TO THE STUDY OF ETHNO-CULTURAL SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE INTERFLUVE OF AKSAY AND AKTASH (NORTH DAGESTAN) IN THE I–II MILLENNIA AD

Abstract

This article provides a brief historical background of the Novolaksky district and the adjacent western part of the Kazbekovsky district from the beginning of AD and until the last years. The relevance of this kind of research is primarily due to the increased public interest in this issue. Archaeological data and information from medieval historical sources indicate that until the end of the XIV century. The central settlement of this microregion was the large Avarian city of Almak. At the very end of the XIV century. The famous conqueror Timur Barlas devastated this territory during several campaigns. As a result, the population was partially exterminated, and partly hid in the Mountain Avaria. In the XV-XVII centuries there was a gradual return of this population to their former places of residence. In 1763, the resettlement of the population from Ingushetia and western Chechnya began in this microregion. It was carried out in the framework of the settlement of the lands of the Endirean princes by the tax-paying population in the territory formerly occupied by the Avar farms. In the XIX - early XX centuries Chechens settled here en masse. At the very end of 1943, a decision was made to establish the Aukhovsky district, but this process was interrupted by the deportation of Akkintsy and Chechens to Central Asia at the end of February 1944. As a result, the region that only existed, but not actually less than half a year, was liquidated. In the most part of its territory in 1944 the Novolaksky district was created. In the late 1950s. Chechens and Akkins returned to the territory of Dagestan. At the turn of the 1980s-90s interethnic relations in the area have deteriorated. The situation escalated in the 1990s after the decision was made to restore the Aukhovsky district, which was taken without taking into account the opinion of a significant part of the population. This uncertainty persists to this day, since no final decision has been made on the status of this territory.