The features of raiding tactics of circassians in the period of the Caucasian war (1801-1864)

The article on the basis of historiographical and archival material is reviewed the raiding tactics of the circassians in the period of the Caucasian war. The article is paid attention to all main components of the raiding operation, namely: the preparation for the invasion, exploration, raid and return process of squad involved in the raiding. As sources there were attracted the documents from Russian and foreign archives, namely the central state historical archive of Georgia and the state archive of the Krasnodar region. The study methods were the principles of objectivity, historicism, systematic, integrated consideration of socio-subjective in the subject of study and the maximum possible neutrality of the relationship of the researcher to interpret and evaluate factual material. The principle of historicism allows the authors to see the important phenomena and processes associated with raiding tactics of the ?ircassians during the Caucasian War on the basis of diverse facts obtained in the course of practical work with archival documents. In conclusion, the authors note that the conducting of the raid required the considerable efforts. The important attention was paid to the selection of personnel, intelligence service, the synchronicity of actions, military cunning, and also trick riding ("dzhigitovke"). The success of the raid was rapidity, so the operation was carried out only for one day. However, despite this readiness, the raid on the Russian territory was not always a win-win deal, and sometimes led to the complete destruction of the raiding group. © 2017 by Sochi State University.