Implementation of the soviet project in the Nogai steppes of the North Caucasus in the 1920s–1930s

10.54398/1818510Х_2023_2_91

Annotation

The publication presents the problem of reception of the soviet project among nomadic, semi-nomadic and sedentary Nogais who lived in the steppe zone of the North Caucasus in the 1920s–1930s. Despite the solid historiography on the history of relations between the socialist government and nomadic peoples, the specifics of the implementation of the bolshevik project in the Nogai environment did not become the subject of separate studies, which determines its novelty. The influence of natural and climatic factors on the transformation of the economic activity of the Nogais in the 1920s–1930s is of great importance in solving the research work. The main source base was materials extracted from the State archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) and the Russian state archive of socio-political history (RGASPI). The reception of the soviet project in the Nogai steppes vividly constructs the image of the era of socialist changes begun in the 1920s in the RSFSR. Devastation and famine were overcome simultaneously with the construction of the Soviet administrative, political and economic system. The phenomenon of sovietization of the Nogais of the North Caucasus was characterized by the administrative and territorial organization of the Nogais' management, the creation of an administrative and managerial apparatus aimed at the socialist transformation of the Nogais, the modernization of traditional forms of economy through the sedenterization of the population, the development of the agricultural sector in agriculture and animal husbandry. Nevertheless, these processes proceeded unevenly in the steppe. Nogais of the Achikulak district adapted to the new living conditions faster, while Nogais of the Karanogai district repeated the trends characteristic of the nomadic societies of the country in the first quarter of the XX century.

Keywords

• USSR
• RSFSR
• North Caucasus
• Nogais
• nomads
• soviet project
• national policy
• transformation of nomadic life
• sedentarization
• sedentarization
• natural and climatic factor
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Acknowledgments

The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Project № 22-18-00313 “Transformation of nomadic societies of the South of Russia in the context of natural and factors (XIX – mid XX centuries)” (https://rscf.ru/project/22-18-00313/).

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