Draft:Battle of Baksan

Battle of Baksan (Battle of the "Crimean Walls") is a two-day battle between the Kabardian army led by the Chief Prince of Great Kabarda Islam Misostov and the Crimean Tatar army led by the sultans Bakhty-Girey and Murat-Girey, which took place on April 26–28, 1729 in the gorge of the river Baksan.

The course of the battle
At the end of 1728, the Crimean Khanate began preparations for a major campaign against the principality - the Great Kabardia, headed by at that time was a descendant of Prince Psheapshoko - Islam Misost. At the end of March 1729, the Crimean troops under the command of the sultans Bakhty-Girey and Imeat-Girey launched a campaign. At the end of April of the same year, they were already operating in the center of Kabardia. The number of Crimean troops that came out is difficult to establish, but Yu. Claproth once wrote that the Crimeans then "entered Kabardia with a powerful army."

Prepared to repeal the aggression, the Kabardians, led by Prince Misost, chose the "Crimean walls" as the main defensive border, in the gorge of the Baksan River. The fact that these artificial structures were very impressive is evidenced by the fact that more than half a century after these events, they stood out very clearly against the background of the surrounding terrain. Thus, in 1785, Prime Major A. Urakov in his description of Kabarda indicated:

"The Bru River, which was surrounded by a stone siege ("Crimean wall"), led from the mountain to the Baksana River. A stream called Kanoko, a gorge called Zhenkhotovo, where it was made by the Kabardians to prevent the former Crimean military operations from the siege led from the mountains to the Baksan River".

On April 26–27, Tatar troops approached the "Crimean walls" and began their assault, as a result of which a two-day battle was launched in the Baksan Gorge. On the second day, the Crimeans suffered a crushing defeat and began to retreat. As a result of the persecution of the Tatars, the Circassians managed to eliminate the commanders of the enemy troops. In the chronicle of the Crimean sovereigns it was written - "In the year 1141 (1729) Bakhti-Gerei Sultan and his brother Murad-Gerei Sultan became martyrs among the Circassians in Kabard, on the 28th day of Holy Ramadan.

The duration of the battle, which lasted two days in a row, may indicate the special tenacity shown by the warring parties during the battle. Usually, such long "battles" were possible when the parties concentrated significant resources that ensured the gradual entry of fresh forces into battle. Greater Kabarda had such opportunities only if the population was totally mobilized. Unlike the Battle of Kanzhal, the Kabardian troops defeated the Crimean army not as a result of a lightning night attack (although even then this battle was only the crown of the military campaign of 1708), which demoralized it, but during a stubborn, viscous battle, which required the involvement of all the military power of the principality. According to General Field Marshal V. C Dolgorukov, the Kabardians "by themselves were freed by considerable courage and labor" then from the Crimean threat.

At the same time, the victory of the Kabardian troops under the "Crimean walls" on April 26–28, 1729 did not ensure the cessation of the Crimean campaigns to Kabarda.

According to other sources, the circumstances of Bakhta-Geray's death were different. According to the information received by the Military Collegium, in the spring of 1729, Bakhty-Girey with a small detachment went to the Temirgoyevtsy - "to take from them an ordinary tribute, which the Circassians gave him ... as a tribute to a thousand ysyrs". At night, the Circassians attacked his camp and killed him along with his brother, a Kuban Serasker. This event alarmed the Azov Pasha, who sent his messengers to the Circassians. The envoys confirmed the death of the sultans at the hands of the "Temirgon Circassians", having learned that their bodies were delivered by the Kopyl Tatars "for knowledge to the Crimea". 

But at the same time, in a Russian note submitted by Porte in July 1750, it was reported that the Crimean Khan Arslan-Girey still demands compensation from the Kabardians "for the blood" of their brother Bakhty-Girey, who was killed by them "during the Crimean raid on Kabarda back in 1729."