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The battle of Valerik took place on July 11 ( 23 ), 1840 , about 39 km south-west of the fortress of Grozny (now the city of Grozny ) between the Chechen detachment of the Russian army, Lieutenant General A.V. 1] Imam Shamil Akhberdilava [7] during the expedition of Russian troops against the rebels. One of the most famous battles of the Caucasian War thanks to the poem of M. Yu. Lermontov who participated in the battle.
Content
Situation in the eastern Caucasus on the eve of the battle
In the spring of 1840, an attempt to disarm the population of Chechnya provoked discontent, which resulted in an uprising of the Chechens against the Russian authorities. Shamil took advantage of this by appointing Ahberdil Muhammad to the Little Chechnya as the foremost. Soon, he managed to call for an uprising of supra-Chechens, Galashevets and Karabulaks . The Russian authorities were forced to organize a military expedition against the rebels.
On July 6 ( 18 ), 1840 , Galafeev’s detachment marched from Grozny and acted south and south-west of the fortress, ruining the fields and villages belonging to the rebels, which were completely abandoned by the inhabitants. The enemy did not take any decisive action, but the constant exchange of fire exhausted the soldiers and led to casualties in the squad. By July 10 (22) the detachment reached the village of Gekhi . The further path lay to the village of Achkhoy, the road to which lay through the Gekhinsky forest and crossed the river Valerik . The rebels, apparently, assumed such a direction of movement of the Russian detachment, therefore, on the shores of Valerik, they built plots and debris in advance within three days. On July 11 (23), the Galafeev detachment advanced from the village of Gekhi towards Valerik.
Composition and strength of parties
| Forward detachment (Col. E. A. Beloselsky-Belozersky ) | |
|---|---|
| 8 hundred Don Cossacks *, 2 horse implements | |
| The vanguard of the main forces (Colonel R. K. Freytag ) | |
| 3 battalions of the Kura Eger regiment , 2 companies of sappers (captain Gernet), 1 hundred Don Cossacks *, 1 hundred Mozdok linear Cossack regiment, 4 guns | |
| Center of the main forces (Lieutenant Colonel A. S. Grekulov ) | |
| 1 battalion of the Mingrelsky Eger regiment , 4 guns wagon train | |
| Rearguard of the main forces (Col. A. E. Wrangel ) | |
| 2 battalions of his lordship, Prince of Warsaw, Count Paskevich of the Erivan Regiment, 1 hundred Don Cossacks *, 4 guns | |
| Total squad strength: | 2,000 infantry 1,400 cavalry 14 guns |
| * 37th and 39th Don Regiments | |
The number of mountaineers: Lermontov in a letter to A. A. Lopukhin, and then in the poem "Valerik" assesses the forces of the enemy in 6000-7000 people [8] [9] .). Taking into account the fact that there was 5,700 families in the Small Chechnya alone under the leadership of Ahberdil Muhammad, and the recruitment of warriors was never seen before - 1 person from each yard - the number of 6,000 people does not seem overestimated [10] .
Battle
A detailed description of the battle is given in a draft of the Journal of hostilities of the Chechen squad.
Moving along the Gekhi forest towards Valerik, the Russian detachment stretched out in a narrow column along the forest road. On the approach to the river, the first encounter occurred with the enemy, who had fired Galafeev’s column from the forest undergrowth. The Russian avant-garde, however, quickly overturned the enemy, and after that the entire convoy was rebuilt into battle order.
Soon the detachment came to Valerik. The river almost perpendicularly crossed the road along which the detachment was moving, and in normal conditions it would have been easily forded. The coast from the Russians was more open, from the opposite side there was a steep and overgrown forest, which approached the river itself and on both sides the road along which the trees were cut down to a distance of a rifle shot.
Approaching the river at the distance of the crank fire, the gunners fired a volley through the forest more often on the opposite bank. No movement, however, was visible on the other side of the river. The avant-garde infantry battalions were already preparing to cross the river and occupy a forest on both sides of the road on the other bank in order to ensure the passage of the convoy and other parts. To support them, tools and parts from the middle order of the column were advanced. And at this moment from the opposite side, a gunfire fell on the soldiers. The battalions of the Kura regiment and the sappers rushed forward on both sides of the road, forced the river, although the opposite bank was fortified with log logs, and converged with the enemy in a bayonet battle in the middle of the forest. Soon, the rebels did not stand the onslaught and began to depart, and many of them, cut off from their own ones, began to run out to the edge of the forest by the river and along the road, where they came under artillery fire from the other bank, which again drove them into the forest. Separate groups of rebels, cut off from the main forces, made attempts to attack the convoy and the convoy of General Galafeev, but were repelled everywhere. The fights continued for some time in the forest at the rubble, which the rebels defended especially long, but in the end, the battle that lasted six hours began to subside and the sappers recalled from the forest began to fix the crossing of Valerik for transport.
Particularly distinguished in battle, among others, the lieutenant of the Tenginsky Regiment , attached to the detachment, M. Yu. Lermontov , who carried out the connection between Galafeev and the advance units who stormed the forest.
Party Losses
According to the journal of actions of the Chechen detachment, his losses under Valerik were:
- killed - 6 senior officers, 65 lower ranks;
- wounded - 2 staff officers, 15 senior officers, 198 lower ranks;
- shell-shocked - 4 senior officers, 46 lower ranks;
- Missing - 1 chief officer, 7 lower ranks.
In addition, 29 dead and 42 wounded horses were lost.
