Abkhazian Uprising of 1866

an antifeudal and anticolonial uprising in Abkhazia brought on by the dissatisfaction of the peasantry with the agrarian reform being prepared by the government. It began on July 26 in the village of Lykhny (in what is now the Gudauta Raion) and quickly spread to nearly all of Abkhazia, the insurgent forces numbering more than 20,000 men. On July 27 insurgent detachments (over 4,000 strong) occupied the outskirts of Sukhum (Sukhumi), but their numerous attempts to take the Sukhum Fortress failed. As a result of the political backwardness of the peasants, the leadership of the uprising passed into the hands of the feudal lords, who, seeking to come to terms with tsarism, helped the authorities suppress the uprising. Fifteen people were brought before a drumhead tribunal; three of them were publicly executed. Many were banished from Abkhazia. A number of the peasants who were brought to trial voluntarily converted to Christianity so that they could serve their sentences in Siberia rather than be resettled in Turkey under the sultan.