Meanwhile the Russians had also subdued the Ossetes (1802) and the Lesghian tribes (1803) of the middle Caucasus.
Meanwhile Shamyl had roused the Lesghian tribes farther east and begun his twenty years' struggle for freedom, a struggle which called forth the sympathy and admiration of nearly the whole of Europe.
But, apart from Georgia, historical interest in Caucasia centres in the long and persistent attempts which the Russians made to conquer it, and the heroic, though unavailing, resistance offered by the mountain races, more especially the Circassian and Lesghian tribes.