6 Vorontsov's Campaign of 1845: A Reconstruction and Reinterpretation 1

The Russians tried to crush the Muslim resistance in Chechnia and Daghestan with a single mighty blow since its beginning in 1829. In 1832 they managed to ‘trap’ the first imam (leader), Ghazi Muhammad, in Gimry and defeat him. Although Ghazi Muhammad was killed in this battle, the resistance did not stop. A second imam—Hamza Bek—took over, and after his assassination in 1834 Shamil succeeded him and would become the greatest and most famous imam. ² In 1839 the Russians finally ‘trapped’ Shamil in Akhulgo. After an 80-day-long siege the Russians conquered Akhulgo, but Shamil managed to escape with his immediate family and several devotees. ³ Nevertheless, his leadership seemed to have reached its end. As his official chronicler wrote, Shamil was ‘like a dropped rag; no one looked at him and no one approached him’. ⁴ By the end of 1840, thanks to a chain of events involving bad harvest, Russian follies, English intrigues, Mehemet Ali's involvement and, most important, the mountaineers’ love of freedom and the imam's personal qualities, ‘all the tribes between the Sunja and the Avar Koysu [rivers] submitted to the iron will of Shamil, acknowledging him as absolute ruler’. ⁵