Commemorating a North Caucasian Revolutionary, Akhmed Nimbulatovich Tsalykkaty (27/12/1882 - 02/09/1928)

  • 06/09/2025
Türkçe Tercüme
This week, on the 97th anniversary of his passing, we commemorate Akhmed Tsalykkaty, one of the most vivid and controversial figures in 20th-century Caucasian history. This year, I will share a translation of an article by Salavat Iskhakov, a Tatar historian from Kazan, Tatarstan, who has conducted in-depth academic studies on Tsalykkaty. I will also share my short review of the article.



In the December 2018 issue of the Polish magazine Nowy Prometeusz, Iskhakov provides important information about Tsalykkaty's life, particularly the period before he went into political exile. Ishakov analyzes the political role of this North Caucasian revolutionary figure in the great struggle for the North Caucasus during the revolutionary and civil war years of the early 20th century. He attempts to examine the ideological, national, and social dimensions of Tsalykkaty's activities and how his image became mythical. The early 20th century was a time when Russian revolutionary movements, indigenous peoples' nationalist aspirations, and foreign powers' geopolitical interests intersected in the North Caucasus. The events that unfolded in the region created an opportunity for new leaders to emerge, including Tsalykkaty. An Ossetian intellectual and revolutionary, Tsalykkaty sought to create a political doctrine by combining Marxist ideology with nationalist themes. His activities, which included journalism, agitation, and organizational work, earned him the nickname "Jinn," a symbol of fear and inspiration in the political imagination of the time. The Jinn, in the Muslim mythology, an intelligent spirit of lower rank than the angels, able to appear in human and animal forms and to possess humans. While advocating for the right to self-determination for the peoples of the North Caucasus, Tsalykkaty also sought to align his struggles with the Russian revolutionary movement.

Click on the link to access the original article in Russian
He advocated for modernization, education, and political mobilization in an effort to awaken national consciousness. His approach often placed him at a crossroads fraught with contradictions between Bolshevik internationalism and Caucasian national identity. The symbolism of the "Jinn" shows that Tsalykkaty was seen as a force that could liberate or destroy. This image has found a place in the collective memory of the region, reflecting the contradictions of revolutionary change in the Caucasus.
Tsalykkaty's role symbolizes the complex interplay of class, national, and cultural factors in the North Caucasian Revolution. A controversial figure in Caucasian historiography, he has been celebrated as a liberation fighter by some political tendencies and heavily criticized by others for his radicalism and ties to Bolshevik structures.
In this article, Salavat Iskhakov concludes that Akhmed Tsalykkaty was a local activist and a symbolic mediator between Russian revolutionary discourse and North Caucasian national movements. His life and legacy reflect the contradictions of the revolutionary era, including liberation and destruction, modernization and tradition, and nationalism and internationalism. Examining his legacy reveals the unique transformation of the North Caucasus during the revolutionary period.
However, the author's flawed assessments of other leading figures, such as Najmudin Gotsinsky and Haidar Bammate, threaten readers' ability to accurately analyze the balance of power in the North Caucasus during that time.
His underestimation of the roles of the Union Assembly in Tbilisi and the Mountaineers’ Defense Council, which was based in Dagestan and Chechnya, in the struggle against the Monarchist Volunteer Army; his attribution of Haidar Bammate's role in the arrest of Pshemakho Kotse by the Menshevik Georgians; and his attempt to discredit Bammate by portraying him as a "former Tsarist official" somewhat undermine the credibility of this valuable article. Genuine archival documents prove that the national forces' successes, rather than the Socialists' contributions, played a greater role in the struggle against the Monarchist occupying forces. Likewise, the absence of Haidar Bammate's involvement in the arrest of Pshemaho Kotse and his subsequent efforts to secure Kotse's release can be substantiated with legitimate archival findings. Moreover, these two figures were in the same political camp and fought together during the emigration period. The true extent of their friendship and brotherly relationship, overshadowed by the harsh language in the article, will become clearer through the letters I examined in my recent work in Haidar Bammate's private archives.
I will leave the reader with the translation of Salavat Iskhakov's article. You can access the journal pages containing the Russian original via the link in the footnote.

Cem Kumuk
Istanbul, 5 September 2025

The Struggle for the North Caucasus and the "Genie" Akhmed Tsalikov
By Salavat Iskhakov

In the future, an unbiased "historian, through objective, calm research in light of the events of those times, all historical facts and documentary data," wrote Kabardian P. Kotsev, Chairman of the Government of the Mountaineers' Republic in 1918-1920, in exile, "will study the entire complex, multifaceted historical situation that led to the fall of ... all the Caucasian republics ... and will give a real ... history of the life of the struggle of the peoples of the Caucasus".1 There is still no monographic study on the history of this republic, and the 100th anniversary of its proclamation was not even celebrated by the scientific community in the republics of the North Caucasus.
One of the key participants in the struggle for this republic was the Ossetian Muslim Akhmed Tsalikov, a writer and politician. His role in the history of this struggle has not been sufficiently studied, although he is a fairly popular figure in historiography. He became a revolutionary at the very beginning of the 20th century. In Soviet historiography, it was noted that Tsalikov was a prominent figure in Menshevism, that after 1905, he became one of the creators of the theory of Muslim socialism, allegedly setting the goal of creating a Muslim society.2 Moreover, he was considered a pan-Islamist, a bourgeois nationalist, a Turkophile, and a separatist who advocated the separation of the Caucasus from Russia and the formation of a North Caucasian Muslim state under the auspices of Turkey.3 In Soviet perestroika historiography, the first scientific publication that did not contain the previous cliches about him was a small article (with his photograph published for the first time) in an encyclopedic publication prepared in the late 1980s at the USSR Academy of Sciences.4 In Turkish historiography, they also began to pay attention to him, characterizing him as a leader of the Muslim intellectuals of Russia and the North Caucasus, a fighter for its freedom.5
Almost 10 years later, in Vladikavkaz, his homeland, a collection of his selected Works6 was published, the compiler of which, philologist Z.M. Salagaeva, included an article that, according to a point of view widespread in North Ossetia, to this day remains allegedly “the only serious scientific study of his life’s journey”.7 In particular, in 2012, at a seminar at the American University of Notre Dame, L. Musgrave (USA) gave a report entitled “Utro Gor: Akhmed Tsalikov and the North Caucasus in the Spectrum of Revolutionary Politics”.8 It must be assumed that this report was inc "Mountaineers” in revolution and war, 1905–1926”. In 2014, Tsalikov’s large essay on the dramatic events of the civil war in the North Caucasus, published in a Georgian newspaper in 1919, was republished in Moscow with detailed comments, as well as several documents related to his activities during the civil war in the Caucasus.9 The history of the North Caucasian, including Ossetian, emigration is the subject of a number of publications by the Moscow ethnologist I.L. Babich, who spent a long time studying the Paris archives.10 However, she did not touch on Tsalikov’s role in the life of the Caucasian emigration and his activities in Europe in general, essentially ignoring all of this.
