Problems of Integration of Karachay into Russia: the August Uprising of 1855

Abstract

The article discusses issues related to the problem of the occurrence of the peoples of the Northwest Caucasus in the Russian state in the 19th century. In the centre of this study — the Karachay Principality and its military-political cooperation with Russia, the theocratic state formations of the Caucasus Islamists and the Ottoman Empire primarily in the 1850s. The focus of this article is paid to the causes and consequences of anti-Russian uprisings in Karachay in August 1855. Examines religious (thestrengthening of Islam in the Karachay society and its potential for integration in relations between highlanders) and ethnic (attempts at building different ethnic groups of the joint political and military strategy) aspects of the incident; analyzes the destabilizing role of foreign factors in the events. The paper examines the policy of Shamil's Naib to the Kuban Muhammad-Amin against the Karachay, highlights the reasons for his persistent attempts to involve people in Karachay on its side and include it in the composition of its public education. The authors dwell in detail on the description of attempts of military-political rapprochement Muhammad-Amin with the Karachai people, their political, economic, ideological contacts in the period preceding military conflicts, anti-Russian rhetoric in 1855. The article notes that the revolt in Karachay in 1855 were not of a local character, and was closely connected with religious-political movements in North Caucasus in the period under review and attempt the practice established in the end of eighteenth century ideas on the creation of a single theocratic state in the region.