Balakan

Balakan lies at the southern foot of the Greater Caucasus, where forested valleys open towards the Alazani plain. It was one of the communities of the Jar-Balakan region, whose village societies maintained considerable independence among the powers of the eastern Caucasus. In 1803 Russian troops entered the region and fought at Balakan; an agreement that year placed the communities under Russian authority, though resistance continued in the following decades.