The North Caucasus Line (Russian: Кавказская линия) was a line of Russian forts and Cossack settlements along the north side of the Caucasus Mountains. Originating in the mid-16th century with a small number of free Cossacks near the Caspian Sea, from the mid-18th century the line was pushed west and used as a base to conquer the mountains to the south and to settle the steppes to the north.
Background
Geography The distribution of Cossack settlements was determined by three roughly parallel lines. The first was the line between the Caucasus foothills and the lowlands. The second was the line between forest and steppe. It is difficult to trace this line, as much of the forest has been cleared for agriculture, but it is clear that a belt of forest steppe extended north of the foothills onto the plain. The third line was marked by three, and later five, rivers. In the east, the Terek River catches the rivers that flow north from the Caucasus and drains them into the Caspian. In the west, the Kuban River drains the Caucasus rivers west into the Sea of Azov. In the center, the Malka River catches the mountain rivers and flows east into the Terek. The Terek, Malka, and Kuban made a natural military line. Later two other rivers became important. The Terek first flows north, turns somewhat west, and makes a bend before flowing east. Inside this bend, the Sunzha River flows northeast into the Terek and catches most of the mountain rivers. Once the Terek was controlled, it became the next military line. In the west, the Kuban also flows north before swinging west. Inside this curve, the north-flowing Laba River was the next military line.
In the east, along the Terek, the soil is poor and rainfall is low. Dense peasant settlement became possible only when the line was pushed west to the Stavropol highland in the center in the late 18th century.
Around 1500, Russia began to push south from its heartland in Muscovy. Everything south of the Black Sea and the Caucasus was controlled by the Nogai nomads. In 1556, Russia moved down the Volga, capturing Astrakhan at the north end of the Caspian Sea. The land south of the Terek along the Caspian Sea was controlled by various Khanates nominally subject to Persia, the northernmost of which later became the Shamkhalate of Tarki.
Caucasus Cossacks
Cossacks lived all along the southern Russian frontier; most were of non-Russian ancestry. Originally runaway serfs and adventurers who went to the frontier to live a free life, they were gradually brought under government control by being hired as mercenaries. By the later period, the Cossack was basically a fighting farmer who supported himself but was available for military service. Their usual duties were guarding villages against raiders, protecting convoys, especially along the Georgian Military Road, and serving as auxiliaries to the regular army. Cossack villages attracted locals who were slowly absorbed into the Cossack community. Georgians and Armenians moved to the north side of the mountains, some of them becoming Cossacks. In 1829, vagrants (brodyagi) were rounded up and made to work in Cossack villages for three years, after which they might become Cossacks. Although they normally had to be Orthodox, a number of Cossacks, including military officers, were Muslim. They adopted the local dress and economic methods. Horses and weapons were often bought from the mountaineers. In 1828, Cossacks were forbidden to approach peasants working in the fields because they could not be distinguished from native raiders. Raiding between Cossacks and natives was common. The local people also raided each other, but reports of Cossacks raiding other Cossacks are few. When they were not raiding each other there was a good deal of economic and personal interaction. This was especially true in the early period, in which there were many free Cossacks, whom the government were unaware of. In 1744, the Greben Cossacks had 450 men but could round up 1,500 more if they recruited using financial incentives. Free Cossacks usually appear in the records as “criminal fugitive Cossacks” when they engaged in raiding or piracy. Before the Russian state began a serious attempt at conquest in the early 19th century, the Caucasus Cossacks were almost another local tribe.
History
c. 1550–1711: Early Settlements
Free Cossacks were living on the lower Terek by the first half of the 16th century. The usual dates are 1520 and 1563, but the matter is very obscure.This is moved off to a footnote since the sources are contradictory. Barrett (page 3) prefers 1563 citing a 1963 Russian source. :Ru:Терские казаки says that in that year voivode Pleshcheev led 500 streltsy to the Terek, apparently from Astrakhan. Another story is that they came from Ryazan in 1520 when that principality was annexed by Moscow. Terek Cossacks says that the 1520 people settled at the mouth of the Aktash River and associates them with the Greben Cossacks. The source for 1520 is not clear. Further, the Aktash probably dried up before reaching the Terek and therefore did not have a mouth. James Forsyth ('The Caucasus', 2013, page 220) says "it is unknown when..." and gives up. A tale collected in 1728 claimed that Andrei Shadrin (Cossack) went south to found Endirey while his companion went north to become Yermak, the conqueror of Siberia. 18th and 19th- century travelers collected other tales which need not be repeated To the west of the Terek Cossacks lived the Greben Cossacks.They are usually placed on the east-west Terek Ridge (‘greben’) located south of the Terek west of the mouth of the Sunzha. Another story (Barrett, page 14) has them coming from the village of Grebna on the Don, which is hard to locate. By 1774 they were east of the mouth of the Sunzha and west of Kizliar (Tsutsiev, Map 4) They were formally distinguished in 1736. Before that date, a distinction between Greben and Terek Cossacks is questionable. Few records are available from this period, those which do exist pertain mostly to matters of warfare.
