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31 
 
so to speak, the Russian capital of the Caucasus” in 1735, followed it.
58
 
Nevertheless, this second Russian attempt to advance washalted by the Persian 
forces and the Russians had to withdraw all their forces beyond the Terek River. 
The successes of Peter the Great, however, later gave the Russians a chance 
to claim legitimacy for attempting to gain control of the region. In this period, 
Russians mainly used Cossack military settlements, to organize offensives in the 
North Caucasian territories. 
During this period of time, because of the Ottoman dominance over the 
North Caucasus, especially the western part of it, Islam penetrated almost entire 
region and became the major religion. On the other hand, as a result of the steady 
growth of the Russian controlled Cossack and peasant settlements in the north, the 
Russian interest and influence in the region began to increase. Moreover, Russian 
successes in establishing alliances with the ruling classes prepared the grounds for 
Russian expansion in the region. During the reign of Catherine the Great (r. 1762-
1796), the Russians resumed their systematic military activities in the region. The 
Empress renewed Russian expansion by establishing a new fortress of Mozdok in 
1763. This action started a long-lasting struggle between the Kabardians and the 
Russians. 
The defeat of the Ottomans in the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-74 gave the 
Russians free access from the Sea of Azov into the Black Sea and a free hand into 
the western Caucasus. Moreover, the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca of 1774 forced the 
Ottomans to accept the Kuban River as the boundary between the Russian and 
                                                                                                                                        
57
 See M. S. Anderson, 1978. Peter The Great, London Thomas and Hudson and Vasili 
Klyuchevsky, 1965. Peter The Great, trnsl. by Liliana Archibald, New York: Macmillan. 
58
 Baddeley, 10. 

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Ottoman empires, and to surrender all their claims of sovereignty over both Crimea 
and the western parts of the North Caucasus. By the annexation of Crimea in 1783, 
the Russians began to claim sovereignty, albeit indirect over all the tribes and 
associations of the North Caucasus and established its power in the entire Kuban 
area.
59
 This caused the emergence of renewed rivalries between the Ottomans and 
Russians, over the territories of the North Caucasus.
60
 
After the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, in order to secure the Ottoman 
existence in the Caucasus Ferah Ali Pasha was appointed governor of Soğucak in 
1780.
61
 From then on, the primary Ottoman policy was, through their religious 
connections, establishing close links with the regional authorities, ensuring order 
and promoting trade
62
. In response, the Russians aimed to establish strong military 
positions on the coast, linking them overland to the territory under their control. To 
this end “the Russians established the Lines along the Kuban and the Laba and 
erected the fortresses of Ekaterinograd, Georgievsk and Stavropol’ which would 
later become the Headquarters of the entire Line.”
63
 
Compared to the nortwestern Caucasus, although it was less advanced, 
Russians made a few advances in the norteastern Caucasus and Georgia as well. 
Responding to the Georgian king’s appeal for help against the Persian threat, 
                                                 
59
 For a detailed work on the annexation of Crimea see Alan W. Fisher, 1970. The Russian 
Annexation of the Crimea 1771-1783, Cambridge. 
60
 For the Ottoman policy after the Treaty of Kaynarca see Ali İhsan Bağış, 1984. Britain and The 
Struggle for The Integrity of the Ottoman Empire,  İstanbul: ISIS Yayımcılık, 9-18 and 1980. 
“Rusların Karadeniz’de Yayılması Karşısında  İngiltere’nin Ticari Endişeleri,” in Social and 
Economic History of Turkey (1071-1920), O. Okyar and H. İnalcık, eds., Ankara, 211-14. 
61
 Jean-Louis Mattei, 1994. “Kırım ve Kafkasya’da Osmanlı Nüfuzunun Gerilemesi ve Ruslara 
Karşı Kafkas Kabilelerinin Direniş Girişimleri,” Toplumsal Tarih, 1(6): 40-47. 
62
 Paul Henze, 1992. “Circassian Resistence to Russia,” in M. Bennigsen Broxup (eds.), The North 
Caucasus Barrier: The Russian Advance Towards the Muslim World, 76-7. Also see from the same 
author: July 1983. “Fire and Sword in the Caucasus: The 19
th
 century resistance of the North 
Caucasian Mountaineers,” Central Asian Survey, 2(1): 5-44. 

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Russia and Georgia signed a treaty at Georgievsk in 1783 which established a 
Russian protectorate over Georgia. On the way to Tiflis, Russians built the fortress 
of Vladikavkaz (the Ruler of the Caucasus) “where the Terek issues from the 
mountains, and connect it by fortified posts with Mozdok. His [Potemkin] was to 
convert the bridle-path into something in the nature of a road; …that in October 
1783 he was able to drive to Tiflis.”
64
 This would later be expanded and improved 
into what would become known as the Georgian-Military-Highway –Russia’s 
lifeline to its possessions in Transcaucasus.
65
 Then the Russians established the 
first Russian province or guberniya, with its centre in Yekaterinodar in May 1785. 
From then on, under the heading of Prince G. A. Potemkin, the namestnik 
(viceroy), the Russian civil and military officials who were granted the rights of 
local civil administration, started to interfere directly in the internal affairs of the 
North Caucasian peoples. 
 
7-The Native Reaction: Emergence of the ‘Muridizm’
66
: 
In this atmosphere, under the auspices of Naqshbandi
67
  tariqat
68
, the first 
local movement, for the liberation of the entire North Caucasus from the Russian 
colonization was emerged. The traditional local authorities cooperative attitudes 
                                                                                                                                        
63
 Moshe Gammer, Muslim Resistance, 3. 
64
 Baddeley, 20. 
65
 Gammer, Muslim Resistance, 4. 
66
 The Sufi disciple is known as the murid, and in relation with that the Russians referred to the 
North Caucasian Sufism and the struggle as Muridizm. For a detailed study on Muridizm see Aytek 
Kundukh, 1987. Kafkasya Müridizmi (Gazavat Tarihi), İstanbul: Gözde Kitaplar Yayınevi. 
67
 A Sunni Islamic tariqat, which was founded by Abu Ya’qub al-Hamadani (d. 1140), but it was 
named after the Sheikh Muhammad Baha’ al-Din Naqshbandi (1318-1389), in Bukhara. It spread 
into the North Caucasus late in the 18
th
 century and surfaced in Dagestan via Shirvan, and from 
there in the middle of the 19
th
 century penetrated the Chechnya and the western North Caucasus. For 

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