Thus, there are large gaps in the political biography of A. Tsalikov, especially little is known about his emigrant and Promethean activities, and a number of his published and unpublished texts from the period 1917-1928 have not yet entered scientific circulation. The purpose of this article is to give a brief overview of his political biography.

Tsalikov - one of the first Muslim socialists
Akhmed Tembulatovich [Nimbulatovich] Tsalikov (in Ossetian Tsalykkaty) was born on December 27, 1882, in the Terek region, in the village of Muslimovskoye (Ossetian name Nogkau), not far from the city of Vladikavkaz.11 After graduating from the Stavropol Men's Classical Gymnasium, he entered the Law Faculty of Moscow University in 1900, where he participated in the student movement and became interested in revolutionary ideas, and soon joined the RSDLP, became a Menshevik, and the leader of several student circles. In March 1901, he was exiled from Moscow to Stavropol, where he was kept under secret police surveillance. In February 1902, he was arrested for participating in student unrest and sentenced to six months in prison, which he served in a Ufa prison. On July 22, 1902, he was released early along with other participants in the unrest, after which he asked to return to continue his education at Moscow University. The university decided to postpone his admission to the student body until 1903. In 1903, he was exiled from Moscow to the Caucasus for his revolutionary activities, where he continued to organize social democratic committees in the Terek region and to carry out revolutionary work in his native Ossetia. His activities soon extended to Dagestan, and as a result, the Terek-Dagestan Committee of the RSDLP was created, and Tsalikov became a member of the Social Democratic Committee, which was formed in Vladikavkaz in the summer of 1904, and then became the leader of the Mensheviks in Ossetia. In 1904, having returned to Moscow, he was elected as a representative of Moscow University to the All-Russian Congress of Students in Kyiv (illegal). In 1906, Tsalikov passed the state exams and, in March 1907, received a law degree. For a short time, he tried to engage in advocacy, but soon returned to political activity, coordinating, in particular, the activities of the Terek-Dagestan and North Caucasian Unions of the RSDLP, the Vladikavkaz, Kuban, and Armavir Committees of the RSDLP. He became famous for speaking out in Vladikavkaz for the convening of a non-party workers' congress and the creation of a broad class-political organization of the proletariat on the eve of the V (London) Congress of the RSDLP (1907), for which he was criticized by V. I. Lenin. Tsalikov contributed to the Menshevik publications Nashe Delo, Vozrozhdenie, and others.12

Akhmed Tsalykkaty (Moscow, 12 January 1918)
During the First Russian Revolution, Tsalikov, according to the authorities, agitated among the Ossetians for the separation of the Terek region from Russia. Under his influence, the Ossetian Teachers' Union, which led the movement for the liberation of the North Caucasus and decided to raise the Ossetians to an armed uprising, came under his influence.13 But this plan, if it really existed and was not an invention of officials, remained on paper.
Be that as it may, it was then that Tsalikov became interested in the motivation for the behavior of the Muslim Mountaineers.14 Criticizing Russian historiography, he wrote that "it was not the religious fanaticism that official Caucasian historians love to talk about, but the economic and socio-political enslavement of the highlanders that nourished warm feelings for neighboring Turkey in their hearts." He then makes an important observation: "In their hopes, in their warm feelings, the highlanders were undoubtedly mistaken, but they needed an enticing illusion, since the reality was too harsh and unsightly."15 This is how Tsalikov outlined the social, cultural, and economic problems that the authorities were not resolving in relation to the highland population, as well as the reasons for the highlanders' gravitation toward Turkey. As he rightly noted, "the all-powerful bureaucracy... always stood in the way of any progressive beginnings among Muslims, always ignored their elementary cultural and economic needs."16
The peculiarity of the interethnic situation in North Ossetia was that all the landowners professed Islam, while the majority of the population of the rest of Ossetia were Christians, and therefore inevitably "religious motives" would be introduced into the struggle for land, and this could, he wrote in 1906, lead to interfaith complications in the North Caucasus as a whole, which is what happened there during the First World War, the revolution and the civil war. 17 In 1908-1910, the intra-party struggle intensified in the North Caucasian and Terek-Dagestan Unions of the RSDLP, and Tsalikov, as stated in the collective work of Ossetian historians, became the leader of the "liquidationist" movement, which opposed illegal party work.18 This is not so. In April 1908, while in Vladikavkaz, he was accused of possessing illegal literature, but he managed to hide from the police and go to Moscow, where he lived until the summer, and then he had to leave again, fleeing from the police. In June 1909, he was arrested in St. Petersburg and sent to Vladikavkaz. In November 1909, he was sentenced to a year in prison. The sentence came into force in March 1910, and Tsalikov served his sentence in Armavir prison, from where he was released in March 1911. And in this situation, he managed to prepare and publish a socio-political, economic, and literary almanac, "The Mountains' Dawn", dedicated to the life of the highlanders of the Caucasus. The publication was published in Baku in 1910; only one issue was published. He returned to Moscow in October 1911. He was under secret surveillance, according to which, in particular, on November 29, 1914, he visited the editorial office of the Moscow newspaper Russkoye Slovo, and on November 30, the editorial office of Derevenskaya Gazeta.19 In 1914, the Moscow magazine Zhivoye Slovo (No. 10) published his enthusiastic article “In Memory of the Great Fighter,” dedicated to K. Marx.20 He was also published in other capital publications—Ranneye Utro, Utro Rossii, Vestnik Evropy, and also in Kavkaz, touching upon the pressing issues of Muslim life. 21 Thus, in a St. Petersburg newspaper in 1909 he wrote that “one of the most important questions” of this population is the question of “a radical reorganization” of the spiritual administration, which “suffers from complete lack of system,” “contradictory layers,” and bureaucracy, which, however, “is completely in line with the views of the government,” which obviously believes that “even this kind of concern for Muslims is an unnecessary luxury”.22
In May-September 1915, Tsalikov collaborated with the liberal Moscow magazine “National Problems”.23 In addition, he is the author of several books on the national policy of Tsarism in relation to the Muslim population of the empire.
