The revolution and the Civil War of the last century had a deep split in the Caucasus, which practically turned into a war of all against all. In the Kuban, a party of independent Cossacks with the Kuban Rada was formed, Georgian nationalists under the guise of Mensheviks captured Tiflis, in Vladikavkaz and Pyatigorsk, the Soviet Terek Republic was proclaimed as part of the RSFSR, which did not prevent the Terek Cossacks from raising an uprising, then ruled on the territory of modern Dagestan. foreman Lazar Bicherakhov, then the North Caucasian Emirate, etc.
They did not lag behind the neighbors of Kabarda and Balkaria, where the star of the staff captain Zaurbek Aslanbekovich Dautokov-Serebryakov was rising. A veteran of the First World War, Zaurbek raised an anti-Bolshevik uprising in Kabarda, and later in Balkaria. All this was weighed down by ethnic and religious factors. For example, in 1917, the leader of the anti-Bolshevik forces of Kabarda, Zaurbek, converted to Islam and opposed the Bolsheviks under the green banner of Gazavat. Dautokov cleverly used the religious factor in his war against the Soviets. He even wrote a poem, the slogan of his war:
So remember the prophetic word
It's not new for horsemen:
A blessing to every brother
Let there be the holy words of ghazavat.
As long as the sacred la-il-laha-il Allah, -
green banner with the moon, Until then there will be no room for fear
In the hearts of all who enter the battle …
The Bolsheviks were well aware of this game of Zaurbek and his associates, so they decided to seize the initiative in terms of winning the sympathies of the local population and establishing Soviet power in Kabarda and Balkaria. In January 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a decree "On freedom of conscience, church and religious societies." This is what they decided to use. Despite the fact that the Bolsheviks were opponents of the adat and sharia, widespread among the mountaineers, and used even during the tsarist regime, outwardly they treated these phenomena condescendingly in order to win the support of the Kabardins and Balkars.
On the way to the Shariah column
The support of the Bolsheviks in Kabarda was Nazir Katkhanov. An orientalist, an Arabist who taught Arabic at the Nalchik real school, Nazir was not just a significant figure for Kabarda. Even in his youth, he graduated from the madrasah and the Baksan Theological School and knew the Koran no worse than the Father's Bible. Katkhanov was convinced that the Bolshevik principles and the principles of Sharia are practically identical, which means that they may not only be compatible, but capable of complementing each other. In addition, freedom of religion, in his opinion, removed many interreligious problems in the Caucasus.
In August 1918, the Bolshevik party instructed Nazir to begin to form Soviet forces in Kabarda in order to oppose Zaurbek Dautokov. It was then that the slogan "For Soviet Power and Sharia" appeared. But the main thing that Kathanov achieved during the formation of the future Shariah column is that he knocked out the ethnic and religious factor from under Dautokov's feet. The Kabardian peasants recruited by Nazir and other sympathetic comrades seemed to say: this is our internal conflict, an ideological conflict.
In the early autumn of 1918, Katkhanov with a small Russian-Kabardian detachment arrived in the area of the village of Lesken, located on the border of modern Kabardino-Balkaria and North Ossetia-Alania. Here he was able to recruit significant forces. The small detachment grew to 1,500 horsemen. To strengthen Katkhanov's detachment, a group of Ossetian-Kermenists was sent (the Ossetian revolutionary-democratic national party "Kermen", later joining the Bolshevik party), led by Soslanbek Tavasiev, the future outstanding artist and sculptor of Ossetia. Finally, the united detachment set out towards Nalchik. As we moved to the city, Katkhanov managed to increase the number of the detachment to 4000 people. This force had to be reckoned with.
At the same time, the Terek uprising of the Cossacks was in full swing. The Cossacks occupied Mozdok, a number of large villages and temporarily captured Vladikavkaz, but were driven out of there. These events were closely watched by the formal government in Kabarda - the Kabardian National (sometimes indicated: People's) Council, headed by Tausultan Shakmanov. The Council took a shaky wait-and-see attitude, trying to maintain neutrality. Shakmanov also sent delegates to the Terek Cossacks, Bolsheviks and to Dautokov's detachment. The local population was forbidden to join any detachments. Despite this, the Council unequivocally recognized Katkhanov as a provocateur and ordered his immediate arrest.
