Circassian genocide

Circassian genocide
Part of the Russo-Circassian War
Demographic map of the Western Caucasus following the Circassian genocide. Survivors were primarily those who fled or were expelled, hid in marshes and caves, or, in rare cases, made successful agreements with the Imperial Russian Army.
Native name	ЦӀыцӀэкӀун (Ubykh)
Location	Circassia
Date	1863–1878[1]
Target	Circassians and other Caucasian peoples
Attack type	Genocide (mass killings, mass rape) and ethnic cleansing (forced displacement, death marches)
Deaths	1,000,000–1,500,000 killed directly or indirectly[2][3][4] 500,000 died whilst fleeing[5][6]
Injured	1,000,000–1,500,000 displaced[7][8][9]
Victims	95–97% of the Circassian population
Perpetrator	Russian Empire
Motive	Imperialism Russification Islamophobia Christianization

The Circassian genocide,^[10][11] or Tsitsekun,^[a][b] was the systematic mass killing, ethnic cleansing, and expulsion of between 95% and 97%^[c][d] of the Circassian people during the final stages of the Russian invasion of Circassia in the 19th century.^[15][16][17] It resulted in the deaths of between 625,000 and 1.5 million and the destruction of Circassia, which was then annexed by the Russian Empire.^[18][e] Those planned for extermination were mainly the Circassians, who are predominantly Muslims, but other Muslim Caucasian peoples were also affected, as part of the Caucasian War.^[16] Notable killing methods used by the Imperial Russian Army in Circassia included impalement and tearing open the bellies of pregnant women in order to intimidate the Circassians and devastate their morale.^[15][19] Many Russian generals, such as the ethnically Baltic German Grigory Zass, described the Circassians as "subhuman filth" and a "lowly race" to justify and glorify their wholesale slaughter^{[15][20][21][page needed]} and their use as human test subjects in unethical scientific experiments.^[22] Russian soldiers were also permitted to rape Circassian women.^[15]

Circassia was largely emptied of the native Circassian population during the genocide, and those who were not killed were expelled to the Ottoman Empire.^[23][24] Only a small percentage of Circassians, namely those who accepted Russification and made agreements with Russian troops, were completely spared. Starvation was used as a tool of war against Circassian villages, many of which were subsequently burned down.^[25] Russian writer Leo Tolstoy reported that Russian soldiers would frequently attack village houses at night.^[26] British diplomat William Palgrave, who witnessed the genocide, recalled that "their [the Circassians] only crime was not being Russian."^[27] Seeking a credible military intervention against Russia, Circassian officials signed and sent "A Petition from Circassian Leaders to Her Majesty Queen Victoria" in 1864, but were ultimately unsuccessful in their attempt to solicit aid from the British Empire.^[28][29][30] That same year, the Imperial Russian Army launched a campaign of mass deportation to get rid of the bulk of Circassia's surviving population.^[31] By 1867, a large portion of the Circassians had been expelled from their ancestral homeland; many died from epidemics or starvation among the crowds of deportees and were reportedly eaten by dogs after their death,^[27] while others were killed when their ships sank during storms.^[32]

Most sources state that as little as 3% of Circassia's population remained after the genocide^[33][34][35] and that as many as 1.5 million people were forced to flee in total, though only around half of them survived the journey.^[6][36][37] Ottoman archives show the intake of more than a million immigrants from the Caucasus by 1879, with nearly half of them having been found dying on the shores of the Black Sea as a result of disease.^[5] Presuming that these statistics are accurate, Russia's military campaign in Circassia constitutes the single largest genocide of the 19th century.^[38] Russian records, in confirmation of the Ottoman archives, documented the presence of only 106,798 Circassians in the Caucasus on the approach to the 20th century. Other estimates by Russian historiographers are even lower, ranging from 40,400 to 65,900.^[13] The Russian Empire census, conducted in 1897, reported the presence of 150,000 Circassians in the conquered region.^[39][40]

As of 2023^[update], Georgia is the only country that has formally recognized the Circassian genocide.^[41] The Russian Federation classifies the events in Circassia as a mass migration (Russian: Черкесское мухаджирство, lit. 'Circassian migrationism') and denies that a genocide took place.^[42][43][44] Some Russian nationalists in the Caucasus mark 21 May 1864 (O.S.) as a "holy conquest day" to celebrate the beginning of the end of Russia's successful invasion of Circassia. The same day is observed annually as the Circassian Day of Mourning,^[45] which consists of ceremonies and marches in memory of the victims and, sometimes, protests against the Russian government.^[46][47] Today, the Circassian diaspora is primarily concentrated in Turkey and Jordan, with some 750,000 living in Russia's North Caucasus Economic Region.

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