Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus

Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus
1918[1]–1919[2]
Flag[3][4][5][6] The banner adopted by the first Confederation of Mountain Peoples, May 1917[3][4][5]
Capital	Temir-Khan-Shura
Religion	Sunni Islam (majority and state-backed faith) Russian Orthodox Church (minority)
Demonym(s)	North Caucasian
Government	Confederated parliamentary republic under a provisional government
Prime Minister
• 11 May 1918 – December 1918	Tapa Tchermoeff
• December 1918 – 12 May 1919	Pshemakho Kotsev
Establishment
History
• Union of the Peoples of the Northern Caucasus within Russia[7]	6 March 1917
• Independence declared	11 May 1918
• Replaced by North Caucasian Emirate[8]	September 1919
• Established	1918[1]
• Disestablished	1919[2]
Area
• Total	430,874 km^2 (166,361 sq mi)
Population
• 1919 census	11,221,860[9]
Currency	Tumen
Preceded by Succeeded by Russian Republic North Caucasian Emirate
Today part of	Russia

The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus (MRNC), also referred to as the United Republics of the North Caucasus, Mountain Republic, or the Republic of the Mountaineers, was a short-lived state in Eastern Europe. It encompassed the easternmost portions of the North Caucasus and emerged during the Russian Civil War and existed from 1918 to 1919. It formed as a consolidation of various Caucasian ethnic groups, including the Abazins, Circassians, Chechens, Karachays, Ossetians, Balkars, Ingush, and Dagestanis.

The MRNC encompassed the former territories of Terek Oblast and Dagestan Oblast within the Russian Empire. These territories now constitute the present-day republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia–Alania, Kabardino-Balkaria, Dagestan, and a portion of Stavropol Krai in the Russian Federation. Spanning approximately 430,874 square kilometers (166,361 sq mi), the MRNC had a population of approximately 11.2 million. Throughout its existence, the capital of the MRNC relocated from Vladikavkaz to Nazran and ultimately settled in Temir-Khan-Shura.

The MRNC broke away from the Russian Empire after the February Revolution, just before the outbreak of the Russian Civil War. The Russian Volunteer Army captured the state in 1919, and it ceased to exist.^[2] However, in September 1919, the North Caucasian Emirate was proclaimed as the successor of the Mountain Republic.^[8] However, in August 1920, it was captured by the Soviet Russia, which led to an uprising.^[10] In April 1921, the Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was established by the Bolsheviks within the RSFSR, but the uprising lasted until 1925.^[11]

State formation

The Union consisted seven "states" distributed on a national basis and united under a confederative principle within the territories: Dagestan, Ingushetia, Chechnya, North Ossetia–Alania, Circassia (including West Circassia, although the union had control only over East Circassia), Karachay-Balkaria, the Nogai steppes, and also asserted claims in Abkhazia.^[6][12][13]

The Cabinet of Ministers of the Mountain Republic comprised representatives from nearly all regions of the North Caucasus.^{[citation needed]}

History

See also: Flag of the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus

The Union of the Peoples of the Northern Caucasus was established in March 1917 and an Executive Committee was elected to oversee its operations. Abdulmajid Tapa Tchermoev was appointed as Chairman of the Executive Committee. In August 1917, the Executive Committee decided to readopt the 1847 constitution of Imam Shamil.^{[citation needed]}

The independent republic was declared on 11 May 1918 at the time of the collapse of the Russian Tsarist empire during the Russian Revolution of 1917. The new republic established a government led by Prime Minister Tchermoev, Rashid Khan Kaplanov, and Haidar Bammate.^[14] The capital was initially Vladikavkaz but was later relocated to Temir-Khan-Shura after being occupied by the Red Army.^[14][15] The Republic received support from Said Shamil, the grandson of Imam Shamil, and gained international recognition from various countries. The United Kingdom formed an alliance with Russian general Anton Denikin and made efforts to reinstate Tsarist rule in the region.^[15]

During the Brest-Litovsk negotiations, an effort was made to dispatch delegates to represent the Republic under Ottoman supervision. However, the Ottomans later declined this association due to an unfavorable response from the Bolsheviks. On 30 May 1918, the Bolshevik government issued a diplomatic note declaring their non-recognition of the MRNC.^[15] In March 1919, a delegation led by Tapa Tchermoeff and Ibrahim Bey Gaydarov went to Paris to participate in the Treaty of Versailles and sought international recognition of the Republic's independence.^[16]

