ABSTRACT
In 1817, when he left the Line to visit Persia, Yermóloff gave orders to build the small fort called Prigradni Stan, near the present Mikhailovskaya stanitsa, a proceeding which was viewed with alarm and disfavour by the Tchet chens, so that when he returned the following year he found them anything but peaceable. This, however, only confirmed him in his ideas, and he set to work without delay to build his “ menace ” in stone.2
