Bitter Choices: Loyalty and Betrayal in the Russian Conquest of the North Caucasus

Russia's attempt to consolidate its authority in the North Caucasus has exerted a terrible price on both sides since the mid-nineteenth century. Michael Khodarkovsky tells a concise and compelling history of the mountainous region between the Black and Caspian seas during the centuries of Russia's long conquest (1500–1850s). The history of the region unfolds against the background of one man's life story, Semën Atarshchikov (1807–1845). Torn between his Chechen identity and his duties as a lieutenant and translator in the Russian army, Atarshchikov defected, not once but twice, to join the mountaineers against the invading Russian troops. His was the experience more typical of Russia's empire-building in the borderlands than the better known stories of the audacious kidnappers and valiant battles. It is a history of the North Caucasus as seen from both sides of the conflict, which continues to make this region Russia's most violent and vulnerable frontier.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1. The Frontiers of the North Caucasus 2. Atarshchikov's Childhood 3. Journey through the Northeast Caucasus 4. Inside Ermolov's "Iron Fist" 5. St. Petersburg and Poland 6. Return to the North Caucasus 7. Interpreter and Administrator 8. Russian Policies and Alternatives 9. The First Desertion 10. From Semen Atarshchikov to Hajret Muhammed Conclusion Notes Glossary Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Michael Khodarkovsky is Professor of History at Loyola University Chicago. He is the author of Where Two Worlds Met: The Russian State and the Kalmyk Nomads, 1600-1771 and Bitter Choices: Loyalty and Betrayal in the Russian Conquest of the North Caucasus and coeditor of Of Religion and Empire: Missions, Conversion, and Tolerance in Tsarist Russia, all from Cornell. He is also the author of Russia's Steppe Frontier: The Making of a Colonial Empire, 1500-1800.

Review :
"The Russian conquest of the Caucasus started around 1580; it is still under way. But even its acute phase, between 1790 and 1860, was a process of invasion, colonization, negotiation and genocide so complex, involving so many different indigenous nations, and witnessed by so many articulate participants, Russian and foreign, that to describe it in 200 pages requires considerable virtuosity. Michael Khodarkovsky takes as his thread the scantily documented life of Semyen Atarshchikov, a Cossack whose father was Chechen and mother a Turkic Kumyk. A lieutenant and translator for the Russian army, he was so sickened by colonial war that he twice defected to the Circassian resistance. On the second occasion he was mortally wounded by another Russian defector who had decided to return. Michael Khodarkovsky has achieved a miracle of compression and shown us why the North Caucasus remains a live political volcano."-Times Literary Supplement "To tell the story of the North Caucasus, Khodarkovsky weighs the life of Semyen Atarshchikov. Born in 1807 and raised a Chechen, Atarshchikov ... is caught between two cultures and [as an interpreter for the Russian army] witnesses the barbarity of Russia's military campaigns in the North Caucasus until his defection to the other side in 1841; his story ends with his murder in 1845... Khodarkovsky leavens the tale with vivid details about the lives, cultures, and (often violent) fates of the different peoples of the region. One puts down this book with a much clearer sense of the challenge historically raised by this rebellious region for the Russians-a challenge that, in essence, remains today."-Robert Legvold, Foreign Affairs (May/June 2012) "This outstanding book explores the complex encounter between imperial Russia and the indigenous peoples of the north Caucasus region in the period from the Russian Empire's initial expansion into the region in the sixteenth century through the bloody, violent conquest in the nineteenth."-Choice "Readers familiar with Michael Khodarkovsky's two previous books on the Kalmyks and the Steppe Frontier will look forward to reading Bitter Choices... In his conclusion Khodarkovsky seeks to explain why the Russians have failed until the present day to bring peace to the region. All this makes a fascinating story, and we must be grateful to the author for telling it so well."-John P. LeDonne, Comptes Rendus "By the end of Michael Khodarkovsky's Bitter Choices... Atarshchikoc will reside as a hero in your memory... Khodarkovsky's insightful reporting of Atarshchikov's experiences in this regard offers unusually detailed and remarkable observations that are rarely found in Russian history and literary works about Caucasus... This is an important read for those conducting research on nineteenth-century Russian and Caucasian history, and could also be useful as a secondary source for those working on Russian literature about the Caucasus. In terms of teaching, Khodarkovsky's impressive body of knowledge and attentive research make this a solid volume for use in its entirety and in an advanced course in Eurasian or Russian history and/or culture."-Rachel Stauffer, Slavic and East European Journal (April 2014) "This short biography's truly novelistic qualities make it nothing short of a historiographic masterpiece."-Georgi Derluguian, author of Bourdieu's Secret Admirer in the Caucasus: A World-Systems Biography "Bitter Choices is a beautifully written work of a mature scholar who uses his sources imaginatively to re-create the Russian colonial encounter with the north Caucasus. Built around an unusual biography, the book does much more: it re-creates life in the early nineteenth-century Caucasus. It does not deny the violence of empire but it also puts the focus on choices, often bitter, faced by those caught up in it. It is a beautifully written, highly accessible account of the history of a region that has often been given overly simplistic treatments."-Adeeb Khalid, Carleton College "There is nothing like Bitter Choices in the English language: a marvelously written general history of the Caucasus that sets the stage in such human terms. By providing deep context for the life of a single officer whose allegiances often left him caught between realms, Michael Khodarkovsky draws us into the sweep of great events without losing sight of the personal struggles. Along the way we, too, enter the competing spheres of belonging that have so long defined this area."-Bruce Grant, New York University, author of The Captive and the Gift "Michael Khodarkovsky has revealed the world in a water drop: the history of Russia's southern frontier told through the remarkable biography of a reluctant imperialist. Insider and outsider, sometime Cossack and temporary Circassian, Semyen Atarshchikov moved across cultural and political lines that are too often seen as impermeable. With impeccable research and literary style, Khodarkovsky shows why Caucasus highlanders have long had an inconstant relationship with the powers that claim to rule them."-Charles King, Georgetown University, author of The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus "The story of Russia's conquest of the Caucasus has been told many times but seldom as imaginatively as in Michael Khodarkovsky's investigation of the intricate and intimate relationship between conqueror and conquered. Following the extraordinary career of a Russian officer of Chechen ancestry, Semyen Atarshchikov, he explores the cross-cultural exchanges that have tied Russia's imperial identity with a part of the world both resistant to its often brutal northern neighbor as well as benefiting from its connection to a European power. Khodarkovsky demonstrates that to understand why Caucasia remains today Russia's most vulnerable frontier, it is essential to look into its imperial past."-Ronald Grigor Suny, Charles Tilly Collegiate Professor of Social and Political History, University of Michigan