Most likely, in Moscow, he met Zinaida Nikolaevna Ledovskaya. She was born in 1891 in the Kursk province into a merchant family, graduated from the girls’ gymnasium in Kursk in 1912, and became a home teacher of history and geography. In September 1912, she entered the economics department of the Moscow Commercial Institute, from which she dropped out in early 1916 for failure to pay her tuition fees. By 1916, she was married to Tsalikov.24 This marriage to a Slavic Orthodox girl means that he had no prejudices.
In Moscow, as an assistant to a barrister, he was the publisher of the capital's Muslim newspaper "Söz" (Word), which began to appear in December 1915, but in the summer of 1916 was closed by the authorities, as usual, due to "its harmful direction". He became a member of the bureau (of several intellectual experts representing the North Caucasus, Turkestan, Crimea, and the Volga region) created in Petrograd in February 1916 under the Muslim faction of the State Duma.
Undoubtedly, an important motive for his struggle with the authorities for the rights of Muslims also stemmed from a family tragedy. Half of the family to which he belonged, after the conquest of the Caucasus in the 19th century, did not want to submit to Russian rule and preferred to abandon their native mountains and go into voluntary exile in Turkey. During the First World War, all of his relatives in the Erzurum Vilayet perished.25
By the spring of 1917, the well-educated Tsalikov was not only a theorist but also an experienced politician, about which he wrote briefly in 1917: he led the life of a revolutionary, “wandering through prisons at a time when many gentlemen, now trying to create politics, were peacefully splashing in the puddles of philistine well-being.”26

Tsalikov in the Russian Revolution
Under Tsalikov's leadership, the Provisional Central Bureau of Russian Muslims, created in mid-March 1917 in Petrograd, from the first days of its existence began to gather forces, organize, develop political work among the masses, and solve a wide variety of issues of current politics, propaganda, and agitation, publishing work. The main task of the bureau was to convene a general congress of Muslims of the entire empire.
The All-Russian Muslim Congress, which took place in Moscow on May 1-11, 1917, was attended by 900 delegates - representatives of all Muslim peoples of the empire. Among the participants were almost all the deputies of the four state dumas, many officers and soldiers, about 300 mullahs, a group of Muslim women from all over the country (about 100, almost 3/4 of them students and graduates of higher educational institutions), who for the first time at the congress of Muslims were its equal participants, for which Tsalikov also deserves credit.
Speaking at the congress on May 3, he said that the desire for federalism "is only an expression of the growth of the unitary idea", while in practice, "broad regional self-government as a manifestation of the independence of society" is necessary. The difference between regional self-government and federal autonomy, in his opinion, was that "with autonomy, in addition to the general parliament, there will be a need to have a second chamber, in which there will be representation from the autonomies", and meanwhile, a bicameral system is unnecessary for the protection of national interests. Tsalikov advocated "the creation of a national cultural parliament of Muslims in Russia, elected based on universal, direct, equal and secret suffrage, which would be recognized by the constitution of Russia as a public-legal body of the Muslim nation, for "the broadest decentralization of regional Russia, but against territorial federalism". Touching upon the accusations of Muslims of separatism, which are widespread in Russian society, Tsalikov rejected them, explaining that "it hardly requires detailed consideration, it is unlikely that such a political group can exist that would put on its banner secession from Russia and the creation of an independent Muslim state", for which, in his opinion, "there are no reasonable data", including in the North Caucasus.27
On May 7, a vote was held at the congress on the main question: what kind of state structure do the Muslims of the country advocate? It is believed that the federalists won at the congress, since the majority (446 votes) of the congress participants spoke out in favor of the idea of ​​territorial-national autonomy; there were many fewer supporters of cultural-national autonomy (271 votes). This fact is explained by the fact that, firstly, by that time, the idea of ​​federalization of the country, mainly due to the propaganda of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, began to displace cultural-autonomist plans in the actions of the political elites of all the peoples of Russia. Muslims were no exception. Therefore, some of the delegates (the "federalists" from Azerbaijan, Bashkiria, Kazakhstan, Crimea, and Turkestan) spoke out for a national-territorial structure; others, the core of which was made up of a large group of representatives of the Volga Tatars and some of the delegates from the North Caucasus, spoke out for national-cultural autonomy. Secondly, the differences between the federalists and the unitarists were not at all of an ideological-theoretical nature. The success of the "federalists" occurred because many delegates did not attach much importance to the differences between territorial and cultural-national autonomy.
On May 11, the last day of work, the congress elected the All-Russian Muslim Council (ARC) of 30 people, who elected their Executive Committee [IC ARC, or Ikomus (according to the abbreviation adopted at the time), or in Turkic “Milli Shura” (National Council)] consisting of 12 people based in Petrograd. Tsalikov was elected Chairman of the ARC, he also managed the executive committee and, naturally, influenced the ARC’s decision-making that concerned Muslims throughout the empire. After the congress, Ikomus appealed to the Provisional Government with a request to contact it as “the only political center of the entire Muslim world of Russia” on all issues concerning Muslims.28 At the end of May, Ikomus delegated its representatives to the Petrograd Council of Peasants' Deputies, to the Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies (Tsalikov was the representative), to the Commission on Spiritual Affairs under the Department of Heterodox Confessions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, etc.29 Tsalikov also became the editor-in-chief of the Petrograd newspaper Izvestia of the All-Russian Muslim Council, which began to be published on June 30, 1917. The range of issues considered in the newspaper was quite broad: general political articles, journalistic notes, protocols, chronicles of Muslim life, news from the life of nations, reports on various publications, etc. were published. Tsalikov wrote several articles, most of which were without his signature, but his bright style immediately showed that he was their author. During another government crisis and the events of July 3-5, 1917, in Petrograd, when mass demonstrations demanding the resignation of the government and the transfer of all power to the Soviets took place in the capital, a private meeting of Muslim politicians was held in the evening of July 3. The issue of the need to take measures to ensure the inclusion of representatives of the country's Muslims in the reorganized coalition government was raised. On July 4, a meeting of the executive committee of the Supreme Council of Muslims was held with the participation of members of the Supreme Council. It was decided to demand the inclusion of representatives of Muslims in the coalition government, and a delegation was sent for negotiations with the government. During an almost hour-long meeting with members of the delegation, the head of government, Prince G.E. Lvov, told the members of the delegation that he basically agreed with their proposal and inquired about the candidates being put forward. After this conversation, the Muslim politicians discussed the candidates. During this meeting, Tsalikov stated that the most suitable demand for Muslims at first would be the post of Minister of State Welfare. As a result, the participants of the meeting decided to seek the positions of Minister of State Welfare and Deputy Ministers of Education and Agriculture. Five candidates were proposed for the position of Minister of State Welfare, including Tsalikov. After the vote, two candidates remained, including Tsalikov. Thus, he could become the Minister of Social Security of the coalition government.30 Although Lvov soon resigned, Tsalikov did not lose hope of joining the government, hoping for the support of the Menshevik leaders. On July 13, the newspaper Den, edited by the right-wing Menshevik A.N. Potresov, published an appeal from the executive committee of the All-Russian Muslim’s (VMK), "To the Muslims of Russia!", composed, judging by the style, by Tsalikov. In it, he called on them to "strengthen by all means" the government, "and then we will get everything, or, if the government falls, we will lose everything." On July 24, a new coalition government was formed, in which there was no representative of the VMK; the proposals of Muslim politicians were again not implemented, for which they were prepared. On July 22 in Kazan, at a joint meeting of participants of three all-Russian congresses (military, mullah and general), the national-cultural autonomy of Muslims of European Russia and Siberia was proclaimed, bodies for implementing it were created - the National Parliament and the National Administration (government), consisting of three departments (education, finance and religion), as well as the Collegium for the implementation of cultural-national autonomy of Muslims of internal Russia.
