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1918 massacre
The Koshekhabl massacre occurred on 24–25 September 1918 when Red Army forces entered the village of Koshekhabl during the Russian Civil War. Red Army soldiers killed civilians, committed rape, looted property, destroyed homes, and detained local residents in the village mosque.
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The Koshekhabl massacre occurred on 24–25 September 1918 when Red Army forces entered the village of Koshekhabl during the Russian Civil War. Red Army soldiers killed civilians, committed rape, looted property, destroyed homes, and detained local residents in the village mosque.
During the Russian Civil War, military operations took place across the North Caucasus. Following the destruction of several Circassian villages by Bolshevik forces in early 1918, local resistance expanded into a general uprising organized partly through Islamic clergy and Muslim community structures.
In early 1918, Cossacks from Kurganinsk requested assistance from Koshekhabl elders after Bolshevik forces looted and killed local residents. In response, local residents from Koshekhabl joined the 2nd Squadron of the Circassian Regiment under Staff Captain Shestakov, driving Bolshevik forces out of Kurganinsk and disarming a Red Army troop train at the local railway station. In March 1918, the Soviet Maykop Commissariat moved to disarm the Circassian population and contain armed resistance in the region. By September 1918, Red Army forces re-established control over the area, and Bolshevik detachments advanced toward Koshekhabl. During the Civil War, punitive measures affected both Circassian auls and Cossack stanitsas across the region, with Koshekhabl and Gabukay being among the most severely impacted Circassian settlements in the Adygea region.
During their retreat from the area in late September 1918, Bolshevik forces of the Mikhaylovskaya group destroyed the bridge at Koshekhabl before retreating toward Urupskaya. This allowed White Army forces to advance, and in early October 1918, the Circassian Cavalry Regiment and Line Regiment under Colonel Muravyov were ordered to join Baron Pyotr Wrangel's forces at Koshekhabl. Wrangel recorded in his memoirs that local Circassians, led by horse breeder Shovgenov, joined his brigade under a green flag. Wrangel noted that the Circassian auls experienced burning of villages, executions, and an incident where dozens of residents were buried alive by Bolshevik forces.
On 24 September 1918, on the second day of the religious holiday Eid al-Adha, Red Army units from the Taman Division under commander Kochergin, alongside the Belorechensk and Kurganinsk Bolshevik detachments, entered Koshekhabl. Red Army artillery shelled the village from the south starting at 1:00 PM, targeting streets and residential houses.
Following the bombardment, troops entered the village, executing residents with sabers and bayonets, decapitating men in front of women and children, committing rape, looting homes, and seizing livestock, poultry, gold, silver, grain, and bedding. While adult and teenage males were the primary targets, women, elderly residents, and children were also killed. Surviving male residents were gathered and detained in the local mosque as hostages without food or water for 24 hours, where executions continued overnight. Red Army forces departed Koshekhabl after two days when news reached them of General Anton Denikin's advancing army.
When Pyotr Wrangel's forces departed Koshekhabl for Konstantinovskaya, Wrangel transferred several dozen captured Bolshevik prisoners to local Circassians for trial by an aul court; local residents executed the prisoners following the departure of the troops.
Following the retreat of Bolshevik forces, elders from Koshekhabl, Gatlukay, Urakovsky, and Khakurinokhabl auls submitted petitions to the Mountain Section of the Kuban Rada requesting financial compensation for property damage sustained by the Bolsheviks. Families of soldiers killed while serving in the Circassian Regiment also requested financial assistance.
Following the massacre, victims were buried in burial mounds at the village cemetery near the Laba River. Two burial mounds (one larger and one smaller) were located at the cemetery, containing mass graves. Local residents maintained these mounds across generations while preserving oral accounts of the killings. Local children swimming in the Laba River spoke in whispers about those buried in the mounds.
Witness accounts and oral tradition recorded details regarding the victims:
Historical estimates, folk records, and archive documents state varying casualty figures:
Public discussion of the event was restricted during the Soviet period. Early Soviet publications addressed the events from the official state narrative. In 1927, Y. N. Rayenko-Turansky published Adygea: Before and After October, stating that Circassians attempted to loot Red Army refugees near the Kurgannaya station, prompting a military response. In February 1928, the newspaper Adygeiskaya Zhizn published the article "The Destruction of Koshekhabl" (Russian: Разгром Кошехабля), repeating Rayenko-Turansky's narrative that Circassians mistook Red Guard units for White Guard forces and fired on them to seize goods, leading to a Red Army counterattack. Another article published in 1928, titled "Who is to blame?" (Russian: Кто виноват?), described the initial Red Guard activity in Adygea as a tragedy caused by White forces taking shelter under Circassian hospitality and undisciplined Red Guard soldiers engaging in looting.
