Russian militaries at the commencement of the caucasus studies: From the region pacifying to its survey (19th — early 20th centuries)

Abstract

The paper focuses on the issues of the militaries' impact on the foundation of the Russian Empire Caucasus studies in 19th — early 20th centuries. Based on the vide mass of primary sources from archive vaults and published papers of the military investigators the authors conclude that the officers of the Caucasus Corpus (later Caucasus Army and Caucasus Military District) were at the base of the regional scientific researches in Statistics, Geography, Cartography, ordinary law, Ethnography, Archeology together with the indigenous tongues studying. They had either offered key ideas of the Imperial concept of the “Caucasus Conquest” — steadily extension of Russian rule on the ethnic territories. The paper concerns the idea of an important practical role for the Militaries survey. Its plot was contested with the solvation of some practical necessities in running the actual military or administrative tasks. But for a lot of investigators regional studies meant more than just dealing with an official assignment. Due to their personal traits and strong convincement in the utter necessity of Russian cultural activity in the regional ethnic environment, their scout survey grew into the part of the Caucasus Studies that was coming into life then.