southern front

…a civilizational model that defines us…

Nikolai Timofeyovich Chernov – 1843

Slavyanka Village, Azerbaijan

The winter winds blow all types of seeds in all types of directions across the vast Eurasian Steppe. Their species and their origins are distinct and diverse, representing an amalgam of the expansive spectrum of nature’s desire to thrive. They lay dormant until the sun melts the ice and warms the soil. Some seeds grow in strength and utility like the birch tree, others provide fleeting yet perennial nourishment like the wild rye and wheat grasses. They all come together to serve the soil and provide the roots for life.

            This is the best way to understand the enigmatic nature of that which we now call Russia. It represents a civilisational model built of great variety and not from one specific prototype of life. It is an expression of nature itself, the result of endless seeds scattered across the open spaces of its vast topography. The outsider often thinks of Russia as a country made up of a certain prototype of people. Russia is rather the civilisational distillation of innumerable cultures which have been blown every which way by the winds of time. This is not always a lossless process, yet these groups all hold firm to the land below their feet. As ironic as it may seem, this ancient composition of people in transition has secured a permanent foundation for something that is much larger than any one race could achieve.

            This timeless act of cultural dissemination was mainly achieved on the backs of the two greatest gifts of mobility to bestow this continental expression of humanity. It is upon the horse and upon the river that man first began to conquer the vast spaces of the Eurasian land mass. Russia has indeed been able to expand and define itself by the graces of the horse and the river.        

            It was on the southern edge of this civilizational realm that Timofey Mikhailovich Chernov’s family carved their lot by the hooves of horses and the horns of cattle. His father was an esteemed horse trainer from the Don River Basin, as was his father before him. This was the land where the destinies of men were swept up into the saddle and upon the currents of free-flowing rivers. Since the time of the Scythians this area was the fabled ground zero where man first established communion with that time-honoured bond between rider and horse. It was also the area where those paddle-hardened warriors from the north, the Varangians[1] used the Volga, the Don, the Dnieper and the Yaitz rivers to pillage, trade, slave raid and govern their way into the history of the Slavic peoples.

            In 1844 Czar Nicholas I ordered all Doukhobor[2] peoples to be forcibly resettled from their farmlands in the Don and Dnieper River Basins to the dangerously wild frontier lands of Transcaucasia[3]. This was to be a solution for two separate problems facing the Czar. The 1800’s were a time of insurgency, conquest and discontent along the southern expanses of the Russian Empire. Religious, military, social and cultural pressures were broiling over in a cauldron of historically disparate forces. Soldiers and officers were deserting the Czar’s Army on the southern frontiers. Many were leaving to join the ranks of an upstart group of communal-living pacifists who were gaining social acceptance among the many Christian, Moslem, Tatar, Buddhist, Pecheneg and Pagan tribes. The Doukhobors had grown weary of the Orthodox Church with its orientation towards conquest, war and empire. They strived for a simple Christian life of honest toil and peaceful coexistence. Their community began to grow in popularity and public esteem. They were a dangerous contagion within the Russian Empire and they needed to be dealt with.

            In addition to this issue of attracting military defectors, the wild southern frontiers of the Russian Empire were increasingly suffering loss of property and possession at the hands of the nomadic Tartar raiders as well as the Mohammedanian, Georgian, Avari, Ingush, Circassian, Dagestani, Ossetian and countless other fiercely independent tribes of the Caucasus Mountains. The Czar desperately needed to settle Russian speaking peasants in these lands to establish a cultural foothold against the pressures coming from the periphery of the Ottoman and Persian Empires. 

            It was in Slavyanka Azerbaijan, among the high plateaus under the shade of the Caucasus mountains and tucked away from the shoulder of the Caspian Sea that Timofey Mikhailovich Chernov, his family and numerous other Doukhobor families were sent to establish a Russian speaking community to supply and support the ambitions of the Empire.

            It was among these wild tribes that the Chernov family with their penchant for cattle rearing and horse training soon began to prosper. This was a region rich in cultural distinction. It was a dangerous land where the will of another was often imposed on his neighbour. Self-protection and the honour of one’s word were highly regarded as the tools for familial preservation. All accounts were honoured orally. The names of one’s family and one’s tribe mattered most. One’s lineage was one’s lifeline. It was here that the code of the vendetta thrived. Where families carried grudges upon one another for centuries. It was a land where forgiveness was seen as weakness. This was a land where the merit of one’s reputation was the key ingredient to the survival of one’s family. There was no room for social missteps or casual interactions. One’s every word reflected their family’s merits. One’s every action could result in dishonour and even death.

            The Czar was well aware of the perils that existed across the Transcaucasian region. It was here that the troublesome Doukhobors could be whittled away by the fierce and militaristic nomadic peoples. In addition, there was the added burden of the Ottoman Empirical pressures from the south. The Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire were frequently at war over territory and trade in these crossroads of civilisation.

            To survive this hostile and bitter land, many of the young Doukhobor men were required to carry a firearm, a sword and other implements for self-defense. Not doing so was a sure-fire way to perish in this rugged terrain. This need to bear arms along with the Empire’s requirement of compulsory military conscription were to be a source of conflict for the spiritual pursuits of the Doukhobor people. In 1898 they would secretly organize a simultaneous burning of all their weapons in three distinct locations across the Transcaucasian region. One of the locations was in what is now Kars, Turkey, another in Orlovka, Georgia and the third in what is now known as Slavyanka, Azerbaijan.

            Just as their exiled existence upon the southern frontiers was settling into a modest sense of security and prosperity, life was soon to throw yet another curve ball to the Chernovs. The reaction of the Czar to this display of insubordination and defiance to military conscription was handled with swift and harsh retribution. The group that assembled in Kars had largely escaped immediate violent repercussions. The group in Orlovka next to Village of Bogdanovka received an extremely harsh treatment. Cossacks were dispatched to immediately flog, arrest and torture the participants into submission. The group near Slavyanka initially received a less harsh treatment however severe repercussions were to follow. 

            When the dust had settled, many of the Doukhobor men were forcibly exiled to the most northern reaches of Siberia. This journey would take in excess of one year by foot. Many froze or died from their wounds along the way, providing fertilization for the civilizational model that defined them. Thus, was the fate of Timofey Mikhailovich Chernov as well as his neighbour in Slavyanka, Nikolai Ivanovich Malov. Both were exiled to Siberia with Peter Vasilyevich Verigen. The fate of Nikolai Ivanovich is unknown. Timofey Mikhailovich succumbed to his wounds and died walking into the frozen and endless expanse of prison camps that was to evolve into the Gulag Archipelago that spit out Solzhenitsyn.

[1] Varangian is the common Russian term for Vikings.

[2] Doukh means soul or spirit and Bortsi means to wrestle with – Doukhobor means Spirit Wrestler.

[3] Now known as the Caucasus Mountains, spanning Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Armenia, Abkhazia and Ossetia.