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As elsewhere in the North Caucasus, the brutality of state security forces has been a major factor, driving young men to join the Islamists. Under the presidency of the former KGB officer, Murat Zyazikov, teams of masked operatives kidnapped, tortured and killed suspected rebels and members of their families. Zyazikov'... |
The capture of Ali Taziev in June 2010, an ethnic Ingush and one of the top leaders of the Caucasus Emirate, dealt a blow to the jihadists in Ingushetia, with the number of attacks falling substantially over the next 5 years. In mid-2015, Ingushetia's president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, stated that the insurgency in the Rep... |
The insurgency in Kabardino-Balkaria began in the early 2000s and was led by the Yarmuk Jamaat, a militant Islamist jamaat which flourished as a result of persecution of Muslims by police and security forces. |
In October 2005, several score of the militants launched a raid on the capital of the republic, Nalchik, which left 142 people dead. The guerrillas have also carried out numerous assassinations of government officials and law enforcement officers. |
The republic saw a flare-up of violence in late 2010 and early 2011, in the wake of the death of Anzor Astemirov, a senior figure in the Caucasus Emirate and the head of its United Vilayat of Kabarda, Balkaria and Karachay. The new leaders of Kabardino-Balkaria's guerrilla movement, Asker Dzhappuyev and Ratmir Shameyev... |
Casualties fell in the following years. There was a total of 49 people (militants, security forces and civilians) reported killed in the republic over the whole of 2014. |
On 9 September 2010, a car-bomb attack occurred at a crowded marketplace in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, killing 19 adults and children, and injuring over 190. President Medvedev responded, that "we will certainly do everything to catch these monsters, who have committed a terrorist attack against ordinar... |
Vilayat Galgaycho reportedly took responsibility, stating that the attack was aimed against "Ossetian infidels" on "occupied Ingush lands". |
The majority of the civilians killed were Russians, but also foreigners from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, Austria, United Kingdom and Armenia were killed in terrorist attacks. |
North Caucasian Soviet Republic (, "Severo-Kavkazskaya Sovetskaya Respublika") (July 7–December, 1918) was a territory in the North Caucasus established to consolidate Soviet power during the Russian Civil War. A republic of the Russian SFSR, it was created by merging the Kuban-Black Sea Soviet Republic, the Stavropol ... |
By the end of 1918, when the majority of the republic's territory was captured by the White Army, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee abolished the republic. |
The North Caucasus Operation was a strategic offensive conducted by the Caucasian Front of the Red Army against the White Armed Forces of South Russia in the North Caucasus region between 17 January and 7 April 1920. It took place on the Southern Front of the Russian Civil War and was a Soviet attempt to destroy White ... |
The operation ended with the defeat of the White forces in the North Caucasus and the evacuation of the remnants of the Volunteer Army, reduced to a corps, to Crimea. The Red Army advanced to the borders of Georgia and Azerbaijan by the end of the operation, which was followed by an invasion of Azerbaijan. |
The Soviet plan provided for the four armies of the right wing and center to launch a strong frontal attack towards Yekaterinodar along the line from the mouth of the Don to Sadovoe and destroy the White troops, preventing them from retreating towards the Kuban. On the left wing, the 11th Army was to simultaneously lau... |
At the beginning of February Denikin ordered the subordination of the Separate Volunteer Corps to the Don Army for a counterattack, but the Caucasus Front preempted this by resuming the advance. |
The second phase of the offensive, described in Soviet historiography as the Tikhoretsk Operation, ran from 14 February to 2 March. During the operation, the Red attack decisively defeated the AFSR, splitting the White front in the North Caucasus in two and creating the conditions for the final attack. As a result, the... |
In late April, the Caucasus Front advanced to the border of Georgia and Azerbaijan from the Black Sea to the Caspian, preceding the invasion of Azerbaijan. The front had captured an area of 296,000 square kilometers with a population of 6.91 million during the operation. |