Assessing the results of the 2nd All-Russian (General) Muslim Congress in Kazan, Tsalikov wrote that it was decided to go to the election campaign for the Constituent Assembly with the socialist parties. "And at first glance, this decision of the congress may seem unexpected, if we take into account the social diversity of the Muslim bloc, the lack of a single social face. But at this time, reasons of a national and political nature obscured the severity of social antagonism and gave the revolution support in 30 million Muslim citizens".31 As a result, the Socialist Revolutionaries received a large number of votes from Muslim voters in the elections, and before that, there was no talk of any real influence of the socialists on the Muslim masses. During this election campaign, the Crimean Mensheviks, having received instructions from their Central Committee, included Tsalikov in the same list with such of their leaders as M.G. Tsereteli, Yu.O. Martov.32 However, Tsalikov eventually joined another list - the Muslim Socialist Committee in Kazan.

Akhmed Tsalykkaty (left edge) with members of the All Muslims Union (Moscow, 12 January 1918)
The VMK and Tsalikov personally played an important role in preventing the march of military units on Petrograd under the command of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, General L. G. Kornilov, who assigned the Caucasian Native Cavalry Division the role of the main striking force. The Executive Committee of the VMK proposed that the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies send its representatives to meet the Caucasians. The Muslim delegation, headed by Tsalikov, convinced the highlanders not to interfere in the affairs of the Russians, promising that the government would send the division to the Caucasus, to their native places, which is what happened. On September 3, such an order followed.33 On September 17, speaking at the All-Russian Democratic Conference in Petrograd (September 14-22, 1917), Tsalikov pointed out that when the VMK is mentioned, “the majority of Russian citizens think that this is a unification on religious grounds; they think that Islam is being contrasted with Christianity.” In reality, Tsalikov explained, “By Islam we mean that great historical culture that has written glorious pages in the history of all human culture... We want, while remaining on the soil of ancient culture, to join the modern culture of the great conquests of mankind. We want to go... our own way to great universal goals.” He noted that revolutionary democracy “in most cases has a negative attitude toward the country’s Muslims.” “It seems to me,” he said, “that this reflects... a strange disdainful attitude toward the peoples of the East,” who are still considered “people of an inferior race.” Tsalikov pointed out that the demands of Muslims were minimal - the creation of a strong government based on broad democratic masses. They would present all their demands in the Constituent Assembly; until then, their representatives had proposed, firstly, the formation of a Secretariat for Muslim Affairs under the government, headed by a state secretary with the rank of deputy minister, and secondly, the creation of a Pre-Parliament, since the voice of Muslims was "not heard" in revolutionary organizations, in which they were not represented in sufficient numbers. And therefore, the Pre-Parliament was the only way to bring the needs of the Muslim population to the attention of the Russian people.34 These arguments show that Tsalikov took into account the experience of European countries. A Muslim government official appeared in France and England during the First World War, when it was necessary to restructure the apparatus of the central government there to strengthen it. Without a department and a specific range of affairs, such an official was a representative of the Muslim population in the government, serving as a guarantee that the interests of this part of the citizens would be taken into account when carrying out certain events.
Thus, the problem of strengthening the power of Russia's Western European allies was solved. Such a representative of the country's Muslims, as a full member of the cabinet, was to participate in resolving all issues of governing the country, being the government's conductor among them. On September 22, a meeting of delegates of national organizations, having discussed the issue of distributing 27 seats granted to them in the All-Russian Democratic Council, decided to grant 4 seats to the VMK. The VMK delegation elected Tsalikov among its representatives to the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic (Pre-Parliament). Tsalikov thus became a statesman of the Russian Republic proclaimed on September 1, 1917, in order to deal with the problems of Muslims at such a high level.35 In Tsalikov's opinion, the VMK was to "embody the power of the united revolutionary democracy of the Muslim world of Russia, or even, more accurately, to embody before the face of the new Russia the entire Muslim world, awakened from its centuries-old sleep and striving for freedom... to stand guard over the interests of the peoples of Islam, to be the people's tribune of its dispossessed brothers...".
Such a "powerful political center of Muslims in Russia... can play a major role not only in the political life of Russia, but also in the entire world!"36 This phrase means that Tsalikov was thinking about how to combine the religious worldview of Muslims in Eurasia with the new realities of life that arose after the Russian Revolution to determine their role in the Muslim world as a whole, as well as the role of Russia in the Islamic world. This is also indicated by the fact that in mid-December 1917, a message appeared that his book "Revolutionary Russia and the Peoples of the East" was being prepared for publication.37 It was not published, and the manuscript was not found. Tsalikov's plans changed dramatically after the fall of the Provisional Government and the Bolsheviks' rise to power. As early as October 27, 1917, the VMK declared: "The glow of civil war has risen over the country. All the gains of the revolution and freedom itself are in danger. Whoever wins this struggle, we must not close our eyes - as a result, a terrible blow to the revolution... What should Muslims do at this moment of difficult social struggle?
