Caucasian Highlanders in the Ranks of the Russian Army in the 1830s–1870s: Imperial Integration Policy and Problems of Incorporation

Abstract

The article, based on a number of archival materials and documentary sources, examines the imperial policy of integrating Caucasian highlanders by recruiting them for military service in the 1830s–1870s. Ensuring the loyalty of the mountain population to the imperial authorities and incorporating the mountain elites into the Russian privileged service class become significant political tasks. The integration of the highlanders was flexible, based on respect for faith, linguistic and cultural characteristics, and was distinguished by trust. A sign of trust was the involvement of representatives of the Caucasian nobility in escort service at the highest court as part of the Life Guards Caucasian-Mountain Half-Squadron. During this period, a number of systematic steps were taken to organize training on special terms for noble mountain youths in the St. Petersburg and then Moscow cadet corps. Irregular cavalry units were formed from among the mountain population. At the final stage of the Caucasian War, a practice was formed that gave the opportunity to the offspring of a noble mountain family to enter regular military service with the subsequent possibility of promotion to officer. At the end of military operations, police units from the local population are created to ensure security and public order. The involvement of highlanders in military service, despite significant difficulties in staffing the units being formed, cases of defection to the enemy, the presence of cultural, linguistic and religious barriers, contributed to the solution of the political problem of incorporating local elites into the service class of the empire, and also helped to ensure the loyalty of broad sections of the population and form a system of local government.