed by thick walls and cliffs. Cannonballs flew off the stone walls. The highlanders also opened well-aimed rifle fire from loopholes at the troops. At some distance from the village, a round fortification was built in the form of a low tower with loopholes. The 4th battalion of the Apsheron Regiment, despite the well-aimed shots of the highlanders and the difficulties of the approach, rushed with bayonets and quickly broke into the fortification, hand-to-hand combat ensued. Murids desperately resisted, and they all died there. But then the offensive was halted by a deep ditch. Both Absheron battalions suffered quite a big loss. The first day of the assault, despite the attempts of the Russian troops to break into the village before dark, was not crowned with success. The assault on Argvani was scheduled for the morning of 31 May.[3]
The course of the battle
Village in the mountains of Dagestan by G. G. Gagarin, (1847)
At dawn, on a signal, all three columns with drumming moved to storm. In the right column of Colonel Labyntsev, two battalions (the 2nd Kabardian and the 2nd Kurinsky) rushed to the beam at a quick pace, descended into it and began to climb the steep ascent on all fours to the village itself, under deadly rifle fire from all the houses. At the same time, the 1st Kurinsky battalion with difficulty made its way down the left side of the stream and rushed to the front blockages, from which the enemy hit the assault columns from the flank. These blockages were defended by the most desperate murids, who decided to lay their lives here. The rapid movement of the columns showed the mountaineers that they could not be held back by the strongest fire, then the murids themselves rushed to the meeting of the columns with sabers and daggers in their hands and died under the blows of the bayonets of the forward teams. Some remained in hutches until their last breath, refusing all salvation, selling their lives dearly. Despite the desperate defense, Labyntsev’s column broke into the village and occupied the front ranks of the hut, meanwhile, Colonel Pullo’s column invaded from the other side. After that, a stubborn, hand-to-hand fight began in the village itself, in the streets and houses.[1]
Here for the first time I got into the very dump; every step forward has cost us many sacrifices; the narrow path was still embarrassed by the many wounded and killed, both ours and the enemy. However, ours nevertheless broke into the cemetery fence with the usual shout of “Hurrah” and began to climb onto the flat roofs of houses, from which the highlanders continued to shoot back. To our right, the same battle was in full swing in Labyntsev's column: and here the highlanders defended themselves desperately; some fanatics, jumping out of the rubble or houses, threw themselves into checkers towards the storming columns.
The most courageous murids, remaining in the village, decided to defend themselves to the last extreme. The location of the Dagestan auls is extremely convenient for defense: stone sacks of several floors, with flat roofs, are located one above the other, narrow winding streets sometimes pass through the gates of the towers, under canopies and galleries. Each saklya can serve as a blockhouse, each quarter as a citadel.[1]
By 9 o’clock in the morning, the troops occupied most of the village, the flat roofs of those houses where the murids stubbornly defended themselves. However, the battle in Argvani continued all day until dark. There was no other way to force the highlanders out of the stone houses but to punch a hole in the roofs, throw in combustibles and set fire to the beams. Despite this, the murids remained for several hours in the house, sometimes they managed to break through their exits and hide through hidden messages from one sakli to another, but many bodies were found charred. For all their disadvantageous position, the highlanders managed to inflict a lot of harm on the troops. With swords and daggers, they fought back one by one until they died on bayonets, while some murids rushed at dozens of soldiers without any weapons. Only 15 people, suffocating inside one hut from smoke and hand grenades thrown there, agreed to surrender. Many soldiers died from their own negligence, rushing into the inside of the hut, there were no fewer casualties from the enemy, the streets were littered with corpses.[1]
Completion of the assault
