Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Participants of the rally in Cherkessk laid flowers at the monument to the victims of the Caucasian War. Actions on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance of the Circassians were also held in other regions of Karachay-Cherkessia.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that May 21, the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Caucasian War, is officially declared non-working in Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, where the Circassians are the titular nation. This year, the authorities of Kabardino-Balkaria banned events on May 20 and 21 in memory of the victims of the Caucasian War, threatening to be held liable for violating the ban, Aslan Beshto, chairman of the "Coordinating Council of Adyghe Public Associations," said.
Adygs (Circassians) - the common name of a single people in Russia and abroad, divided into Kabardians, Circassians, Adyghes. May 21 is annually celebrated as the Day of Remembrance of the Circassians, according to the information of the "Caucasian Knot."
Today, a rally in memory of the victims of the Caucasian war took place in Cherkessk, said the head of Karachay-Cherkessia, Rashid Temrezov. "Dua and prayers were performed in memory of the dead," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
The rally participants honored the memory of the victims of the Caucasian War with a minute of silence and laid flowers at the monument to the victims, the publication notes.
The prime minister of the republic, Murat Argunov, spoke at the rally.
"The war, which lasted almost half a century, became one of the most tragic events that affected the fate of the Circassians, Abazins, Nogais, Russians, Cossacks, and many other mountain peoples. In the 19th century, the Caucasian peoples were drawn into a long war. […] As a result of the tragic consequences During the war, many indigenous peoples were forced to leave their small homeland. The millstones of the events of the Caucasian War ground hundreds of thousands of human lives," a fragment of his speech is cited in a publication on the website of the parliament of the republic.
The vice-president of the International Circassian Association, the chairman of the public movement "Adyghe Khase - the Circassian Parliament for the protection of the rights and interests of the Circassian people," the chairman of the council of the public movement "Abaza" and others spoke at the rally.
"The public were unanimous in their opinion that despite the heavy losses of the Caucasian peoples in this war, they all retained their identity," the publication says.
The participants laid fresh flowers at the monument to the victims of the Caucasian War. Rallies were also held in the regions of Karachay-Cherkessia, the press service of the parliament reported.
The Caucasian War, which lasted from 1763 to 1864, brought the Adyghe peoples to the brink of extinction. After the war and the mass deportation of the Circassians to the Ottoman Empire, a little over 50 thousand people remained in their homeland. The Russian authorities have not yet made a decision to recognize the genocide of the Circassians during the war.
Recall that in 2022, a procession, a rally, a theatrical performance were planned in Karachay-Cherkessia on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance of the Adyghes. In Adygea, the procession was abandoned, but they left the requiem and the rally. In the Krasnodar Territory, they refused to hold a rally, but decided to hold a procession from the monument to the victims of the war to the Tulip Tree and a prayer service.
The authorities of Kabardino-Balkaria in 2022, as well as this year, refused the initiative group to hold a funeral procession in memory of the victims of the Caucasian War. Despite the ban, on May 21, 2022, a mourning rally was held near the Tree of Life monument, and several dozen young people organized a procession in memory of the victims of the war through the streets of Nalchik. Police officers drew up a report on the violation of public order against the rider who took part in the procession. The situation during the procession was nervous , and the skirmish between the police and the riders heated it up even more, eyewitnesses said.
The refusal of the authorities of Kabardino-Balkaria to coordinate the funeral procession testifies to the desire to destroy the historical memory of the Circassians, their national self-identification, Circassian activist Adam Bogus told the "Caucasian Knot" in 2022. The procession was held for many years without excesses , said then the president of the public organization "KhaBze" Martin Kochesoko.
"We assume that the ban on the march in honor of May 21 is an initiative of quite specific and specific officials who seek to curry favor with the Moscow authorities and curators from the special services [...] We believe that such behavior is irresponsible and hostile to the people," stated in 2022 by Martin Kochesoko.
Also from Kavlaz Uzel, some background information in the Russian War against the Circassians:
End notes can be found at the link in the title, in Russian
Parade in Krasnaya Polyana. How Russia broke the resistance of the Circassians
On May 21, 1864, according to the old style (June 2, according to the new one), in the mountain village of Kbaada (now Krasnaya Polyana), a solemn prayer service and a parade of Russian troops took place in honor of the victory over the mountain peoples. For the tsarist government, this day officially marked the end of the bloody Caucasian war that had dragged on for more than a century and the establishment of Russia's complete dominion in the Caucasus. For the Adyghe-Abkhazian peoples who inhabited the Western Caucasus, May 21 became a day of memory and sorrow, marking the date of the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of highlanders from their native land, forced deportation to Turkey, death, and sometimes the complete disappearance of entire peoples.
