page_title: Circassian genocide
section_title: Conflict with Circassia
hierarchical_section_title: Circassian genocide / Background / Conflict with Circassia
caption_attribution_description: English: Warrior of Circassia during the en:Russian-Circassian War from here over 100 years old.
context_page_description: The Circassian genocide was the Russian Empire's ethnic cleansing, killing, forced migration, and expulsion of the majority of the Circassians from their historical homeland Circassia, which roughly encompassed the major part of the North Caucasus and the northeast shore of the Black Sea. This occurred in the aftermath of the Caucasian War in the second half of the 19th century. The displaced people moved primarily to the Ottoman Empire.
  Circassians, the indigenous peoples of this region, were ethnically cleansed from their homeland at the end of the Russo-Circassian War by Russia. The expulsion was launched before the end of the war in 1864 and it was mostly completed by 1867. The peoples planned for removal were mainly the Circassians, Ubykhs, and Abaza, but Abkhaz, Arshtins, Chechens and Ossetians and were also heavily affected. Other peoples of the Caucasus, were also affected to a degree such as Avars and Ingush.
  This expulsion involved an unknown number of people, perhaps numbering hundreds of thousands. In any case, the majority of the affected people were expelled.
context_section_description: Circassians, Christianised through Byzantine influence between the 5th and 6th centuries, were often allied with largely Christian Georgia. Both Georgians and Circassians viewed themselves as a Christian island within a wider Muslim area, and both asked for Russian protection. Although there had previously been a small Muslim presence in Circassia, significant conversions came after 1717, when Sultan Murad IV ordered the Crimean Khans to spread Islam among the Circassians, with the Ottomans and Crimeans seeing some success in converting members of the aristocracy who would then ultimately spread the religion to their dependents. However, despite the efforts of the Ottomans and their Crimean and Circassian clients, the masses of the Circassian people remained Christian and pagan, until the threat of Russian conquest impelled the majority of them to convert in order to cement defensive alliances with the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate to protect their independence. Ultimately, this led to the politicization of religion generally and Islam specifically as it created a class of Circassian nobles and clergy that were beholden to Turkish interests, while it also splintered the unity of Circassians; in the 1840s, the fact that many Circassians still remained Christian and pagan, especially among the Natuhay and Shapsug tribes, incurred the wrath of Imam Shamil's third naib, Mohammad Amin. Still today, Circassians are divided between a Muslim majority, pockets of Catholic and Orthodox Christians mainly among the Kabardins, and those who have revived the old pre-Islamic and pre-Christian religious philosophy.
  In Circassia, the Russians faced disorganized but continuous resistance. While Russia believed it held authority over Circassia based on the Ottomans ceding it in the 1829 Treaty of Adrianople, the Circassians considered this invalid, arguing that because their territory had been independent of the Ottomans, Istanbul had no right to cede it. Relations before the 19th century between the Circassians and the Cossacks had often been cordial with extensive trade, and mutual raids against the Turks and Crimeans. However, after a large influx of Cossack settlers and the construction of a long line of pickets in 1792 which cut the Circassians off from their traditional pastures around the Kuban river the Circassians and other Caucasian peoples began systematically raiding Russian encampments and then disappearing. At the same time, as more Russian troops came to be stationed in the region, their own perceived needs (owing to the difficulty of shipping materials back from Russia proper) tempted them in turn to raid native villages, further enraging the natives and producing cycles of retaliation. The Circassians fought the Russians longer than all the other peoples of the Caucasus from 1763–1864.
  The Russian military tried to impose authority by building a series of forts, but these forts in turn became the new targets of raids and indeed sometimes the highlanders actually captured and held the forts. By 1816, Russian engagement with the Circassians made military commanders like General Aleksey Yermolov conclude that "terror" would be effective toward frontier protection instead of fortress construction as "moderation in the eyes of the Asiatics is a sign of weakness". Under Yermolov, the Russian military began using a strategy of disproportionate retribution for raids. With the goal of imposing stability and authority over the whole Caucasus, Russian troops retaliated by destroying villages where resistance fighters were thought to hide, as well as employing assassinations, kidnappings and the execution of whole families. Because the resistance was relying on sympathetic villages for food, the Russian military also systematically destroyed crops and livestock and killed Circassian civilians. Circassians responded by creating a tribal federation encompassing all tribes of the area.
caption: Circassian warrior during the Russo-Circassian War
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