On the part of the rebels, only 150 dead were left on the battlefield. According to reports of spies, Ahberdil Mohammed was wounded in the leg. Later in a letter to A. A. Lopukhin, Lermontov indicates that after the battle, there were 600 rebel bodies left.
Results and implications
After crossing Valerik, the Galafeev detachment moved towards Achkhoy without encountering any serious resistance on its way. Nevertheless, some minor skirmishes and shootouts did not stop. According to local residents, the rebels were sure that they would not miss the Russian squad for Valerik, therefore many Chechens did not leave their homes in Achkhoi and other nearby villages until the Russians appeared. Here, the Chechen detachment became close to the troops of Major-General I. M. Labyntsev , who performed similar tasks from Ingushetia. On July 14 (26), the Galafeev detachment returned to Groznaya [11] .
After a series of similar expeditions in the late summer and autumn of 1840, unrest in Chechnya and Ingushetia was stopped. The rebels, who did not want to come to terms with this state of affairs, were forced to go to the mountainous regions of Dagestan , but the Russian authorities did not achieve strategic success in the East Caucasus direction.
In his report to Nikolay I, Galafeev noted: “I must also give justice to the Chechens. They fulfilled everything to make our success questionable ” [10] [12] [13] .
Battle of Valerik in culture and art
- The poem “Valerik” written by M. Yu. Lermontov (“I write to you by chance; right”) was first published (with omissions) in 1843 in the almanac “Morning Dawn”. This verse message to the smallest detail coincides with the entries in the "Journal" of the Galafeev detachment. In addition, M. Yu. Lermontov made several drawings depicting episodes of the battle on Valerik.
Notes
- Comments
- ↑ Mudir - the ruler of several of the most [5] [6] .
- Sources
- ↑ Baddeley JF The conquest of the Caucasus by the Russians. 1720-1860 = The Russian conquest of the Caucasus (Eng.) / Trans. from English L. A. Kalashnikova. - M. [ L. ]: Centerpoligraph ( Longmans , [1908]), 2011. - P. 350. - ISBN 978-5-227-02749-8 .
- P.V. Viskovatov : Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov: biography - Page 309
- А. Gizetti A. L. Collection of information about the losses of the Caucasian troops during the wars of the Caucasus-Gorsky, Persian, Turkish and in the Transcaspian region. 1801-1885 gg / Ed. V. A. Potto . - TF. Type Ya. I. Lieberman , 1901. - p. 50.
- ↑ Gapurov Sh. A. , Abdurakhmanov D. B. Russia and Chechnya (the last third of the XVIII - the first half of the XIX century) . - Grozny: Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic , 2009. - P. 414. - ISBN 978-5-91857-001-2 .
- ↑ Russia and the North Caucasus: history and modernity. - M .: Academic Project, 2006. - 464 p.
- ↑ Shamil: illustrated encyclopedia . - M .: Echo of the Caucasus, 1997. - p. 222.
- ↑ Error in footnotes ? : Invalid
<ref>; Footnotes for text not specified. - ↑ Lermontov M. Yu. “I write to you by chance; the right ... " // Lermontov M.Yu. Collected Works: In 4 vol. - L .: Science , 1979. - Vol. 1 . - p . 456 .
- ↑ Lermontov M.Yu. Letter to A. Lopukhin, <September 12, 1840. From Pyatigorsk to Moscow> // M. Lermontov, Y. Collected Works: In 4 t. - L .: Science , 1981. - T. 4 . - p . 422 .
- ↑ 1 2 Karpeev I. Naib Akhberdilav // Motherland. - 2000. - № 1 . - p . 91 . - According to P.H. Grabbe , “about 1,500 families are in the Michikovsky sector under the command of Shuaip Mullah, and 5,700 in the section of Malaya Chechnya under the supervision of Akhverdy Magoma”
- ↑ Valerik // Military Encyclopedia : [in 18 t.] / Ed. VF Novitsky [et al.]. - SPb. ; [ M. ]: Type. t-islands I. D. Sytin , 1911-1915.
- ↑ Kaziev Sh. M. Imam Shamil. - M .: Young Guard , 2010. - P. 112-113. - ( zhzl ). - ISBN 978-5-235-03332-0 .
- ↑ Gapurov Sh. A. , GazievaT. I. , Sugaipova A.M. Caucasian War: Some Results and Lessons // Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the Chechen Republic. - Grozny: Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic , 2016. - № 1 (30) . - p . 46-47 . - ISSN 2070-2348 .
Literature
- Vinogradov B. S. Chechnya // Lermontov Encyclopedia / Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Inst. Rus. lit. (Pushkin. House); scientific - ed. Council of the publishing house "Soviet Encyclopedia"; Ch. ed. V. A. Manuilov ; Editorial: I. L. Andronikov ... [ et al. ]. - M .: Owls. entsikl., 1981. - p. 615-616.
- Lebedinets G. S. Mikhail Y. Lermontov in the battles with the Circassians in 1840 // Russian Antiquity . - 1891. - № 7 . Archived October 18, 2010.
- Malkov S. N. Military service // Lermontov Encyclopedia / Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Inst. Rus. lit. (Pushkin. House); scientific - ed. Council of the publishing house "Soviet Encyclopedia"; Ch. ed. V. A. Manuilov ; Editorial: I. L. Andronikov ... [ et al. ]. - M .: Owls. entsikl., 1981. - p. 87-90.
- Rakovich D.V. Tenginsky regiment in the Caucasus. 1819-1846 / Under. ed. V. A. Potto . - TF. Type Kants Chapters. citizens partly in the Caucasus, 1900. - XX, 396, 80 p.