Later Soviet official histories omitted references to civilian deaths in Koshekhabl; the second volume of Essays on the History of Adygea (1981) contained no mention of massacre or physical destruction of civilians during the Civil War in the region.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the opening of state, party, and special archives in Moscow, Krasnodar, and Maykop in the 1990s, researchers including N. A. Pocheshkhov, T. M. Kat, A. T. Kerashev, and M. Kh. Shebzukhov published studies on the massacre. In their publications, Kerashev and Shebzukhov called for the establishment of monuments dedicated to the victims of the Red Terror in affected Circassian auls and Cossack stanitsas, emphasizing the need to identify all victims by name.
Local residents preserved memory of the massacre orally through covert performances of folk laments, including "Lament of Koshkhable" (Adyghe: Кощхьаблэ игъыбз).
НахьышIу щыгугъоу, гугъэм тигъакIэу, е-ия хэбзакIэу уцурэр тшIотыгъэнапэу, ей Зызетэгъэзым, тымэкъумэщышIэти, е-ия «Плъыжьы» террорым хьэлачэ тешI гущи тэ.
Гражданы заом… пцIыр къыттыралъхьи, е-ия Сыд мыгъо гущэкIэ «плъыжьы» шыудзэр, ей Кощхьаблэ гущэм къыдэзэрэхьэри, е-ия ГукIэгъу ямыIэу нэIогъэ купыри ар!
Мэщтым чIашIыхьэшъ хъулъфыгъэр зэкIэ, е-ия Чэщмэфэ псаурэ ащ щагъэнэкIы, ей Тиефэнд зафэу, КIуращын Къамбулэт, е-ия Ецэ нэмазым утраукIахь гущи о.
Хьажъ гъэнэкIыгъэу зэолIы купым, е-ия Бзылъфыгъэ ныбжьыкIэм шъхьакIо къырахи, ей Налщыкъ Джэрые хьафизэ лIыжъызэ, е-я ЗырагъэтIэкIышъ ышъхьэ паупкIи, ей.
Лъэпкъыр рыгушхоу пщынэо Iазэу, е-ия Орэд усыным фэIэпэIасэу, ей НыбжьыкIэ дэдэу Хьагъэудж ти Мыхьамэт, е-ия «Плъыжь» мэхъэджэжъмэ атекIодагъэ гущ ар…
ИлъэсиплI псаум Хэгъэгу заом, е-ия Шъищырэ щэкIрэмэ апсэ атыгъи, ей ПшIыкIуй илъэсым зы мэфэ закъокIэ, е-ия Хьэдэ шъитф рагъор чылэм дэохыри, ей!
Translation:
While hoping for the best, as hope makes us younger, While the newly established system makes our faces like the sun, Looking at ourselves, we were just simple farmers, Yet the "Red" terror brought destruction upon us.
In the Civil War, they cast false blame upon us, What a wretched thing was that "Red" cavalry, Rushing into poor Koshkhable village, That merciless gang of arrogants!
They imprisoned all the men inside the mosque, They starved them for a whole day and night, Our righteous efendi, Qambulet Kurashin, They slaughtered you right while you were performing night prayer.
Like a troop of starved vile dogs, They brought humiliation upon young women, The old blind hafiz, Jeriye Nalshiq, They stripped him naked and severed his head.
The master accordionist whom our people were proud of, So gifted in composing songs, Our very young Muhammed Haghauj, Perished at the hands of those "Red" terrorists...
In four full years of the World War, Three hundred and thirty souls gave their lives, Yet in the year eighteen, in just a single day, Five hundred corpses came out of the village!
On 17 May 1996, the proposal by A. Kerashev and M. Shebzukhov to build a memorial was discussed during an expanded meeting led by the head of the Koshekhabl District Administration, M. Kh. Tkharkakhov. Z. A. Bzasezhev, chairman of the district council of Adyghe Khase, presented and explained the sketch design of the memorial. Sculptor R. Kh. Shikov was selected to construct the monument.
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