ABSTRACT
Arguably, the colonization of the Caucasus was the defining event for the Russian empire in the nineteenth century. Although military rivalry with Britain lasted the best part of 70 years, interrupted by one, brief 'hot' war in the Crimean peninsula mid-century, Russia's military advance towards Asia and the battle to suppress northern Caucasian resistance to its rule was the longest military operation which either the Russian empire or the Soviet Union has yet experienced. From the 1780s to 1865, it absorbed a continual stream of Russian recruits. Even after the defeat of the Chechens and other mountain peoples, a considerable proportion of Russia's late nineteenthcentury defence budget was allocated to provide a large reserve force in the northern Caucasus to cope with continual revolts against tsarist rule. In contrast, for the past two centuries, Chechnya's history - and the history of large tracts of the Caucasus - has been defined largely by the battle against Russian and Soviet attempts to subdue it.
