Nº 3 (2019)

The article discusses several issues related to the problems of constructing generalized works on the history of the North Caucasus. The first. It is possible and necessary to solve the conceptual problems of historical Caucasian studies based on a specific cognitive task and type of work, and not only on the substantial characteristics of various theoretical and methodological approaches and the specifics of the subject of study. The second. The central methodological problem of generalizing histories (of the region as a whole or of individual peoples and republics) is the problem of historical synthesis. The third. Historical synthesis, implemented in a generalizing national-regional narrative, has a specific nature and is conditionally defined in this article as “subjective synthesis”. Fourth. One of the prerequisites for achieving the scientific objectivity of generalizing stories is the rational self-reflection of the sociocultural and political actors of the regional historical process at its present stage, which is realized in the theoretical and methodological search of the scientific community. The scientific significance of the solution of this problem is due to the fact that it is necessary for the formation of a synthetic concept of the history of Russia, in which its development as a state, society and civilization will be presented in unity and mutual conditionality; the histories of the peoples of Russia will be presented as complementary in respect to each other and in respect to national Russian history; and convincing grounds will be offered for historical identity and dialogue of the socio-cultural subjects of “current Russian history”, for their orientation in modern world realities, for their conscious choice of a common future.

The article presents materials of excavations of the Zakubansky expedition of the State Hermitage museum in the site Meshoko in 2008. The site is located next to the village Kamennomostsky, in the Maikop district of the Republic of Adygea. An area of 25 m² contained finds related to the late period of the site existence. The cultural layer is connected with the horizon of a dark gray humus loam containing crushed rock. The analysis of the finds shows the existence of noticeable differences between the materials lying on the surface of the gravel bed and the materials originating from the lower part of this layer. The latter show a certain similarity with the findings related to the early period of the site's existence. These observations indicate that the transition from the lower layer of the Meshoko to the its upper layer was not absolutely abrupt and contained elements of evolution.

The use of the root morpheme kas for the name of the ancient and medieval peoples of Eurasia is considered: helmets, Kassites, Caspians, Circassians. A connection is established between this ethnonym and the god of the moon in the Hutt, Cascian, Cassite pantheon – Kasku / Kashshu. It turns out how all this can be correlated with the cult of the moon and the sun in the Caucasus, with the formula of self-identification of the Circassian princes, with the heraldic symbols of the ancient peoples of the Middle East and Egypt, as well as with the self-name of the Kassites – galets. The etymology of the endoethnonym Galtz and the ethnonym Kas is presented, information about the secondary use of the ethnonym Cas for the names of countries, rivers, mountains (Caucasus), the sea (Caspian), cities, etc. It is emphasized that geographically and semantically, the ethnonym Cas is associated with the ancient history of the Circassian people.

The article considers some peculiarities of interaction of institutions of local judicial and administrative control in the Big and Small Kabarda in 1793-1822. The jurisdiction of the Mozdok Upper Border Court and the ancestral courts and the executions have been determined, The forms of their communication have been analyzed, the specifics and approaches of the authorities to the resolution of the personnel issue and the consolidation of the status of local ethnoelite representatives elected to the posts of judges and elected jurors have been determined. The role of the officers (chiefs) of Kabarda and the Russian military specially assigned to the ancestral courts has been defined in this process. The approaches of the Russian authorities to the staffing of ancestral courts and executions have been identified, mechanisms for the appointment and approval of judges and judges have been described, and the related difficulties have been considered. The consequences of the introduction of local judicial and administrative control institutions in Big and Small Кabardа and the response of the local population to these innovations are described. Information is given on the reorganization of the justice system in this region in 1806-1807. It is noted that the introduction of initial forms of judicial and administrative control in the Central Caucasus had mixed consequences (on the one hand, obtaining salaries and military ranks of employees of these courts, on the other - their boycott and evasion of the duties assigned by the new system).

Congress of entrusted – an original institution of district self-government of Kabardinians and Balkars, regularly functioning under the control of the Russian administration. On the basis of archival sources and materials of the post-reform periodical press, plots related to the initiatives of public representatives to change the administrative-judicial order in the Nalchik district are considered. The subject of the petitions was the expansion of the competence of rural courts, the redistribution of powers between district and lower-level judicial bodies, as well as the reorganization of the activities of the Nalchik Mountain Verbal Court in order to best match the socio-normative traditions of Kabardians and Balkars. Despite the failure of most of the petitions, the numerous vertical communications on the problems of improving and developing the local judicial system initiated by the congress of entrusted, as well as the establishment and regular functioning of the Temporary Branch of the Nalchik Mountain Verbal Court testified to the flexibility of the administrative practices of the regional and, above all, district leadership, located in the search for optimal forms of power interaction with the local population.

The personality of Nazir Kathanov is highlighted In the local historiography of Kabardino-Balkaria in the context of the temporary compromise between the Bolsheviks and the North Caucasian Shariah during the civil war, as well as his active role in the restoration of Soviet power in the region, and his activities as head of the Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Oblast’s Representation at the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Scattered information about his work as Commissioner of the National Department of the Main Economic Directorate of the USSR Supreme Economic Council for the North Caucasus is supplemented by new documents identified by the paper’s author in the collections of the State Archive of the Russian Federation and the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History. It gives an expanded idea of N.A. Kathanov as a statesman of the North Caucasian and Union levels, and makes it possible to judge his professional competence, organizational and analytical abilities. New documents from the mentioned collections characterize N. Kathanov not only as a clergyman, but also as a secular person, not only as a military leader, but also as a creator, builder of a new life. And of course, he was not an enemy of the people, and the shameful label was glued to him undeservedly and slanderously. N. Kathanov passionately loved his land, all the peoples of the North Caucasus. He was well known, he was trusted and unanimously elected as the Commissioner. And this trust N. Kathanov fully justified.

