Russian classical literature of the 19th century and Kumyks: Images and prototypes

Abstract

In the literature on the issue, the ethnikon Dagestan is traditionally used, which is interpreted as an ethnonym identified with the highlanders of Dagestan. However, the languages of the latter were called Dagestanian only beginning with the second half of the twentieth century. This calls into question the historical subjectivity of the Kumyks who were traditionally called “Dagestan Tatars” as far back as in the 19th century. That is what they are called, along with the Dagestan highlanders-Lezgins, in the “Notes from the House of the Dead” by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Kumyks, under the name of “Tatars”, are also mentioned later - in Leo Tolstoy’s story “The Prisoner of the Caucasus”. A very significant fact is not only the images of the Kumyks in Russian fiction of the time under consideration, but also their historical prototypes’ fame, established by K. Aliyev. These works of fiction include A. Pushkin’s sketches and the plan of the “Romance on the Caucasian Waters” (1831), published in 1881, whose plot was connected with Shah-Vali, the son of Shamkhal of Tarkovsky Mehdi II. Crimea-shamkhal Ummalat-bek Buynaksky, an associate of the first Imam Gazi-Muhammad, was the prototype of the protagonist in A. BestuzhevMarlinsky’s story “Ammalat-Bek”. Bela is also considered to be a Kumychka who, together with her brother Azamat, belongs to the central images of M. Lermontov’s story of the same name. K. Aliyev found the Kumyk prototypes of some participants in the battle, to which M. Lermontov dedicated his poem “Valerik” (1842). We also draw attention to the Kumyk prototype of Colonel Khasanov, one of the characters in Leo Tolstoy’s story “The Raid. A Volunteer’s Story”.