Early forts: In 1556, Russia occupied Astrakhan at the head of the Caspian Sea and began interacting with Kabardia in the center of the North Caucasus. In 1567, Sunzha Ostrog (1567–1579) was built at the mouth of the Sunzha at the east end of Kabardian territory. It moved several times. It was abandoned under Turkish pressure in 1571, rebuilt in 1578, then was abandoned again the following year. In 1588 Tersky Gorod (1588–1722)Tersky Gorod is Barrett's preferred term and is used here for clarity. Other writers call it Tersky Gorodok, Tersk, Terki, and Terka and some confuse it with Tarki in Dagestan. :RU:Терский город says that Tersky Gorod was the original name of Sunzha Ostrog. It was moved several times and its sites have probably been washed away. There was a place called Tyumen nearby which was washed away before Tersky Gorod was built. It is possible that terms like Tersky Gorod and Terki meant something like "our main fort on the Terek" without regard to where it was located in any given year. Walter Richmond, (Northwest Caucasus, 2008) seems to use Tersk in this way. was founded in the Terek delta. In 1623, it had 500 Cossacks on the government payroll. By the late 17th century, it is said to have had a population of 20,000,Barrett, page 20, sic mostly non-Russian. In 1708, it was burned by "Kuban Tatars". It was abandoned in 1722. In 1635, Sunzha Ostrog (1635–1653) was restored. In 1653 Persia forced its abandonment (the so-called Russo-Persian War (1651-1653)).
Early Wars: Russian relations with Kabardia were more diplomatic than militaristic. In 1560, four years after the capture of Astrakhan, Cheremisinov attacked Tarki, burned it and withdrew. In 1594, Prince Khvorostinin led 5,000 Terek, Astrakhan and Yaik Cossacks south to attack Tarki, but was soundly defeated. Later on in 1604–05, Ivan Buturlin attacked Tarki as well, but was also defeated. In both of these conflicts, the Dagestanis allowed the Russians to take the town, only to surround, harass, and attack them when they were forced to retreat. The first war was requested by the Kabardians and the last two by the Georgian kings who did nothing to help. In 1605, the rebel Ilya Muromets was on the Terek. In 1614, some Terek Cossacks helped attack Ivan Zarutsky at Astrakhan. In the 1680s, 1,500 Don Cossack Old Believers settled on the Kuma River.
1711–1763: the Russian state gains control of the Cossacks
Around 1711, the Greben Cossacks moved to a more defensible position on the north bank of the Terek. In 1717, some 500 of them participated in Prince Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky's campaign against the Khanate of Khiva in Central Asia. Only two returned. In 1720, the Greben Cossacks were placed under the governor of Astrakhan, then under the Russian War College () the following year. In 1722, the Russian Emperor Peter the Great tried to conquer the west side of the Caspian Sea. The entire garrison of Tersky Gorod was moved 130 miles south to Svyatoy Krest (Holy Cross) Fort (1722–1736) on the lower Sulak River. Tersky Gorod was abandoned and only the Greben Cossacks remained on the Terek. In 1723-24, 1,000 families of Don Cossacks were moved to the Sulak and its Agrakhan branch, forming the Agrakhan Cossack Host. Svyatoy Krest was too far advanced and even more unhealthy than the lower Terek. When it was abandoned in 1735–36, only 200 of its garrison had survived to be moved to the new fort at Kizlyar. The Cossacks who moved back north became the Terek-Semeinoe Host (between the Greben Cossacks and Kizlyar) and the Terek-Kizlyar HostTsutsiev, Map 4 for 1774, has the Nizovoye Cossacks at the same place as Barrett's Terek-Kizlyar Host, so the two names may mean the same or official names may have changed, reflecting some kind of reorganization. Tsutsiev does not recognize the Terek Semeinoye Host and has the Greben Cossacks extending from the mouth of the Sunzha to Kizlyar. (east of Kizlyar on the lower Terek). The Terek-Kizlyar Host had the worst land and less than 200 men on active duty. About a third of them were converted natives. The Terek-Semeinoe Host had about 450 men for most of the period, most of whom were descended from Don Cossacks. They were merged with the Greben Cossacks in 1745 and separated again in 1755. Kizlyar (1735–present) was founded on the Terek when Svyatoy Krest was abandoned and remained the largest Russian town in the Caucasus until Stavropol surpassed it in the early 19th century. In 1773, Kizlyar had a garrison of 1,277 men and a civilian and Cossack population of 4,197. Only 8% of the population was Russian. The town had three Orthodox churches, one monastery, four mosques, and one Armenian church.
1763–1864: Westward expansion, massive peasant colonization and war in the mountains
In the mid-18th century, there were only 1,162 active-duty Cossacks in the North Caucasus. By 1851, there were 86,538.