The Muslim population, as a national group, must take all measures to ensure that the bloody glow of the civil war does not capture them as much as possible. Calm and restraint! It is necessary to take all measures to defend ourselves from any accidents".38
On October 28, the Executive Committee of the VMK decided to delegate three of its representatives to the anti-Bolshevik Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and the Revolution, created in Petrograd.39 But this committee's attempt to organize resistance to the Bolsheviks was quickly suppressed. The rejection of their authority by the VMK was expressed in the editorial of its newspaper on November 10, 1917: "Perhaps no one understands the madness of the tactics and current government work of the Bolsheviks as well as we, the multi-million population of the eastern outskirts of Russia. "We, who are faced with the great task of "inoculating" this population with the cultural principles that are the conquest of humanity, its duty on the difficult historical path?!" Here, Tsalikov's faith in the possibility of changing the social psychology of Muslims throughout Eurasia is expressed, which, in his opinion, would naturally require a long period of time.
Over the course of two weeks, the position of the VMK in relation to the Soviet government began to change. This was expressed by the leadership of the VMK in an article written in a very ironic spirit, "Promises of the Bolsheviks", dedicated to the appeal of the Council of People's Commissars "To all working Muslims of Russia and the East" (November 20, 1917): "Everything that the Muslim population of Russia so passionately seeks, and everything that stands as a great political ideal before the peoples of the Muslim East, has been promised by the government of people's commissars... But... it is one thing to promise something, and another thing to fulfill what has been promised... We can welcome the gifts of the Bolsheviks only on condition that they enter the path of agreement with the rest of the revolutionary democracy."40 In fact, here the Bolsheviks were presented with an ultimatum, which set forth the condition of how the VMK could support the Soviet government.
The VMK, knowing what was happening in the depths of the Russian masses, considered the following development of events to be quite realistic: “The collapse of Russian statehood, which could be an inevitable consequence of the defeat of the revolutionary democracy of the capitals, will entail the most disastrous consequences for the cause of national self-determination of the Muslims of Russia and for their rapid movement along the path of cultural development. The defeat of revolutionary democracy will lead to the triumph of reaction, to an explosion of the darkest chauvinism in the lower strata of the Russian people, and all national gains will perish in the turbid waves of anarchy and civil strife.”41 This forecast began to come true during the Russian civil war. On November 30, 1917, the Petrograd newspaper Novaya Zhizn, which was published by the Menshevik internationalists, published an “Open Letter to the Council of People’s Commissars,” in which Tsalikov publicly stated: “Without exaggerating, one can say that the current Bolshevik government is pursuing a policy that, in the final analysis, may have a completely opposite meaning for the Muslim population of Russia and the East...” And this prediction of Tsalikov also came true during the construction of socialism in the USSR.
On December 1, Tsalikov met with the People's Commissar for Nationalities I. V. Stalin. During a lengthy conversation with him, Tsalikov said that if the Bolsheviks would carry out their promises and give Muslims the opportunity to arrange their lives the way they wanted, then they would remain loyal to them. Stalin said that the Council of People's Commissars did not require a statement of support from the Executive Committee of the VMK; the only wish was for Muslims to remain loyal, and that they had the right to march under the slogans that they considered more suitable, to vote for whomever they wanted, etc. He proposed three options for cooperation with their organizations: 1. The formation of a commissariat for Muslim affairs, including representatives of all major Muslim peoples. 2. The appointment, upon the recommendation of the Executive Committee of the VMK, of a Muslim socialist to the post of assistant to the commissar for Muslim affairs. 3. If these options were unacceptable, maintain business relations for the painless resolution of emerging Muslim problems. Tsalikov, without taking responsibility, said that he could answer only after consultations with large regional organizations and upon the return of the members of the executive committee of the VMK and the VMK, most of whom had left in connection with the election campaign for the Constituent Assembly. After the meeting, Tsalikov sent a telegram to the National Parliament of Muslims of the Turkic Tatars of Inner Russia and Siberia, which was meeting in Ufa, with a request to consider these proposals. The delegates of the Ufa Majlis decided to recall the delegates from the Volga region from the VMK and its executive committee and create a special board in Petrograd for negotiations with the Council of People's Commissars.42 After this, Tsalikov sent telegrams to the members of the VMK and Ikomus, who were in Turkestan, the Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Crimea, and the Volga region, about the upcoming self-liquidation of the VMK.43 All of Tsalikov's hopes under these conditions were connected with the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, of which he was elected a deputy. He directly warned the Bolshevik leaders: "No encroachments on the Constituent Assembly - this is the unanimous demand of the Muslims." If this voice is not heard, Russia will have to say goodbye to its eastern outskirts, starting from the Volga, or conquer them again. Or rather, this will have to be done not by Russia, which will cease to exist, but by those several provinces that will remain under the authority of the Council of People's Commissars or some bastard body created by the "family" order, in the form of a projected national convention to replace the Constituent Assembly".44 The forecast made here by Tsalikov completely corresponded to what happened during the civil war in the disintegrated Russian Empire. On January 17, 1918, the Commissariat for Muslim Affairs in Internal Russia was created, which Tsalikov discussed during negotiations with Stalin, but Tsalikov did not head this department. Tsalikov secretly continued to support the activities of the anti-Bolshevik Committee for the Salvation of the Motherland and Revolution, transformed into the Union for the Defense of the Constituent Assembly, which was dissolved by the Bolsheviks. At a meeting of the inter-factional bureau of this union, which took place on January 20, 1918, his name was listed among the participants in the next meeting. On January 23, in Petrograd, under the chairmanship of the Socialist Revolutionary V. M. Chernov, chairman of the Constituent Assembly, a meeting of representatives of the socialist factions of the dissolved parliament was held, attended by a representative of the Muslim Socialist Party.45 It was Tsalikov who headed this recently formed party. He was a participant in another meeting of the aforementioned representatives on January 31, 1918.46
On February 3, 1918, members of the VMK, having returned from different regions of the country, gathered in Petrograd. This meeting was their last, since it was then decided to notify the central Muslim organizations of the Crimea, Turkestan, Kazakhstan, and the Caucasus about the self-liquidation of the VMK on March 1, 1918.47 The decree of the new government on the abolition of the VMK was published in the Izvestia of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on May 23, 1918. This decision of the Soviet government, however, had enormous political significance. As noted in the memorandum of British intelligence dated June 25, 1918, after the dissolution of the VMK, an open split arose in both European and Asian Russia between Muslims and the Bolshevik regime.48
Tsalikov himself, however, did not pose a danger to the Bolsheviks. According to the certificate issued to him on March 5, 1918, by the Central Muslim Commissariat headed by M. Vakhitov, he was sent to the Caucasus to purchase grain for the starving Fergana region Tsalikov’s subsequent political career, however, was not connected with his mandate, but with the North Caucasus. 49

Tsalikov in the Caucasus
On November 15, 1917, the Union of United Mountaineers of the North Caucasus and Dagestan proclaimed the Mountaineers' Republic, which included all mountain peoples, as well as the Nogais and Turkmens, on the territory from the Caspian to the Black Sea, including Stavropol, Kuban, and the Black Sea region. In the declaration (December 2, 1917), the Central Committee of the Union of Mountaineers announced that, in view of the extraordinary circumstances, it had decided to take the path of implementing a "federal-republican state system" on the mountain territory. In connection with this, the Mountaineers' Republic was proclaimed an autonomous state of the Russian Federal Republic, and the Central Committee - its Provisional Government. On December 3, the Central Committee of the Union of Highlanders decided that the proclaimed autonomy would extend to the entire territory of the Dagestan region, to 6 mountain districts and the Karanogai section of the Terek region, as well as to the territory of the Nogais and Turkmens of the Stavropol province.50 On May 11, 1918, the government of the Mountaineers' Republic declared the independence of the Republic of the Union of Highlanders of the North Caucasus and Dagestan.
