page_title: Shamil, 3rd Imam of Dagestan
section_title: War against Russia
hierarchical_section_title: Shamil, 3rd Imam of Dagestan / War against Russia
caption_attribution_description: Azərbaycanca: "Şamil" portreti, Teodor Horşelt (Theodor Horschelt), 1863 English: "Captured Shamil before the commander-in-chief Prince Bariatinsky on 25 August 1859" Русский: Теодор Горшельт, 1863 г. "Шамиль и главнокомандующий князь А.И.Барятинский 25 августа 1859 года". Махачкала, Дагестанский музей изобразительных искусств. «Слева направо: 1. Милиционер из племени Кевсури с закинутым назад щитом и пикою наперевес в правой руке, Гиго, или Георгий Гватуа, ныне полковник. 2. Казак в черной папахе. 3. Тушинец в шапке. 4. Заридзе, казацкий офицер в черной папахе с опущенными вниз усами. 5. Лейтенант Перфильев, в фуражке, ныне член окружного суда в Москве. 6. Мюрид Янус (Юнус) с засученными рукавами, правая рука Шамиля. 7. Граф Алексей Васильевич Олсуфьев, ныне генерал-лейтенант, почетный опекун в Москве. 8. Генерал барон Александр Евстафьевич Врангель. 9 и 10. Два брата Граббе Николай и Александр Павловичи. 11. Шамиль. 12. Над Шамилем в фуражке с густыми усами полковник Лазарев (впоследствии герой, взявший Карс). 13. Князь Аркадий Александрович Суворов. 14. С Георгиевским крестом граф Евдокимов. 15. Выше Евдокимова генерал Кесслер, начальник инженеров Кавказской армии. 16. Переводчик [П.В.Фицхелауров]. 17. Выше Кесслера полковник Роберт Христианович Тромповский (родом из латышей). 18. Д.А. (ныне граф) Милютин. 19. Князь А.И.Барятинский. 20 и 21. Выше князя Барятинского, в белых папахах, держащие знамена унтер-офицеры Кази-бей и Хаджеев. 22. Рядом с князем Барятинским князь Д.И.Мирский. 23. Выше его генерал князь Тархан-Моуравов. 24. С Георгиевским крестом генерал барон Леонтий Павлович Николаи, ныне католический монах. 25. Рядом с ним врач Зенон Иванович Пилецкий. 26. Выше их (худощавое лицо) Фокион Евстафьевич Булатов, чиновник особых поручений, впоследствии Елисаветпольский губернатор. 27. В черной шапке лезгинец Кибит-Магома, один из главных мюридов. 28. Прислонившийся к дереву капитан Авинов, ныне генерал-майор, начальник дворцового управления в Московском Кремле. 30. Еще левее граф Владимир Владимирович Орлов-Давыдов, бывший Симбирский губернатор. 31. Художник Горшельт. 32. Перед ним влево граф Анатолий Владимирович Давыдов, ныне генерал-лейтенант, заведующий Московским дворцовым управлением в Кремле. 33. Левее его полковник Владимир Алексеевич Лимановский. 34. Князь Николай Дмитриевич Гагарин (с непокрытой головою), бывший адъютант графа Д.А.Милютина. 35. Правее его лейтенант Кирила Львович Нарышкин. 36. Еще правее, между двумя деревьями секретарь князя Барятинского Рис. 37. Мальчик Захар, брат Георгия Гватуа»
context_page_description: Imam Shamil was the political, military, and spiritual leader of Caucasian resistance to Imperial Russia in the 1800s, the third Imam of the Caucasian Imamate, and a Shaykh of the Naqshbandi Sufi Tariqa.
context_section_description: In 1832, Ghazi Mollah died at the battle of Gimry, and Shamil was one of only two Murids to escape, but he sustained severe wounds. During this fight he was stabbed with a bayonet. After jumping from an elevated stoop "clean over the heads of the very line of soldiers about to fire on him.  Landing behind them, whirling his sword in his left hand he cut down three of them, but was bayoneted by the fourth, the steel plunging deep in his chest. He seized the bayonet, pulled it out of his own flesh, cut down the man, and with another superhuman leap, cleared the wall and vanished in the darkness". He went into hiding and both Russia and Murids assumed him dead. Once recovered, he emerged from hiding and rejoined the Murids, led by the second Imam, Gamzat-bek. He would wage unremitting warfare on the Russians for the next quarter century and become one of the legendary guerrilla commanders of the century. When Gamzat-bek was murdered by Hadji Murad in 1834, Shamil took his place as the prime leader of the Caucasian resistance and the third Imam of the Caucasian Imamate.
  In 1839 (June–August), Shamil and his followers, numbering about 4000 men, women and children, found themselves under siege in their mountain stronghold of Akhoulgo, nestled in the bend of the Andi Koysu, about ten miles east of Gimry.  Under the command of General Pavel Grabbe, the Russian army trekked through lands devoid of supplies because of Shamil's scorched-earth strategy. The geography of the stronghold protected it from three sides, adding to the difficulty of conducting the siege. Eventually the two sides agreed to negotiate. Complying with Grabbe's demands, Shamil gave his son, Jamaldin in a sign of good faith, as a hostage. Shamil rejected Grabbe's proposal that Shamil command his forces to surrender and for him to accept exile from the region. The Russian army attacked the stronghold, after 2 days of fighting, the Russian troops had secured it. Shamil escaped the siege during the first night of the attack. Shamil's forces had been broken and many Dagestani and Chechen chieftains proclaimed loyalty to the Tsar. Shamil fled Dagestan for Chechnya. There he made quick work of extending his influence over the clans.
  Shamil was effective at uniting the many, quarrelsome Caucasian tribes to fight against the Russians, by the force of his charisma, piety and fairness in applying Sharia law. One Russian source commented on him as "a man of great tact and a subtle politician." He believed the Russian introduction of alcohol in the area corrupted traditional values. Against the large regular Russian military, Shamil made effective use of irregular and guerrilla tactics. In 1845 an 8-10,000 strong column under the command of Count Michael Vorontsov followed the Imamate's forces into the forests of Chechnya. The Imamte's forces surround the Russian column, destroying it.
  His fortunes as a military leader rose after he was joined by Hadji Murad, who defected from the Russians in 1841 and tripled by his fighting the area under Shamil's control within a short time. Hadji Murad, who was to become the subject of a famous novella by Leo Tolstoy (1904), turned against Shamil a decade later, apparently disappointed by his failure to be anointed Shamil's successor as imam. Shamil's elder son was given that nomination, and in a secret council, Shamil had his lieutenant accused of treason and sentenced to death, on which Hadji Murad, on learning of the judgement, redefected to the Russians. Though Shamil hoped that Britain, France, or the Ottoman Empire would come to his aid to drive Russia from the Caucasus, these plans never came to fruition. After the Crimean War, Russia redoubled its efforts against the Imamate. Now successful, Russian forces severely reduced the Imamate's territory, and by September 1859 Shamil surrendered. Though the main theater closed, conflict in the eastern Caucasus would continue for several more years.
caption: Capture of Shamil, by Theodor Horschelt
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