According to the Gulistan Peace Treaty of 1813, concluded between the Russian Empire and Persia, entire regions of the Caucasus and Transcaucasia were transferred under the control of the northern power. However, by the stroke of a pen signing the document, Tehran and the Winter Palace "forgot" to inquire about the position of the North Caucasian mountaineers regarding this situation. This position turned out to be irreconcilable both towards the Russian Empire and some of their own khans who were ready for compromises.

Russian historians mark the beginning of the Caucasian War from 1817. Fierce combat operations were conducted both in the east of the North Caucasus (Dagestan, Chechnya) and in the west of the region (Kabarda, Circassia, Abkhazia). The mountain peoples, predominantly followers of Islam, fought under religious banners.

In the eastern part of the region, an Islamic state formation was established – the Imamate of Chechnya and Dagestan. According to some data, at various times ethnic Chechen-Kistins (present-day Georgia) and Zakatal Avars (present-day Azerbaijan) also joined its military actions. In 1834, the Imamate was headed by Shamil. Under the new leader, a significant part of the mountain societies joined the Imamate.

The emotional intensity of the confrontation was very high. Statements by imperial generals directly reveal their attitude towards the mountaineers. For example, General Yermolov shared the following plans: "I have laid here a fortress called Groznaya. It will have a garrison of up to a thousand men and will instill fear in the Chechens fivefold. Next year I will build another, smaller fortress and several redoubts at the most convenient fords across the Sunzha, and the Chechens will be more compliant. Then I will destroy the Chechen villages where the most harmful robbers hide under the guise of peaceful people; I will distribute their excellent lands to our Cossacks, who either need them completely or have very inconvenient lands" (1818).

General Sleptsov did not hide his feelings: "What right do these savages have to live on such beautiful land? By the finger of the Lord of the worlds, our August Emperor ordered us to destroy their auls, to kill all men capable of bearing arms, to burn crops, to cut open the bellies of pregnant women so they would not bear bandits..." (1844).

The Emperor was a proponent of military pacification of the Caucasus: "Having thus completed one glorious deed, you are to undertake another, in my eyes equally glorious, and in terms of direct benefits much more important – the pacification forever of the mountain peoples or the extermination of the rebellious" (Nicholas I to Count Paskevich, 1829, after the end of the Russo-Turkish War).

One of the most famous battles of the Caucasian War was the storming of Akhulgo in June–August 1839.

Akhulgo is a mountain located in the present-day Untsukulsky District of Dagestan. In the first half of the 19th century, two auls (Old and New Akhulgo), fortified on this peak, became the capital of the Imamate. Akhulgo, translated from the Avar language, means "Alarm Mountain," "Troubled Mountain." Akhulgo is surrounded by other mountains. To the north, above the Sulak River, rises Mount Salatau. To the east is the Gimry Ridge. To the west is the Andi Ridge. And finally, to the southwest are the Betlinskiye Mountains. The Andi Koysu River, bending around the northern foot of Akhulgo on three sides, forms a peninsula, which is itself divided into two parts by the Ashilta River. The aul Old Akhulgo was located in the western part of the peninsula; in the eastern part, Shamil built New Akhulgo. Both auls, Old and New Akhulgo, occupied two high cliffs. Between them, in a deep gorge, flowed the Ashilta River. At one point, the two cliffs on which the auls stood come close to each other. They were connected by a narrow wooden bridge. Beneath it yawned a 40-meter-deep chasm.

It was here that a punitive expedition of the Russian Imperial Army was sent with the task of ending the irreconcilable mountaineers. Incidentally, one of the participants in the assault was Nikolai Martynov, who two years later would kill the poet Lermontov in a duel in Pyatigorsk.

By the time the troops (led by General Pavel Grabbe) arrived, Mount Akhulgo was encircled by trenches and foxholes. Above the area stood the so-called Surkhaev Tower – named after the master who built several sakli (mountain houses) one on top of another. This was the first objective General Grabbe intended to capture.

The attackers had a multiple numerical advantage and modern artillery. The mountaineers (led by the Imam himself) had knowledge of the terrain and high ground positions.

The battle began with the assault on Surkhaev Tower

https://reveal.world/story/kavkazskaya-vojna-shturm-ahul-go-surhaeva-bashnya

At dawn on June 29, 1839, Russian batteries conducted artillery preparation, opened fire on the tower, and by 9:00 soldiers approached the foot of the mountain from three sides and began climbing. The mountaineers met them with a hail of bullets and stones. After several hours of fierce fighting, the Russians retreated. The slope was soaked with blood and littered with the bodies of the dead. The naib of Imam Shamil, Khiriyasul Alibek, received a severe wound in that battle: "The most astonishing thing ever seen by eyes and heard by ears was the following. The outstanding brave man, muhajir, Avar (al-Avari) Alibek, son of Khiriyasulav, was wounded in the right shoulder by a cannonball fired from a large gun, so that his elbow was torn off but hung by tendons. Alibek, continuing to fight with great passion, said to the fighters around him: 'Cut it off!' – pointing to his hanging elbow. However, they did not cut it off, and Alibek, stepping on the elbow with his foot, cut it off himself with a saber, then continued the battle holding the weapon in the other hand" (from the memoirs of Haidarbek Genichutlinsky). A week later, the brave man passed away...

