To the question of determining the estate status of the Circassian elites of the Kuban region in the context of the Russian reforms of 1860-70s

Abstract

The article examines the results of the work of the commission for the analysis of the estate rights of the Kuban highlanders in the Yekaterinodar and Maykop districts, when it became necessary to determine the official status of the Circassian elites and equate them with the Russian nobility after the implementation of peasant and judicial reforms in the North Caucasus. Understanding the problem by the Russian officials of the Kuban region and the attitude of the Circassian elites themselves to it in the post-reform period always arouses interest among domestic researchers. Knowledge of positive and negative examples from the historical experience of implementing reforms in various ethnic and confessional communities in Russia is always relevant and is of particular importance for the education of future generations of the Russians. The article reveals the activities of the civil authorities of the Kuban region to maintain a calm situation in the Circassian villages and prevent the spread of riots in the Maykop district, provoked at the very beginning of the work of the commission to analyze the class rights of the mountaineers. The author concluded that the civil administration of the Kuban region was against the granting of any privileged rights to the Circassian princes and nobles, suggesting that the privileged estates of the indigenous peoples of the Northwestern Caucasus should be left unchanged, even more both the Circassian princes themselves and the noblemen of the Yekaterinodar and Maykop districts were in no hurry to apply for recognition of their noble origin.