Our attention is often attracted by individuals, whose life and activity, influence on their compatriots' destinies cannot be evaluated in a synonymous way. As one of such characters in the history of the Caucasus can be considered a major-general of the Russia army, who later became a "pasha in the rank of Mir-Liv" in Turkey, Osset by birth Musa Alkazovich Kundukhov (1818-1889). He is famous mainly owing to an event of the second half of the XIX century, that is the organizing of the resettlement of part of the Chechens and Ossets into the Ottoman empire. His life and activity are of considerable interest for characterizing the epoch, the period of the Caucasian war and mukhajirs, for understanding the policy of the Russian and Ottoman authorities in the Northern Caucasus. Some episodes of M. Kundukhov's biography are described in this country's and foreign literature. A general evaluation and the analysis of his activity have been given in articles by V.V. Degoyev and G.V. Chochiev. In this article on the basis of archival sources and memoirs literature and attempt is made to depict the political portrait of this man on the background of epochal changes taking place in the Caucasus at that time.