Pyatigorsk is spread between several isolated mountains. Lermontov compared the mountain bearing the name Mashuk to a shaggy hat. She will play a tragic role in the life of the great writer and poet. It is on the slope of Mashuka that Lermontov will be mortally wounded. Mount Mashuk itself is quite modest, its height is about 990 meters, but the history of the name of the peak is unusually rich.
There are several versions about the origin of the name of the mountain. Here myths intertwined about a certain beautiful girl, of course, who shed tears on the slopes of this mountain, about the belonging of this area to the Mashukov family, since this is a fairly common surname in this land, etc. It's just that you rarely hear that Mount Mashuk, according to one of the versions, bears its name in memory of a very specific person - a rebel and abrek Mashuko (Machuk Khubiev). His uprising against the mountain princes, the local aristocracy and the Crimean Turkish invaders failed, and he himself was basely killed on a mountain road, falling into an ambush.
There are several versions of Mashuko's life. These versions differ not only in facts, but also in the historical periods in which these facts supposedly took place. One version believes that Mashuko raised a riot in the first years of the 18th century during the total occupation of Kabarda by the Crimean Khanate, which resulted in the Battle of Kanzhal in 1708. This version is very controversial, since most of the nobility of that time, led by Kurgoko Atazhukin, was itself far from pro-Crimean (hence, pro-Turkish) views.
According to other, more solid versions, Mashuko raised an uprising 12 years after the Battle of Kanzhal, but for the same reasons: another occupation of Kabarda by the Crimean Khanate, and this time the promotion of this occupation by some Kabardian princes. That is why the author will focus on the latest version.
Unrealized results of the Kanzhal battle
The defeat of the Crimean-Turkish invaders in Kanzhal in 1708, although it significantly weakened the Crimean Khanate and caused an upsurge in the popular movement, did not liberate Kabarda from the Turkish yoke. First, the leader of the Kabardians, Kurgoko Atazhukin, died in 1709 and did not have time to realize the potential of victory in the battle with the invaders to rally all the princes of Kabarda. Secondly, as soon as he closed his eyes, a deep split among the Kabardians themselves began to mature.
By 1720, two princely coalitions were created: pro-Turkish and independent, perceived as pro-Russian. After another invasion, they received the names of Baksan and Kashkhatau (Kashkhatav). The Baksan coalition, headed by the senior prince (valiy) of Kabarda, Islambek Misostov, was on pro-Turkish (i.e. pro-Crimean) positions, fearing revenge from the Crimea and the Port. The Kashkhatau coalition was in the minority and decided to continue to defend the independence of Kabarda, but with a tilt towards Russia. This coalition was led by the princes Kaitukins and Bekmurzins.
The invasion of Saadat Giray (Saadet IV Giray) and the beginning of civil strife
At the end of 1719 - beginning of 1720, the new Khan of Crimea Saadat-Girey, who ascended the throne in 1717, sent a message to Kabarda demanding to end all relations with Russia, return under the rule of Crimea and the Port and continue the corresponding payment of tribute, including people. At first, the Kabardian princes refused, despite the views of the pro-Turkish forces.
Saadat began to gather an army, hoping to return the obedience of Kabarda, thereby establishing himself on the throne. In the spring of 1720, the 40,000-strong army of Saadat-Girey, reinforced by tradition by the Nogai and Ottomans, invaded the territory of modern Kuban and moved south to Kabarda. The news of the huge army instantly spread throughout the Caucasus.
Fully confident in his own victory and having heard about the split among the Kabardian princes, the Crimean Khan sent a message to the princes again. This time, he demanded not only submission, but also the issuance of 4,000 "yasyrs" (prisoners who would become slaves) and compensation for all the trophies of war that were captured by the Kabardians from the Crimeans when the latter tried to bring Kabarda back into submission. In addition, of course, Kabarda again fell under the authority of the Crimea and was obliged to pay tribute.
