Mountain political elites in the North Caucasus: basic principles of formation in the 19th – 21st centuries

Abstract

The aim of this article is to study the mechanisms of the formation of mountain political elites in the North Caucasus during the 18th–21th centuries. The author examines the formation of elites prior to the incorporation of the North Caucasus into the Russian Empire, the role of Islam during this period, and the presence of informal leaders of North Caucasian communities and societies (imams, "elders," and abreks). Before the Russian authorities, representatives of the upper classes served as heads of local (mountain) communal systems of power. Secular leaders, whose activities were based on different views and ideas, emerged under the influence of the Russian Empire and particularly distinguished themselves in exile in the 1920s and 1930s. The first stage of the formation of the political culture of the mountaineers of the North Caucasus began during imperial modernization: people began to develop methods of opposing Russia, ideology, and so on. In the 19th century, the activities of Muslim leaders, led by Imam Shamil and his naibs, intensified. They wanted to modernize mountain communities based on Muslim foundations: law (Sharia) and the principles of a Muslim state. The North Caucasus highlanders, primarily the local military and Muslim spiritual elite, were drawn into the pan-Russian cultural, political, and legal space. The second half of the 19th and early 21th centuries saw the most active formation of new Islamic leaders in the North Caucasus. Thus, political leaders in the North Caucasus from the 18th to the early 21th centuries were formed in two ways: by Russian authorities and by Islamic influence from Eastern countries. Political leaders of the 1920s: Islamic leaders, secular leaders, and leaders of the so-called "insurgency" in the North Caucasus from 1921 to 1925. The role of Islamic leaders in the course of revolutionary events in the North Caucasus was significant. In the 1990s, both national (created during the Soviet period) and Islamic leaders (the influence of Eastern countries) emerged in the North Caucasus, while strictly political leaders proved weaker.