From a “false prophet” to an Italian monk: Sheikh Mansur in Russian historiography of the 19<sup>th</sup> – early 20<sup>th</sup> century

Abstract

The article deals with the historiography of the 18 th century (the last quarter) anti-Russian movement in the North Caucasus. The author analyzes the research methods and twritten sources, historians used to form their conclusions. In the study of the Sheikh Mansour activities, one has four basic chronological periods which reveal predominant attention to a certain group of historical sources. First, come the contemporary memoirs about Sheikh Mansur. The next group form the results obtained by the Russian military who sought to achieve various practical goals. The historians of the Imperial period were interested in the details and chronology of the uprising. Separately the author of the article treats the hitherto unknown archival records and data.