AT THE CROSSROADS OF MEMORIES: STATE, REGIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE RUSSIAN-CAUCASIAN WAR AMONG CIRCASSIANS  IN ADYGEA

Valeriya Minakova

doi:10.23858/ethp.2024.45.3725

Published: 2024-12-17

Vol. 45 (2024)

AT THE CROSSROADS OF MEMORIES

Valeriya Minakova

Ethnologia Polona

Section: Main topic of the issue

https://doi.org/10.23858/ethp.2024.45.3725

Abstract

The traumatic experience of war has played a pivotal role in the history of the Circassians, an Indigenous people of the North Caucasus who suffered enormous population loss and displacement due to the Russian Empire’s conquest in the nineteenth century. Despite this historical trauma, not all members of the Circassian community oppose modern Russian military expansion in Ukraine driven by colonial ambition. To understand why this is the case, the article examines the contestation between the state memory regimes that have been silencing the memory of the Russian-Caucasian War (1763–1864) and the counter-memory of the Circassians who preserve the memory of its atrocities. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, it shows how Circassian authorities and individuals adapt to the current regime, which discourages ruminations on the significance of the Russian-Caucasian War while elevating the memory of the Second World War and emphasising the importance of interethnic unity. The paper argues that by establishing and sustaining a hierarchy of memories and identities, the Russian state cultivates loyalty and patriotism among its ethnic minorities, who are compelled to prioritise their identity as Russian citizens over their ethnic affiliations and grievances.

Keywords:

Circassians, Russian-Caucasian War, memory, Russia, North Caucasus

Download files

PDF

Citation rules

Minakova, V. (2024). AT THE CROSSROADS OF MEMORIES: STATE, REGIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE RUSSIAN-CAUCASIAN WAR AMONG CIRCASSIANS IN ADYGEA. Ethnologia Polona, 45, 43–64. https://doi.org/10.23858/ethp.2024.45.3725

Cited by / Share

Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

References

Adamov, E., and Kutakov, L. 1950. “Iz Istorii Proiskov Inostrannoy Agentury vo Vremia Kavkazskikh Voin” [“From the History of the Intrigues of Foreign Agents at the Time of the Caucasian Wars”]. Accessed July 15, 2024. https://www.vostlit.info/Texts/Dokumenty/Kavkaz/XIX/1820-1840/Agentura/text.htm.
Google Scholar

Bernhard, Michael, and Jan Kubik. 2014. Twenty Years after Communism: The Politics of Memory and Commemoration. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199375134.001.0001
Google Scholar

Caffi, Claudia. 2005. “Pragmatics of Mitigation: Bushes, Hedges and Shields.” In Mitigation, by Claudia Caffi, 91–120. Leiden: BRILL. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9780080466224_006
Google Scholar

Catic, Maja. 2015. “Circassians and the Politics of Genocide Recognition.” Europe-Asia Studies 67 (10): 1685–1708. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2015.1102202
Google Scholar

Clark, Herbert H., and Richard J. Gerrig. 1984. “On the Pretense Theory of Irony.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 113 (1): 121–126. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037//0096-3445.113.1.121
Google Scholar

Coalson, Robert. 2023. “Coming Apart at the Seams? For Russia’s Ethnic Minorities, Ukraine War is a Chance to Press for Independence from Moscow.” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, January 5. Accessed May 1, 2023. https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ethnic-minorities-independence-ukraine-war/32210542.html.
Google Scholar

Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of December 19, 2012 No. 1666. “On the Strategy of the State National Policy of the Russian Federation until 2025.” Moscow: The Kremlin.
Google Scholar

Dixon, Jennifer M. 2018. Dark Pasts: Changing the State’s Story in Turkey and Japan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501730245.001.0001
Google Scholar

Fairclough, Norman. 2003. Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London and New York: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203697078
Google Scholar

Foxall, Andrew. 2013. “A Contested Landscape: Monuments, Public Memory, and Post-Soviet Identity in Stavropol’, Russia.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 46: 167–178. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.postcomstud.2012.12.012
Google Scholar

GTRK Adygeia. 2022. “Bukva ‘Z’ nad Ploshchad’iu Druzby Maikopa” [“The Letter ‘Z’ above the Friendship Square in Maykop”]. Vesti Adygeia. Accessed July 16, 2024. https://www.instagram.com/p/Carr8SsDV7n/.
Google Scholar

@gtrkadygeia. 2021. “Proshel Miting-Rekviem, gde Pochtili Pamiat’ Zhertv Kavkazskoi Voiny XIX Veka” [A Memorial Meeting was Held to Honour the Memory of the Victims of the Caucasian War of the XIX Century]. Instagram, May 21. Accessed July 16, 2024. https://www.instagram.com/tv/CPJJ36-H6Of/.
Google Scholar

Hansen, Funch. 2019. “Renewed Circassian Mobilization in the North Caucasus 20-years after the Fall of the Soviet Union.” Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe 11 (2): 103–135.
Google Scholar

Holquist, Peter. 2001. “To Count, to Extract, to Exterminate: Population Statistics and Population Politics in Late Imperial and Soviet Russia.” In A State of Nations: Empire and Nation-Making in the Age of Lenin and Stalin, edited by Terry Martin and Ronald Grigor Suny, 111–144. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195144222.003.0005
Google Scholar

