The Caucasus in Russia is perhaps the most distinctive ethno-demographic region. Here is linguistic diversity, and the neighborhood of different religions and peoples, as well as economic structures.
Population of the North Caucasus
According to modern data from demographers, approximately seventeen million people live in the North Caucasus. The composition of the population of the Caucasus is also very diverse. People living in this territory represent a wide variety of peoples, cultures and languages, as well as religions. In Dagestan alone, there are more than forty peoples speaking different languages.
The most common linguistic group represented in Dagestan is Lezgi, which is spoken by about eight hundred thousand people. However, within the group there is a marked difference in the status of languages. For example, about six hundred thousand people speak Lezgi, and only one mountain village speaks Achinsk.
It is worth noting that many peoples living in the territory of Dagestan have a history of many thousands of years, for example, the Udins, who were one of the state-forming peoples of Caucasian Albania. But such a fantastic variety creates significant difficulties in studying the classification of languages and nationalities, and opens up scope for all kinds of speculation.
The population of the Caucasus: peoples and languages
Avars, Dargins, Chechens, Circassians, Digoys and Lezghins have lived side by side for more than a century and have developed a complex system of relations that allows for a long time to remain relatively calm in the region, although conflicts caused by violation of folk customs did occur.
However, a complex system of deterrence and balances came into motion in the middle of the XlX century, when the Russian Empire began to actively invade the territory of the indigenous peoples of the North Caucasus. The expansion was caused by the desire of the empire to enter Transcaucasia and enter the struggle against Persia and the Ottoman Empire.
Of course, in the Christian empire, Muslims, who were the absolute majority in the newly conquered lands, had a hard time. As a result of the war, the population of the North Caucasus alone on the shores of the Black and Azov Sea decreased by almost five hundred thousand.
Soviet period
After the establishment of Soviet power in the Caucasus, the period of active construction of national autonomies began. It was during the USSR that the following republics were allocated from the territory of the RSFSR: Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Dagestan, North Ossetia-Alania. Sometimes Kalmykia is also referred to the North Caucasus region.
However, the interethnic peace did not last long, and already after the Great Patriotic War, the population of the Caucasus underwent new tests, the main of which was the deportation of the population living in Nazi-occupied territories.
As a result of deportations, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, Karachais, Nogais and Balkars were resettled. Residents of the republics were announced that they should immediately leave their homes and recover in another place of residence. The peoples will be resettled in Central Asia, Siberia, and Altai. National autonomies will be liquidated for many years and restored only after the debunking of the personality cult.
After the Tips
In 1991, a special decree was adopted that rehabilitated peoples subjected to repression and deportation only on the basis of origin.
The young Russian state recognized the removal of peoples and deprivation of their statehood as unconstitutional. Under the new law, peoples could restore the integrity of borders at the time preceding their eviction.
Thus, historical justice was restored, but the tests did not end there.
Interethnic Conflicts in the Russian Federation
However, the matter was not limited to a simple restoration of borders. The Ingush who returned from deportation claimed territorial claims against neighboring North Ossetia, demanding the return of the Prigorodny District.
In the fall of 1992, a series of national killings took place on the territory of the Prigorodny District of North Ossetia, several Ingush victims of which were killed. The killings provoked a series of clashes using large machine guns, followed by the invasion of the Ingush in the Prigorodny district.
On November 1, Russian troops were brought into the republic to prevent further bloodshed, and a committee was created to save the Ingush population of North Ossetia.
Another important factor that significantly influenced the culture and demography of the region was the first Chechen war, which is officially called Restoration of the constitutional order. More than five thousand people became victims of hostilities and many tens of thousands lost their homes. At the end of the active phase of the conflict, a protracted crisis of statehood began in the republic, which led to another armed conflict in 1999 and, consequently, to a reduction in the population of the Caucasus.