The earliest known records of Slavic settlements on the lower Terek River date to 1520 when the Ryazan Principality was annexed by the Grand Duchy of Moscow and a lone group left and settled in the natural haven of the Terek River (modern northern Chechnya).
In a separate story, an ataman of the Don Cossack Host named Andrei Shadrin led a band of three Cossack sotnias to the Kumyk lands, founding a frontier town called 'Tersky' (location uncertain).