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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. 
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 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. 

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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. 

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