In the 20th of September 1918, a detachment of 25 horsemen set out to meet Katkhanov with the aim of arresting him. The arrest did not go according to plan. 4000 Russians, Kabardians and Ossetians instantly disarmed the detachment sent by Shakmanov. On September 24, Katkhanov occupied Nalchik without a fight and appeared at the Soviet, declaring that the District Soviet, the Kabardin National Council and the Spiritual Council did not enjoy the confidence of the working people. Proceeding from this, the new Shari'a unit requires Shakmanov to resign and transfer power to the Shari'a Military Council, recently formed within the detachment.
Cossack Mironenko and his Sharia reds
Simultaneously with the occupation of Nalchik, a convoy management structure began to form and the creation of a revolutionary military council began. The commander of the Sharia column itself (soon it will be called the First Soviet shock Sharia column) was the Kuban Cossack from the village of Razdolnaya Grigory Ivanovich Mironenko, a participant in the First World War. Later, Grigory Ivanovich was awarded a silver saber from the hands of Sergo Ordzhonikidze for his skillful leadership of the troops and personal bravery and was awarded a combat award - the Order of the Red Banner. Under Mironenko, there was Katkhanov, who officially commanded all the native troops that periodically entered the column. In addition, Katkhanov was a representative of the Kabardian people. The commissar of the column was appointed N. S. Nikiforov. The Revolutionary Military Council was also international: Katkhanov (chairman), E. Polunin, M. Temirzhanov, S. Tavasiev and T. Sozaev.
By the time of the capture of Nalchik, more and more Bolshevik detachments began to adhere to the column. The Sharia column represented a significant force, knocking out the national factor from under the feet of the anti-Bolshevik formations. On September 25, a unique governing body of its kind in the entire Caucasus appeared - the Military Sharia Revolutionary Council. The dreamer of Kathanov created a Sharia court, consisting of two effendi elected by the population, to replace the existing judicial departments in each village. Village councils and mullahs were elected for six months. The views of Katkhanov and the troops were touched. From now on, each regiment had its own spiritual leader - a mullah. Despite the fact that it looked medieval savagery in the eyes of the commissars, Kathanov with his column was necessary, therefore, apparently, it was regarded as temporary relief.
Soon, most of the Sharia Reds were forced to leave Nalchik, because.the Terek uprising grew, which was partly provoked by the revolutionary detachments themselves, who carried the Cossacks to the extreme with their outrages and robbery. Many "red" highlanders also distinguished themselves, beginning to plunder their Cossack neighbors, hiding behind the ideas of the Bolsheviks.
True, it is worth pointing out that Katkhanov tried to stop this discord, at least in Kabarda, not forgetting the interests of the Bolsheviks. Thus, the Military Sharia Council published an appeal in Russian and Arabic:
“Serebryakov (Dautokov) fraudulently assures the Muslim population that according to the Sharia it is necessary to destroy the nonresident (Russian) population of the district, while this does not comply with the Sharia law. Serebryakov's speech is actually not religious, but counter-revolutionary."
However, in early October 1918, leaving a small garrison in Nalchik, the column went to Pyatigorsk. There, the column was reorganized into the 1st shock Soviet Sharia column (Derbent Rifle Regiment, 1st Peasant Regiment, Black Sea People's Regiment, Taganrog Infantry Regiment, Nalchik Cavalry Regiment, First Revolutionary Kuban Cavalry Regiment, First Sharia Cavalry Regiment, Tersk Cavalry artillery battalion, howitzer battalion, convoy squadron, control company). The aforementioned Mironenko became the commander of the new unit.
From the very first days, heavy battles began for Grozny and the village of Prokhladnaya, in the area of Mineralnye Vody, Kislovodsk and Essentuki. The column fighters fought desperately, brutally and swiftly maneuvering, which earned the high praise of Sergo Ordzhonikidze, who noted the military actions of the column in a telegram to Lenin.
The battles for Nalchik, or Dautokov strikes back
While the main forces of the column were fighting east and north-west of Nalchik, Dautokov decided to take the city, in which there was only a tiny garrison of Sharia Reds. His detachment "Free Kabarda" consisted of three hundred horsemen, a division of plastuns, a machine-gun team and two guns, and all the forces of the Reds in Nalchik barely reached 700 fighters without artillery support.
