Nº 4 (2020)

Various aspects of the military history and military culture of the Circassians in the European Late Middle Ages and early Modern times which coincided with the maturity of Kabardian feudalism, is the traditional theme of Russian Caucasian studies. Despite this, even on basic issues, which include the estimation of the number of the military-service class in Kabarda, there is no scientific consensus in Adyge studies. This is due, firstly, to the lack of documentary material on the early periods of the history of the Circassian principalities, and secondly, to the uncritical and abundant citation of written narrative sources of the 17th-18th centuries with the simultaneous extrapolation of their data to the entire Middle Ages. Without reaching a consensus on this issue, it is impossible to determine the general demographic parameters of Circassia’s princely possessions (size and internal structure of the population, etc.) during their heyday. And without this, it is impossible to adequately typologize the polities of the Western Caucasus and assess the complex demographic and socio-cultural processes that took place in the region throughout the entire period from the 16th century up to the end of the Caucasian War. A few, but rather detailed written sources on the number of the military-service class in various feudal estates of Kabarda have been found since the 40s of the 17th century. They correlate with a large framework of later archival and narrative sources of the 17th-18th centuries and make it possible to determine the mobilization resource and the total number of the military-service class of Kabarda in the period of the Late Middle Ages and in the modern times with sufficient precision.

On the example of public-state interaction on the problem of the establishment of zemstvo self-government in the Caucasus the formation and functioning of the public sphere in the South of Russia, included in the all-Russian space of public opinion, is considered. At the end of the 19th century the regional zemstvo movement manifested itself in the form of public discussions of the models of expected transformations. To the north and to the south of the Caucasus range this process took place rather separately. Thus the all-Russian zemstvo tradition served as a model, but the Caucasian figures repeatedly declared the necessity of taking into account the specificity and local traditions of public self-organization. With the restoration of the Caucasian Viceroyalty in 1905 the Zemstvo question began to be discussed in an organized dialogue with the authorities from above, reaching the level of the Council of Ministers and the State Duma. The study identifies the main stages, directions and forms of representation of the ideas of the introduction of zemstvo institutions in the Caucasus region. It reveals a significant influence of regional journalism on the formulation, discussion and public control of zemstvo initiatives, which were largely made possible with the assistance of the Caucasian viceroyalty, which sought greater autonomy from the capital authorities. However, the regional public sought more than the imperial administration in the Caucasus was capable of organizing in the socio-political conditions of the early 20th century. Without achieving the establishment of zemstvos, the participants of the zemstvo movement in the Caucasus carried out considerable zemstvo work: from the analysis of the socio-economic situation based on considerable statistical and research work to project planning, contributing by their activity to the formation of the main features of the public sphere as an open sphere of rational-critical debates around public problems. However, forming the primary parameters of civil society and modern public consciousness, overcoming the corporate framework and elaborating the bases of ethno-political ideologies, the public of different territories of the Caucasian Region were more and more settling in the regional understandings of their zemstvo needs, which in all contradiction of creative and destructive power showed itself in the public policy under the influence of the Revolution of 1917.

The Russian State Electrification Plan, which is celebrating its centenary this year, has become the basis for Russia's fundamental economic modernization, which has been carried out in an extremely short period of time by historical standards. Today, when many researchers are looking for the true authors of the country's electrification plans respectively assessing the contribution of the Tsarist and Bolshevik governments to its preparation, and often giving these disputes an ideological coloring; the authors of this article prove the absolute continuity of electrification plans using the example of the Caucasus region. Moreover, sources show that the creators of almost all the technical projects and plans – both in Tsarist and Soviet times – were the same people – major scientists, energy engineers, who were actively involved in the development of the GOELRO plan.

This article represents the study of the destinies of several generations one of of one of the Kabardian families, Shakov on the basis of two types of sources – state and private archives in France and the Shakov-Strayhorn’ family archive. One of the well-known persons among Adyg’s intelligentsia – doctor Izmail Magometovich Shakov was born in 1878 in Kabarda. He had an excellent career in the Russian Empire. He received a higher medical education, had a medical practice and founded his own clinic in Grozny. He got married, the family had three children. The 1917 revolution changed his life in many ways. He was forced to emigrate with his family to France. The article analyzes the professional and socio-political life of Izmail Shakov in exile, describes his family life in Grozny, Nalchik and Paris. Separately, the authors examine Shakov's social circles in Paris (Muslim, Russian and Caucasian). A granddaughter Fatima was born in Paris, who married an American. The couple moved to the United States where for permanent residence. Since that time, a new page in the life of the Shakovs begins. The great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of the Shakovs, who were born in the United States became Americans. The descendants have lost their Kabardian roots and national and religious identity. The authors analyze the reasons for the current situation.

In the proposed article are published new scientific evidences on a unique historical place – Dzhinal grotto, which is situated in the highlands, difficult to pass, near the Kislovodsk in the western part of administrative boundary between Stavropol Area and Kabardin-Balkar Republic. The grotto was known to local historians from the 1970s. In 1983 was published the first short scientific description of Dzhinal grotto. On August 30, 2020 one of two authors of this article visited this historical place and made photographic recording of current condition of the Dzhinal grotto. These photographic and other materials along with previous articles became the base of this scientific publication. Old-time tamgas and petroglyphs  charaterized in this article. Also provides information about collection of tamgas of the 18-19th centuries. Provides characteristic of ethnic composition of Yutsa valley population at the end of the XVIIIth – the first half of the 19th century. As a result of the research, the authors  concluded that Dzhinal grotto earlier than the beginning or the middle of the 19th century was used as a sanctuary, by the kabardian and abaza inhabitants of Yutsa valley. This sacred place, probably, was associated with a pagan rituals and cults  of cattle breeding, fertility and hunting.

