in 2014 Russia held the Winter Olympics at SOI the kesaya poana ski resort to be specific the world was surprised when this seemingly idyllic place was hit with intense protests from a small but vocal group of people known as the circassians who told the world that they'll be skiing on mass Graves 2014 happened to be the 150th anniversary of a colossal genocide of the circassian people committed by the Russian Empire to the tune of over a million dead the last desperate Battle of the circassian tribesmen against the Russian forces had occurred in 1864 on the
exact site that the Winter Olympics would be held in this video we'll see the horrors of the circassian genocide we'll look at why the Russians wanted to wipe them out the ways in which whole Villages were exterminated and learn how the shores of the Black Sea became a virtual graveyard for an entire nation of people native to the mountainous circassia region that borders the Black Sea the circassians were descended from a long list of people stretching back as far as the hittite Empire they were a tribal people with no States Kings or permanent cities of
their own numbering about 1.5 million by the start of the 19th century the circassians lived in semi-nomadic tribal communities across circassia they would settle into semi-permanent Villages known as SS but rarely stayed in one place for very long tribal Elders held power over their society and in times of Crisis a H might be called to gather the leaders of many owls to deal with some collective threat but with each circassian group valuing their independence and unanimous agreement required for the h to do anything it was only ever a temporary emergency solution the circassians were not
purely Shepherds and Nomads living in the Hills some circassian tribes engaged in trade and settled in small towns on the Black Sea circassians were also known for their connections to the slave trade circassians were both enslavers and enslaved connected to the slave trades of the Russian and ottoman Empires lastly and relevant to their genocide was their religion by the 19th century most circassians were counted as Muslims with a few Christians but they also retained many pre-islamic spiritual practices like ancestor worship to the Orthodox Russian Empire they were a strange people of barbarous and Pagan religion
circassian Society then was quite quite different to the others around them certainly the Russians thought so Russia set its sights on circassia back in the 177s Katherine the Great decided that Russia should control the entire Northeastern shore of the Black Sea regardless of what the people already there had to say about it over the following decades Russia sent numerous military Expeditions and Regional commanders in Chief to establish Russian control and drive the circassians back on top of its strategic interests Russia Justified its actions by what it called the barbarism of circassian society they already had
a reputation as Raiders even if only some tribes deserve that title with no permanent settlements they were seen as barbarians as followers of Islam Russia could paint them as enemies within their Christian Empire but since they had no permanent leadership there was no way for them to collectively negotiate with Russia either diplomacy was not an option so Russia chose violence instead as early as 1818 the Russian military was massacring circassian villagers commanderin-chief Alexi yermolov LED some of the first mass violence against them that year after circassian tribesmen refused to help the Russians capture members of
other tribes accused of raiding Russian territory yermolov had the tribes All Surrounded flushed out the inhabitants stole their livestock and burned what remained compared to what came later it was merciful military activity continued into the 1820s helped by the plague which hit the circassians in those years hundreds of OLS were destroyed by Russian raids and the entire cardia region of the northern caucus mountains was cleared of circassians by 1830 most had fled into Western cassia which was Far Beyond Russian control technically though Russia did not control any of circassia and had no legitimate claim to
it they made sure to to change that in 1829 the Treaty of adrianople signed to end hostilities with the Ottomans recognized Russia's claim to the entire Black Sea Coast it didn't directly name circassia but SAR Nicholas I acted like it did from the 1830s soldiers and pressure increased the cacasa core of the Russian army became a Dumping Ground for criminals and dissidents whose Behavior against the local circassians was marked by excessive violence theft and abuse around 1840 the Russians even ordered a blockade of a handful of small circassian ports famine soon followed Admiral Lazar sov
gleefully wrote to the SAR that the famine made for the perfect opportunity to conquer all of circassia and if the soldiers moved in just to destroy all the crops quote they the circassians would all be the victims of starvation by the 1840s Russia plans were to expel or exterminate the circassians to be replaced with more loyal Russian settlers a glimpse of Hope Shone through in 1854 when the Crimean War broke out between Russia and the alliance of Britain France and the Ottomans Russia redeployed its forces from circassia to Crimea and the other powers reached out
to circassia as a potential ally however the circassian tribes could not agree on a single leader to represent them fighting broke out and did not resolve before the Crimean War ended in 1856 with only limited raids to show for it the circassians had missed the last chance they might have to push Russia out while they were distracted the Treaty of Paris in 1856 brought an end to the war but it had devastating consequences for circassia the treaty specified that Russia would Grant amnesty to any part of the Empire that rebelled against it during the war