Saadat-Girey displayed political cunning in this. He understood perfectly well that the defeat in the Kanzhal battle continued to inspire the mountaineers to resist, so there was an urgent need to deepen the disunity among the Kabardians themselves. Thus, the Crimean Khan announced the head of the Baksan coalition, Islambek Misostov, as the senior prince of Kabarda. Despite the fact that by that time Saadat had wiped out dozens of mountain villages from the face of the earth, Misostov eagerly seized on this confirmation of his powers.
Moreover, the new Valiy of Kabarda Islambek Misostov, having gathered his soldiers, joined the Crimean Khan to punish the rebels Kaitukins and Bekmurzins, who were now perceived by him as rebels against his own power. Realizing in advance where the political wind blew, the rebellious princes fled with their warriors to the mountains in the Kashkhatau tract, which gave its name to the coalition. At the same time, Misostov stayed for a while in Baksan, and his coalition received its name - Baksan. The situation of political feud was so difficult that the coalitions secretly sent ambassadors to Russia one by one, so there is still no single answer in various sources which of the quiet parties was truly pro-Russian.
As a result, the beginning was laid not only of the enslaving dependence of Kabarda on the Crimea and the Port, but also of a cruel internal strife. The once powerful princes Kaitukins and Bekmurzins, who controlled half of the Kabardian territory, began to be called even as "abregs", that is, abreks. But, of course, the princes also had a princely abregancy, so they were considered some kind of outcasts for political reasons, and not robbers from the mountain road.
While the lords are fighting, the forelocks of the slaves crack
Alas, the proverb derived above is characteristic of all of humanity in general. The princes who went over to the side of Valiy Islambek Misostov decided to satisfy the demands of the invaders, naturally, at the expense of their own population. And this concerned not only the property of the highlanders of Kabarda, but also their children, who were supposed to go in orderly rows to the slave markets in the Crimea. In fact, a wave of genocide began. Whole auls fell into desolation, someone, without waiting for a "ticket" to the Crimea, burned down their home and fled to the mountains.
Of course, a major peasant uprising soon broke out. According to the mountain hierarchy of the North-Western Caucasus, the peasants (among the Circassians - tfokotls) were at the very bottom. Slaves could be placed below them, but slaves (unouts) were practically not considered people - they were just property, which, by the whims of nature, had the skill to reproduce their own kind. At the same time, the children of slaves became the same property of the owner, like their parents.
From above, pressure was exerted on the peasants from almost the rest of society: the valia, the younger princes and the aristocracy, which, in turn, had its own confidants, endowed with much greater rights than ordinary residents. Thus, under the circumstances, the peasantry had nothing to lose.
At this moment, Mashuk enters the historical arena. The origin of this hero, as befits the Caucasus, is covered by many legends and myths. According to one of the first Kabardian historians and philologists, Shore Nogmov ("History of the Adyhei people, compiled according to the legends of the Kabardians"), Mashuk was a simple "slave" from the Kabardians.
According to other data cited in his works by the historian, philologist and ethnographer Alexander Ibragimovich Musukaev, Mashuk (Mashuko) was an unsurpassed master of arms. At the same time, he fled to the area of modern Pyatigorsk from the Kabardian villages because of blood feud. However, the rebellion does not prevent from ultimately hiding from blood feud.
There is another version, according to which Mashuk was a Karachai, and his name was Mechuk, which was later translated into the Kabardian manner. And Mechuk came from the Khubiev family.
One way or another, but the Mashuko uprising took on the character of a forest fire. From under the feet of the nobility they knocked out one of the main sources of income - peasant products and, most importantly, peasant souls. The slave trade was so profitable that it flourished on the Black Sea until the middle of the 19th century, when the Russian Empire burned out all the bases of the slave trade and the slave traders themselves, who were periodically drowned alive in the sea, with a hot iron.
Of course, the highland aristocracy first reacted to the uprising in a way characteristic of themselves - the destruction of the enemy. However, the Kabardian rebels used the tactics of the abreks, in fact the partisan tactics of sudden impetuous raids and the same impetuous retreat to the previously prepared paths. In the mountains, which the local population knew like the back of their hand, the role of the number of soldiers of Islambek Misostov and his Crimean "overlords" was significantly reduced. The uprising continued to grow.