One of the most significant places in the social and political life of modern Russia is occupied by the politics of historical memory. After the unsuccessful attempts of the "new" Russian elite in the 90s of the 20th century to integrate the country into the culture and history of Europe, having reshaped the country on the model of Western countries, the demand for an independent path of development has matured in society. In the high echelons of power, there is an awareness of the need to consolidate society by promoting among the masses the idea of a single historical destiny of the country's peoples. Under these conditions, in all regions of the country, including Kabardino-Balkaria, the activities of state and public organizations have intensified in the direction of creating new and popularizing existing all-Russian commemorative practices designed to unite the country around a common historical memory. In the course of the study, the commemorative practices of Kabardino-Balkaria were divided into several main groups: national, republican, ethnic, religious, and commemoration of global culture. It was also revealed that globalization processes have a significant impact on the formation of commemorative practices in the republic especially among the youth. The greatest conflict potential is possessed by the ethno-national commemorative practices connected with historical experience of the titular peoples of Kabardino-Balkaria.

The article is devoted to the study of the most productive ways of actualizing the semantics of contradictory oppositeness in the derivative nominal antonyms in the Kabardian - Circassian language. The relevance of this research is presupposed by growing scientific interest to the study of characteristics of linguistic universals, and in particular, the word-formation means of expressing the semantics of oppositeness in a definite language for the purposes of further comparative-typological description of antonyms, identifying the general and specific in the methods and models of their meaning designation. The analysis of the factual material has revealed that the explicants of the semantics of the contradictory opposition, which is actualized by derivative nominal and adverbial antonyms more often than other types of oppositional relations, prove to be affix markers of negation, among which the suffixal modes (with the exception of the ambifixal formant мы-) are the most productive, while in other languages, for example, in Russian, prepositive derivational are also widely represented. The results of the investigation prove important not only for compiling complete inventory of derivational means of creating antonymy in the Kabardian-Circassian language, but also for solving the issue of antonymy boundaries, and can also be used for further multidimensional study of this phenomenon both in Kabardino-Circassian and other languages.

In the Adyghe epics, the image of the Nart hero Totresh is considered most often in connection with the legend of his duel with the Nart Sosruko. For this reason, he appears to be a character either unambiguously negative, or not definite in terms of evaluation. This impression cannot be dispelled by another epic work, "The Song of the Mighty Narts", in which this hero appears as one of the defenders of the Nart region. Meanwhile, this image is presented in a number of epic legends of the Adygs, and not always in a negative light, although researchers until now have not paid sufficient attention either to this circumstance, or to the hero himself. In this regard, of particular interest are two poetic legends-pshinatls "A lone rider frightening the army" and "Totresh's forked spear", which are brought into consideration for the first time. This circumstance determines the relevance of the topic of this article. The purpose of the study is to give as complete an analytical description of the plot and the main motives of the legends about Totresh as possible, in connection with which, throughout the entire work, the author's focus remains on the analysis of the features of the genesis, evolution and transformation of the main plot-forming elements, the ways of penetration of folklore universals in the noted legends are traced and the types of motives and plots are determined in accordance with the existing indexes (AT, SUS, etc.). Based on the analysis carried out, it is concluded that most of the stories about this character were finally formed at the final stage of the productive period of the Nart epic as a result of the interaction of multi-stage components, which is confirmed by the presence in them of plot-forming motives based on archaic ideas (snake fighting, a fight between a father and a son or a close relative , "Cultural feats", etc.), and motives of a later origin (protection of their land, the cult of strength and nobility and other features of the ideal medieval knight.). The staged position of the artistic image was reflected in its typology and poetic language of legends. The observations made allow us to consider Totresh one of the heroes, whose image is the result of the logical completion of the types of key characters in the archaic epic of the Adygs.

In this article, based on the material of A. G. Dymov's creative work, some aspects characteristic of the research interpretation of the literature of the adab of the Adyghe enlighteners are revealed. The article considers a number of provisions that were fixed in the fundamental literary works devoted to the progressive trends of confessional education in Kabarda at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. The degree of correspondence of the concept «adab» to works written by confessionally educated figures of Adyghe culture is established. The article deals with the problem of interpretative limits in literary studies recognized as key for the designated period, and discusses ways to present the works of Adyghe «Arabists» in modern publications: collections and anthologies. The connection between the methods of presentation of the material and the peculiarities of its perception is traced. In order to provide a more accurate and complete scientific understanding of the works under study, the author proves the need to take into account the ideological context of Islamic reformism. In the course of comparing the methods of presentation Of adab by A. G. Dymov in two anthological publications, a rearrangement of semantic accents is revealed, which turns out to be inevitable when reading the «truncated» version of this work. Attention to episodes caused by interpretative limits is important insofar as it involves the need to restore semantic links that could not be represented at the time.

The article is devoted to the study of the poetic heritage of the Kabardian poet Betal Ibragimovich Kuashev. The peculiarities of poetics and artistic-compositional organization of poems and poems by B. Kuashev has not yet become the subject of a separate study, which explains the relevance of the stated topic. For the first time, the article provides a comprehensive analysis of the artistic paradigm of the poet's creativity, focusing on the system of images, metric-rhyming construction of works, genre diversity, as well as on the nationally marked idiostyle of the author. A unique and innovative for the Adyghe (Kabardino-Circassian) literature inversion syntax is investigated, which allowed the poet to reform the Kabardian verse. The main motive lines of B. Kuashev's lyric poetry and lyric-epics are considered, the types of rhymes used by him in original combinations (end rhyme + folklore, for example) are revealed. The results obtained can become a theoretical help in further research of B. Kuashev's work, as well as in the study of Adyghe poetry, in particular, lyric and lyric-epic works. They can find practical application in special courses, research works of teachers, graduate students and students.