Сведения о Кавказе в сочинении «Краткое изображение лежащих между Черным и Каспийским морями земель и народов»

Abstract

In the second half of the 18th century, Russian printed sources remained the most vivid and comprehensible form of «necessity» for the study of the territory, peoples and neigh-bouring countries of the Russian Empire. For the study of the ethno-political picture of the Caucasus in the 18th century they are the key. As a rule, these sources are based on confessional considerations and represent the population of the Caucasus as Christians or Muslims. It is often difficult to determine which ethnicity is being referred to. An exception is the work of Y. Я. This work is of a particular interest because it contains informa-tion about the Caucasus and its inhabitants, as well as a general description of the ethno-political history of the Caucasian region. The content of the historical material is the basis for the scientific study of relations between rulers of administrative and political units of Georgia, Dagestan and Eastern Transcaucasia. At the same time there is a lot of information in the source about political influence of Iran and Ottoman Empire on the situation in the region. These data allow us to reconstruct some episodes of military and political history of the Black Sea-Caspian region in the second half of the 18th century.