The proclamation of the Mountaineers' Republic did not evoke support from the North Caucasian religious leaders, who were fighting for power among themselves, seeking to introduce here, in one form or another, a theocratic government. To this day, there is a heated debate in the scientific literature about the status of Sheikh N. Gotsinsky: some believe that he was the imam of the North Caucasus and Dagestan, as Soviet historiography claimed; others insist that he was only the mufti of the North Caucasus and Dagestan.51 Tsalikov's appearance attracted support from the delegates of the IV Congress of the Peoples of Terek (Vladikavkaz, July 23-August 21, 1918), where he was elected deputy chairman of the presidium of the congress, and then chairman of the Terek Regional People's Council. He found himself in a difficult situation, since at the beginning of 1919 the Mountaineers' Republic was occupied by the troops of the White General A.I. Denikin, who used several religious leaders. This aspect is ignored in modern historiography. It is enough to note that in the secret political review of the situation in the North Caucasus, which was prepared for the command of the Volunteer Army in May 1919, it was reported that at the end of April 1919 in the village of Ishkarty a meeting of elders and kadis (judges) of Upper Dagestan was held on the issue of the attitude towards the Volunteer Army. A certain Usein-sheikh Urusmanov (under this pseudonym, in my opinion, Gotsinsky was hiding) was present at this meeting, who made a speech calling for submission to the Volunteer Army, and also imposed a ban on declaring a holy war against Denikin's forces. Under the influence of his speech, the participants in the meeting, initially opposed to the Whites, changed their minds. As a result of the meeting, the following decisions were made: not to declare a holy war against the Volunteer Army; to hand over the troops, cities, and the seashore to the Whites so that the Dagestanis would retain their Sharia; to delegate representatives from the beks and mullahs to Temir-Khan-Shura to propose that the Mountaineers' Government join this resolution or resign, handing it over to new people. The delegation elected by the congress arrived in Temir-Khan-Shura at a time when a group of military men, against the will of the government, arrested members of the Dagestan Regional Committee of the RCP(b) and sent them to Petrovsk. This event, as well as the resolution of the representatives of Upper Dagestan, finally forced the Mountaineers' Government to admit its impotence and lack of support among the population, and on May 5, 1919, it resigned in full force. The Military Council, headed by General M. Khalilov, an enemy of the Bolsheviks and a supporter of Dagestan's independence, took over the leadership of the Mountaineers' Republic. After which the Whites entered Dagestan and occupied Petrovsk and Derbent without a fight. After this, the government resigned on May 10, 1919. On the same day, the Dagestani faction of the Mountaineers' Parliament, having gathered together with representatives of the mullahs and the Dagestani intelligentsia, decided to propose that the parliament accept the resignation of the government. In the future, until the convocation of the Dagestan Regional Council, which was promised by the representatives of the Volunteer Army, all power was to be transferred to General Khalilov. Thus, the Mountaineers' Republic was liquidated.52 Everything turned out exactly as Gotsinsky had called for.
There was a heated debate at the last session of parliament. According to the published minutes of this meeting,53 the representative of Chechnya, Sheikh Yusup-hadji Baibatyrov, addressing the deputy54 of the Sharia Imam of the North Caucasus, said: “Here from this rostrum a month ago the voice of the Dagestani clergy55 was heard calling for “gazavat” when the black clouds of reaction were approaching Chechnya; here from this rostrum those Dagestani people shouted who are now cowardly capitulating to danger... We believed you and your oaths. Hundreds of widows and orphans, shedding holy blood for the freedom of Ingushetia, looked here and waited for you in moments of despair, when the enemy Denikin put flourishing villages to the flames and sword. Alas, you were silent. The black clouds finally burst like bloody rain over Chechnya. You were all silent... Now, after the defeat of the Ingush and Chechens, the danger has come to you. Where is the defense, where are the oaths and promises to protect the freedom of the people to the last man? O Allah, your Scripture has suddenly faded, and in the place where it is written that everyone from the small to the great must declare "ghazawat" to the one who encroaches on the freedom of the people, it has suddenly become "everyone must slavishly bow their heads before the enemy." Imam of the North Caucasus, Sharia head of Dagestan56, tell me, where did you read this, that Dagestan must bow its gray head before the enemy, or is this the fruit of your thoughts? Show us this place in the Koran. We also know the Sharia and the Koran, but there is no such place there; it says that against a hundred of the enemy, one true believer must stand, if these hundred of the enemy encroach on his freedom. " In response, the deputy of the Sheikh-ul-Islam stated that Sharia does not allow waging war with volunteers due to lack of forces, quoted verses from the Koran, and gave incoherent explanations.57
These speeches clearly demonstrate the presence of two rival religious camps in the North Caucasus. In modern historiography, it is believed that Gotsinsky headed one group, and the other was headed by sheikhs Uzun-Hadji Saltinsky and Ali-Hadji Akushinsky. If Gotsinsky believed that Denikin's forces were capable of helping the highlanders drive out the Bolsheviks, then Uzun-Hadji and Akushinsky considered Denikin's forces to be occupiers and called on the highlanders to fight them and support the Bolsheviks, citing the fact that cooperation with them would help protect Islam, since the ideals of the Bolsheviks corresponded to the principles of Sharia.
