This article concerns imperial Russia’s foreign policy in Asia during the early nineteenth century, specifically the “Great Game” engaged in by Russia and Britain in the North Caucasus.
Abstract This chapter details events following Semën Atarshchikov's second desertion in November 1842. Atarshchikov had resolved to end his life as a military officer and Christian subject of the Russian emperor. His decision to desert took place in the context of the turbulent developments in the region. The war in the Caucasus was at its most intense, and its outcome was far from certain. Russian troops were sustaining heavy losses in incessant raids and ambushes by Shamil and his new ally, Haji-Murat, whose defection in 1841 had dealt a heavy blow to Russian interests in northern Daghestan. The nearly simultaneous success of the Adyges against Russian troops and garrisons in the northwest convinced Shamil that the time was right to extend the Imamate. The most aggressive and numerous people among the Adyges were the Abadzekhs. It was among Abadzekhs that Atarshchikov chose to settle on his second and final desertion. In the high mountains the Abadzekhs welcomed thousands of Kabardins, Besleneys, Nogays, and others who had fled the lands that had been colonized and settled by Russians. The local people referred to such fugitives as hajrets, that is, warriors committed to raiding the Russian frontier. Atarshchikov adopted the term as part of his new name: Hajret Muhammed. The decision to take a Muslim name no doubt was part of Atarshchikov's official conversion to Islam.
Abstract This chapter details events following Semën Atarshchikov's arrival in St. Petersburg in May 1830. Atarshchikov was to spend the next seven months in the imperial capital. The novelty of life in the great city—the new places and acquaintances—must have thrilled the young man, who was discovering the city's seasonal cycles. In time, his life in the imperial capital settled into a routine. He was attached to the Personal Guard of His Imperial Majesty as part of the special cavalry unit from the North Caucasus, formally known as the Caucasus-Mountain Cavalry half-squadron, popularly referred to as the Circassian Guard. The unit was part of the imperial household and thus fell under the command of Count Alexander von Benckendorff, the notorious head of the Russian gendarmes. In the summer of 1832, he was ordered back to the North Caucasus, where his services were urgently needed in the region set ablaze by a new uprising against Russia.
This concluding chapter considers the question of why after three centuries of conquest and rule Russia still failed to integrate the North Caucasus into the fabric of its empire-state. Does the answer lie in the peculiarities of local geography and the social and military organization of the highlanders, in the political theology of Islam, or in the empire's structural inability to assimilate others? The chapter revisits the Russian imperial experience in broader historical context in order to address these questions. It argues that Russian authorities' decision to merely acculturate indigenous elites, in contrast to previous policies of assimilating and turning non-Christians into Russians, resulted in elites that lacked a cohesive group identity. It continued to include individuals of different faiths, languages, and customs, who arrived from the different parts of the empire and returned to their own people as different men. If the members of this new elite had thought they could open communication in both directions between Russian authorities and the local peoples, they were deeply mistaken. Their superiors often disregarded their advice, ignoring their analyses of local situations. Gradually they came to realize that the state intended to use them to channel information in one direction only.
On the Religious Frontier: Tsarist Russia and Islam in the Caucasus. By Firouzeh Mostashari. International Library of Historical Studies 32. New York: I. B. Tauris, 2006. xiv, 203 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Maps. $69.50, hard bound. - Volume 66 Issue 4
Journal Article N. L. Zhukovskaia. Kategorii i simvolika traditsionnoi kul'tury mongolov [Categories and Symbolics of Traditional Mongol Culture]. Moscow: Nauka. 1988. Pp. 195. 1 r. 40 k Get access Zhukovskaia N. L.. Kategorii i simvolika traditsionnoi kul'tury mongolov [Categories and Symbolics of Traditional Mongol Culture]. Moscow: Nauka. 1988. Pp. 195. 1 r. 40 k. Michael Khodarkovsky Michael Khodarkovsky Loyola University of Chicago Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 96, Issue 4, October 1991, Pages 1263–1264, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/96.4.1263 Published: 01 October 1991
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