By the end of the day, a significant part of Argvani still remained in the hands of the Murids, in particular, a tower of several tiers on the eastern tip of the village cost a bloody battle, where all the efforts of the assault teams were in vain. By evening, they managed to drag two mountain and two Cossack guns into the village and put them on the roofs of the nearest houses in order to make a breach in the tower.[4] In spite of everything, the highlanders did not give up, at night they took the most stringent measures to completely encircle the village, especially those huts in which the enemy was still. At night, the surviving murids began to leave Argvani, some of them engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the chains of rangers, others in the dark, by negligence, fell off the cliffs into a precipice. Few managed to leave the village.[3]
The assault began at 4 pm on 30 May and continued until dawn on 1 June, resulting in 36 hours of uninterrupted fighting. "A gigantic battle, " Grabbe notes in his diary, "this thunderous blow will long be remembered in the mountains, hundreds of bodies converged in our hands, except for those taken away according to custom. 25 people were taken prisoner, our damage is great…[5]
Losses
Official Russian data 146 killed (including 6 officers) and 500 wounded (including 30 officers), General A. I. Panteleev was seriously wounded.[2]
According to other sources, more than 2,000 thousand soldiers were out of action in the Grabbe detachment, killed and wounded. The losses incurred at Argvani forced Grabbe to turn to General E. Golovin with a request to send reinforcements from the Samur detachment (three battalions).[3]
According to the military historian L. A. Boguslavsky, 600 Murids were killed and 1,500 people were wounded in this battle.[2]
Effects
After the capture of Argvani, the troops continued to move through Chirkata to the capital of the imamate Akhulgo. After an 80-day siege, the Akhulgo fortress fell. Shamil with close murids went to Chechnya.
Imam Shamil was the political, military, and spiritual leader of North Caucasian resistance to Imperial Russia in the 1800s, the third Imam of the Caucasian Imamate (1840–1859), and a Sunni Muslim sheikh of the Naqshbandi Sufis.
The Battle of Cassano was fought in 1799 from 27 to 28 April near Cassano d'Adda, which about 28 km (17 mi) ENE of Milan. The clash is part of the battle of the Adda River or the so-called forcing of the Adda, which on the first day of 26 April resulted in a minor victory for the Russians under the Count Suvorov over Barthélemy Schérer's French forces at Lecco. Then, on the second day, Suvorov's Austrians and Cossacks prevailed over Jean Moreau's army, who replaced Schérer as supreme commander, and trapped his isolated division on the third. The action took place during the War of the Second Coalition, as part of the larger conflict known as the French Revolutionary Wars.
The siege of Izmail or Ismail / Ishmael / İzmail, also called the storming of Izmail, was a military action fought in 1790 on the Black Sea during the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792) and simultaneously the Austro-Turkish War (1788–91). The Russians were led by Alexander Suvorov, who had defeated the Ottomans at Kinburn, Focsani, and Rymnik, as well as participating in the siege of Ochakov. The Black Sea rowing flotilla was commanded by the Spanish admiral José de Ribas. It is regarded as one of Suvorov's finest victories and one of the greatest deeds in world military history.
The siege of Akhulgo took place in June–August 1839 during the Caucasian War between the Russian Empire and the Caucasian Imamate led by Shamil. General Pavel Grabbe besieged Imam Shamil in the rock-fortress of Akhulgo. After 80 days the rock was taken and most of the defenders were killed, but Shamil managed to escape.
The Battle of the Valerik River on 11 July 1840 was fought as part of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus. It occurred about 30 km southwest of the fortress of Groznaya between forces of the Imperial Russian Army and North Caucasian mountaineers led by the naib (viceroy) Ahberdila Muhammad. It remains famous because of the poem "Valerik" by Mikhail Lermontov, a participant.
The Battle(s) of Dargo or Dargo Campaign of 1845 was a series of military actions during the Murid War, the eastern phase of the Caucasus War of 1817–1864. During the campaign, Mikhail Vorontsov penetrated too deeply into enemy country, was surrounded, and partially fought his way out with heavy losses and was rescued by General R. K. Freitag.
