66
defined Russia as a ‘big mosaic’ and demanded autonomy
and self-governance for
their own territories. Therefore, the Congress was asking for the North Caucasus, to
be accepted as a separate member of the new federal-republican Russian
government, and for the restoration of the territories of the peoples of the North
Caucasus which were confiscated by the Russian Treasury.
158
In order to administer the affairs of the newly established Alliance
constitutionally, the Congress proposed the formation of a ‘Representative
Committee’ and of a ‘Central Committee’ (
Tsentral’nyi Komitet) as the Alliance’s
legislative and executive bodies respectively.
In compliance with the principle of one delegate for every 15,000
159
people,
17 names, representing different constituent parts of the Alliance, were chosen as
the members of the Central Committee.
160
It is interesting
to note that this
committee is a reflection of the strong will of all the different peoples to form a
comprehensive union, the representatives of the different peoples of the North
Caucasus, who had different ideological and political stances were elected to the
Central Committee. Some pro-socialist names like B. A. Chakhanov and Makhach
156
For the full text of political platform and program see
Sbornik, appendix no. 2: 71-74. For the
analysis of the
Congress see Ali Sultan, May 1934. “11 Mayis 1918,”
Şimali Kafkasya/Severnyı
Kavkaz, (Warsaw), 1: 3. For the text of the Constitution see
Compte-Rendu, 139-144.
157
Compte-Rendu, 139.
158
Compte-Rendu, 16-18.
159
See
Compte-Rendu, 54 and B. O. Kashkaev, 1972.
Ot Fevralya k Oktyabriu (Natsional’no-
Osvoboditel’noe Dvizhenie v Dagestane, Moscow: Akademiia Nauk SSSR, 35. Hereafter
Ot
Fevralya.
160
As the representatives of the province of Dagestan; B. Dalgat, Makhach Dakhadayev, Nuh Bey
Tarkovskiy, Haydar Bammatov, Zubeyr Temirhanov, and Efendiyev.
From the province of Terek;
Pshemaho Kotsev (as the representative of the Kabardinians), M. Mollayev (Balkars), R. H.
Kaplanov (Kumuks), A. T. Chermoev (Chechens), Vassan Girey Jabagiev (the Ingush), El. Britayev
(Osetians). As a representative of the Karachays, Halid-Haji Erkenov; for Nogays M. Muhsinov and
for the Abkhaz S. Bassaria. The names that would have represent Circassians, Abazins and the
peoples of the Zakatala region would have been nominated later on by the peoples of the each
region.
Compte-Rendu, 153-154.
67
Dakhadayev
161
; nationalists Haydar Bammat
162
, Abdulmejid Chermoev
163
and
Vassan-Girey Jabagiev
164
; and some former pro-Tsarist
military names like Reshid
Khan Kaplanov and Nuh Bek Tarkovskiy
165
could easily find a place in this Central
Committee.
The basic task of the Committee was the creation of a consciousness,
among the Mountaineers of the North Caucasus, about the basic principles of the
Revolution, and in this context, to prepare the population for elections to the
Russian Constituent Assembly. This meant securing the election of the ‘genuine’
representatives of the Mountaineers to the Constituent Assembly. More than that
the committee was responsible “to ensure order within
the Union and maintain
good relations with the surrounding Caucasian nations.”
166
161
Makhach (Magomed Ali) Dakhadayev, (1882-1918), Avar. He
was born in the village of
Untsukul. He married with sheikh Shamil’s grand-daughter Nefiset. After 1905 Revolution, because
of his socialist ideas, exiled outside of the North Caucasian territory. After the February Revolution
he became one of the most ardent Bolsheviks and the first president of the Communist organization
in Dagestan. After
his death, the city of Port Petrovsk was renamed as Makhachkale in his
memoriam in 1921.
162
Haydar Bammat (1890-1965), Kumuk. He was born in Temir Khan Shura. After his basic
education in Stavropol he studied law in St. Petersburg. Before the Revolution he had been working
as a civil officer at the office Caucasian Viceroy.
163
Abdulmejid (Tapa) Chermoev [Çermoy] (1882-1937), Chechen. He was born in Grozny as a son
of Tsarist Army General. After his basic education in Vladikavkaz he graduated from the Russian
Military School and he served in the Tsar’s Special Guard Regiment as a military officer in
Petersburg between 1901 and 1908. Then he returned the North Caucasus and struggled for the right
of Mountaineers to hold land in oil rich parts of the North Caucasus prior to 1917. And he became
one of the most prominent Muslim oil tycoons.
164
Vassan-Girey Jabagiev [Jabagi or Cabaği] (1882-1961), Ingush. He was born in the village of
Nasır-yurt. He studied at the Russian Lyceum of Vladikavkaz, at the Polytechnic Institute of Riga
and at the University of Jena in Germany where he received a Ph.D. in Agronomy in 1908. This
earned him a position as an agricultural economist for the Ministry of Agriculture in St Petersburg,
from 1908 to 1917. There he struggled for the right of Mountaineers and together with the Muslim
deputies of the Duma achieved some success in forcing changes in local administrative practices.
165
He was the representative of the ancient house of the Shamkal of Tarku who, for some centuries
until the Russian conquest, had ruled the maritime Dagestan from the mouth of the Sulak as far
south as the district of Kayakent.
166
Haidar Bammate, 1929.
Le Caucase et la Revolution Russe (Aspect Politique), Paris: l’Union
Nationale des émigrés de la Republique du Caucase du Nord, 38. For this text’s
English translation,
1991. “The Caucasus and the Russian Revolution (from a Political Viewpoint),”
Central Asian
Survey, 10(4): 14.