The Circassian genocide,; ; ; or Tsitsekun, was the systematic mass killing, ethnic cleansing, and forced displacement of between 95% and 97% of the Circassian people during the final stages of the Russian invasion of Circassia in the 19th century. It resulted in the deaths of up to 1.5 million people and the destruction of Circassia, which was then annexed by the Russian Empire.Sources: : "The number who died in the Circassian catastrophe of the 1860s could hardly, therefore, have been fewer than one million, and may well have been closer to one-and-a-half million" : "[...] we can safely say between 600,000 and 750,000 actually made it to a ship to be sent to Turkey during 1864.90 If just 10 percent of the people driven to the coast died there (almost certainly an underestimate), the figure rises to between 660,000 and 825,000 people who made it to the shore. As for those who died en route from the mountains to the Black Sea coast, and keeping in mind a report that only 370 out of one party of 600 made it to the shore, a 10 percent death rate for this part of the journey is again extremely conservative. This would mean that a minimum of between 726,000 and 907,500 Circassians were sent down the mountains. If we add to that another 10 percent who died hiding and fleeing from the Russians, the figure rises to between 798,600 and 998,225. Add to that the Circassians who died as a result of battles with Russians over the last years of the war, and a potential population in 1860 of 1.25 to 1.5 million is not unreasonable. This means that, even with the most conservative mortality estimates, at least 625,000 Circassians died during Evdokimov's operations."
Those planned for extermination were mainly the Circassians, who are predominantly Muslims, but other ethnic groups in the Caucasus were also affected, as part of the Caucasian War. The Imperial Russian Army also impaled their victims and tore open the bellies of pregnant women to intimidate the Circassians and devastate their morale. Many Russian generals, such as Grigory Zass, described the Circassians as a "lowly race" to justify and glorify their wholesale slaughter and their use as human test subjects in unethical scientific experiments. Russian soldiers were also permitted to rape Circassian women.
The native Circassian population was largely decimated or expelled to the Ottoman Empire. Only those who accepted Russification and made agreements with Russian troops, were spared. Starvation was used as a tool of war against Circassian villages, many of which were subsequently burned down. Russian writer Leo Tolstoy reported that Russian soldiers attacked village houses at night. British diplomat Gifford Palgrave, stated that "their only crime was not being Russian." Seeking military intervention against Russia, Circassian officials sent "A Petition from Circassian leaders to Her Majesty Queen Victoria" in 1864, but were unsuccessful in their attempt to solicit aid from the British Empire.Enclosed in Despatch No.3 From Sir Henry Bulwer to Earl Russell, Constantinople, April 12, 1864 (FO 881/1259) That same year, the Imperial Russian Army launched a campaign of mass deportation of Circassia's surviving population. By 1867, a large portion of the Circassians were expelled. Many died from epidemics or starvation. Some were reportedly eaten by dogs after their death, while others died when their ships sank during storms on the Black Sea.
Most sources state that as little as 3% of Circassia's population remained after the genocide; : "If we assume that Berzhe's middle figure of 50,000 was close to the number who survived to settle in the lowlands, then between 95 percent and 97 percent of all Circassians were killed outright, died during Evdokimov's campaign, or were deported.": "with one estimate showing that the indigenous population of the entire north-western Caucasus was reduced by a massive 94 percent." and that as many as 1.5 million people were forced to flee in total, though only about half of them survived the journey. Ottoman archives show the intake of more than a million immigrants from the Caucasus by 1879, with nearly half of them having been found dying on the shores of the Black Sea as a result of disease. Assuming that these statistics are accurate, Russia's military campaign in Circassia constitutes the single largest genocide of the 19th century. Russian records, in confirmation of the Ottoman archives, documented the presence of only 106,798 Circassians in the Caucasus at the turn of the 20th century. Other estimates by Russian historiographers are even lower, ranging from 40,400 to 65,900. The Russian Empire census, conducted in 1897, reported the presence of 150,000 Circassians in the conquered region.
On 20 May 2011, Georgia formally recognized the Circassian genocide. Ukraine recognized the Circassian genocide on 9 January 2025, following Circassian appeals in June 2024. The city of Wayne, New Jersey in the United States and the East Turkistan Government in Exile have also officially recognized the Circassian genocide. On 7 February 1992 the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic condemned the Circassian Genocide. On 12 May 1994 the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria and on 29 April 1996 the Republic of Adygea submitted applications to the State Duma of the Russian Federation for the recognition of the Circassian Genocide.Постановление Парламента Кабардино-Балкарской Республики от 12.05.1994 № 21-П-П (об обращении в Госдуму с вопросом признания геноцида черкесов) In October 2006, 20+ Circassian associations appealed to the European Parliament to recognize the Circassian Genocide. In November 2006, Circassian associations in the Republics of Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia appealed to Russian president Vladimir Putin to recognize the Circassian Genocide. The Russian Federation classifies the events in Circassia as a mass migration ("muhajirism", , , ) and denies that a genocide took place. 21 May is observed annually as the Circassian Day of Mourning, which consists of ceremonies and marches in memory of the victims and, sometimes, protests against the Russian government. Today, the Circassian diaspora is primarily concentrated in Turkey and Jordan, with some 750,000 living in Russia's North Caucasus Economic Region.