Karcha, Ramazan. 1958. “The Status of Popular Education in the Northern Caucasus.” Caucasian Review 7: 110–124.
Google Scholar

Khanakhu, Ruslan, and Tsvetkov, Oleg. 2015. “Kavkazkaiia Voina: Rekonstruktsii i Otsenki v Etnocheskom Soznanii” [“The Caucasian War: Reconstructions and Assessments in Ethnic Consciousness”]. In Kavkazskaiia Voina: Simvoly, Obrazy, Stereotipy [The Caucasian War: Symbols, Images, Stereotypes], edited by I.I. Gorlova, T.V. Kovalenko, N.A. Kostina, and A.V. Kriukov, 248–254. Krasnodar: Ekoinvest.
Google Scholar

King, Charles. 2007. “Imagining Circassia: David Urquhart and the Making of North Caucasus Nationalism.” The Russian Review 66 (2): 238–255. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9434.2007.00440.x
Google Scholar

Kumpilov, Murat. 2021. “A post commemorating the anniversary of the end of the Russian-Caucasian War.” Instagram, May 21. Accessed July 16, 2024. https://www.instagram.com/p/CPH142PLH32/.
Google Scholar

Kumykov, Tugan. 1994. Vyselenie Adygov v Turtsiiu—Posledstvie Kavkazskoi Voĭny [The Deportation of the Circassian to Turkey—A Consequence of the Caucasian War]. Nalchik: Elbrus.
Google Scholar

Malewska-Szałygin, Anna. 2023. “Self-Silencing Strategies in Casual Conversations about Politics in Rural Poland.” Ethnologia Polona 42: 49–63. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23858/ethp.2021.42.2677
Google Scholar

Martin, Terry. 2001. The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939. Cornell University Press.
Google Scholar

McGlynn, Jade. 2023. Memory Makers: The Politics of the Past in Putin’s Russia. London: Bloomsbury Academic. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350280793
Google Scholar

Minakova, Valeriya. 2023. “‘And if My Language Disappears Tomorrow...’: Language Ideologies and Language Maintenance Practices of the Circassians (Adyghes) in Russia.” PhD dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, State College.
Google Scholar

Perovic, Jeronim. 2018. From Conquest to Deportation: The North Caucasus under Russian Rule. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190889890.001.0001
Google Scholar

Petersson, Bo, and Karina Vamling. 2017. “Fifteen Minutes of Fame Long Gone: Circassian Activism before and after the Sochi Olympics.” Sport in Society 20 (4): 505–517. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2015.1100887
Google Scholar

Polovinkina, Tamara. 2001. Cherkesiia - Bol’ Moiia [Circassia is My Pain]. Maikop: GURIPP Adygeia.
Google Scholar

Richmond, Walter. 2013. The Circassian Genocide. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Google Scholar

Schrauf, Robert. 2016. Mixed Methods: Interviews, Surveys, and Cross-Cultural Comparisons. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316544914
Google Scholar

Selting, Margret. 1994. “Emphatic Speech Style – with Special Focus on the Prosodic Signalling of Heightened Emotive Involvement in Conversation.” Journal of Pragmatics 22: 375–408. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(94)90116-3
Google Scholar

Shnilerman, Victor. 2006. “A Revolt of Social Memory: The Chechens and Ingush against the Soviet Historians.” In Reconstruction and Interaction of Slavic Eurasia and Its Neighboring Worlds, edited by Ieda Osamu and Uyama Tomohiko, 273–307. Sapporo: Hokkaido University.
Google Scholar

Smertin, Anton. 2014. “Putin: Adygi Proiavili Mudrost’ v Period Podgotovki k Olimpiade” [“Putin: The Circassians Showed Wisdom During the Preparation for the Olympics”]. Yuga.ru, February 11. Accessed June 1, 2023. https://www.yuga.ru/news/322174/.
Google Scholar

Urushadze, Amiran. 2018. “Pomnit’-Nel’zia-Zabyt’: Kavkazkaia Voina v Istoricheskoi Pamiati Adygov i Rossiskom Prostranstve Kommemoratsii” [“Remember-Cannot-Forget: The Caucasian War in the Historical Memory of the Circassians and the Russian Commemorative Space”]. Politicheskaia Nauka 3: 106–128.
Google Scholar

Vähä, Eliisa. 2002. “Producing Patriots: Heroic Stories and Individual Heroes as the Makers of the Soviet and Russian Identity in History.” Ab Imperio 3: 545–559. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/imp.2002.0012
Google Scholar

Walker, Shaun. 2018. The Long Hangover: Putin’s New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

Yeltsin, Boris. 1994. “Obrashchenie Prezidenta Rossiiskoi Federatsii k Narodam Severnogo Kavkaza” [“Address of the President of the Russian Federation to the Peoples of the North Caucasus”]. Distributed by the press service of the President of the Russian Federation on May 18. Kommersant, October 21, 2012. Accessed May 1, 2023. https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/1978317.
Google Scholar

Zerubavel, Yael. 1995. Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar

Zhemukhov, Sufian. 2012. “The Birth of Modern Circassian Nationalism.” Nationalities Papers 40 (4): 503–524. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2012.674019
Google Scholar