The operation resulted in the destruction of a large portion of the AFSR, one of the strongest threats to the Bolsheviks; Soviet troops reported the capture of 163,600 White soldiers and officers, 537 guns, 723 machine guns, 23 armored trains, seventeen tanks, thirty armored cars, about 3.4 million artillery shells, an... |
For their actions in the operation, three rifle and three cavalry regiments of the Red Army were awarded the Honorary Revolutionary Red Banner along with a single artillery battery, while two regiments of the 21st Rifle Division received the Order of the Red Banner. |
The Siraces (, , also "Siraceni" and "Seraci") were a hellenized Sarmatian tribe that inhabited Sarmatia Asiatica; the coast of Achardeus at the Black Sea north of the Caucasus Mountains, Siracena is mentioned by Tacitus as one of their settlements. They were said to be relatively small nation but with great morale. Th... |
They migrated from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea region. By the late 4th century, they had occupied lands between the Caucasus mountains and the Don, becoming masters of the Kuban region. They were the first Sarmatian tribe to have contact with the Hellenic groups on the coast of the Black Sea. |
In 310–309 BC, their king Aripharnes took part in the Bosporan Civil War and lost at the battle of the River Thatis (a tributary of the Kuban river). |
In the 1st century BC during the rule of Pharnaces II of Pontus, King of Siraces Abeacus organized 20,000 horses after the Roman occupation of the Kingdom of Pontus (63–62 BC). |
They and the Aorsi were merchants who traded with goods of Babylonia and India through the Armenians and Medes, with camels. They profited greatly from this, seen in their clothing attributed with much gold. |
King Zorsines fought in the Bosporus under Mithridates, the king of Armenia, against the Dandaridae. Their ally Mithridates later turned against the Romans who had put Mithridates on the throne in 41. Mithridates eluded the Romans and recovered his kingdom. In the Bosporan War, The Aorsi under Prince Eunones, sent by A... |
They were the most hellenized of the Sarmatians, and maintained good relations with the Bosporans. |
Ptolemy mentions their colony in Sinai in the second century. In 193 AD, after another conflict in the Bosporus, the Siraces disappears from the history. |
See Marek Jan Olbrycht, Die Aorser, die Oberen Aorser und die Siraker bei Strabon. Zur Geschichte und Eigenart der Völker im nordostpontischen und nordkaukasischen Raum im 2.-1. Jh. v. Chr. [The Aorsians, the Upper Aorsians, and the Sirakians in Strabo. On the History and Characteristics of the Peoples in the Northeast... |
Amjad Jaimoukha (Circassian: Жэмыхъуэ Амджэд, ; sometimes quoted as "Амыщ", the Circassian personal name) was a Circassian writer, publicist and historian, who wrote a number of books on North Caucasian – specifically Circassian and Chechen – culture and folklore. According to the "Circassian Encyclopaedia" "Jaimoukha ... |
Jaimoukha published with the following Western publishing houses: Routledge [RoutledgeCurzon], Curzon, Bennett and Bloom, Palgrave (Macmillan) [St. Martin's Press], L'Harmattan. He also worked with Sanjalay Press and the International Centre for Circassian Studies. |
Jaimoukha was director of the International Centre for Circassian Studies (ICCS), an institute specialising in the dissemination of Circassian culture and folklore. The Centre is the brainchild of the famous Circassian writer and film producer and director Mohydeen Quandour. The principal aim of the Centre is the devel... |
Jaimoukha devised a Latin orthography for Kabardian (Eastern Circassian) that is characterised by relative simplicity (considering the complexity of the language). An advantage of this system is that it has a one-to-one correspondence with the current Cyrillic orthography used for Kabardian, and already a software has ... |
Jaimoukha previously held the position of Assistant President of the Royal Scientific Society (RSS) in the period 2003-2007. He published a number of studies and bibliographic tomes during his tenure at RSS, including "Scientific Integrity", "Intellectual Capital Report", and "Bibliography of the Publications of the Ro... |
Principal literary collaborations included work with Nicholas Awde, the editor of the Caucasus World series published by Routledge and co-owner of the publishing house Bennett and Bloom, JonArno Lawson, the writer of a number of fantastic books, and Michel Malherbe, the prolific writer and editor of the "Parlons..." se... |