Only when the defeat of the Volunteer Army was practically a foregone conclusion did Denikin turn to the highlanders with a call to fight Bolshevism together and declare that he would recognize the independence of the North Caucasus until the convocation of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly, which would make the final decision on this issue. But Denikin's proposal was too late.58 The North Caucasus was visited by the Bolsheviks, who, according to a point of view that is now widespread in Russian historiography, saved the mountaineers from “self-destruction” by restoring “traditional Russian sovereignty over the entire Caucasus”.59
The Bolsheviks were able to use Uzun-Khadzhi and Akushinsky, and with their help, defeat Denikin’s forces in Dagestan. The main internal reason for the fall of the Mountaineers' Republic was, therefore, the desire of some Dagestani religious figures to establish their own power in Dagestan. The Mountaineers' Government appealed to the governments of the Azerbaijan and Georgian Republics for help, but did not even receive military equipment from them, which the mountaineers so urgently needed.60
Tsalikov, who was in Tiflis by that time, took part in a conference of political figures of the North Caucasus on July 12, 1919, and was elected chairman of the Committee of the Mountaineers of the North Caucasus. In September 1919, he headed the Union Majlis of the Mountaineers of the Caucasus61, also located in Tiflis. When, on October 10, 1919, in the village of Levashi in the Darginsky District, a congress of representatives of the population of Dagestan opened, to which members of the presidium of the Union Majlis of the Highlanders of the Caucasus and most of its members arrived, a Council for the Defense of Chechnya and Dagestan was elected here, which included Tsalikov. This Council was in fact the Provisional Government of Dagestan, which was created on the initiative of members of the Union Majlis of the Highlanders of the Caucasus, after which the latter decided to self-liquidate.62 The fact that it was the sheikhs who ended up at the head of the Mountaineers' movement was understandable, as Tsalikov noted in his article “Shariatism of the Mountaineers' movement,” published on November 20, 1919. “What is the ideology that inspires these people?
These people create Sharia regiments, Sharia courts, and fight for the triumph of the principles of Sharia. They oppose Sharia ideology to the ideology of Denikinism, the ideology of Bolshevism, and all other ideologies that, from their point of view, have the character of foreign teachings. This phenomenon ... is quite natural and understandable for any observer of mountain life. Sharia is a popular reaction to Denikinism and Bolshevism. The people are looking for a moral justification for the struggle in the sphere of national and religious concepts close to them. Sharia at the current stage of the Mountaineers' movement is the people's desire to proceed from their inherent national, everyday, and religious and moral moments." The mountaineers still lived with the same moods and feelings that they lived with during the long Caucasian War in the 19th century.63
After General P.N. Wrangel took over from Denikin at the head of the White troops in the south of Russia in the spring of 1920, the attitude toward the Mountaineers' Republic changed. As a result, in June 1920, a new Mountaineers' Government headed by Kotsev was formed in Tiflis. It included some members of the previous government, as well as other politicians, including Tsalikov. But Kotsev was arrested on October 18 in Tbilisi by order of the Georgian authorities. A significant role in his arrest was played by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the previous Mountaineers' Government, G. Bammatov (a former tsarist official), who sent Wrangel information against Kotsev, Tsalikov, and the entire newly formed Mountaineers' Government, as a result of which it lost Wrangel's trust and stopped receiving financial subsidies from his government. After the Red Army invaded Crimea in November 1920 and the fall of the Wrangel government, on November 17, at a meeting of the Mountaineers' Government in Tiflis, under the chairmanship of Tsalikov, a commission was elected to organize an uprising of the mountaineers and the struggle against Soviet power. Tsalikov effectively headed the government instead of the arrested Kotsev, who was released only at the end of 1920.64 Tsalikov was also creating his own political party. On November 15, 1920, he published a draft Program of the Social Democratic Party of the Republic of the Union of Mountain Peoples of the North Caucasus in his newspaper Volny Gorets. Tsalikov's style of presentation is clearly visible in this text. Regarding the national question, the program states that for "all self-determining regions" of the former empire, "political separation from Russia becomes a prerequisite for a future free union of peoples and regions." The section devoted to the Mountaineers' Republic states that the mountaineers, like other peoples of the Caucasus, proclaimed "their state independence, forming an independent democratic Republic of the Union of Mountaineers of the North Caucasus." Its primary tasks were to isolate the mountain peoples from the civil war and to establish a peaceful state life for the population on democratic principles within the framework of an independent state. The program also provided for the convocation of the Great Constituent Union Majlis of the Freedom of the Mountain Peoples (Constituent Assembly), freely elected by the entire population of the region.65 Along with political and journalistic activities, Tsalikov was also engaged in scientific work. He became the first publisher of documents and materials covering the events of this period in the North Caucasus. Even then, he spoke out about the difficulties of studying this time, in particular, in this region. "The future historian ... in this area will have a lot of interesting work. We do not take on this backbreaking work of a historian ..."66 - he wrote at the beginning of 1919. Nevertheless, he did a lot to create a source base for documentary coverage of the events of the civil war in the Caucasus. Thus, at the end of 1920 in Tiflis, under his editorship and with his preface, two issues of a collection entitled "The Fight against the Dobrarmiya" were being prepared for publication. Materials on the history of the revolutionary struggle of the mountain peoples of the North Caucasus" (Issue I (April - September 1919); Issue II (September 1919 - January 1920). In addition, Tsalikov, as a publicist, wrote two books - "On the rebellious Dagestan. Notes and observations" and "Two years in Georgia. (1919 and 1920). Meetings and impressions".67 All these publications, however, did not see the light of day, and their manuscripts have not been found to this day.