The Dagestan cavalry regiments, units within the Caucasian Native Cavalry Division, pledged their allegiance to the Mountainous Republic and Ottoman pashas of Circassian descent arrived with their forces to provide assistance. An army was formed and participated in confrontations against General Anton Denikin's Volunteer Army. With backing from the North Caucasus Army, led by Yusuf Izzet Pasha, the Caucasus region was liberated from Soviet Russia.^[16]

Following the conclusion of World War I and the withdrawal of Turkish troops, the Mountain government underwent reorganization. In late 1918, Pshemaho Kotsev was confirmed as leader of the coalition cabinet in the Mountain Congress held in Temir-Khan-Shura. Hostilities ended in January 1920 with Denikin's army defeat by the 11th Red Army. In January 1921, the Red Army occupied the Mountain Republic and established the Soviet Mountain Republic within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

Legacy

The "Congress of the Peoples of the North Caucasus", a political organization operating in the 21st century, has invoked the Mountainous Republic to advocate for the cooperation of different Northern Caucasus separatist groups in their struggle against Russia.^[17]

Prominent government figures, 1917–1919

• 
  Leaders of the MRNC, with Prime Minister Tapa Tchermoeff seated in the center of the front row.
• 
  Abdulmajid Tapa Tchermoeff, oil industrialist, first chairman of the Central Committee and first prime minister, Chechen. Died in Switzerland in 1937.
• 
  Rashid Khan Kaplanov, second Chairman of the Central Committee, Minister of the Interior, Jew. Assassinated by the Bolshevik government in 1937.
• 
  Pshemakho Kotsev, second prime minister, Kabardian Circassian. Died in Istanbul in 1962.
• 
  Haidar Bammate, Foreign Minister, Kumyk. Died in Paris in 1965.
• 
  Vassan-Girey Jabagiyev, Minister of Finance, Ingush. Died in Istanbul in 1961.
• 
  Nukh-bek Tarkovskiy, Military Minister, Kumyk. Died in Switzerland in 1951.
• 
  Ibrahim Bey Gaydarov, Minister of Posts and Telegraph,^[18] Lezgian. Died in Ankara in 1949.
• 
  Adil-Gerey Daidbekov, Minister of Transportation, Kumyk. Died in Baku in 1946.^[19][20]
• 
  Alikhan Kantemir, the official representative in neighboring countries (Azerbaijan, Georgia), Muslim Ossetian. Died in Munich in 1963.
• 
  Tadjuddin Penzulayev, Minister of Justice, Kumyk. Killed by the Bolsheviks in 1937.^[21] Co-author of Mikhail Bulgakov's piece "Children of Mulla".^[22]
• 
  Muhiddin Penzulayev, Minister of Communications, Kumyk. Died in 1942.^[21] Brother of Tadjuddin Penzulayev.

See also

• History portal
• Caucasian Imamate (1828–1859)
• North Caucasian Soviet Republic (1918)
• Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1921–1924)
• Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus (1989–2000)
• Prometheism

