Russian conquest of the Caucasus

This article concerns the expansion of Russia into the region between the Black and Caspian Seas, mainly between 1800 and 1864. The main events were:

The southern and eastern area has been well documented by Baddeley, whose hundred-year-old book remains unsurpassed. There appears to be no full account of the western and northern area in any language. All dates in this article use the old Russian calendar. For the Western calendar add 12 days for the nineteenth century and 11 days for the eighteenth century.

Russians first appeared in the Caucasus region in the 9th century when some Rus’ went down the Volga to trade around the shores of the Caspian Sea. This evolved into two great raids in 913 and 943. The last raid seems to have been in 1041. See Caspian expeditions of the Rus'. Also at this time the Rus’ held Tmutarakan on the Taman Peninsula.

From the mid 16th century there was an isolated group of Cossacks on the Terek River and by around 1550 Cossacks were established on the Don River. Astrakhan was conquered in 1556 giving Russia a base at the north end of the Caspian Sea. They soon made an alliance with Kabardia and built a fort at the mouth of the Sunzha River. After about 1580 Russia disengaged from the Caucasus region for about 200 years, holding Astrakhan and slowly pushing settlement south toward the Black Sea.

During the so-called Russo-Persian War (1651–53) Persian subjects fought Cossacks on the Sunzha River. In 1688 Stenka Razin raided the Caspian coast. During the Russo-Persian War (1722–23) Peter the Great conquered the west and south shore of the Caspian, but the land was soon returned when Persia grew stronger. In 1775, after a Russian explorer had died in captivity, Catherine sent a punitive expedition which briefly captured Derbent. During the Persian Expedition of 1796 Russia again conquered the west coast of the Caspian, but the expedition was withdrawn when Catherine died.

Underlying all of this was the slow and steady expansion of Russian population southward from its original heartland in Muscovy. By around 1800 Russia was in a position to push soldiers and colonists into the Caucasus region.

...
Wikipedia