North Caucasus Line

The North Caucasus Line was a line of Russian forts and Cossack settlements along the north side of the Caucasus Mountains. Originating in the mid 16th century with a few free Cossacks near the Caspian Sea, from the mid 18th century the line was pushed west and used as a base to conquer the mountains to the south and to populate the steppes to the north.

The Cossack settlements were determined by three roughly parallel lines. The first was the line between the Caucasus foothills and the lowlands. The second was the line between forest and steppe. It is difficult to trace this line since much of the forest has been cleared for agriculture. What is clear is that a belt of forest-steppe extended north of the foothills onto the plain. The third, and most important, line was marked by three, and later five, rivers. In the east the Terek River catches the rivers that flow north from the Caucasus and drains them into the Caspian. In the west the Kuban River drains the Caucasus rivers west into the Sea of Azov. In the center the Malka River catches the mountain rivers and itself flows east into the Terek. The Terek, Malka and Kuban made a natural military line. Later two other rivers became important. The Terek first flows north, turns somewhat west and makes a great bend before flowing east. Inside this bend the Sunzha River flows northeast into the Terek and catches most of the mountain rivers. Once the Terek was controlled it became the next military line. In the west the Kuban also flows north before swinging west. Inside this curve the north-flowing Laba River was the next military line.

In the east along the Terek the soil is poor and rainfall low. Dense peasant settlement only became possible when the line was pushed west to the Stavropol highland in the center in the late 18th century.

Around 1500 Russia was just beginning to push south from its heartland in Muscovy. Everything south to the Black Sea and Caucasus was controlled by the Nogai nomads. In 1556 Russia moved down the Volga and captured Astrakhan at the north end of the Caspian sea. South of the Terek along the Caspian Sea the land was controlled by various khanates nominally subject to Persia. The northernmost was what later became the Shamkhalate of Tarki.

Cossacks lived all along the southern Russian frontier. They were originally runaway serfs and adventurers who went to the frontier to live a free life. They were gradually brought under government control by being hired as mercenaries. By the later period the Cossack was basically a fighting farmer who supported himself but was available for military call-up. Their usual duties were guarding villages against raiders, protecting convoys, especially along the Georgian Military Highway and serving as auxiliaries to the regular army. Most seem to have been of non-Russian ancestry. Since runaways and adventurers are mostly male, their wives, and therefore mothers and grandmothers were usually local. Cossack villages attracted locals who were slowly absorbed into the Cossack community. Georgians and Armenians moved to the north side of the mountains and some became Cossacks. In 1829 vagrants (brodyagi) were rounded up and made to work in Cossack villages for three years, after which they might become Cossacks. Although they normally had to be Orthodox, a number of Cossacks, including officers, were Muslim. They adopted local dress and economic methods. Horses and weapons were often bought from the mountaineers. In 1828 Cossacks were forbidden to approach peasants working in the fields because they could not be distinguished from native raiders. There was a good bit of raiding between Cossacks and natives. The local people also raided each other, but we do not hear of Cossacks raiding other Cossacks. When they were not raiding each other there was a good deal of economic and personal interaction. Especially in the early period there were many free Cossacks of whom the government knew little. In 1744 the Greben Cossacks had 450 men, but could round up 1500 more if they were paid. Free Cossacks usually appear in the records as “criminal fugitive Cossacks” when they engaged in raiding or piracy. Before the Russian state began a serious attempt at conquest in the early 19th century the Caucasus Cossacks were almost another local tribe.

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