ABSTRACT
The narrow escape of 1845 convinced Vorontsov that ‘now we have to follow a less offensive system, a more systematic war, which will in due time improve our situation here in a more certain, albeit less spectacular, fashion’. 1 In his correspondence and discussions with the emperor, whom he met in the Crimea during the second half of September 1845, 2 the viceroy succeeded in persuading the tsar to return fully to the siege strategy. Thus, the areas under Shamil’s rule were to be encircled by steadily closing defensive lines.