however circassia was not technically part of the empire although it was under Russian control Britain with some sympathy for the circassians tried to convince France and the Ottomans to exclude circassia from Russia's borders but the other powers refused they still held by the old Treaty of adrianople therefore the Treaty of Paris saw Britain France and the Ottomans accept circassia as Russian territory but explicitly did not require that Russia grant them amnesty for rebelling Russia emerged from the war with an excuse to punish circassia and it was going to use it for the next few years
they poured forces into the circassian frontier the entire Crimean Army was redeployed there and with the pacification of chia in 1859 all those forces were there too the circassians saw the writing on the wall some tribes hastily negotiated treaties with Russia offering total submission in exchange for peace others retreated into the mountains trusting that they would protect them but there would be no other options the circassians would submit or be cleansed by force the man who would lead this effort was General Nikolai yov an accomplished veteran he had no sympathy for the Cassian who he
viewed as Barbarian Savages still the Russian strategy was not immediately to kill everything deportation was and remained the supposed goal Russia began rounding up circassian families and forcibly deporting them to Turkey since the circassians were also Muslims the Russians felt it was appropriate the Ottomans were not consulted instead the Russians told the Ottomans that they were given the circassians temporary passports so they could go on pilgrimage to Mecca of course those passports would no longer be valid when they came back stranding the circassians in Turkey this only worked for a short while by 1861 Russia
was forced to admit to full deportation plans circassians would instead be given a choice deportation to Turkey or resettlement to a barely hospitable corner of Russia like Siberia practically a death sentence in itself the Russians were surprised at how many circassians chose the unspoken third option resistance and inevitable Death in June 1861 yol's forces began a sweep campaign to cleanse circassia completely it wasn't just Conquest but colonization yakov's operations included settlers road builders and Fort Engineers to claim circassia as it was cleared the Russian troops would move in kill or route the local circassians and
new Russian forts or settlements would be put down in their place the circassian tribes hastily called aass and after much deliberation agreed to form a central government that could reach out to the European powers for help they also decided to send a mission to the tar to beg for mercy and the right to stay in their Homeland neither would really matter SAR Alexander II visited circassia in September 1861 to see the progress of the cleansing operation on September 23rd 500 circassians turned out to meet him laying their swords at their feet they pleaded with thear
to stop the violence and accept peaceful submission the offer surprised thear who is clearly open to it JV dokov was not so pleased like many other Russian leaders y dukov considered the circassians little more than beasts negotiating with them was pointless in the words of Defense Minister Demitri milutin the experience has taught us how little meaning negotiations or treaties have with these Mountain peoples yov sent one of his agents to tell the circassians that the tar was willing to accept any of their demands for submission this was a lie when the circassian representatives presented Alexander
with a long list of of Demands including a total halt to Russian colonization and an end to deportations thear was insulted instead he told the circassians they had one month to submit to Russian Authority and resettlement to somewhere else in Russia or be deported to Turkey it was an impossible demand the vast majority of circassians dug in awaiting the inevitable in November 1861 yevdokimov led a force of 65 combat battalions five kasac divisions and 100 cannons into cassia they Advanced at a lightning Pace burning every owl they found his direct Superior Alexander binski put it
in clear terms we must assume that we will need to exterminate the Mountaineers before they will agree to our demands the next year was an endless stream of Village massacres and tribal skirmishes owls were destroyed tribes cut down and those who were not killed flocked to the shores of the Black Sea to await deportation to Turkey there were few pitched battles or singular moments that captured headlines the circassian genocide was a peace meal one of thousands of separate massacres their details and victims forgotten in some remote Mountain Pass most of what we know comes from
the accounts of the Russians something they all agree on was the shockingly strong Spirit of the circassians many of them fought to the end even when hope was lost and scorning surrender the fighting men of a tribe would often lay down their lives holding back the Russians while the women and children scattered into the mountains in one encounter Russian soldiers met unarmed circassians who were quote literally throwing themselves on our bayonets where they died far from respecting The cassian's Bravery Russian leaders seem to take it as an insult they frequently flee into some sort of
dark Ravine wrote One Russian officer there they die of starvation or the elements right in hand so that they may fire their final shot at the Russians for expelling them the Russians seem to think that the Cassian were dying just to spite them one typical strategy was to identify a circassian valley and then send troops in to burn out the owls any circassians would flee or be found and killed then the Russians would pretend to leave they'd wait a few days to see if the circassians emerge from their hiding places then sweep through again this