Background
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, although it had already been making attempts since the early 18th century, the Russian Empire began to more actively seek to expand its territory to the south at the expense of the neighboring Ottoman Empire and Qajar Iran, specifically aiming to incorporate the Caucasus into its domain. Some areas proved easier to incorporate than others, largely depending on the nature of local political structures. Eastern Georgia for example, comprising the most powerful and dominant Georgian regions of Kartli and Kakheti, had been under intermittent Iranian suzerainty since the 1555 Peace of Amasya. Russia eventually found itself able, through instability in the geopolitical situation of Georgia within Qajar Iran, to annex eastern Georgia in the early 19th century, ratified in the 1803 Treaty of Gulistan.
Russia endeavored to bring the entire Caucasus region under its control, conquering Armenia, Caucasian Azerbaijan, and southern Dagestan, while co-opting the nobility of other areas such as Lower Kabardia and parts of Dagestan. Although the Russians faced considerable resistance to incorporation in Dagestan and Georgia, as well as military resistance by the local government of Imereti, the regions they felt most difficult of all to incorporate were those that had not been conquered by foreign empires and did not have any local monopolies of power—which was the state of most Circassian territories, where resistance to absorption into the Russian Empire was most tenacious. Prior to the perpetration of genocide by Tsarist Russia, more than 4 million Circassians lived in their homeland in the Caucasus.
The Russian empire's decision to launch genocide against Circassians was driven by anti-Muslim sentiments and by Tsarist Russia's "messianic self-image" as the champion of Eastern Orthodoxy against non-Christian inhabitants in its territories. Russian Tsars viewed the Circassian tribes in the Caucasus as "primitive" humans to either be forcibly converted to Christianity or exterminated and expelled. Imperial army generals further regarded Circassia as a strategic territory to advance Russian expansionism in the Caucasus and surrounding lands.
Prelude: Russo-Circassian War Start of conflicts with Circassia
Circassians, Christianised through Byzantine influence between the 5th and 6th centuries, were generally allied with Georgians. From the 16th century they entered into alliance with Georgia: Georgians and Circassians regarded themselves as constituting a single Christian island in the Black Sea and jointly appealed to Russia for protection. Although there had previously been a small Muslim presence in Circassia, significant conversions came after 1717, when Sultan Murad IV ordered the Crimeans to spread Islam among the Circassians, with the Ottomans seeing success in converting members of the aristocracy who would then ultimately spread the religion to their dependents; Islam gained much more ground later as conversion came to be used to cement defensive alliances to protect their independence against Russian expansion.
During the reign of Catherine II, the Russian army started entering Circassian soil and erecting forts, in an attempt at quick annexation. In 1763, Russian forces occupied the town of Mezdeug (modern-day Mozdok) in Eastern Circassia, turning it into a Russian fortress. Thus began the first hostilities between Circassians and the Russian Empire.
In 1764, Circassian prince Misost Bematuqo Hatokhshoqo started the Circassian resistance in Kabardia (Eastern Circassia).Мальбахов Б. К. Кабарда на этапах политической истории (середина XVI — первая четверть XIX века). — Москва: «Поматур», 2002. — С. 293. — . Hatokhshoqo's resistance was strengthened on 18 October 1768, when the Ottoman sultan, who had recently declared war on Russia, sent a letter to Hatokhshoqo stating that he, through his authority as caliph, was concurrently ordering all Muslims of the Caucasus to officially wage war against Russia.Мальбахов Б. К. Кабарда на этапах политической истории (середина XVI — первая четверть XIX века). — Москва: «Поматур», 2002. — С. 302. — . Russia subsequently annexed the Crimean Khanate in violation of the 1774 Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca with the Ottoman Empire, and following these events, Russian presence in the region increased, with the Circassians requesting help and alliances from the Ottomans.Gen. İsmail Berkok, Tarihte Kafkasya, İstanbul, 1958, s. 371.
Russia introduced courts in Kabardia (Eastern Circassia) in the early 1790s and abolished Adyghe Khabze, the traditional moral code of the Circassians, greatly angering them.
Methods of massacre In 1799, Russian general Fyodor Bursak organized several raids against the Western Circassians, and ordered his men to burn Circassian villages, including those loyal to the Russian Empire. From 1802 to 1806, General Pavel Tsitsianov led campaigns in Circassia and targeted Circassian villages. He referred to the Circassians as "untrustworthy swine" to "show how insignificant they are compared to Russia".Potto, Valisii. Kavkazskaya voina. 1:171
In 1805, a plague struck Kabardia. Using this as an excuse, General Glazenap ordered his forces to burn down 80 villages to terrorize the people into submission and to wreak vengeance upon the Kabardians.