Caught in the Crossfire? Russian Sectarians in the Caucasian Theater of War, 1853–56 and 1877–78

In his memoir of 1910, Fedor Aksenovich Rylkov relates how the outbreak of the Crimean war unleashed terrible difficulties on the village of Orlovka. Settled in the 1840s by exiled Russian Dukhobors, this small community was located in the Russian empire's Transcaucasian region, only a short distance from the Ottoman border. One morning, after Russian troops temporarily billeted there had departed for the front, the villagers saw in the distance an approaching column of Turkish soldiers on horseback and foot. Orlovka's elder (starosta) (the grandfather of the five- or six-year-old Rylkov) came forward to meet the advancing armies with traditional symbols of hospitality and peace: a table with bread and salt. Welcoming one's enemies was a centerpiece of the Dukhobors' Christian convictions and non-violent customs, and reflected their belief in the inherent equality of all peoples. At the same time, it was certainly a calculated act designed to claim neutrality and avoid any unpleasantness. Their gesture was to no avail, however. In language designed to paint the Ottomans in the most barbaric light, Rylkov describes how the Turkish troops "flew at the table with savage faces and whoops" as the villagers stood near their offering. The lead rider felled the elder where he stood, severing head from body. In the ensuing hours, the Ottoman soldiers ransacked the village, destroying property, wounding villagers, killing a small number of them, and making off with the Dukhobors' possessions, livestock, and even with many Dukhobors (among whom was a terrified Rylkov).¹

Orlovka was one of several Russian villages in Transcaucasia to suffer assaults and disruptions during the early going of the Crimean war, albeit the most severely victimized. Its story reflects, in part, the experiences of Russian civilian settlers in the South Caucasus – by far the majority of which were Russian religious sectarians such as Dukhobors, Molokans, and Subbotniks – who found themselves thrust into the middle of the Russo-Turkish conflicts of 1853–56 and 1877–78.² However, Rylkov's memories of the incursion on Orlovka tell only a portion of the story of those Russian civilians caught in the crossfire. In addition to being victims of the hostilities, settlers in Transcaucasia played an even more important and active role as participants in the military engagement. While not actually fighting in the Russian army – both because their religious beliefs led them to pacifism and also because the inhabitants of Transcaucasia were exempt from military conscription until 1887³ – they did provide other vital contributions to the Russian military cause by fulfilling government contracts for transportation, provisioning, housing, and health care. In some instances the sectarians paid for their assistance in human life and material well-being. In others, they benefited from dramatic enrichment and the incalculable goodwill of tsarist officials who vociferously lauded them for their services.

The lived experiences of these religious dissenters in the South Caucasus during 1853–56 and 1877–78 have broad implications for understanding the connections between war and civilian life in imperial Russia.⁴ As non-Orthodox, these Russian settlers were not "average" Russian peasants, and their experiences of war were colored by their specific religiosity and unique characteristics. Nevertheless, their dual, periodically overlapping roles as both victims and agents of war expose a mutually influential and intricately dependent relationship between tsarist military endeavors and the development of Russian society. On one hand, the story of the sectarian-settlers during these wars plainly illuminates the roles that civilians could play in determining the successes or failures of Russian military ventures, underscoring that non-combatants were not solely the passive prey of war but also helped steer its course. On the other hand, it simultaneously provides a window onto the meanings and consequences, both immediate and enduring, of Russia's geopolitical disputes for the society, culture, and economy of those Russians who happened to live near the front lines.⁵

In examining civilian effects on military undertakings, this article strives to evaluate the results for tsarist empire-building of Russia's relatively aggressive policies...