There was a close co-operation with the Circassian writer Luba Belaghi (Balagova; publications in Circassian and Russian) in the framework of the publications of the International Centre for Circassian Studies. |
The Caucasian Imamate, also known as the Caucasus Imamate (), was the state established by the imams in Chechnya and Dagestan during the early-to-mid 19th century in the North Caucasus, to fight against the Russian Empire during the Caucasian War, where Russia sought to conquer the Caucasus in order to secure communica... |
Previously in the Northeast Caucasus, there had, since recordable history, been a large array of states. |
Caucasian Albania had existed in Southern Dagestan, for most of its history being a vassal under the direct rule of the Parthians and later the Sasanid Persians, but eventually, the majority converted to Islam following the Muslim conquest of Persia, as their overlords did. Traveling Arabs proved to be instrumental in ... |
Islam was far less well-ingrained, but still highly important in Chechnya. This region had always lain far outside the influence of Caucasian Albania and fiercely fought off the Arab invaders. The Georgian chronicles noted the existence of a Dzurdzuketia (Dzurdzuks, the Georgian name for the Vainakhs, the ancestors of ... |
In Chechnya, Islam was considerably less ingrained than in the Imamate's other claims. Islam only began to make inroads in the 16th century in Chechnya, and even then was not highly important, with the indigenous Vainakh religion still holding strong. It was only at the point of the threat of Russian conquest that peop... |
Parts of the Muslim population started to radicalize due to rapacious Russian activity and taxation and were calling for a Gazawat (Holy War) and the enforcement of Sharia. Two imams, Imam Ghazi Muhammad and Imam Shamil, attempted to initiate the Gazawat they called for by trying to seize the capital of Khunzakh from t... |
The Russians, who at the time ruled over Northern Dagestan, were used to fighting on the open battlefields of Europe inlined formation instead of the thick woods of the Caucasus and so were very unprepared for the guerrilla tactics of the two imams, resulting in a victory for Ghazi and Shamil. However, this action woul... |
Here the Imamate was formed, with Ghazi self-appointed as its first leader. The supreme government body of the Imamate, the State Council (Dīvān) was formed which consisted of Sufi Muslim scholars and students as well as Shamil's military lieutenants, his "Naibs". |
During the war the Imamate would see support from other Muslim tribes, eventually amalgamating with Chechnya, parts of Ingushetia and the rest of Dagestan during the Imamship of Imam Shamil. The |
western tribes, the Adyghes would fall under the control of the Imamate during Shamil's rule as well, but a problem arose in the form of the Kabardins and Ossetians that sat in between Shamil's east and west tribes, so these tribes were run mainly by Shamil's "naibs" who had traveled to the west instead of the "Dīvān" ... |
The Imamate's first leader was Imam Ghazi Muhammad, who ruled from 1828 until 1832 when he was succeeded by Gamzat-bek four years later. When he was murdered in 1834, by a band which included Hadji Murad, Shamil became the third imam. The Imamate reached its peak under Shamil's rule, spanning all of the Muslim Northern... |
The Imamate was a highly militaristic country, having been at war since its establishment. Its politics were always concerned with the furthering of Islam or the Caucasian War. As such, the only people that ever sat on its council were Muslim scholars or military "naibs". |
The war and the surrender of the Imamate. |
Whereas previous enemies of the empire had been imprisoned, killed or exiled, Shamil became a national celebrity [in Russia]. After his surrender, he settled into a comfortable retirement in Kaluga, southeast of Moscow. |
In 1859, Shamil wrote to one of his sons: "By the will of the Almighty, the Absolute Governor, I have fallen into the hands of unbelievers... the Great Emperor... has settled me here... in a tall, spacious house with carpets and all the necessities." |
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, an attempt to reestablish the Imamate with the help of Turkey, during March–April 1918, was made by the son of one of Shamil's naibs, Najmuddin Hotso. This name stems from the Dagestani settlement of Gotso (when he was awarded nobility by Tsar). He was pronounced the fourth Imam of... |
