From Conquest to Deportation: The North Caucasus under Russian Rule

by Jeronim Perovic

This book is about a region on the fringes of empire, which neither Tsarist Russia, nor the Soviet Union, nor in fact the Russian Federation, ever really managed to control. Starting with the nineteenth century, it analyses the state's various strategies to establish its rule over populations highly resilient to change imposed from outside, who frequently resorted to arms to resist interference in their religious practices and beliefs, traditional customs, and ways of life. Jeronim Perovic offers a major contribution to our knowledge of the early Soviet era, a crucial yet overlooked period in this region's troubled history. During the 1920s and 1930s, the various peoples of this predominantly Muslim region came into contact for the first time with a modernising state, demanding not only unconditional loyalty but active participation in the project of 'socialist transformation'. Drawing on unpublished documents from Russian archives, Perovic investigates the changes wrought by Russian policy and explains why, from Moscow's perspective, these modernisation attempts failed, ultimately prompting the Stalinist leadership to forcefully exile the Chechens and other North Caucasians to Central Asia in 1943-4.

Genres: Russia

256 pages, Hardcover

First published December 21, 2017

Reviews

[Raughley Nuzzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perovic extensively explores this relatively under-studied region of the Russian and Soviet Empires, painting a comprehensive political picture of the challenges facing indigenous and imperial populations in the North Caucasus. He chronicles the interactions between state and non-state actors throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, from conquest to deportation, as suggested by the title.

Interspersed among the chapters are enlivening personal tales that help illustrate the broader themes of the chapters. Perovic anchors his work on some of these key figures to humanize the enormity of the tragedy and complexity that frequented the region. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Khasan Israilov for the nuance it used in approaching this alleged Nazi collaborator/traitor/freedom fighter/windbag. In this chapter, Perovic also outlined the difficulties researchers face in studying this region and these types of topics. This might be a little in-the-weeds for some readers, but I greatly appreciated the discussion of the archival obstacles to further investigation.