In the twentieth century the Russian empire suffered two military and political defeats in the East: in Manchuria in 1905, inflicted by the Japanese, and in Afghanistan in 1989, at the hands of the Afghan Mujahidin. Both debacles preceded major internal unheavals and revolutions which marked the end of an imperial tradition and of an era - the tsarist empire of the Romanovs in the first case, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the second. However, one multinational empire remains, albeit a much reduced one - the Russian Federation led by President Boris Yeltsin. This book deals with the history of the Muslim North Caucasus, one of the remaining and most rebellious colonial dominions left to Russia. The writings presented here cover a span of four centuries, including Ivan the Terrible's strategic alliance with Circassian noblemen, the holy wars and conquest of the nineteenth century, the 1917 October Revolution, through to the present crisis in Chechnia and Ingushetia which may well presage the disintegration of the Russian Federation as we know it. It is argued that the North Caucasus, repeatedly conquered but never subdued, has played a key role in shaping Russian colonial policy and mistrust of Islam, which has been a powerful inspiration to the resistance of the North Caucasian Mountaineers to Russian rule. The book will be indispensable for understanding the future of ethnic relations and national politics in Russia.

Abdurahman Abtorkhanov, Marie Bennigsen Broxup

Avtorkhanov, Abdurakhman, 1908-; Broxup, Marie

Marie Broxup; Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov; et al

Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov; Marie Broxup

Авторханов, Абдурахман; Marie Broxup

Worth Publishers, Incorporated

New York: St. Martin's Press

Wadsworth

1. publ. in the United States of America., New York, 1992

United States, United States of America

London, 1992

April 1992

"Bibliographical note on selected works published in recent decades in Western European languages": p. 241-244.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Provides a historical background for the current conflicts in the southern, Moslem, area of the newly reformed Russian Federation. Going back to the time of Ivan the Terrible, and forward to repercussions of the 1991 coup attempt, documents how the Caucasus Mountains are the anvil on which the Russian hammer has often broken. The eight studies emerged from a June 1988 symposium in London. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

A look at why the North Caucasus remains the least sovietized and secure part of the USSR, even though the Russian drive to these parts began in the 16th century. The author focuses on the domestic factor - resistance to conquest and uprisings in the North Caucasus and Central Asia

"Bibliographical note on selected works published in recent decades in Western European languages": p. 241-244
Includes bibliographical references and index

2023-06-28