122 Orientalism and Empire“I can endure him no longer,” wrote Shamil of Przhetsslavskii to
Governor Spasski of Kaluga province in August 1865.^83 The imam was
mistaken, however, in his belief that lower-level officials were obstruct-
ing his efforts to petition the tsar.^84 Caucasus viceroy Grand Duke
Mikhail and other high officials were opposed because they feared that
word of such an event would further inspire North Caucasus moun-
taineers to rebellion.^85 There were other reasons for Shamil to be dissat-
isfied with the work and interests of Przhetsslavskii. Like many other
Russians who wrote about Shamil, Przhetsslavskii took a particular in-
terest in the younger generation and encouraged Abduragim, the
imam’s son-in-law, to leave the family for a place in Russian service.
Shamil and Kazi-Magomet opposed such a plan and stalled matters by
insisting upon the consent of Abduragim’s father, who lived in Turkey
and could not be reached.^86 Przhetsslavskii spent far more time with
Abduragim and others of the younger generation than with Kazi-
Magomet and Shamil. In spite of the renewed confidence of Ministry of
War officials in his trustworthiness, they relieved him of his position in
- Surveillance was only half the task of a pristav, and
Przhetsslavskii had failed at maintaining a close, helpful relationship
with Shamil.^87
More serious was the declining health of the imam’s family. “My
family is also thankful to the Great Emperor,” wrote Shamil to Dmitrii
Miliutin in April of 1867, “but it has gradually diminished.”^88 Kazi-
Magomet’s wife, Kerimat, died in 1862 from tuberculosis at age
twenty-five. Next to die was Nafisat, the wife of Abdurrakhman and
supposedly Shamil’s favourite daughter. In all, seventeen members of
the party were to die in Kaluga, most of them from tuberculosis.^89 In
desperation, Shamil’s letters to the tsar became increasingly obsequi-
ous.^90 The regime finally granted him his wish, and the family jour-
neyed from Kaluga to Kiev and then to the Ottoman Empire, where
most of the family stayed even after the death of Shamil in 1871.
the descendants of shamil
En route to Russia and in captivity in Kaluga, Shamil and his family
had found themselves at the centre of several colonial mythologies,
all of them characterized by a confidence in the transformative power
of Russian culture upon Shamil and the mountaineers. “Russian” cul-
ture in this context signified progress, European enlightenment gen-
erally, and the high culture and traditions of imperial educated
society. Georgian watchers of Shamil in Tbilisi imagined the encoun-
ter in a way similar to the Russian press in StPetersburg and
Moscow.^91 The purpose of the extended voyage to Russia was to