Table Of ContentFROM TSAR TO CHEKA
FROM TSAR TO
CHEKA
THE STORY OF A CIRCASSIAN UNDER TSAR,
PADISHAH AND CHEKA
By
PRINCE MOUSSA BEY TUGANOFF
LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & CO., LTD.
Translated from the German
MADE AND PRINTED IN CREAT BRITAIN BY PURNELL. AND SONS, LTD.
PAULTON (SOMERSET) AND I.ONDON
FOREWORD
I have written these reminiscences many years
after the events which I describe took place. I
have had no diaries, no notes at my disposal, but
have had to rely entirely on my memory. It is,
therefore, not impossible that I have occasionally
recorded a wrong date or name.
My Caucasian home has often been falsely and
fantastically described. I shall be content if my
book helps to give a truer and clearer picture of
it.
M. B.
TUGANOFF.
Berlin, 1936.
v
FROM TSAR TO CHEKA
CHAPTER I
I
IN the year 889, Arpad, son of Duke Almo of the
Magyars, was elected leader of the Magyars. He is
the founder of the Hungarian state, the national
hero who still lives to-day in song and legend. He
overcame the Moravians, the Dukes of Transylvania,
the Croats and the Slovenes. Called to the aid of
the Byzantine Emperor against the Bulgars, he made
the Bulgarian King Simeon his vassal. His conquer
ing expeditions led him twice into Italy. Four of
his five sons fell in battle. When Arpad died in 907
he had ensured the inheritance of his last and
youngest son, Szoltan, who raised the dynasty from
the rank of elective dukes to that of hereditary kings.
In 972 the pious Sarolta, wife of Geza, Szoltan's
grandson, first allowed Christianity to be preached
in Hungary under her protection, and her son,
Stephen, was given by the Church the name of saint
for having conceded to it almost unlimited power in
his kingdom. It was, in fact, the power of Christian
priests and German knights which made ofthe savage,
and at first only half-conquered, tribes, a civilised
race. The dynasty ofArpad reigned for four hundred
2 FROM TSAR TO CHEKA
years until, in 1301, Andrew III lost the throne
in a prolonged civil war with the powerful Magyar
nobles.
It was in 1279 that Ladislaus IV, who had
quarrelled with the Pope, was excommunicated and
his nobles thus released from all obligations towards
him. One uprising followed another, until finally the
King was murdered by the rebels. But the ex
communication, that terrible weapon of the Popes,
did not die with the unhappy King. It was passed
on to his family, who were unable to subdue the
people, and were compelled to flythe country. Under
the leadership of Prince Bodela, the founder of my
family, the exilessoughta new home with the followers
who had remained true to them. They found a
country whose wild yet chivalrous people appealed
to them-the Caucasus. But they did not come to it
as refugees but as conquerors. They brought fire
arms with them, and the inhabitants of Daghestan
saw in the invincible strangers a race of godlike
heroes. It was easy for Bodela to obtain a footing in
Ossetia and Digoria, where there were nobles but
no ruler, but the neighbouring states of Georgia,
Imeretia and Abkhazia formed a powerful kingdom
with allied princes and nobles. To try to seize the
whole country would have been for Bodela, with his
handful of Magyars, a mad undertaking. He chose
the more diplomatic way and formed a pact offriend
ship with Georgia. Kabada still stood in his way,
and here he employed the easiest method of all: he
asked for the hand ofthe beautiful Kabardian Princess
FROM TSAR TO CHEKA 3
Krim-Cham-Hahl. The strange man may have
pleased her; on the other hand, she may not have
been consulted at all, for she was needed to make
peace with the stormy conqueror. But in spite ofher
war broke out; Keitukin, Prince of the Kabardians,
had no intention of submitting unconditionally to his
new relative. He assembled his tribe and resolved
to drive the strangers out.
But even he was finally persuaded to make peace,
and this came about through one masterly shot.
OneofBodela's Magyarssawthe Princein the distance
raising a silver cup to his lips to drink, and shot it
out of his hand. This made such an impression on
Keitukin that he decided it was better to be the friend
rather than the enemy of a man who commanded
such shots. And from that day on true friendship
bound Keitukin and Bodela, a friendship which
Keitukin extended to Bodela's son after the father's
death. Through Keitukin's example and Bodela's
courage the Ossete Circassians submitted freely, and
only the Ingushetes remained independent. This
robber race has never tolerated constraint; even the
Russians could not subdue them.
Bodela built himself a fortified castle on the river
Terek in the form of a Maltese cross. It still stands
to-day and is my ancestral home. Bodela was a pious
Catholic and died a Christian, but for his successors
it was naturally impossible to remain so in an Islamic
country and to rule as Christians over a Moham
medan people who considered them to be infidels.
They were converted to Islam.
4 FROM TSAR TO CHEKA
OfBodela's three sons, two died; the third, Prince
Tugan, also married a Kabardian of the Tambiyeff
family, and it is from him that our family takes its
name. The first struggles against the Russians and
Cossacks began in his time, his best ally being his
father's old friend, Keitukin. This Keitukin is still
celebrated in song and legend. Small of stature, he
was endowed with all the noble and chivalrous
virtues, and is credited with almost super
human strength. Once when a battle was raging on
the Terek between Circassians and Russians and the
victory hung long in the balance, the Russian com
mander, Prince Volkonski, a man ofbearlike strength,
offered to fight in single combat against the Caucasian,
and it was Keitukin who took his opponent prisoner.
He did not, however, treat him as a vanquished foe
but as an honoured guest. One day Prince Volkonski
asked ifhe might see his conqueror, the "man whose
eyes burned like fire." Smiling, Keitukin accorded
him his wish, and the erstwhile enemies liked each
other so much that they swore friendship and ex
changed swords. Soon Keitukin set his prisoner free,
and even escorted him to the Russian camp. It is
unfortunate that this chivalrous conduct was not to
be found in the later wars.
It was during the reign of Catherine II that the
struggle between the peoples developed into a real
war of conquest, but the mountain races knew how
to defend their freedom. Only after centuries, by the
use of overwhelming power and fresh reinforcements
against the exhausted Caucasians, could the Russians