At the beginning of October 1918, Nalchik already knew about Dautokov's attack on the city. However, the garrison not only did not retreat and did not scatter, but made a truly suicidal decision. Instead of turning the city into their own fortification, the Reds decided to launch a counterattack on the advancing Zaurbek.
On October 6, in the area of the aul Tambievo (now the village of Dygulybgey in the KBR), on the Baksan River (north of Nalchik), a tragic battle between the Nalchik detachment of the Sharia column and the "Free Kabarda" detachment of Dautokov took place, which lasted almost the whole day. As expected, despite the desperate bravery of the Sharia Reds, they were defeated. The defeat turned out to be very difficult. The commissar of the detachment, Mazhid Kudashev, was killed in the battle, and the Nalchik garrison lost more than half of its soldiers killed. Only by 22:00, in the pitch darkness, the Reds began to retreat towards Ossetia. Scattered small detachments would later join the ranks of the Ossetian-Kermenists.
Dautokov solemnly entered Nalchik the next day, beginning to re-shape the region and its legislative base. Zaurbek, oddly enough, now also opposed interethnic hatred, however, it could not be otherwise, given the plastuns in his detachment, talked about the brotherhood of Kabardians and Russian Cossacks and, of course, immediately asked to form new detachments against the Bolsheviks.
Nalchik is red again, white again and red again
On November 19, the Shariah column, reinforced by the advanced units of the 11th and 12th Red Army, easily occupied Nalchik. Shakmanov, whom Dautokov returned to power, fled. Dautokov himself retreated to join Denikin's Volunteer Army. In Nalchik, Katkhanov again returned the "old" order. However, the Bolsheviks now reacted somewhat colder to his Sharia fantasies, limiting the practice of applying Sharia exclusively between Muslims.
And again the column shattered the forces, leaving to fight with Bicherakhov's units. Nalchik was again taken by volunteer troops. This time, agitation began, in which the Bolsheviks presented themselves as persecutors of Muslims. The formal ruler of Kabarda, prince and general Fyodor Nikolaevich Bekovich-Cherkassky, made a loud statement:
"I ask the population and the troops to continue with a pure heart and with prayer to the Great Allah to bear the burden on the ground and military service at the front, remembering that in this holy deed we create a great and glorious future for the Kabardian people."
The Soviet Shariah column has lost its significance. As a result, its units, led by Katkhanov, practically joined the army of the North Caucasian Emirate, where they retreated with battles with the Volunteer Army. The emirate, although headed by the emir Uzun-Khadzhi, a political and religious leader who waged a religious war against the AFSR, soon fell under the strong influence of the Bolsheviks. The Minister of Internal Affairs was the Bolshevik Khabala Besleneev, and the chief of staff of the troops was Magomet Khaniev, also a Bolshevik.
By the beginning of 1920, the unification of the Bolshevik forces began in the North Caucasus. In early March 1920, Katkhanov was already able to free a significant part of Kabarda from Denikin's forces. On March 10, Nalchik was taken by the fighters of the former Sharia column. Almost immediately, the dreamy Nazir introduced the following proposals into the draft constitution of the Mountain Soviet Socialist Republic: to introduce Sharia legal proceedings in places of residence of the Muslim population along with Soviet people's courts, to create Sharia departments at the Commissariat of Justice of the Mountain Republic and at district and rural executive committees. But soon the powers of the Sharia courts were significantly reduced. In the end, the courts were completely liquidated.
Katkhanov continued his political activities, founded the first museum of local lore in Nalchik, etc. But, subject to excessive daydreaming and lack of a real view of things, he ended up in a purely political millstone. In 1928, he was arrested and shot for trying to create a nationalist terrorist group. In 1960, he was posthumously rehabilitated.
Commander Mironenko, tired of the endless bloody war, returned to his native village Razdolnaya. During the Great Patriotic War, almost 60-year-old Grigory Ivanovich carried out the instructions of the regional party committee to organize the supply of the Soviet Army, and also took part in the formation of a volunteer division. In 1944, Mironenko was elected chairman of the executive committee of the Zheleznovodsk Council of Working People's Deputies. Grigory Ivanovich Mironenko was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Badge of Honor. The once formidable commander of the shock Soviet Sharia column died in 1970.
