Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Дагестанская АССР ( Muslim Tat) | |||||||||
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ASSR of the Russian SFSR | |||||||||
1921–1991 | |||||||||
Mahachkala | |||||||||
Area | |||||||||
• Coordinates | 42°59′00″N 47°29′00″E / 42.9833°N 47.4833°E | ||||||||
• Type | Soviet republic | ||||||||
History | |||||||||
• Established | 1921 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1991 | ||||||||
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The Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
Although as part of its strategy to promote local languages and to discourage
The
Geographical Characteristics
Dagestan is divided in to five different topographical regions of varying natural features. The furthest south is the region dominated by the
Pre Soviet History
Due to the harsh nature of Dagestan's climate, any available fertile soil was used for agriculture. Cattle herding was also common. Only 15% of Dagestan's land is usable for agriculture,[1] so Dagestan's own agricultural output was often not enough to sustain its population.[3] The region became reliant on trade with Chechnya and Georgia to prevent starvation. Changes in agricultural practices during the 18th and early 19th century caused a migratory crisis within Dagestan due to shifting norms of where different people resided within Dagestan.[3]
Before the Soviet era, identity in the region of Dagestan largely centered around clans and religion, rather than ethnicity or “nationhood” in the Soviet context. However, due to the diverse nature of Dagestan, social structures varied widely between people groups.[3]
Dagestani society was divided up in to socio-organizational units known as Jama'ats before Russian conquest. Jama'ats first originated in Dagestan between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and they consisted of a well protected villages surrounded by agricultural fields.[3] A Jama'at was divided further in to clans which were known as Tukkhums. Explusion from one's Jama'at or Tukkhum was seen as a fate equivalent to death. The existence of Jama'ats as the main socio-organizational structure in Dagestan began to fade due to pressure both from rising Russian colonial presence in the region as well as internal economic and environmental causes.[3]
Dagestan's entry to the Russian Empire was finalized in 1813 with the signing of the Gulistan Peace Treaty. However, Russia's interests in Dagestan began in 1722 with the Russo-Persian War led by Peter the Great. Imam Shamil was one of Dagestan's first resistance leaders against Russian imperialism.[6] Shamil was born in 1797 to a prominent Avar warlord, and he came of age during the first years of full Russian control of Dagestan. Shamil acted as a charismatic political leader as well as a religious one in his efforts to unite the diverse peoples of Dagestan who did not have a history of working together before the Russian conquest. Through his ability to create unity among the various peoples of Dagestan, he was able to successfully conduct over two decades of Guerilla warfare against the Tsarist Russian army.[6]
Tsarist Russia spent decades in its conquest of the Caucasus region and the Caucasian war would not come to a full end until 1859.[7]
After the 1877 Dagestani Uprising, the Tsarist government deported many Dagestanis to the Russian Interior as a collective punishment.[8]
Revolution Era
The Tsarist Russian government often sent Cossacks and ethnically Russian settlers to pacify the peoples of Dagestan and other regions in the North Caucasus, however this often had the opposite effect. Cossacks and Russian land owners received the most arable land in the region, leaving indigenous Dagestani farmers with less available land in an already competitive region in regards to agriculture. This put a large wedge in to the relationship between the native peoples of Dagestan and the new Russian settlers.[3]
Discontent with the Tsarist government grew after the Russian governor Illarion Vorontsov-Dashkov attempted to instate the Russian language as the language of administration in rural Dagestan. This culminated in around 6,000 Dagestani protestors marching on the then local capital of Temir-Khan-Shurinsky to show their discontent in 1914, mere weeks before the beginning of World War One.[3]
Early Dagestani
Early Soviet Era
The capital of Dagestan, Makhachkala, was originally named Port Petrovsk during the Tsarist period. However, during the early Soviet period in 1921 it was renamed to Makhachkala.[3]
The 1917 revolution and Russian Civil War brought many Dagestani bolsheviks who had studied in the big cities of the Russian empire back home, including Gabiev and Buinaskii. This would lead to Buinaskii's death in 1919 as a result of participation in the civil war.[3]