Alania was a medieval kingdom of the Iranian Alans (proto-Ossetians) that flourished in the Northern Caucasus, roughly in the location of latter-day Circassia, Chechnya, Ingushetia, and modern North Ossetia–Alania, from its independence from the Khazars in the late 9th century until its destruction by the Mongol invasi... |
The name "Alania" stems from the Old Iranian root *"Aryāna-", a derivative form of the Indo-Iranian root *"arya"- ('Aryan'). It is cognate with the name of Iran ("Ērān"), which stems from the Old Persian "*Aryānām" ('of the Aryans')"." |
The Alans (Alani) originated as an Iranian-speaking subdivision of the Sarmatians. They were split by the invasion of the Huns into two parts, the European and the Caucasian. The Caucasian Alans occupied part of the North Caucasian plain and the foothills of the main mountain chain from the headwaters of the Kuban Rive... |
After Leo assumed the imperial title, the land of his mountaineer allies was invaded by Umar II's forces. A Khazar chieftain, Barjik, hastened to their succor and, in 722, the joint Alan-Khazar army inflicted a defeat on the Arab general Tabit al-Nahrani. The Khazars erected Skhimar and several other strongholds in Ala... |
As a result of their united stand against the successive waves of invaders from the south, the Alans of the Caucasus fell under the overlordship of the Khazar Khaganate. They remained staunch allies of the Khazars in the 9th century, supporting them against a Byzantine-led coalition during the reign of the Khazar king ... |
In the late 9th century, Alania became independent from the Khazars. In the early 10th century, the Alans fell under the influence of the Byzantine Empire due to King Constantine III of Abkhazia's activities in north Caucasus, the latter sent an army into Alan territory and, with the Byzantine patriarch Nicholas Mystik... |
When Ibn Rustah visited Alania at some point between 903 and 913, its king was by then Christian. The Persian traveller came to Alania from Sarir, a Christian kingdom immediately to the east: |
The Byzantines, who had adopted an anti-Khazar foreign policy, involved the Alans in a war against the Khaganate during the reign of the Khazar ruler Aaron II, probably the early 920s. In this war the Alans were defeated and their king captured. According to Muslim sources such as al-Mas'udi (943/56), the Alans abandon... |
In the late 1230s all three Christian powers - Alania, Georgia, and Vladimir-Suzdal - fell before the Mongol invaders. Bishop Theodore of Alania described the plight of his metropolis in a lengthy epistolary sermon written during the tenure of Patriarch Germanus II (1222–40). The French-Flemish monk and traveler Willia... |
The wars of Timur in the 14th century inflicted the final blow on Alania and decimated its population. Those who survived being killed or enslaved by the Mongols and Timur's armies, broke up into three groups. One retreated into the foothills and valleys of the central Caucasus and produced the two principal Ossetian g... |
The nomenclature used by the rulers of Alania is unknown. Where they are mentioned by historical records, they are variously called "lord", "prince", "king", "tsar", and by the Byzantines, "exousiokrator". Notably, the Byzantines never referred to other foreign rulers by this title, using "arkhon" or "exousiastes" inst... |
In the last years of the Soviet Union, as nationalist movements swept throughout the Caucasus, many intellectuals in the North Ossetian ASSR called for the revival of the name "Alania". A leading Ossetian philologist, T.A. Guriev, was the main advocate of this idea, insisting that the Ossetians should accept the name o... |
The Nakh peoples today partly also known as Vainakh peoples (Chechen/Ingush: , apparently derived from Chechen , Ingush "our people"; also Chechen-Ingush) are the speakers of the Vainakh languages. These are chiefly the ethnic Chechen (including the Chechen sub-ethnos, the Kists, in Georgia), Ingush and Bats peoples of... |
Traditionally, Nakh peoples were known as a society with a highly developed and complex clan system. Individuals are united in family groups called "Tsa" – house. Several Tsa's are part of the "Gar" -branch or "Nekh"-road, a group of Gar's is in turn called a Teip. Teip is a unit of tribal organization of Vainakh peopl... |
Most teips made unions called Tukkhums. Tukkhum is a military-economic or military-political union of teips. Tukkhums were governed by a Board of Representatives of Teips, called "Teipan-Khelli". Teip's Council of Elders chose one or several people to submit their Teip in Tukkhum-Khelli (Council of Tukkhum). New Teips ... |
