ABSTRACT
W it h the signature of the Treaty of Paris Russia was once more free to devote her energies and resources to the sub jugation of the Caucasus. The war just concluded had opened her eyes widely to the danger and disadvantages inseparable from the existence of a hostile power within her own borders. She determined to put an end, once for all, to a position which had become intolerable. Prince Bariâtinsky was appointed commander-in-chief and viceroy of the Caucasus (22nd July 1856), Milioutine his chief of the staff ; and, for the first time, a definite and feasible plan was worked out between them of combined operations, the result of which was to exceed their most sanguine expecta tions; for not even they had any idea of the extent to which Russia’s position had improved in Daghestan and Tchetchnia during the comparatively quiet period of the great war. That improvement was due to two causes-the strengthening of the military lines by the building of forts, the improvement of roads, and the cutting of vast avenues through the forest districts, all of which, of course, they knew very well ; but much more to the gradual waning of
Shamil’s authority and influence with the tribes, the full extent of which they by no means realised.
