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Ethnic Nationalism in the Caucasus∗

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Ronald Wixman*
Affiliation:
University of Oregon

Extract

The study of ethnic nationalism in the Caucasus is problematic. This situation arises not so much from the extreme ethnic and cultural diversity of this region, but more from the same methodological obstacles and problems encountered when studying ethnic nationalism anywhere in the USSR. Before discussing ethnic nationalism in the Caucasus, then, a brief treatment of some of these problems is presented. It is hoped that this format will make this paper more valuable to those interested in the nationality situation in the Soviet Union in general.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the Study of Nationalities, 1982 

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References

1. Hegaard, Steven E., “Nationalism in Azerbaidzhan in the Era of Brezhnev,” in Nationalism in the USSR and Eastern Europe in the Era of Brezhnev and Kosygin, Simmonds, George W., ed. (Detroit: University of Detroit Press, 1977), pp. 188199.Google Scholar

2. Dadrian, Vahakn N., “Nationalism in Soviet Armenia: A Case Study of Ethnocentrism,” Ibid., pp. 202258.Google Scholar

3. Küng, Andres, A Dream of Freedom: Four Decades of National Survival versus Russian Imperialism in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania 1940-80 (Boreas Publishing House, 1981), pp. 152153.Google Scholar

4. This is not to imply that there are not ethnically oriented leaders around, but rather to stress the point that last names are poor indicators of orientation.Google Scholar

5. Tuzmuhamedov, R., How the Nationality Question was Solved in Soviet Central Asia (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1973); Kim, Maxim, The Soviet People: a New Historical Community (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1974); and I.P. Tsamerian and S.L. Ronin, Equality of Rights Between Races and Nationalities in the USSR (Paris: UNESCO, 1962).Google Scholar

6. Rywkin, Michael, “Code Words and Catchwords of Brezhnev's Nationality Policy,” Survey, vol. 24, no. 3 (1979), pp. 8390.Google Scholar

7. For a discussion of this topic regarding the peoples of the North Caucasus see Wixman, Ronald, Language Aspects of Ethnic Patterns and Processes in the North Caucasus (Chicago: Chicago University Press, Geography Department Research Paper no. 191, 1980), pp. 121169.Google Scholar

8. Bennigsen, Alexandre, “Islamic or Local Consciousness Among Soviet Nationalities?” in Soviet Nationality Problems, Allworth, Edward, ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971), pp. 179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9. Although Khrushchev acknowledged the deportations as a mistake (or rather he exhonorated the Chechens, as well as the Ingush, Karachai, Balkars, and Kalmyks), no mention is ever made of the conditions of their deportation, the loss of life and property, etc. Even the book Promyshlenost' Checheno-Ingushskoy ASSR za 50 let, written by Zoev, S. O. (Groznyy: Checheno-Ingushskoe Knizhnoe Izdatel'stvo, 1972) goes into great detail on the lack of manpower between 1944 and 1960 in this region, yet makes no reference whatever to the deportation of the Chechens and Ingush.Google Scholar

10. See Karcha, Ramazan, “Soviet Propaganda Concerning the Rehabilitated Peoples of the Northern Caucasus,” Caucasian Review, vol. 8 (1959), pp. 513.Google Scholar

11. Rywkin, Michael, “Dissent in Soviet Central Asia,” Nationalities Papers, vol. 9, no. 1 (1981), p. 27.Google Scholar

12. Although an East Slavic State arose in the tenth century (Kievan Rus), one cannot really speak of the Russians as having formed a nation in the Western sense until the time of Ivan I at the earliest.Google Scholar

13. To be more accurate, it is the eastern North Caucasians (Daghestani, Chechen, and Ingush) who are described above. The western North Caucasians (Circassians, Abaza, Karachai, and Balkar) are somewhat less conservative. All however are anti-Russian. In the case of these western North Caucasians the vast majority of their populations opted to emigrate to Turkey in the mid to late nineteenth century rather than live under Russian rule.Google Scholar

14. Wimbush, Enders and Wixman, Ronald, “The Meskhetians a New Voice in Soviet Central Asia,” Canadian Slavonic Papers, vol. 17, no. 2-3 (1975), p. 332.Google Scholar

15. Most of these languages had no written form at all until the 1920s. The only North Caucasian languages that have been given literary status at any time during the Soviet period are: Abaza, Abkhaz, Adgyei, Kabardino-Cherkess, Karachai-Balkar, Ossetian, Ingush, Chechen, Kumyk, Nogai, Avar, Dargin, Lak, Lezgin, and the Daghestiani Jewish Tat dialect (not used by the Moslem or Christian Tats).Google Scholar

16. Although the 1970 and 1979 Soviet censuses indicate the number of each ethnic group claiming fluency in Russian, and other languages, these figures are gross overstatements. Given the subjectivity of this question, and the pressures to claim fluency in Russian, many indicate a knowledge that is far from fluent. These figures also do not coincide with what is reported in ethnographic studies, and reports given by people who have been to these regions.Google Scholar

17. During the Caucasian Wars, Shamyl destroyed the nobility of the Caucasus as they were viewed as sell-outs to the Russians. During the Civil War, local Caucasian sympathizers with the communists were often killed by other Caucasians as well. This may explain the extremely low level of party membership among the peoples of the North Caucasus today.Google Scholar

18. Pivovarov, V.G., “Sotsiologicheskoe issledovanie problem byta, kul'tury, natsional'nykh traditsii i verovanii v Checheno-Ingushskoy ASSR,” Voprosy nauchnogo ateizma, 17 (1975), p. 316.Google Scholar

19. Bennigsen, Alexandre, “Sufi Tariqas in the Northeastern Caucasus (XIX-XX Centuries),” unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar

20. Since marriages in the northeastern Caucasus were traditionally clan-endogamous, this gave, and gives, these clans and orders more cohesion and further insulated them from outside influences.Google Scholar

21. For a discussion on the role of the Armenian church in Armenian ethnic nationalism see Dadrian, Vahakn N., op cit.Google Scholar

22. This was substantiated by a number of Daghestani Jews now residing in New York City. They also indicated that in Baku a number of Daghestani Jews have married Azerbaidzhan girls, and that this is acceptable to both communities. One of the men interviewed, in fact, had an Azerbaidzhan wife.Google Scholar

23. The Tat literary language is based on the Jewish dialect of Tat spoken in Daghestan. The Moslem Tats use the Azerbaidzhan literary language (and have all but been totally assimilated by them), and the Armeno-Gregorian Tats, Armenian and Russian.Google Scholar

24. Nagorno Karabakh and Nakhichevan are not the only “detached” territories in the USSR. Kaliningrad Oblast, which is located between Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic coast is detached, yet administered by the RSFSR.Google Scholar

25. The Abkhaz and Abaza are one people speaking two closely related dialects of the same Apswa language. They do not consider each other as being different peoples, but rather as one, geographically divided people.Google Scholar

26. See Wimbush, Enders and Wixman, Ronald, op cit. Google Scholar