CONQUEST OF THE WESTERN CAUCASUS
The theater of operations shifted from the Eastern Caucasus to the Western after the suppression of the movement of Imam Shamil in 1859. Having coped with the center of resistance in Dagestan and Chechnya, the tsarist government, having significant military forces at its disposal, continued the offensive against the Circassians - the Adyghe-Abkhaz peoples who lived on the slopes of the Main Caucasian Range. Here, the Russian generals even more consistently pursued the very infamous policy of General Yermolov , who punished the recalcitrant highlanders - "predators and robbers" with "fire and sword." (1)
The ideological organizers and conductors of the military colonization plan adopted by Alexander II were the Caucasian governor, Prince Alexander Baryatinsky, and General Nikolai Evdokimov, appointed in 1860 as commander of the troops on the Western Front. (2)
General Evdokimov relied both on regular army units and on detachments of the Kuban Cossack army, which, instead of carrying out punitive expeditions recognized as useless, (3) were engaged in laying roads, cutting down clearings, building defensive lines and building fortresses, establishing Cossack villages in the occupied territories to consolidate the Russian presence .(4) In this way, they gradually forced the highlanders out of their native places, forcing them either to move to the plains, or to leave permanently for Turkey. (5)
"The native population, pressed from all sides, rushed into the hard-to-reach gorges of the mountains, but they could not hold out there either. The war went on with inexorable severity. Circassian auls were burned out by the hundreds. [plain] under the control of our bailiffs, while the recalcitrant went to the seashore for resettlement in Turkey, "- this is how the well-known Russian historian and Caucasian historian Yevgeny Felitsyn described this time. (6)
During the period 1860-1864, Russian troops plundered and burned at least 350 auls in its western regions and at least 150 auls in the central regions of Circassia. (7)
An aul is a fortified village.
The following reminiscences of the participants of these expeditions are typical: “Before several huts from grenades and rockets flared up, the Cossacks were already behind the palisade and the massacre began. Frightened by the surprise of the attack, and, moreover, awake, the highlanders rushed about like mad, however, soon coming to their senses, fought and fought back desperately. At one o'clock everything was already over for the aul and its inhabitants." (8)
Historian Naima Neflyasheva writes: “For the Circassians, the tragedy of 1864 was the beginning of a demographic and cultural catastrophe, the number of the Circassian population in their historical homeland after the end of the Caucasian War amounted to 5-6%. life was in full swing, only toponyms speak - Dzhubga, Psezuapse, Shahe, Dzhankoy, Anapa and ... hundreds of others." (9)
In September 1861, Alexander II arrived in the Western Caucasus, to whom a delegation of Circassian elders turned, asking them to stop seizing the places where their fathers and grandfathers were born and lived. In response to their appeal, the emperor declared: "I give a month's time - they must decide: do they want to move to the Kuban ... or let them move to Turkey." (10)
In May 1862, a regulation was adopted on the settlement of the foothills of the western part of the Caucasus Range by Kuban Cossacks and other settlers from Russia. (11) By the end of 1863, almost all the Circassian peoples declared their obedience, but most of them nevertheless decided to move to Turkey.
As Kravtsov, Chief of Staff of the Caucasian Army, wrote in 1864, “not a single mountaineer remained on the northern slope of the western part of the Caucasus Mountains.
PARADE IN QBAADA
On May 19, 1864, at the Abkhaz Dzhiget village of the medozyuev Kbaada, (Gubaadvy; modern Krasnaya Polyana ) (13) in the upper reaches of the Mzymta River, three detachments of Russian troops met without encountering any resistance from the highlanders: the Malolabinsk detachment of Major General Pavel Khristoforovich Grabbe, Pskhuvsky detachment of Major General Pavel Nikolayevich Shatilov, Dakhovsky detachment of Major General Vasily Aleksandrovich Geiman. The next day, they were joined by the Akhchipskhuv detachment under the command of Lieutenant General Dmitry Ivanovich Svyatopolk-Mirsky.
We know about the circumstances of this event only from the recollections of direct participants - officers of the Russian army, Circassian evidence, if any, has not survived to our time.
By decision of the new Caucasian viceroy, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich, it was decided in Kbaada to hold a solemn prayer service and a parade of Russian troops, which marked the end of the Caucasian War.