The Soviet government promoted secular education, meaning the traditionally Islamic education which prevailed in Dagestan was under threat.[9] Beginning in 1938, Russian language instruction in non-Russian language schools became mandatory. Education in Russian and titular languages was mandatory, but in a region as diverse as Dagestan not all languages were taught and many Indigenous Dagestani languages were left with fewer speakers.[10]
The early Soviet period in Dagestan not only saw forced secularization from the outside at the hands of the Soviet government, but also internally led by homegrown secular Dagestani Islamic scholars. Ali Kaiaev was a Cairo educated Dagestani Islamic leader who became a prominent figure in early Soviet Dagestan.[3] Kaiaev's role as a reformer began from 1913 to 1916 when he edited a newspaper known as "The Rose of Dagestan," which promoted religious and political reform inside of Dagestan. After the 1917 Revolution and Russian Civil War, he was in charge of a Madrasa in his home village of Kumukh.[3] His school provided education in Islamic religious studies, as well as different secular fields of science and math, instruction was also carried out in the Lak language. Although he was initially protected from the purges of the Stalin era due to his place as a chairman on a Soviet sharia court, he was eventually arrested and deported to Kazakhstan, where he would spend the remaining years of his life.[3]
Late Soviet Era
Migrations and social changes forced on the indigenous ethnic groups of Dagestan oftentimes led to conflict among these groups. Ethnic Kumyks originated in the plains region of Dagestan and were largely more secular due to Soviet Atheist influence, however due to forced displacement of many of the traditionally mountainous and more strictly Islamic Avar people, conflict began to arise. Initially, contact with the Avar drew many Kumyk towards the interpretation of Islam practiced by them. However, ethnic conflict began to arise during the late Soviet period when the economy began to worsen. This culminated in some Kumyk developing their own strict Wahabist interpretation of Islam. This conflicted with the Avar interpretation of Islam, which was now seen in the eyes of many Kumyk as too "Sovietized."[11]
Demographics
Dagestan is home to many indigenous Northern Caucasian ethnic groups, such as the
The largest cities in Dagestan are the capital of Makhachkala, as well as Derbent, Kizlyar, Buynaksk, and Izberbash.[1]
Gallery
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Map of the Dagestan ASSR and other ASSR in Caucasus region in 1922
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Map of the Dagestan ASSR in 1953
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Map of the Dagestan ASSR and other ASSR in Caucasus region
See also
- Republic of Dagestan
- List of leaders the Dagestan ASSR
- First Secretary of the Dagestan Communist Party
- Flag of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
Notes
- ^ Russian: Дагестанская Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика
Avar: Дагъистаналъул Автономияб Советияб Социалистияб Жумгьурият
Azerbaijani: Дағыстан Мухтар Совет Сосиалист Республикасы
Kumyk: Дагъыстан Автономиялы Советни Социалистни Республика - ^ Russian: Дагестанская АССР;
Avar: Дагъистаналъул АССР;
Kumyk: Дагъыстан АССР;
Lezgian: Дагъустандин АССР;
Lak: Дагъусттаннал АССР;
Azerbaijani: Дағыстан МССР;
Aghul: Дагъустан АССР;
Chechen: ДегӀастанан АССР;
Nogai: Дагыстан АССР - ^ Russian: ДАССР
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Dagestan | republic, Russia | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
- S2CID 228971337.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-136-93824-5.
- ^ a b "Краткая справка об административно-территориальных изменениях Ставропольского края за 1920—1992 гг" [Brief information about the administrative-territorial changes in the Stavropol Territory for 1920-1992] (DOC). Stavkomarchiv (in Russian).
- ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-253-21113-2.
- ^ Vega, Octavio (8 May 2020). "The Bleeding Puzzle of Chechnya and Dagestan". Harvard International Review. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
- ^ Perović, Jeronim (June 2018). "3. The North Caucasus Within the Russian Empire". From Conquest to Deportation: The North Caucasus under Russian Rule. Oxford University Press. pp. 75–102. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
- ^ ISSN 0307-5974.
- S2CID 143443004.
- ^ Dudoignon, Stéphane A. & Noack, Christian (2014). Allah's Kolkhozes: migration, de-Stalinisation, privatisation, and the new Muslim congregations in the Soviet realm (1950s-2000s). Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag. Retrieved 22 April 2023 – via Miami Libraries.
- ^ "RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service". RFE/RL. Retrieved 22 April 2023.