Authors

Grigory Grigoryev¹;  ¹ University of Helsinki, Finland

Discussion

This paper is dedicated to the historical imagination and collective identities of three ethnic groups in the Republic of Dagestan. In order to reconstruct the identities of Avar, Dargin and Kumyk peoples, reveal the ethnic borders between them and investigate their attitude towards the current Russian rule, I propose to look into the collective memory of these ethnic groups on the events the Russian Civil War (1917-1922) and the ways they imagine and narrate their past.

In order to distil the ethnic differences and the notions of nationalism, I focus on the images of three 'heroes' of three ethnic communities: the Avar war chief, Najmuddin of Gotzo (1859-1925); the Kumyk Bolshevik leader, Ullubiy of Buynak (1890-1919); and Dargin sharia judge, Ali-Haji of Akusha (1837-1930). Avar, Kumyk and Dargin people describe these personae as exemplar embodiments of their own ideals and aspirations, which allows me to treat the biographies of these leaders as identity narratives of the corresponding ethnic groups.

The idealized images of these three historical personae bring to light the crucial social issues of modern Dagestan: attitudes towards the Soviet past and the modern Russian rule, clashes between the supporters of ‘traditional’ and ‘pure’ Islam, and the land conflicts between Avar highlanders and lowland Kumyks. The data was collected during extensive anthropological field work in Dagestan.