Siege of Akhoulgo
| Siege of Akhulgo | |||||
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| Part of the Caucasian War | |||||
 A panoramic painting by Franz Roubaud |
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| Belligerents | |||||
 Caucasian Imamate
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 Russian Empire
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||
| Imam Shamil |
Yevgeny Golovin Pavel Grabbe |
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| Strength | |||||
| 1,000+ | ~13,500 | ||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||
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Heavy 900 prisoners mostly women,children and old men |
25 officers killed 91 officers wounded |
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Heavy
25 officers killed
487 soldiers killed
Total: 512 killed
91 officers wounded
1,631 men wounded
Total: 1,722 wounded
The Siege of Akhulgo (1839) was a siege during the Murid War in the Caucasus. General Grabbe besieged Imam Shamil in the rock-fortress of Akhulgo. After 80 days the rock was taken and most of the defenders were killed, but Shamil managed to escape.
About 75 km west of the Caspian Sea the east-flowing Andi Koysu joins the north-flowing Avar Koysu to form the Sulak River which flows northeast. All three flow in canyons. About 5 km south is the village of Gimry where Ghazi Muhammad was killed in 1832. Akhulgo is about 5 km west. At Akhulgo the Andi Koysu flows east, then north, east, south and east, forming a rectangle. Inside the rectangle are two steep hills several hundred feet above the river. The western one, Old Akhulgo, is narrow and runs north-south. It is somewhat comma-shaped and can only be approached easily along a narrow ridge from the village of Ashitla to the southwest. The eastern one, New Akhulgo, is broader and higher. Between them runs the Ashitla River. At a narrow point in canyon the two hills were connected by a bridge 40 meters above the Ashitla River. South of New Akhulgo and outside the rectangle is the conical Surkhay’s Tower which is taller than the other two and dominates the whole area. In addition to their steepness there were natural and artificial caves and semi-underground houses. The place is a natural fortress whose only weakness is the difficulty of hauling water up from the river.
The 1837 expedition: In 1837 General Fese destroyed the village of Ashitla and then killed a number of fugitives who had fortified themselves at Old Akhulgo by blasting then with cannon from Surkhay’s Tower. Shamil viewed the ruins of Ashitla and this may have influenced him to improve the fortifications at New Akhulgo. See Murid War for details.
The march: The plan was to attack Akhulgo in two columns, one from Fort Vnezapnaya (modern Endirey) 45 km north of Akhulgo and one from Temir-Khan-Shura {Buynaksk} 30 km east. Since Shamil had many supporters to the north the main force was the northern one and the eastern column was used mainly for supplies. Probably to avoid the Avar Koysu canyon the eastern force would go south, then west to Kunzakh, then north to Akhulgo. The march began from Vnezapnaya on 21 May {all dates old style, so add 12 days for the Western calendar}. On 25 May they dispersed a group under Shamil himself at Burtunay with little fighting. They then faced the fortified village of Argouani (modern Argvani does not quite fit Baddeley’s description). The place was difficult to attack, but too strong to bypass and there was no time for a siege. On 30–31 May it was blasted open with artillery, taken by storm and the inhabitants slaughtered. The Russians lost 146 killed and 500 wounded and the mountaineers perhaps 2000. They now had the problem of crossing the Andi Koysu and contacting the supply column that was waiting on the Betli plateau south of Akhulgo. They captured one of the destroyed bridges, rebuilt it with roof beams from the nearby village, crossed with some of their men and made contact with the supply column. On 11 June they repaired the bridge at Chirkata and on 12 June occupied the ruins of Ashilta less than a kilometer southwest of Akhulgo, thus beginning the siege.
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Wikipedia