All Vainakh Councils also bore responsibility and respect for law and order. If the problem is not solved in the Teip Council, it could move to the Tukkhum Council and further even to Mexk-Khel, a process which was called "Mexkidaqqar" meaning "to make a state matter" and "bringing to Mexki". Mexk-Khel name comes from ... |
It is notable that the Chechen and Ingush systems, as well as the system later adopted from them by some Eastern Circassian tribes, resembles the typical Western democratic republic. It has a central government with a legislative body (the Mexk-Khel), a body resemblant of an executive branch (the Council of Tukkhum) as... |
During the Soviet Union period, as well as during the Ramzan Kadyrov's regime, the Teip-Council system was strongly criticized by Russian governments and their puppet governments installed in Chechnya and Ingushetia, who viewed it as a destabilizing force and an obstacle to maintaining order. They said that such a syst... |
The democratic and egalitarian nature, the values of freedom and equality of Chechen society have been cited as factors contributing to their resistance to Russian rule. (In addition, there was no elite to be coopted by Tsarist authorities, as Wood notes). |
According to Nakh ethos and moral codes such as the adat, hospitality is considered extremely important. Only freedom (the highest value) and equality are more important. |
The emphasis on hospitality has produced historic effects within the teip system. Several times, foreign groups who entered the territory have been completely integrated into the teip system, and developed their own teip. A notable example are ethnic Germans who lived among the Chechens after both groups were deported ... |
There have also been several periods when Jews living in Chechnya founded their own teip (teip Dzugtoi), which is still in existence. Its membership has declined considerably due to the flight of people from Chechnya during 21st-century wars. Teips were also formed, sometimes temporarily, by Russians (teips Orsi, Arsoi... |
A characteristic feature of Vainakh architecture in the Middle Ages, rarely seen outside Chechnya and Ingushetia, was the Vainakh tower. This was a kind of multi-floor structure that was used for dwelling or defense (or both). Nakh tower architecture and construction techniques reached their peak from the 15th to 17th ... |
Residential towers had two or three floors, supported by a central pillar of stone blocks, and were topped with flat shale roofing. These towers have been compared in character to the prehistoric mountain settlements dating to 8000 BC. |
Military ("combat") towers were 25 meters high or more, with four of five floors and a square base approximately six meters wide. Access to the second floor was through a ladder. The defenders fired at the enemy through loopholes. The top of the tower had "mashikul" – overhanging small balconies without a floor. These ... |
Buildings combining the functions of residential and military towers were intermediate in size between the two types, and had both loop-holes and "mashikuls". Nakh towers used to be sparingly decorated with religious or symbolic petrographs, such as solar signs or depictions of the author's hands, animals, etc. Militar... |
Some irrigation structures were built also on lowlands but they were less complicated. |
Carts and carriages made by Vainakh masters were highly valued in the region and beyond. Products of Vainakh masters brought power not only to the Caucasian peoples, but also by such excess power to the established industry of Russia. To support non-competitive domestic producers, Russia overlaid Vainakh manufacturers ... |
Since ancient times, the Chechen have been producing thin felt carpets called "Istang". Chechen rugs are distinguished by a peculiar pattern and high quality. Jacob Reineggs, who visited the region in the 18th century, noticed that Chechen and Ingush women skillfully manufactured carpets and fringes. Ornamen Vainakh ca... |
Only a few fragments of Vainakh mythology have survived to modern times. These fragments consist of the names of deities personifying elements of animist ideas, Nart saga, cosmogonic tradition, remnants of stock-breeding and landtilling, totemic beliefs and folk calendar. |
The greatest samples of Nakh mythology are the legends of Pkharmat, Galanchoge Lake, the epic war of Pkhagalberi (hare riders) dwarves against Narts, Kezanoi Lake, and myths about how sun, moon and stars appeared. |
