Dagestan uprising

The mountain rebels had usually supported the Reds against the Whites, but by March 1920 the Whites were driven out and cooperation changed to hostility. In August 1920 a meeting was called at Gidatl to organize resistance to the Red Army. Said Bey, Shamil's (great-?) grandson, arrived from Turkey to assume the position of nominal leader. Early in September rebel bands began crossing the main mountain chain from Menshevik controlled Georgia into the upper valleys of the Andi and Avar Koysus. Originally about 600 men, their number soon increased to around 6000 and perhaps 9700 by January 1921. The Reds responded by moving an inadequate force of about 1000 men up a defensive line around Botlikh-Khunzakh-Gunib. In late September much of the Botlikh force moved south and was destroyed. About the same time the Khunzakh force tried to move south and had to fight its way back with heavy loss. On 9 October the rebels captured the Salti bridge, cutting communication between Khunzakh and Gunib, partially besieging them. On 13 October a Red force was sent south from Temir-Khan-Shura to take Arikani but on 30 October it unwisely entered a narrow valley and all 700 men were trapped and killed. After 4 November the Red Army brought 2 more regiments under command of Tadorsky from Baku in order to relieve forces at Gunib and Khunzakh.

On 9–16 November the so-called First Model Revolutionary Discipline Rifle Regiment went south from Grozny and occupied Botlikh without much trouble. Two days later 250 men went east down the Andi Koysu to Muni, which they looted. They went further downstream to Ortakolo, were surrounded by rebels, including the enraged population of Muni, and were killed to the last man. Botlikh was surrounded, surrendered and all the disarmed Red soldiers (around 700) were slaughtered, with only a few escaping to Grozny. (Broxup says that all the commissars and officers were executed and the enlisted men stripped naked and left to freeze to death). In the second half of November Soviet forces spread out from Khunzakh and Gunib. On 7 December Red units in the Botlikh sector fell back on Khunzakh. On 10 December the rebels took Khanzhalmikhe, effectively besieging Khunzakh and Gunib for a second time. On 20–26 December an attempt to retake Khanzhalmikhe failed.

More troops were brought in and on 2 January Khanzhalmikhe fell and 140 prisoners were taken. This is the only mention of prisoners being taken throughout the war. Gunib was relieved the next day. North up the canyon was Gerghebil which was considered the key to the relief of Kunzakh. On 7 or 8 January 2686 men began the attack. On 26 January the place fell to a night attack. Todorsky justified the heavy losses on the grounds that difficult victories demoralized the enemy. Two days later Khunzakh was relieved for a second time. The next move was north down the canyon to Arikani and Gimry. Arikani fell on 14 February. Gimry had been battered by artillery from late December, and ninety percent of the village being destroyed. On 18 February it surrendered.[1] With the core area occupied other places began to surrender. On the 19th Ashitla west of Gimry was occupied by 125 officer cadets. All were killed during the night and the next day 52 mutilated bodies were found. It is not clear what provoked this unusual brutality. The area to the northwest to the Chechen border was occupied: Botlikh (5 March), Andi (9 March) and northward (13 March). On 9–13 March the Dagestan Reds linked up with those in Chechnya. On 15 March the Petrovsk Military Soviet declared the uprising liquidated. Meanwhile, on 25 February, Tiflis was occupied by the Red army. With Georgia now under Soviet control the remaining rebels in Dagestan were surrounded. The rebels made their last stand at Gidatl where the uprising was first organized. It fell in May. Small bands continued to resist until the end of May. The remaining insurgents dispersed to their villages. Said Bey fled to Turkey. The war took the lives of 5000 Reds and an unknown number of mountaineers.

• William Edward David Allen and Paul Muratoff, Caucasian Battlefields, Epilogue, 1953
• Marie Broxup, 'The Last Ghazawat' in 'The North Caucasus Barrier: The Russian Advance towards the Muslim World', 1992