Circassians, people of
northwestern Caucasia, also referred to as the Cherkess.
They are found today chiefly in the Russian republics of
Adygea and Karachay-Cherkessia and kabrdey republic and
in larger groups in Jordan, Turkey, and Syria. Their
languages belong to the North-West Caucasian languages,
a non-Indo-European group. They are related in language
origin to many other mountaineer peoples of Caucasia and
Transcaucasia. Since the 17th century, they have been
Muslims. Although Circassia was ceded to Russia in 1829,
the Circassians were not subjugated until 1864, when,
after fierce resistance, many left the Caucasus and
migrated to various parts of the Ottoman Empire. The
Circassians - self-designation Adyge- are the oldest
indigenous people of North Caucasus. Their language
belongs to the North-West of the Caucasian family of
languages. It's unusual phonological system-an
overabundance of consonants and scarcity of vowels has
stimulated much interest among linguists .In the 6th
century, under Georgian and Byzantine influence many
were Christianised, but under the growing influence of
the Ottomans, Islam replaced Christianity. However, the
process was gradual .Blending with Christian survivals
and even pre-Christian folk beliefs, Islam became fully
established only in the 18th-19th centuries. ' Neither
Christianity nor Islam,' as Henze points out, 'resulted
in the creation of a distinctive priestly class who
could preserve written literature or encourage literacy'
(Henze, 1986:247). Attempts at reducing the language to
writing in the 19th and early 20th century had also
failed .Circassian become a literary language only after
the Russian revolution .The Circassians are Sunni of the
Hanafi school who tend to be non-fanatical and among
whom the Adat or custom low - The Adyge-Habze - has
reminded extremely strong .It is the language and the
custom law that have formed the chief component parts in
Circassian tribal groups speaking numerous, but mutually
intelligible dialects, were the main ethnic element in
NW Caucasus .This changed drastically when under the
pressure of the Russian conquest, especially after the
defeat of the Great Revolt (1825-1864) a Circassian mass
exodus - 'One of the greatest mass movements of
population in modern history ' (Henze , 1986) - took
place to Turkey and other areas of the Ottoman Empire,
including the Middle East .One and a half million
Circassians abandoned their ancient homeland, leaving
behind scattered remnant communities .The Russian census
of 1897 recorded only 150,000 Circassians, less the one
tenth of the original population . Occupation and
Deportation Caucasian peoples characterize events which
happened during the Second World War as their third
catastrophe - after the colonization and the destruction
of the native elites. The German Army reached the
Caucasus in 1942 on the way to the Caucasian oil fie lds
in Maikop, Grozny and Baloi. Parts of the Caucasus were
occupied 1942~322, but the mountain range barred further
access. Kalkhozes, col lective farms, were closed,
mosques reopened in areas where the German Army arrived,
and promises for sovere ignty were given to those people
who were willing to cooperate. Following these events,
came deportation - the worst peri od in history for the
native peoples in the North Caucasus. Between November
1943 and March 1~, on decrees signed by the Presidium of
the Supreme Soviet, all Karachai, Ingush, Chechen and
Balkar - to mention only the Caucasian peoples - were
rounded up, loaded into tens of thousands of cattle
waggons and transferred to Central Asia and Siberia in
five rounds of deportation reported meticulously to
Moscow. The violent deportations were carried out w ith
extraordinary speed, on an admittedly mostly unfounded
accusation of collaboration with the enemy. The
deportations, or repressions as the peoples themselves
prefer to call them, can be said to be genuine genocides
because ethnicity was the sole criteria for selection,
and practically nobody from the selection was spared.223
Some were taken not only from their national territory
but also from other Soviet republics, and those at the
front were deported after the war. All deportees came
under severe surveillance, with up to 20 years in labour
camps if they left their assigned place of settlem ent.
Wherever they set tled, the local population was told
that they were bandits, traitors and criminals, which
resulted in their isolation and other additional
hardships. They often lived in dugouts or in the open,
under hard labour, had little food and many of the
children had no schooling at all. One quarter of the
Chechen and one third of the Karachai died during trans
port or deportations. The former republics of the
deported peoples were dis solved and the territory given
to other repubhcs or groups. New inhabitants moved into
the houses of the deported, others fell into decay.
Graveyards and national monuments were destroyed and the
names of the collectively punished peoples were deleted
from maps, streets, documents and public memory. It was
forbidden to enquire on their fate. It was only during
Perestroika that the first article on details of the
deportations was published in the Soviet Union.27 The
first book containing personal recollections was
pubhshed in 1993,% This experience has left its mark on
the peoples of the Caucasus, comparable only to the
memories of those who survived the Holocaust in the
Second World War
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