The Nakh myth of the legendary Pkharmat being shackled on Mount Kazbek by God Sela because he has stolen heavenly fire from him shows some parallels with Greek Myth of Prometheus and Georgian Amirami. |
The legendary war of Pkhalberi (hare riders) dwarves against Narts can be compared to Greek "Crane and Pygmies war" by Said-Magomed Khasiev |
The Golden Fleece myth seems to be bound to Nakh 11 years calendar tradition. In such a myth, ram skin was placed in an oak frame "Jaar" for 11 years, and produced golden fleece named "Dasho Ertal". |
This legend has explicit parallels with Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Islamic Lot. The story tells us that there once was a very rich settlement at the place where now there is a lake. Despite their wealth, the people of this city were very greedy. Once God Dela sent his representatives in the guise of beggars, ... |
Legend has it that a poor family left a burnt bread for themselves and gave a piece of white bread for their guests. Leaving the house, the guests told the family that after some time has passed, water will be collected in puddles behind the front door, and when this happens they should gather the bare necessities, lea... |
They told the rich of the impending disaster, and asked to follow them. But their greed would not allow them to leave their treasures. That evening, the family watched a terrible catastrophe, they saw the water cover their house along with those who remained. In memory of the terrible events, Vainakhs named the lake, t... |
In ancient Nakh cosmology, the universe was created by the supreme god Dela. Earth, created in three years, was three times larger than heavens and was propped up on the gigantic bullhorns. The realm of the Vainakh Gods was over the clouds. Ishar-Deela was the ruler of the subterranean world, Deeli-Malkhi. Deeli-Malkhi... |
Dela-Malkh was the sun god playing a central role in religious celebrations. On 25 December Nakhs celebrated Sun Festival in honour of the Sun God's birthday. |
The names of stars and constellations were also connected to myths: |
In the Middle Ages, Vainakh society felt a strong Byzantine influence that led to the adoption of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in some parts of the country (particularly the mountainous South). However, Christianity did not last long. After the devastation of the country by Tamerlane, Christianity was eroded (due to t... |
Vainakhs are predominantly Muslim of the Shafi`i school of thought of Sunni Islam. The majority of Chechen (approx 1.5 million) and Ingush (500,000 people) people are Muslim of the Shafi`i school. Kists (about 7,100 people) are mainly Sunni Muslims with a Georgian Orthodox minority when Bats approx. 3,000 people are Ch... |
By rite, most Chechens are Qadiris, with a considerable Nakshbandi minority. There is also a tiny Salafi minority (Sunni sect). The two main groups (Salafism is more of a modern introduction to the region, and is still considered to be completely foreign) have often had divergent responses to events (for example, the Q... |
This attitude has been largely consistent (except for in 1998 when Maskhadov briefly allowed Sharia courts to appear due to intense pressure from his opponents, including Shamil Basayev and Salman Raduyev, in an attempt to find unity by compromise). It is noted by many observers, Chechen, Russian (such as Valery Tishko... |
Burial vaults or crypts remained from the pagan period in the history of Vainakhs, before they converted to Islam in the 16th century (partially, the entire region, Islam has spread only in the 17th century.). They were built either a bit deepening into the ground or half underground and on the surface. The latter form... |
The general Islamic rituals established burials with the further penetration of Islam inside the mountainous regions of Chechnya and Ingushetia. Stone steles, churts, inscribed with prayers and epitaphs, began to be erected at the graves and more prosperous mountaineers were honoured with mausoleums after death. The Bo... |
The Vainakh have been referred to by various names including "Durdzuks" in medieval Arab, Georgian and Armenian ethnography. |
Historical linguists including Johanna Nichols have connected ancestral Nakh languages and their distant relatives to a Neolithic migration from the Fertile Crescent. |
Another view, not necessarily contradicting the previous one, posits a migration of Nakh into their present location in the North Caucasus during the Classical era, following the collapse of Urartu. |
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