to the opening of the Daryal Pass and converted the Ossetians, not far to the Chechens west. With this foothold, Catherine expanded Russia's holdings west to the Black Sea. It was around this time that a Chechen named Sheikh Mansur led a resistance movement against the Russian Empire. He brought back the ways of Islam and criticized Chechens who had become lax. Russians mistook his uprising for another smaller uprising by the Cossacks, referring to his band of followers as scoundrels, ignorant people, ragamuffins, and serfs. This same language would be used by Yeltsin to describe the Chechens over 200 years later. It could also be noticed that a portrait of Sheikh Mansur hung over the desk of the Chechen leader Dudayev at the same time.
             The Georgians were still beckoning the Russians to come save them from the Muslims, and although Mansur had some interesting victories over the armies of Catherine II, his fame lies in his restoring of Islam to the people of the Caucasus. As soon as the Russians captured Mansur, they annexed Georgia and began a s
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