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Military-Political Contacts of the West-Circassian Principalities with the Russian Centralized state (1552–1562)
In the middle of the 16th century, immediately after a series of the ruinous Ottoman-Crimean campaigns into Circassia, a qualitatively new stage in the political history of Circassians was started. After experiencing the strongest
military strikes, the feudal elite of the Adygs managed to develop a political strategy aimed at curbing of any external aggression. In the base of that strategy there was searching for a military ally. By the middle of the century the Russian
state acted as a natural ally of Circassians having conducted its active foreign policy and for the first time in its history being able not only to repel the nomadic armies’ onslaught, but also to carry out long military campaigns far beyond its territory. It was natural that an initiative to establish a military alliance with Moscow came from the princes of Western Circassia, which suffered most from the campaigns of Sahib-Ghiray the I during the 1539–1551. The so-called «Crimean case» was the main foreign policy project of Ivan the IV and, even having started the struggle for access to the Baltic Sea, he continued to organize an onslaught on the Crimea. But in 1561 Ivan the IV revised the nature of his policy towards the Crimea and, accordingly, towards Western Circassia. Moscow aspired to conclude a separate peace agreement with Devlet-Ghiray, as it faced great military difficulties in the Livonian War. In March of the 1562, a truce with Lithuania ended (in fact, even with Poland, since both countries were ruled by Sigismund the II August). Moscow could not cope with wars with Livonia (in which Sweden and Denmark intervened), Lithuania the Crimea at the same time. Both Moscow and Vilnius were vitally interested in ensuring that their powerful southern neighbor in the form
of the Crimean Khanate refrained from attacking their borders and would choose for its annual raids the territory of the enemy. Thus, at fi rst, Moscow changed the nature of its policy towards the Crimea, and then the West-Circassian princedoms of Janey and Besleney abandoned such an unproductive union.
military strikes, the feudal elite of the Adygs managed to develop a political strategy aimed at curbing of any external aggression. In the base of that strategy there was searching for a military ally. By the middle of the century the Russian
state acted as a natural ally of Circassians having conducted its active foreign policy and for the first time in its history being able not only to repel the nomadic armies’ onslaught, but also to carry out long military campaigns far beyond its territory. It was natural that an initiative to establish a military alliance with Moscow came from the princes of Western Circassia, which suffered most from the campaigns of Sahib-Ghiray the I during the 1539–1551. The so-called «Crimean case» was the main foreign policy project of Ivan the IV and, even having started the struggle for access to the Baltic Sea, he continued to organize an onslaught on the Crimea. But in 1561 Ivan the IV revised the nature of his policy towards the Crimea and, accordingly, towards Western Circassia. Moscow aspired to conclude a separate peace agreement with Devlet-Ghiray, as it faced great military difficulties in the Livonian War. In March of the 1562, a truce with Lithuania ended (in fact, even with Poland, since both countries were ruled by Sigismund the II August). Moscow could not cope with wars with Livonia (in which Sweden and Denmark intervened), Lithuania the Crimea at the same time. Both Moscow and Vilnius were vitally interested in ensuring that their powerful southern neighbor in the form
of the Crimean Khanate refrained from attacking their borders and would choose for its annual raids the territory of the enemy. Thus, at fi rst, Moscow changed the nature of its policy towards the Crimea, and then the West-Circassian princedoms of Janey and Besleney abandoned such an unproductive union.
Circassia, Janey, Besleney, Russian state, Sibok, Mashuk, Temryuk, Ivan the IV, embassy, co-optation