process would be repeated several times until the Russians stopped finding new circassians to slaughter Columns of desperate starving circassian refugees mostly women and children fled into the mountains or towards the Black Sea Coast for deportation one French witness reported starving families reduced to eating tree leaves to survive all the while typhus and malnutrition raged them one by one the circassian tribes vanished many were exterminated outright others were torn apart as refugees scattered the last serious confrontation occurred on May 27th at a place known to the circassians as kabada today it is the village of Kia
poana near SOI a force of some 20,000 circassian Warriors mostly from the ubek and jigit tribes made their final stand in the Hills there women tore off their jewelry and took up arms to die alongside the men as one circassian historian noted they were not fighting for victory but to die honorably and to escape a life that had no hope left in it the Russians slaughtered them to the last every man woman and child the massacres in the mountains claimed hundreds of thousands of lives but the fate of the Deportes was no less terrible circassians
who did not submit to Russian rule which was most of them were sent to the Black Sea Coast to await deportation by ship to Turkey hundreds of thousands of circassians were crammed into the ports causing a massive humanitarian crisis there wasn't enough food medicine or ships to handle the numbers and a dreadful winter in 1863 and 1864 was devastating for the refugees thousands died every week in the makeshift refugee camps starvation tyus smallpox and exposure all took their toll many were stuck there for months since there weren't nearly enough ships to take them all the
ottoman state had sent some the Russians had spared only a few and a handful of ships came from sympathetic European countries a number of private Muslim captains ranging from Merchants to Humble fishermen volunteered to sail over two but all in all it wasn't enough for the over half a million refugees needing to be transported safely the ships that did sail were dangerously overcrowded some sank under the weight for those that did sail the p ships were breeding grounds for disease turning the Voyages into deadly TRS with death rates comparable to the Voyages of the Atlantic
slave trade it got so bad that by April 1864 Russian captains refused to keep transporting refugees since it was too dangerous for them and their crew General yov spent months trying to negotiate new ships for passage but did not think to ask for more food or medical supplies for the hundreds of thousands of refugees still waiting on the shore the denied there was even a problem he insisted there was no disease and no food shortages even as his own officers privately wrote about how the entire Coast had become a virtual graveyard Russian officers had given
up trying to count the bodies but the leadership didn't care yov even got annoyed with subordinates who he said quote keep reminding me in every report concerning the frozen bodies of the refugees while refugees were dying authorities blamed tur ship captains who were greedily accepting more refugees than they could carry so they could make more money per run because of course the refugees were required to pay for the privilege of being deported it cost 5 rubles for a voyage ever the sympathetic men the SAR ear marked 100,000 rubles as Aid to be given to the
refugees to help them pay for it given that was barely a quarter of a Ruble per Refugee it wasn't much help instead circassians sold their last Poss possessions and in some cases sold themselves into slavery to buy passage for themselves or their family the last circassians were deported from the Black Sea Coast in early 1865 in total at least 750,000 circassians ended up in turkey with another 250,000 dying on the coast or on the voyage 1864 is usually marked as the end of the circassian genocide by that point virtually the entire circassia region had been
dep populated and recolonized with Russian settlers at least 3/4 of a million circassians had been resettled in the Ottoman Empire although many would be displaced again a few years later when Russian troops swept through the Balkans the circassian genocide was an obvious and successful attempt to violently remove a people from their ancestral Homeland and ethnically replace them with new settlers in this it perfectly fits the definition of a modern genocide certainly the documents reports and accounts of the Russians themselves paint a harrowing picture of a campaign intentionally designed to exterminate an entire people between the
deportation deaths and yakov's operations the final death toll was somewhere between 1 and 1.5 million hundreds of thousands more were deported and displaced yet recognition and scholarship on the genocide has been rare it took until 2013 for a full book dedicated to the genocide to appear in English and as of 2023 Georgia Remains the only country to recognize the genocide for what it was Russia continues to insist the deaths were an unfortunate accident and furiously denies any charge of genocide meanwhile the surviving circassian diaspora scattered across turkey Russia the Middle East and elsewhere have struggled
to gain recognition of their history to the circassians the holiday goers and Sportsmen at cnia poana will always be skiing on mass Graves and the world doesn't seem to care or remember that one of the largest and most successful genocides in history was carried out against them