Here is how the captain, and later General Sergei Mikhailovich Dukhovskoy (14), spoke about these events:
On May 20, in the morning, three detachments that had gathered the day before at the Kbaada tract moved to new places; they pitched their camps in such a way as to leave a spacious place in the middle for prayer and for the headquarters of the commander in chief of the army. By the evening of that day, the fourth, Akhchipskhuv detachment arrived, and, in front of it, His Imperial Highness with his retinue. Immediately upon arrival. The Grand Duke traveled around the troops of the Dakhov, Malo-Labin and Pshuv detachments.
The next day, on May 21, the remote Kbaada tract was full of life from the full morning. The troops were cleaning and dressing, preparing for the parade; adjutants and officers scurried here and there for orders: long before the appointed time, non-commissioned officers of the line converged from everywhere to the place of prayer: the day before they were indicated places, and they were afraid that they would somehow get lost. At that time, the troops, especially the Kuban region, reviews and outfits were a great curiosity.In the campaign and in business, they saw themselves at home, but here they crowded, did not know how and what to take on.
The sky was gloomy: thick gray clouds incessantly covered the snowy peaks of the huge ridges, which, like a screen, surrounded the hollow of the tract from all sides; as if it was hard for these mountains to look at the army that defeated them. From time to time a large, then a fine rain fell; only towards the end of the celebration the sun appeared, and the weather cleared up .
At eleven o'clock the battalions set off. The troops of the Dakhov detachment occupied the western face of a large square. In clean, tidy uniforms, with snow-white covers on their hats, with loose banners, they looked beautiful and slender. Northern front square; occupied the Malo-Labinsky detachment, the eastern one - Pskhuvsky, the southern one - Akhchipskhuvsky. The lectern is placed in the middle, on a high mound.
The church parade began. They struck, as usual, for prayer and the banners came forward. The battalions, hundreds of Cossacks, squads of Georgians and Mingrelians, and everything that was around, bared their heads: only in some places the teams of the native militia and the curious Dzhigets and Akhchipskhuvtsy who came to look remained in their high hats.
Several priests in robes, near the lectern, fluttering inclined banners, the Grand Duke Commander-in-Chief and five, six generals on the top of the mound, and a large crowd of officers and with them newly awarded Knights of St. George around the dais, and then on all sides slender thick columns with sparkling bayonets and uncovered heads - all this formed a heap, worthy of its appearance remaining immortal, for all eternity. They sang "We praise God to you," and shot after shot rang out in the surrounding mountains;
At the end of the service, the priests sprinkled the ranks of the battalions with holy water; the banners, with the sounds of drums and music, were taken to their places. His Highness toured the troops, thanked everyone for the "difficult and great work" done, and then the ceremonial march began. There is nothing to hide a sin: the eye, accustomed to impeccable guards parades, could stop at a lot here. No matter how much the commanders bothered, the soldiers fussed, tried and, of course, spoiled the matter. Often old, bravest warriors, known for their fearlessness, here they look somehow inquisitively and act timidly, like young ladies.
Equalization, of course, limped in places; it even happened, from excessive zeal, that they were knocked off their feet. But that was not the point. Mountains, gorges and abysses, wherever you look, were all ours, and the highlanders will not come back from a flaw in the parade, will not take back their wild slums. All battalions were awarded a loud grand ducal "thank you!" and for a long time afterwards, some soldiers boasted in front of others: they said to us, they say, "excellent" and added "well done", and you just "nice, guys." At the headquarters of the Dakhov detachment, among other ranks, this time there was an officer of the Prussian service.
- It may be strange for you, after your young and beautiful soldiers, trained to perfection, to look at our unpretentious parade? they asked him.
“On the contrary,” he answered, “I look with a particularly pleasant feeling at this gathering of troops, not ostentatious, not ceremonial. These are warriors, true Caucasian warriors, gathered to celebrate their victory together.
Already in the afternoon, the Dakhov detachment left the Kbaada tract, marching down the Mzymta to the seashore and then heading towards Sochi. The next day, other detachments of the Russian army also left Kbaada.
The parade of the tsarist troops in Kbaada was especially symbolic, since this tract was revered by the Circassians as a sacred place. In the center of a large clearing, where the camp of the Russian troops stood, grew two large sacred firs. (15) One of them can actually be seen in the 1864 photograph. Subsequently, these trees were cut down by the Greeks who settled here in order to "knock them out of them for huts." (16)
Another attraction of Kbaada was considered to be a huge beech tree, on which the Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich carved his initials and the date - "May 21, 1864". In 1911, the author of a guide to these places, Sergei Dorovatovsky, noted: "The inscription is surrounded by a laurel wreath and topped with a crown. This beech has survived to this day, but the Circassian culture has died."
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