Starting off as a failed Russian campaign to capture Sheikh Mansur, who had spread Islam among the Chechens, it quickly turned to a region-wide anti-Russian insurgency.

Although victorious at first, brutal Russian tactics, among them burning and destruction of villages as well as repeating military losses of the mountaineers, led to the decline of the insurgency, which saw Mansur lose many of his supporters.

[6] As a result, Mansur rose in popularity across the North Caucasus, and several thousand fighters from across the region came to join his army, allowing him to conduct military operations only days after the battle.

Immediately, Russian commanders sent reinforcements to the Grigoriopolis redoubt, and also sent a detachment led by Brigadier Fyodor Apraksin to the Malka River to prevent Mansur from meeting the Kabardians.

[16][17][18] After a day, 180 Russian soldiers stormed out of the fortress and conducted a surprise attack on the mountaineers, who were caught off guard and forced to retreat, ending the Battle of Grigoriopolis.

“Many reports assure me,” the Kizlyar commandant Veshnyakov wrote to the Kostek ruler Khamza Alishev, “that the highlanders are going to march into the Russian borders, and their path will certainly pass through the Kumyk villages.

In a letter dated October 12, 1785, in the Tatar (Kumyk) language, residents and foremen of the villages of Bolshie Atagi, Chechen-Aul and Aldy reported that the imam living with them had no hostile intentions towards the Russians.

Despite that, the situation still remained tense: In the same month, Kabardian fighters attacked the detachment of Major General Shemyakin, stationed at the tops of the Malki River near the Beshtovy Mountains.

Between September and December, a 20,000 strong Dagestani army led by Umma Khan V and some of Mansur's companions invaded Georgia and devastated the region Imereti.

In a letter from the Andreevsky owner Temir Khamzin to foreman Veshnyakov, it was reported that the rulers of Ali-Soltan Kambulatov, Chepalov, Adzhimurtaza-liyev with their bridles and subject peasants still remain on the side of Mansur and "do not agree to leave their malicious intentions...

On October 4, by order of Mansur, 400 rebels attacked the Kalinovka village, but were met with heavy cannon fire while trying to cross the Terek River and were forced to return.

[26] Potemkin himself, with an army of 5,000, moved towards the Beshtov Mountains (Beshtau) and settled down on the Malka River, intending to take part in the operation at the final stage.

For the good of man, by the power of his spirit, he appointed legislators, of whom the first was Moses, then Jesus Christ and, finally, all of Asia honors Muhammad as the third chosen prophet of God.

Clergy, be sure that I will not touch their law; people, be sure that I will leave all the faithful alone and accept them under the protection of the imperial arms; I will persecute, defeat and punish criminals until they come with repentance to ask for mercy.”[27] The Kabardian response to the letter was mixed, although some princes did go over to the Russian side.

He continued to send letters to the tribes of the North Caucasus and to his fellow villagers of Aldy, in which he hoped for his support and declared: "All our troubles are the wrath of God, the Lord's punishment for the weakening of faith, mutual disagreements and failure to fulfill the instructions of the Prophet.

Chechens and Kabardians, together with Trans-Kubans, continued to carry out attacks on military patrols, pickets and fortifications of Russian troops on the Caucasian line.

General Shemyakin reported that a detachment of 100 Chechens crossed the Terek River and attacked the military guard of the Tomsk regiment not far from the Nizhny Yar tract.

If the Russian army managed to capture all of their cattle and burn their fields, the Kabardian fighters would starve to death, which eventually forced Mudarov to leave the mountains and surrender.

[39] According to the reports of Colonel Nagel, Mansur's influence in Circassia was great, and due to his speeches and cermons, the Circassians conducted more raids on the Caucasus line.

[40][42] On September 25, Mansur, leading a detachment of 300 to 400 fighters, ambushed the Russian army and almost crushed its rearguard, despite the mountaineers being poorly equipped, with many not even having fire arms, but instead bows and arrows.

[40][43] On the same day, General Ratiev received the order to withdraw from Circassia due to the heavy losses that the Russian army suffered during the campaign.

[44] With the onset of autumn, Pavel Potemkin sent General Peter Tekelli and Ataman Ilovaisky on a new campaign to Circassia, with the goal of "defeating the adjacent peoples where the rebellious Shih Mansur had his stay".

[45] On January 1, 1788, Tekelli reported to St. Petersburg that Mansur sent a letter to the Chechens, in which he stated that he had gathered up to 15,000 men and several artillery and will return to Chechnya.

A large army under Lieutenant General Talyzin to the crossing of the Kuban with orders to explore the path to Anapa and conduct reconnaissance of Turkish forces.

Empress Catherine the Great and Pavel Potemkin were furious at Tekelli for his refusal to storm Anapa, which led to him being deposed from the position of the leader of the Russian forces in the Caucasus and was replaced with Ivan Saltykov.

[50] In response to recent Ottoman and rebel activities, in February 1790, with an army of 7,609 troops, Yuri Bibikov, commander of the Caucasian Corps, invaded Circassia.

By order of Mansur, the Circassians surrounded Bibikov from all sides and frequently attacked Russian troops, cutting off communication between smaller detachments and the remaining army.

[58] On June 22, at 8 am, Russian forces broke into Anapa and captured all the fortress artillery and 13,532 Turks and a small number of mountaineers, who were unable to fight due to severe wounds.

The Russians sent a Chechen negotiator to Mansur, promising him the position of an honorary prisoner and decent content in St. Petersburg, where he should be sent to be presented to Empress Catherine II.

He also put an end to the process of national consolidation of the Chechens from the Assy River in the west to Aksai and Aktash in the east, from the peaks of the Main Caucasus Range in the south to the Terek in the north.