Battle of the Valerik River The Battle of the Valerik River on July 11 , 1840 was fought as part of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus . It occurred about southwest of the fortress of Groznaya ( now Grozny ) between forces of the Imperial Russian Army and North Caucasian mountaineers led by the " naib " ( viceroy ) Ahberdila Muhammad . It remains famous because of the poem " Valerik " by Mikhail Lermontov , a participant . Situation in the eastern Caucasus on the eve of the battle . An attempt to disarm the population of Chechnya in the spring of 1840 had caused unrest which grew into open rebellion against the Russian authorities . The Caucasus resistance leader , Imam Shamil , took this opportunity to appoint Ahberdila Muhammad as " naib " ( governor ) of Lesser Chechnya and call for a general uprising of the " Nadterechny " Chechens , the tribes inhabiting Ingushetia , the Galashevtsy , and the Arshtins . The Russian authorities felt compelled to organize a military expedition against the rebels . On July 6 , the Galafeyev detachment set out from the Groznaya fortress and began destroying the fields and villages to the south and southwest of the fortress , as the inhabitants fled . The rebels did not resist directly , but engaged in constant harassing actions which afflicted the Russians and caused losses . The detachment ' s line of march led toward the village of Achkhoy , the road to which passed through the Chekhinsky Forest and crossed the Valerik River . The rebels apparently anticipated the Russian movement and for three days fortified the banks of the Valerik with abatis and debris . On July 11 the Galafeyev detachment decamped from the village of Gekhi and moved toward the Valerik . Opposing forces . The resistance . Lermontov in a letter to Barbara Lopukhin and later in his poem " Valerik " evaluated the strength of the enemy at 6 , 000 to 7 , 000 fighters . Given that in the area of Lesser Chechnya under the leadership of Ahberdila Muhammad , there were 5 , 700 families , and that an unprecedented effort was being made on the part of the rebels ; assuming about one fighter from each family , the number 6 , 000 does not seem too high . Course of the battle . Passing through the Chekhinsky Forest toward the Valerik , the Russian column stretched along a narrow forest road . The approaches to the river saw the first clash as the rebels fired on the column from the forest undergrowth . The Russian advance guard , however , quickly chased off the enemy and the column ' s battle order was restored . Soon a Russian detachment reached the Valerik . The river at this point intersects the road the Russians were using almost perpendicularly , and in normal conditions is easily fordable . The bank on the Russian side is an open beach , but the opposite bank is steep and wooded . On both sides of the road the rebels had cut down trees to create a clear field of fire about the length of a musket shot . Approaching the river to within canister range , the Russian gunners fired a volley into the thicket on the opposite shore , but no reaction was seen . The vanguard of the infantry battalions were preparing to cross the river and occupy the forest on both sides of the road , to facilitate the passage of the baggage train and other units . Parts of the main body were deployed in their support . At this point , the rebels began to fire on the Russians from across the river . The battalions of the Kurinsky Regiment , with combat engineers , rushed forward on both sides of the road and crossed the river , where on the opposite side was a rebel fortified blockhouse of logs , and engaged the enemy in a bayonet fight in the forest thicket . The rebels broke before the onslaught and started to retreat , but many of them , cut off from their own people , ran out of the woods near the river where they came under Russian artillery fire from the opposite bank , which drove them back into the woods . Separate groups of rebels cut - off from the main forces attempted to attack the convoy and the headquarters of General Galafeyev , but were everywhere repulsed . Skirmishes continued for some time in the forest near the abatis , which the rebels defended particularly tenaciously , but by six o ' clock the battle began to subside and the engineers , withdrawn from the forest , began to assist the convoy in crossing the Valerik . Casualties . According to the action report of the Galafeyev detachment , the unit ' s losses were : 29 Russian horses were killed and 42 injured . The rebels left 150 dead on the battlefield . According to the reports of spies , Ahberdila Muhammad was shot in the leg . Lermontov stated in a letter that 600 bodies were left by the rebels . Results and implications . After crossing the Valerik , the Galafeyev detachment moved to Achkhoy , meeting no further serious resistance . Some minor clashes and skirmishes continued . Local residents said that the rebels had been sure that the Russians would not be able to cross the Valerik , so at Achkhoy and other nearby villages the residents did not leave until the Russians actually arrived . Here the Galafeyev detachment was met by troops under Major General Ivan Labyntsev who had been performing similar operations in Ingushetia . On July 14 the Galafeyev detachment returned to Groznaya . After a series of similar operations in the late summer and autumn of 1840 , the rebellion in Chechnya and Ingushetia was extinguished . The rebels , who did not want to accept this situation , were forced to leave the mountainous region of Dagestan , and a strategic success against the Russian authorities was not obtained . Lermontov ' s role and poem . Mikhail Lermontov , a lieutenant in the Tenginsky Regiment , showed exemplary valor in the battle . The official battle report stated : For this , Lermontov was awarded the Order of St . Vladimir Fourth Class , but he never received the award as his name was removed from the final list of recipients by Czar Nicholas I , who harbored a strong dislike for the contumacious poet . Lermontov ' s poem " Valerik " was first published ( with omissions ) in 1843 in the anthology " Dawn " . Although the poem contains battle scenes both stirring and grisly ( which correlate in great detail to the official action report ) , the poem ultimately views war as a senseless slaughter , and he and the fighters ( on both sides ) as " beasts " violating the beautiful world of his beloved pristine Caucasus Lermontov also made several drawings depicting scenes of the battle . In the poem , Lermontov names the Valerik as the River of Death ( the Chechen name ( Valargthe ) does actually mean " river of the dead " ) : and because of this , the term " Valerik " is still used occasionally in Russia as a metaphor for " place of slaughter " .