Vladimir Degoyev, professor of MGIMO of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
Plurality is not to be posited without necessity. However, sometimes there is no sense in neglects. It is important to realize why historic moments which have not been interesting to anyone but specialists for centuries suddenly begin to be exaggerated, even though they have no global importance.
Today the Circassian issue is one of such moments. Before the middle of the 19th century this might be a title for a complex of problems which were created by, on the one hand, Russia and Turkey fighting for influence in the North-Western Caucasus and, on the other hand, Circassian tribes who wanted to live in the territory and reacted at foreign intervention differently.
They were well armed, knew military arts perfectly, were fearless, but also very rational in realizing senselessness of death in a certainly doomed for failure battle. In social structure of Circassians an important role was played by the knight code of honor, which was successfully forgotten outside a native community when they met “aliens”, moreover, an enemy. We won’t go deep into the research theme and state only that the Circassian history, as well as a history of any nation, saw moments of glory and pure honor, peaceful life, and shameful moments which would be better forgotten.
In contemporary propaganda campaigns the Circassian issue has gained a different, narrow and decisive meaning. It is associated with allegedly main and the only result of the Caucasian war of 1817-1864 – “genocide” of Circassians, which was committed during the war and forced deportation to the Ottoman Empire.
The well-known French scientist Mark Block declared historians’ motto – “not judge, but understand.” The current speculations of the Circassian issue are a classic example of intention to use the principle toward one side and reject the principal toward another side of the dispute.
Accusations presented to Russia are well-known. They are described in hundreds of articles, books, internet media and don’t change. Their supporters are not interested in real historic conditions of time, space, and a course of action, i.e. in global geopolitical processes of the first half of the 19th century, caused by the deep motivated struggle between five super powers (Russia, Iran, Turkey, England, France) for influence in the territory from the Balkans to India. Tough competition in all directions took place in these vast territories – military strategy, diplomacy, economy, culture and civilization. Nobody wanted to lose.
The Caucasus played a rather key role, despite its small size. Possessing the Caucasus wasn’t a whim of Russian rulers. The point was in security of the southern borders of the empire.
Russia in the Caucasus
Let’s turn to the international and internal position of Russia in the second half of the 1850s and the first half of the 1860s. Recently the Crimean War had been finished and the Caucasian War had been coming to an end – probably the most expensive and exhausting wars in the history of the Russian Empire.
Russia needed long peace for providing fundamental reforms, including the military one. St.-Petersburg intended to systematize social, civil, administrative, economic, cultural, and educational structure of the North Caucasus. Since the late 18th century the process permanently was interrupted by wars against Turkey and Iran. However, it was thought to be the main mean for integration of mountain residents into the Russian civilization.
This grand project included all ethnic groups – it concerned Dagestan, Chechnya, and the North-West Caucasus. The only thing which was demanded by the Russian authorities from the Circassians was resettlement from high-mountain gorges to plains which were the most fertile in whole Russia. How can say that it was a loss for mountain residents, considering their tendency to change living places and poor household conditions which they used to abandon at the first opportunity?
Alexander II visited the Caucasus in September 1861 and told the mountain deputies: “I came to you not as an enemy, but as a friend. I want to preserve our peoples for they not to leave homeland.”
The tsar called for peace, calmness, and forgetting the past (Russians as well could remember something very unpleasant connected with Circassians). These were fundamental notions reflecting the essence of Alexander II’s attitude to his shrewish nationals.
To be continued
