Some aspects of the activities of British intelligence in the North-West Caucasus in 1830-1840

The article analyzes the subversive activities of British diplomacy and intelligence in the North-West Caucasus in 1830-1840 after the annexation of the eastern coast of the Black Sea after the Russian-Turkish War of 1828-1829. The article examines the efforts made by the British Government to revise the provisions of the Adrianople Peace Treaty of 1829, according to which the Ottoman Porte transferred to the Russian Empire the eastern coast of the Black Sea from the mouth of the Kuban River from the mouth of the Kuban River to the post of St. Nicholas on the border with Adjara with the fortresses of Sudzhuk-Kale, Anapa and Poti. In addition, the article highlights the idea, preparation and stages of the implementation of a provocation known as the “Vixen affair”, aimed at canceling the 1833 Unkar-Iskelesian Treaty on a defensive alliance between Russia and Turkey, which closed the Black Sea Straits to foreign warships. The research material was the documents of the collection of “Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeological Commission”, works of the outstanding Russian historian M.M. Bliev, memoirs of British intelligence officers, regimental histories of the Russian Imperial Army. As a specific aspect of the geopolitical confrontation between the Russian Empire, Great Britain and Turkey, the author considers the use by the parties of means and methods of psychological warfare in exerting beneficial informational influence on Circassian tribes that transferred from Turkish citizenship to Russian in 1829. Concrete examples demonstrate the involvement of the ruling circles of the British Empire in unleashing large-scale hostilities in Circassia, which resulted in a tragedy the exodus of the Adygs to Turkey, which led to the loss of their national identity and identity.