Dagestan Uprising (1920)

The Dagestan uprising of 1920-1921 was an event during the Russian Civil War (the Murid War of 1830-1859 took place in the same area).

By the spring of 1920 Bolshevik forces controlled most of the Caucasus area except Georgia. The uprising began in September 1920 and by the end of the year the rebels controlled most of mountain Dagestan. The Reds brought in more and more troops and defeated the rebels by March 1921, but fighting went on until the end of May.

The Bolshevik troops greatly outnumbered the rebels, but most were Russians who knew little of the mountains. The Red officers made a number of mistakes. The resistance was led by the same Naqshbandi brotherhood that had supported Shamil. Most of the native Bolsheviks had been killed earlier in the war.

The military geography had changed a good bit since the time of Shamil. Baku was now an oil boom town. There was a railroad up the coast from Baku which connected to the main rail network of Russia. Petrovsk (formerly Tarki, now Makhachkala) was an important port with a working class that might support the Bolsheviks. From Petrovsk there was a road and railroad to the military center of Temir-Khan-Shura (Buynaksk). From there a good road led south to the important road junction of Khanzhalmikhe. From it poorer roads led east and south. Also from Khanzhalmikhe a road led northwest to the Avar capital of Khunzakh and through Botlikh over the Andi ridge into Chechnya, Shamil’s old capital of Vedeno and Grozny. This U-shaped route avoided the Avar Koysu canyon. The road crossed the canyon at the Salti Bridge west of Khanzhalmikhe, south of which was the Russian fort of Gunib. Most of the fighting was along or inside this U-shape. There were now machine guns. Artillery was more effective and easier to move. Our writers say nothing about trucks, but they do mention armored cars, which the mountaineers could not deal with. The Russians would usually win when they stayed on the roads and relied on numbers and artillery. Their garrisons in the mountains could be surrounded but the mountaineers lacked the artillery and discipline for a proper siege or storm. The Chechens generally stayed out of the fight. They were now oriented towards Vladikavkaz, faced a denser Russian population and were more concerned with the Cossacks who had usually sided with the Whites.

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