Kabarda in the military-political operation of Shamil

The article analyzes the preparation and implementation by Imam Shamil of Dagestan and Chechnya of his largest military and political operation, the invasion of Kabarda in April 1846. The plan of the campaign was developed by the leader of the mountaineers to expand the Imamate under the influence of the most significant military victories he achieved in 1843-1845. During this period, the rebels destroyed the fortifications of Untsukul, Kharachi, Balakhany, Gergebil, Moksokh, Tsatanykh, Akhalchi, and Gotsatl in Mountainous Dagestan, while the losses of the Russian army amounted to more than 2,000 people killed and captured. The Dargin expedition, undertaken by the governor, the Caucasian Infantry General M.S. Vorontsov, ended in failure, the Separate Caucasian Corps lost more than 3,300 people killed, wounded and missing. The author of the article pays special attention to Shamil’s information and propaganda activities aimed at involving Kabardians in the war with the Russians and uniting the military forces of the Transcuban Circassian tribes under the authority of the imam. The research material includes documents from the collection of “Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeological Commission”, the Russian State Military Historical Archive, the Central State Archives of the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania and the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, and memoirs of participants in the Caucasian War. As a specific aspect of the military operation carried out by the Imam of Chechnya and Dagestan, the author highlights the use of means and methods of psychological warfare to exert beneficial influence on Kabardians and Circassians. The text of the article contains Shamil’s proclamations and appeals to specific ethnic and social groups calling for the creation of a united anti-Russian front from the Dagestan mountains to the eastern coast of the Black Sea.