Meanwhile, the Russians launched another assault. Soldiers were equipped with wooden shields padded with felt to protect their heads and chests from stones thrown by the mountaineers. The first wave of attack was again repelled, but the artillery continued to pound the tower. The defenders were either killed by fire or buried under the rubble. The soldiers occupied the position without resistance, and General Grabbe ordered the artillery batteries to advance.

On July 12, three infantry battalions with artillery under Colonel Wrangel arrived to assist the attackers. The troop strength increased to 13,000. Thirty artillery pieces were aimed at the fortress.

On July 16, another assault began. The mountaineers defended themselves with rare stubbornness. Even women disguised as Circassians fought alongside the murids.

In the heat of the battle, about 1,500 soldiers and officers crowded on a narrow isthmus, forming a perfect target for the mountaineer marksmen. The murids, taking advantage of this favorable opportunity, unleashed a hail of bullets from numerous loopholes and barricades on the attackers. Suffering heavy losses from enemy fire, the battalions surged forward but found a second deep ditch behind a small clearing, under crossfire from two hidden caponiers. The situation for the imperial soldiers became catastrophic. The narrow path for possible retreat was blocked by many dead and wounded.

Moreover, Russian units were almost without officers. Wrangel himself was seriously wounded; other commanders were either killed or also wounded. Some soldiers were even thrown into the abyss by the incredible crush. At nightfall, an order from Grabbe to retreat was received. Collecting the wounded and the bodies of the dead, the exhausted troops silently withdrew behind the lower ridge.

The battalions under Wrangel were no longer able to continue the assault the next day. In the other two columns, no decisive clashes occurred. The Russian detachment suffered heavy losses this time: 7 officers and 153 soldiers killed, 31 officers and 580 soldiers wounded.

The situation was ambiguous. Akhulgo remained under the control of the Imamate forces, but numerical superiority still lay with the enemy. On the other hand, disease among the Russian troops increased significantly due to prolonged stay in one place, where the air was poisoned by the rotting corpses and endless suffocating heat prevailed. Difficulties also arose in supplying the huge army.

Imam Shamil rejected the terms of surrender, and on August 17 the assault was resumed. On the 21st, the fifth assault on the mountain began. Fierce clashes erupted in the aul, with mountain women fighting alongside the men.

Grabbe described the details in a report to General Golovin:

"The battle was terrible. Women took the most active part in it with weapons in their hands; even children threw stones at the attacking troops; mothers with their children threw themselves off the cliff rather than be taken prisoner, and entire families were buried alive under the ruins of their sakli, but they did not surrender. Mercy was out of the question except for those who laid down their arms at the beginning of the assault. The rest (up to 1,500 people) decided to die and responded to the surrender proposal with rifle shots and dagger strikes."

Colonel Milyutin (later the empire’s Minister of War) was also impressed:

"The mountaineers, despite inevitable death, refused to surrender and defended themselves with frenzy: women and children with stones or daggers in their hands threw themselves at bayonets or in despair threw themselves into the abyss to certain death. It is difficult to depict all the scenes of this terrible fanatical battle: mothers killed their children with their own hands so that they would not fall into Russian hands; entire families perished under the ruins of sakli. Some murids, exhausted by wounds, still wanted to sell their lives dearly: even while surrendering their weapons, they treacherously killed those who wanted to take them."

By two o’clock in the afternoon on August 22, Russian banners were flying over both auls. The 80-day epic of Akhulgo was over.

However, minor skirmishes continued for almost another week. It was especially difficult to drive the mountaineers out of caves dug into the steep bank of the Koysu. To reach the murids holed up in the caves, Russian soldiers descended into the last refuges of the mountaineers on ropes.

About two dozen people led by the wounded Imam managed to break out of Akhulgo. Shamil’s wife, Djavgarat, and their infant son Said died during the assault. Shamil’s eldest son, Jamaluddin, was given as amanat (hostage) to Grabbe.

Having escaped the encirclement, Imam Shamil continued the struggle. After the battle for Akhulgo, the Caucasian War in the Dagestan-Chechen direction lasted another long 20 years...

Sources:

https://chernovik.net/index.php/content/sredniy-klass/bitva-za-ahulgo Akhulgo