Geographically, the term North Caucasus also refers to the northern slope and western extremity of theGreater Caucasus mountain range, as well as a part of its southern slope to the West. ThePontic–Caspian steppe area is often also encompassed under the notion of a Ciscaucasus region, thus the northern boundary of the Forecaucasus steppe or Nogai steppe is generally considered to be theManych River. Owing to its mild climate compared to much of Russia, the region has been described as Russia's "sunbelt".[4]
Northern Caucasus, Early Bronze Age artifacts, 3rd millennium BCE.
Ancient cultures of the Northern Caucasus are known asKlin-Yar community, with one of the most notable cultures being the ancientKoban culture.[5]
Ciscaucasus was historically covered by thePontic–Caspian steppe, mostly on fertile calcareouschernozyom soils, which has been almost completely tilled and grazed. It is bounded by theSea of Azov on the west, and the Caspian Sea on the east. According to theConcise Atlas of the World, Second Edition (2008), the Ciscaucasus region lies on the European side of the "commonly-accepted division" that separates Europe from Asia.[d]
TheRussian Empire completed the conquest of the North Caucasus by 1864. Between the 1850s and World War I, about a million North Caucasian Muslims, includingCircassians,Chechens, Ingush, Ossetians, and others, became refugees in theOttoman Empire.[6] The Ottoman government settled North Caucasian refugees in territories of modern-day Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, Georgia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Kosovo, Greece, Cyprus, and North Macedonia, creating a large North Caucasian diaspora.[7]
Much of the Northern Caucasus seceded from Russia in March 1917 as theMountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus, taking advantage of the instability caused by theFebruary Revolution and becoming a minor participant in theRussian Civil War. Mountainous Republic troops engaged in fierce clashes against the invadingWhite GeneralAnton Denikin'sVolunteer Army, before the latter's defeat at the hands of theRed Army. The region was informally occupied by theSoviet Union shortly afterwards, and the republic was forced into accepting a nonviolent annexation in January 1921. It was reformed into theMountainous ASSR, which was later dissolved in October 1924, replaced by a series of autonomous Okrugs and Oblasts.
The outer border of the Soviet Union's North Caucasus Krai was the same as that of present-day North Caucasus Economic Region (Raion) which includes an oblast (Rostov Oblast), two krais (Krasnodar Krai andStavropol Krai), and seven republics. The former North Caucasus Military District (Okrug) also includedAstrakhan Oblast,Volgograd Oblast, and theRepublic of Kalmykia. Its administrative center was Rostov-on-Don until 10 January 1934, Pyatigorsk until January 1936, then Ordzhonikidze (today Vladikavkaz) and, from 15 December 1936, Voroshilovsk (today Stavropol).
The North Caucasus region experienced widespread unrest and insurgency after the fall of the Soviet Union, including a low-level armed conflict betweenRussia and militants associated with theCaucasus Emirate and, from June 2015, theIslamic State.[8][9][10]
While the insurgency was officially declared over on 19 December 2017 whenFSB DirectorAlexander Bortnikov announced the final elimination of the insurgent underground in the North Caucasus,[11] counter-terrorism operations in the North Caucasus have not ended.[12]
In June 2022, theUS State Department advised citizens not to travel to the North Caucasus, includingChechnya andMount Elbrus, due to terrorism, kidnapping and risk of civil unrest.[13]
The North Caucasus is considered part ofperipheral Russia, and suffers from very low levels of economic development.[14] The United States'National Intelligence Council in 2004 described the region as being dominated by corruption, weapons smuggling, and lagging economies.[15] The main source of employment in the North Caucasus is the black market,[16] and organized crime is powerful in local business and politics.[17]
The Russian government has primarily focused on increasing the tourism sector in encouraging development in the North Caucasus. This strategy has proven unsuccessful, with only two percent of the region's economy coming from tourism revenues. Primary reasons that people do not travel to the North Caucasus include poor infrastructure in the region, frequent instability and violence, and the poor image of the Caucasus in the Russian public consciousness.[18]
The North Caucasus is extremely ethnically and linguistically diverse, which has been a historic driver of conflict in the region. Luxembourgish politicianAnne Brasseur wrote in 2004 that "There is no other region in Russia or Eurasia in general in which so many peoples and ethnic groups with their various languages and cultures live together in such a small area."[24] The local population predominantly followsSunni Islam,[25] with the exception of theOssetians andAbkhazians.[24] The western half of the North Caucasus (comprising the republics of Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, and North Ossetia) also has extant traditions of paganism, which have become closely connected to Islam. In contrast, the eastern portion of the North Caucasus (including Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia) is dominated bySufism.[26]
Conflicts between Islamic ethnic groups are also frequent, with battles for control over religious and political institutions often overlapping. As an example, the takeover of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Dagestan (now theMuftiate of the Republic of Dagestan [ru]) by Sufitariqa sheikhs, who were predominantly ethnicAvars, led to a conflict over the board's leadership, involving religious, ethnic, and political differences.[25]
^Russian:Предкавказье,romanized: Predkavkazye; Also translated asCiscaucasus orForecaucasus
^abThe northern part of the Caucasus is widely considered to be a part of the European continent, as it sits north theGreater Caucasus watershed.[1][2]
^The North Caucasus also shares borders with the twopartially recognized breakaway states ofSouth Ossetia andAbkhazia to its south, both of which are internationally recognised as part of Georgia.
^18th-century definitions drew the boundary north of the Caucasus, across theKuma–Manych Depression. This definition remained in use in the Soviet Union during the 20th century.In western literature, the continental boundary has been drawn along the Caucasus watershed since at least the mid-19th century.See e.g. Baron von Haxthausen, "Transcaucasia" (1854); reviewDublin university magazineDouglas W. Freshfield, "Journey in the Caucasus", Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, Volumes 13–14, 1869.
^"Europe".Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved6 June 2024.Among the alternative boundaries proposed by geographers that have gained wide acceptance is a scheme that sees the crest of the Greater Caucasus range as the dividing line between Europe and Asia, placing Ciscaucasia, the northern part of the Caucasus region, in Europe and Transcaucasia, the southern part, in Asia.
^"El'brus".National Geographic. Retrieved6 June 2024.Mount El'brus is located in southwest Russia and is part of the Caucasus Mountains. It is the highest point in Russia as well as the highest point in all of Europe. It makes up part of thePrielbrusye National Park.
^abHill, Fiona; Gaddy, Clifford (2003).The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. p. 121.ISBN978-0-8157-9618-3.The North Caucasus region extends across Rostov oblast and Stavropol and Krasnodar krays. It also encompasses the seven autonomous republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetiya, North Ossetiya, Kabardino-Balkariya, Karachayevo-Cherkessiya, and Adygeya. The region accounts for about 2 percent of the territory of the Russian Federation and in 1989 had a population of 13,183,860, or about 8 percent of the Russian population. The North Caucasus could qualify as Russia's 'sunbelt.'
^"Six Russian soldiers killed in Chechnya".BBC News. 24 March 2017.Archived from the original on 16 June 2018. Retrieved3 October 2017.Russian troops in Chechnya have faced a low level insurgency for years ... They still face a low-level insurgency in the mainly Muslim region in Russia's volatile North Caucasus area.
^ab"Russia's North Caucasus Insurgency Widens as ISIS' Foothold Grows".www.worldpoliticsreview.com. 12 April 2016.Archived from the original on 3 October 2017. Retrieved3 October 2017.Russia's North Caucasus insurgency has gone relatively quiet, but reduced casualty numbers belie a still-worrying situation where long-standing grievances remain.