The Battle of Aldy, also known as the Battle of the Sunzha River was a failed military expedition launched by the Russian Empire with the aim of capturing Sheikh Mansur, who, through his speeches and teachings had gained a wide following the North Caucasus, especially in his hometown Aldy. His teachings on Jihad ("Gazavat") and his idea of the unification of the North Caucasian tribes under a single Islamic state concerned the Russian administration, who, as a result, sent a 3,000 strong force under Nikolai de Pieri in order to capture him.
The Battle of Ichkeria (1842) was an attempt by General Grabbe to take Imam Shamil's capital at Dargo during the Russian conquest of the Caucasus. It failed because of the difficulty of moving a large force through the forest.
The Russian conquest of Chechnya and Dagestan, between 1829 and 1859 also called the Murid War, was the eastern component of the Caucasian War of 1817–1864. In the Murid War, the Russian Empire conquered the independent peoples of the eastern Ciscaucasus.
Isa of Ghendargen was a Chechen General during the Caucasian War, who commanded the Eastern and Central Fronts of Caucasian Imamate. He is also one of the great commanders in Chechen history. Isa was of the Ghendargnoy teip and Appaz-Nek'e.
Shuaib-Mulla of Tsentara was a North Caucasian commander and naib of the Caucasian Imamate during the Caucasian War. He was one of Imam Shamil's closest associates and was nicknamed the "Marshal of the Forests" for his skill in guerrilla warfare by Count Pavel Grabbe.
The Battle of Gordali was one of the fiercest battles of the Caucasian War. The battle between the Separate Caucasian Corps of the Caucasian Army under the command of Colonel Baklanov and the Chechen troops under the leadership of Naibs Eski and Talkhig took place on August 11, 1852, near the village of Gurdali, located on the Michik River. The purpose of the campaign was to destroy the village of Gordali. The Russians managed to break into the village, but due to heavy losses Baklanov was forced to retreat.
Vasily Aleksandrovich Geyman (1823-1878) was a Russian lieutenant general who was notable for his participation in the Caucasian War and the Russo-Turkish War.
Count Nikolai Ivanovich Yevdokimov was a Russian infantry general who took part in the Caucasian War on both the western and eastern fronts. He played a major role in the Circassian genocide.
Uma Duyev was a Chechen military leader, mudir and naib of Imam Shamil. He later was naib of Kiyalala and other nearby Dagestani villages, as well as Zumsoy, a representative of the Zumsoy clan, and a participant in the Caucasian War of 1817–1864 as a naib and commander. He was a leader in the uprisings in Chechnya in 1860–1861 and 1877 and Chechen national hero.
Murtazeki or Murtaziq was a military formation of the Caucasian Imamate and Circassia. They were professional paid soldiers who made up the guards of the state. Initially organized by Shamil as a combat unit, the border troops, in peacetime, performed the functions of the police, and were also the personal guards of the imam. They were subdivided into tens, hundreds and five hundred; each of these parts had its own chief.
The battle of Khankala happened on 17 February 1807. In this action, the Khankala fortification was taken by storm. Russian forces entered Chechnya from three directions under the command of General of Infantry S. A. Bulgakov. The purpose of the expedition was to establish control over the strategically important Khankala Gorge.
The assault on Germenchuk took place on 23 August 1832, one of the battles of the Caucasian War. Some 9,000 Russian troops under the command of General Velyaminov stormed the Chechen village, where they met 3,800 defenders.
Bakhu Bike I or Pahu Bike was the daughter of Umma Khan V and the wife of Sultan Ahmed Khan. She was one of the very few women known to have had influence over the affairs of the state in the Avar Khanate.
Tovbolat Kurchaloevsky also known as Tovbolat-Hajji was a Chechen outlaw (abrek) and military figure who participated in the Caucasian War.
1 2 3 4 5 Далгатович, Джамалудинов Магомедгази (17 November 2009). "Сражение в селении Аргвани летом 1839 года". Известия Дагестанского государственного педагогического университета. Общественные и гуманитарные науки (3): 16–20 – via cyberleninka.ru.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Russian Empire 
Caucasian Imamate 