References

1. Charlotte, Hille (2010). State Building and Conflict Resolution in the Caucasus. Brill. p. 55. ISBN 9789004179011. On 11 May 1918 the independence of the Republic of the North Caucasus was declared. The government sought international recognition and when on 8 June 1918 a Treaty of Friendship was signed with Turkey this implied recognition of the new Republic.
2. Charlotte, Hille (2010). State Building and Conflict Resolution in the Caucasus. Brill. p. 56. ISBN 9789004179011. The government of Kotsev was not able to defend its territory, and in May 1919 the White Army of Denikin conquered the territory of the Mountain Republic in Chechnya and Daghestan, and the Mountain Republic ceased to exist.
3. The Flag Bulletin, vol. 148. The Flag Research Center. 1992. p. 184.
4. "Северный Кавказ, 1917-1945 гг". vexillographia.ru (in Russian).
5. Kathleen R. Jackson, Marat Fidarov: Essays on the History of the North Caucasus, HHN Media, New York, 2009.
6. «После Февральской революции 1917 г. процесс политического самоопределения привел к образованию Карачаево-Балкарского штата в составе горской республики.» (ИЭА Российской академии наук. Серия энциклопедий «Народы и культуры», «Карачаевцы. Балкарцы.» — М.: Наука, ИЭА РАН, 2014. — С. 7. — 815 с. ISBN 978-5-02-038043-1.)
7. Лобавнов, Артемьев; Артемьев А. С. (2019). "Владикавказский съезд горских народов Северного Кавказа в мае 1917 г." Современная научная мысль. p. 74. Archived from the original on 2023-06-24.
8. Charlotte, Hille (2010). State Building and Conflict Resolution in the Caucasus. Brill. p. 56. ISBN 9789004179011. In 1919 Sheikh Uzun Haji, Pshemakho Kotsev and Sheikh Akushinskii called for a fight against the White or Volunteer Army of Denikin and in September 1919 the Emirate of the North Caucasus was proclaimed, comprising the North of Daghestan, Chechnya and part of Ingushetia. To secularist nationalists the Emirate was seen as the successor of the Mountain Republic.
9. L'Europe orientale (Paris. 1919), N2
10. Charlotte, Hille (2010). State Building and Conflict Resolution in the Caucasus. Brill. p. 56. ISBN 9789004179011. In August 1920 however, the Bolshevik army attacked Chechnya from the north, and the leaders of the emirate called for a jihad, asking the grandson of Imam Shamil, Sait Shamil, to lead the fight. He was one of the two survivors of this fight and later fled to Turkey.
11. Charlotte, Hille (2010). State Building and Conflict Resolution in the Caucasus. Brill. p. 57. ISBN 9789004179011. It took the Russians until 1925 to arrest and kill Gotsinskii. The uprising was inter alia successful because the Caucasians obeyed the requests of the Sufi clerics who organized the revolt. In April 1921 a Mountain ASSR, of which Chechen territory was part, was established within the RSFSR. On 20 January 1921 the Daghestan ASSR was declared. On 30 November 1922 a Chechen Autonomous Oblast was created.
12. Петр Михайлович Шаститко (2002). Обречённые догмы: большевизм и национальный вопрос. М.: Восточная литература. p. 44. ISBN 9785020183056.
13. Камалудин Гаджиев (2013). Кавказский узел в геополитических приоритетах России. Litres. ISBN 9785457145672.
14. М. Вачагаев: Союз горцев Северного Кавказа и Горская республика, 2018
15. Gülseven, Aslı (2021-03-30). "Büyük Güçler Yarişi Bağlaminda Başariya Ulaşmamiş Bi̇r Bağimsizlik Hareketi̇: Kuzey Kafkasya Bağimsizlik Mücadelesi̇ (1917–1920)". Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli Üniversitesi SBE Dergisi. 11 (1): 245–259. doi:10.30783/nevsosbilen.873522. ISSN 2149-3871. S2CID 233912811.
16. Berzeg, Sefer E. (Mart 2003). Kuzey Kafkasya Cumhuriyeti 1917–1922, Kafkasya Dağlıları Birliği’nin Kuruluşu (I. Cilt). İstanbul : Birleşik Kafkasya Derneği.
17. Doukaev 2023.
18. "Гайдаров Ибрагим-бек Исаббекович". www.hrono.ru. Retrieved 2021-02-03.
19. "Газават.ру :: Личности2".
20. "Ценный документ".
21. "Подвигами предков соткана наша история". Ёлдаш (in Russian). November 2019. Retrieved 2021-03-19.
22. Михаил Булгаков. Фотолетопись жизни и творчества / Юрий Кривоносов. — М. : Вече, 2017. — 480 с.

Bibliography

• "Caucasian Republic Mission to the Peace Conference Appeal for Help", The Morning Post, London, Friday 4 April 1919.
• J. "Obedinennyi Kavkaz" ("Vereinigtes Kaukasien"), 1–3 (30–32), München, 1954. (in Russian)
• Baddeley, J. F., 1908, The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus, Longmans, Green, and Co., London
• Madeleine Henrey, Madeleine Grown Up, J. M. Dent & Sons, London, 1954.
• Kathleen R. Jackson, Marat Fidarov, Essays on the History of the North Caucasus, HHN Media, New York, 2009.
• Marshall, Alex (2010), The Caucasus Under Soviet Rule, New York City: Routledge
• Saparov, Arsène (2015), From Conflict to Autonomy in the Caucasus: The Soviet Union and the making of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno Karabakh, New York City: Routledge
• Storozhenko (ed.), Ingushetia and Chechen Republic Map, Northern Caucasian Aerogeodesic Company of Roskartografia, Russia, 1995.
• Levan Z. Urushadze, "About the history of the question of unity of the Caucasian Peoples". J. "Amirani", XIII, Montreal‐Tbilisi, 2005, pp. 72–87.
• «Союз горцев Северного Кавказа и Горская республика. История несостоявшегося государства. 1917–1920», М.М. Вачагаев, 2018
• Doukaev, Aslan (December 2023). "Resurgent Dreams of Independence in the North Caucasus". Eurasia Daily Monitor. 20 (188). Jamestown Foundation.