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FROM 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