The article is devoted to the ideological and organizational formation of the Balkar national movement in conjunction with the dynamics of the all-Russian and republican socio-political development in the mid of 1980s – early 1990s. The policy of perestroika and glasnost made it possible to discuss openly the historical and current problems of the Balkarian people, which were banned previously, in particular, the "full rehabilitation" of all violated rights by the Stalin regime. On this ideological basis, there is an organizational and political consolidation of Balkarian public organizations and deputies of all levels of power into a single representative body with its own program. Politically, it was important that on behalf of the people now it was not individual organizations that spoke, but their representative body - the congress, which confirmed the set of national goals and requirements. In the legal plan, the Law of the RSFSR “On the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples” of April 26, 1991 was of fundamental importance. The key provision of the Balkar national program on the restoration of Balkar regions as of 1944 was the requirement of the law. The prolonged delay by the state authorities of the republic regarding the legal requirements of the Balkarian movement of territorial rehabilitation led to the adoption on November 17, 1991 by the congress of the Balkar people of the Declaration on the proclamation of the Republic of Balkaria and the national sovereignty of the Balkar people; the creation of the National Council of the Balkarian People (NCBP) as the supreme authority; non-participation of the Balkarian population of the congress in the election of the President of the KBSSR. Thus, with the active, and in some respects decisive participation of the Balkarian national movement, by the end of 1991 a new political reality had developed in Kabardino-Balkaria. The further course of political development turned into a gradual retreat from the achieved milestone and a turn from consolidation to demarcation in the national movement. When viewed from a historical distance, it is fundamentally important  that the movement in both directions remained in a peaceful framework.

The current paper studies mental relations among Circassians towards death and their manifestations in day-to-day routines. The Caucasian war (1763-1864) constitutes the historical background for the research as a chronological milestone saturated with dramatic historical events and cultural landmarks representing ethnic distinctiveness. The paper is based on narrative, folklore, and ethnographical sources. The research methodology involves modern scholar approaches, i.e. everyday history (Alltagsgeschichte), gender history, and history of mentality. Implementation of these toolkits reveals behavioral drives in the face of death, perception of death amongst a conflict: sense of alarm, fearlessness, mental changes. Circassians within this framework do not merely portray an abstract party to a conflict, but historic subject. Not only battles, victories and defeats the Caucasian war embodies, but also it incorporated fortunes, feats and betrayals, laments and memorial song. On the one hand, a war transforms death into the routine, on the other hand, it elevates personal experiences up to the national tragedies. Authors emphasized two contrasting tendencies in the development of traditional ritual patterns: their cultivation amidst tedious military confrontation and erosion of traditional culture as a result of colonization of the North Caucasus. The article considers women’s attitudes towards wartime losses (distress, sacrifice, perseverance, ritual execution) ant their role in forming men’s spirit of resistance (mechanisms of psychological exposure), and attitudes among Circassians towards their died fellows on the battlefield. Ethnography of death and its study conclude into recognition of the value of ritual culture and semantic text that translated indigenous cultural values to descendants.

The article deals with the problem of the evolution of the archetypal structure, which passed from myth to archaic epic and preserved due to the ability to adapt to changes in socio-cultural and ideological character. Based on the plots of historical and heroic tales that arose at a relatively late stage of the productive life of the folk epic, the main stages of the evolution of the motive of the miraculous birth of the hero are investigated. Attention is drawn to the progressive changes in public consciousness, which caused the transition of mythological narrative in the field of artistic creativity, then analyzes the various forms of implementation of the archaic model of the narrative, directly in connection with the stadium changes in the perception of the world and the nature of the reflection of reality in the genres of folklore. It is established that both the motive in question and some others, which originated as methods of intergenerational transmission of beliefs, must have been originally included in the ritual of an initial character. The secularization of the mythological narrative does not separate the motive from the original system of perception of the world. Therefore, in the early type of epic, the motif may remain in form extremely close to the myth. But it still enhances the aesthetic function of the narrative, so that in the later epic cycles, the initial structure acquires a new design, in accordance with the evolutionary processes in the field of perception.

The analysis of the North Caucasian prose from the point of view of the specificity of the use of archaic imagery is thought to be a promising line of modern literary criticism. This article is supposed to consider the symbolic forms of reproduction of the ethnic picture of the world through mythological consciousness, fixed ideas of a person about the structure of the habitual living space, mechanisms of self-identification of the ethnic group. Symbols, mythologem and archetypes as direct translators of such information become the subject of this study, the object of literary analysis is the material of regional literature. As illustrative material the paper presents characteristic examples of epic poems, which found different forms of adaptation of the myth, sustainable symbols, canonical stories and folk stylization, i.e. the whole Arsenal of expressive means, which implies the introduction in a literary text, conditional-metaphorical content. In analyzing these issues, we were guided by the following criteria: the desire to consider in a comparative way the artistic samples that demonstrate the specificity of the ethnic worldview; to explore the texts of epic works in terms of the coincidence of interpretations of iconic images and values. The material of the study is quite extensive and heterogeneous, which is why we found it necessary to focus on the key points of interethnic relationships in order to identify typological features and nationally determined differences in the interpretation of archetypal imagery.