Catalogue · ID 71

Of Christianity, Enlightenment, and Colonialism: Russia in the North Caucasus, 1550–1800

Author: Khodarkovsky M.
Year of publication: 1999
Describes Russian colonization of peoples: Nokhchi (Chechens)
Publication rights: not allowed (a 1999 publication under copyright)

Files not published

Where we got it

Original source: www.journals.uchicago[.]edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/235251

Where the knowledge base cites it

This material is cited in 7 places.

Campaigns

• Religious Frontier and the Fabrication of Historical Right (1550–1721)

  and the North Caucasus "became a religious frontier"

• Imposition of an Image of Backwardness and the “Civilizing” Mission (1721–1800s)

  The local population was deliberately assigned an image of backwardness: the researcher points out that in the administration’s documents the Highlanders were described as “inconstant and treacherous,” and their actions were explained by references to their “predatory craft, to which they are predisposed by their very nature and upbringing”

  In parallel, fictitious grounds for control were being constructed: the author records that in 1748 and the 1770s the Collegium of Foreign Affairs fabricated reports claiming that the Indigenous population of the Caucasus had allegedly professed Christianity in the past, in order to contest the claims of other powers and “legitimize its efforts at their ‘re-Christianization’”

  Building on this foundation, in 1784 the imperial governors asserted that, with the dispatch of missionaries, they would be able to spread their influence and shed “the light of divine bliss among all the peoples scattered in the mountains”

Procedures

• Religious Frontier and the Fabrication of Historical Right (1550–1721) — technique Justification Through Religion

  because of which the North Caucasus "became a religious frontier"

• Imposition of an Image of Backwardness and the “Civilizing” Mission (1721–1800s) — technique Dehumanization

  The government of the Russian Empire deliberately constructed an image of the Indigenous population as criminal savages: historian Michael Khodarkovsky records that in administration documents the highlanders were labeled as "inconstant and treacherous," while their actions were explained by references to their "predatory craft, to which they are predisposed by their very nature and upbringing"

• Imposition of an Image of Backwardness and the “Civilizing” Mission (1721–1800s) — technique Rewriting of History

  …fabricated historical accounts to provide legal justification for invasion: historian Michael Khodarkovsky points out that in 1748 and in the 1770s officials deliberately constructed fictitious claims that the Indigenous peoples of the Caucasus had allegedly been Christians in the past, in order to contest the claims of other empires and "legitimize their efforts at their 're-Christianization'"

• Imposition of an Image of Backwardness and the “Civilizing” Mission (1721–1800s) — technique Justification Through Religion

  Potemkin, who in 1784 declared that under the pretext of returning the highlanders to the faith and sending priests to them, the empire would be able to shed "the light of divine bliss among all the peoples scattered in the mountains"

Techniques

• Forced Registration of Subjecthood

  This process takes place under economic or military pressure, and the terms of the pre-drafted treaties are not open to negotiation

  A historical example of this practice is the shert — an oath of allegiance whose legal codification was often accompanied by the surrender of hostages from among relatives or the local nobility