ABSTRACT
T he only consolation Vórontsoff could offer the Emperor for the heavy loss sustained was that “ the mountaineers have now learnt that we can reach them in places hitherto deemed inaccessible.” 1 He determined in future to ad vance systematically, cautiously, and to seize only what could permanently be held ; but he had yet more than one sharp lesson to learn, and it was left to his successor, Prince Bariatinsky, a whole decade later, to carry out at last, in its entirety, Veliameenoff’s sage advice. Meantime the year 1846 was to be devoted mainly to constructive work, the strengthening of existing forts and fortresses, the addition of new ones, the improvement of barrack accommodation, the building of a military road from Akhtee into Georgia over the main chain, and the better co-ordination and disposition of the various forces con stituting the army of the Caucasus. The 5th Army Corps as such was to return to Russia, leaving its second battalions as the nucleus of a whole new division, to consist of four five-battalion regiments of infantry, with a proportionate increase of artillery and engineers. No offensive operations on a large scale were contemplated, and if any serious fighting took place it could only be as a result of hostile
movements on Shamil’s part. From him, at the beginning of the year, the greatest danger seemed to threaten the valley of the Alazân in Georgia, which lay open to incursion from the north at more points than one. Happily the Lesghian Line, guarding it, was in the strong hands of General Schwartz, with whom, from the Samour district, Argouteensky vigilantly co-operated, so fully occupying the attention of the Murid leaders that their plans were rendered abortive and the peril to Georgia averted.1 Baffled in this direction, Shamil threatened ostentatiously the territories of the Darghee confederacy while secretly pre paring for the invasion of Kabardâ, the most audacious and unexpected of all his military enterprises, the one that in case of success promised most profit to himself and his cause, most trouble and danger to Russia.