Tsalikov in exile
After the defeat of the Georgian Republic and the establishment of Soviet power there in early 1921, Tsalikov left Tiflis, taking his personal archive with him. First, he came to Batum, from there he moved to Turkey, where he began to play an important role in the affairs of the all-Caucasian political emigration. Thus, in a letter to A.-M. Topchibashev (in Paris), dated December 1, 1921, he wrote from Istanbul that "unfavorable material conditions are slowing down my recovery, but inshallah68 - I think that I will still recover and will still work for a common goal with you." On December 2, Tsalikov wrote to him that on December 1, the Information Bureau of the Union of Four Republics of the Caucasus (Azerbaijani, Armenian, Georgian, and Mountain) was created in Istanbul. Tsalikov was elected secretary of this bureau.69 In early 1924, Tsalikov moved to the Czechoslovak Republic. In April 1924, the first political organization of Caucasian émigrés appeared in Prague under the name "Union of Mountaineers of the Caucasus", which he headed.70 He also became the editor of the first issue of the literary and scientific collection "Caucasian Highlander", which began to be published by this union in Prague in 1924. Tsalikov represented the mountaineers at various events of the Russian emigration, which concerned the problems of the Caucasus and its population. Thus, on April 14-16, 1924, lectures by P.N. Milyukov on the national question in Russia were held in Prague, followed by a discussion on April 17. Tsalikov took an active part in it, criticizing the views of the speaker.71 On June 6, 1924, in the Russian House in Prague, Tsalikov gave a report, "The Struggle of Social Forces in the North Caucasus". The report examined the issue of mountain-Cossack relations in 1917-1919 in the Terek region, and the reasons for their clashes. At the beginning of his report, he recalled a typical incident from his childhood. Akhmed was riding with his father in a cart loaded with heavy luggage. They met a Cossack riding towards them with an empty cart. His father gave him the right of way. When Akhmed asked his father why he did this, he answered: "The Cossacks conquered us, and we must give in to them." From Tsalikov's point of view, to normalize relations between them, it is necessary to recognize the right of the mountain peoples to self-determination, and the Cossacks of Kuban and Terek should cede part of their intersecting lands to the mountaineers, stop dominating them, join the Mountaineers' Republic as a canton, and recognize the creation of the Caucasian Federal Republic (or the United States of the Caucasus).72 Tsalikov's activity in Prague, his speeches, and publications caused discontent among some of the Mountaineers' Emigration. As a result, on August 22, 1924, an article by Tsalikov was published in the Russian émigré newspaper "Dni" (published in Berlin at the time), in which it was reported that due to disagreements that had arisen among politicians of Mountaineers, he had to leave the board of the Union of Caucasian Mountaineers.
In the autumn of 1924, he spent some time in Paris.73 Here, in November 1924, the Caucasian Committee (Committee for the Liberation of the Caucasus) was created.
Interestingly, one of the representatives of the North Caucasus on the committee was not Tsalikov, but Bammatov, who, as noted above, compromised the second government of the Mountaineers' Republic and thereby caused a split in the alliance of Wrangelites and mountaineers fighting the Bolsheviks. Of course, Tsalikov visited Paris more than once and met with Topchibashev. An important aspect of his life in Prague was journalism. He wrote on various topics for the newspaper Dni. Several of his manuscripts that he sent to its editors have survived, in particular: The Congress of Russian Scientists in Prague (received by the editors on September 27, 1924), Suspicious Democratism (received by the editors on October 28, 1924), Fathers and Sons (received by the editors on November 1, 1924), Day of Russian Culture (received by the editors on June 11, 1925), The Theater of Russian Drama in Prague (received by the editors on October 10, 1925), New Russian Literature in the Eurasian Understanding, where he analyzed P.N. Savitsky’s report at the Russian House in Prague. He signed these manuscripts with the pseudonym “Jinn” (abbreviated as J.).74 The newspaper Dni (which began to be published in Paris in September 1924) published his materials, as a rule, under this pseudonym, for example, an article about the Socialist Union of Russian Students in Czechoslovakia, which organized V. M. Chernov’s report “The Agrarian Question in Modern Socialism” in Prague.75 Many of his other publications meant that he was the Prague correspondent for the newspaper Dni.
In addition, he continued to write various works: in 1924 he completed the first volume of notes "The Caucasus in the Fire of Revolution", prepared for publication a novel about the revolutionary life of the Caucasus - "Notes of a Caucasian", completed the first part of the physical-geographical, statistical, ethnographic, linguistic, economic and political essay "Mountaineers' Republic".76 An important event in the life of the Caucasian emigration was the opening in October 1925 at the Prague Institute for the Study of Russia of the Society for Caucasian Studies, one of the founders of which was Tsalikov. The society, as he explained, is a strictly scientific institution, not pursuing any political or party goals, and sets as its goal the study of the nature, population, life, culture, economy, and political life of the Caucasus in the past and present, as well as familiarization with this data to the public of European and other countries. Tsalikov became a member of the temporary bureau of the society and was preparing to deliver a report entitled “Physical and geographical description of the territory of the mountain peoples of the Caucasus and ethnographic, linguistic and statistical data on these peoples”.77 As a newspaper correspondent, Tsalikov was aware of the social and cultural life of the Russian emigration in Prague. Thus, a note dedicated to the Prague troupe of the Moscow Art Theatre, which covered in detail its touring life in Europe, and a note about the opening of the season of this troupe shows that Tsalikov was also a theatre critic.78 In the report “October 28 and the Russian Emigration,” he spoke about the ceremonial meetings of Russian emigrants in Prague dedicated to the 7th anniversary of the proclamation of independence of the Czechoslovak Republic.79 In the form of a letter to the editor of a Parisian newspaper, he presented the report of V.M. Chernov's "Emigration and Russia" and the discussion around it, which took place in Prague on December 6, 1925.80 Sometimes Tsalikov's materials were published without a signature at all. Thus, in the note "The First Prague Russian Theater" it was reported that on November 2, the season of the permanent Russian Drama Theater, its composition, repertoire, etc.81 The manuscript of this note, which was written by him, has been preserved in the archive.82 His reports on literary evenings of Russian emigrants indicate that he was well versed in Russian literature and poetry, i.e., he was also a literary critic.83 At the meetings of the literary circle in the Prague cafe "Daliborka", a play by Tsalikov himself was read, which was called "Shaitan's Jokes", dedicated to Caucasian life.84 He also wrote the play "Hadji Murat", i.e., he was also a playwright.85 Tsalikov knew the life of the Georgian emigration and its problems well. This is the subject of his letter to E.D. Prokopovich-Kuskova, in particular, where he noted: "The Georgian national democrats are the most ardent enemies of Russia and the Russian orientation. Anyone but Russia - that is their political slogan. Now they see salvation in the English protectorate."86 The problems of the Caucasus were at the center of his thoughts. As a political scientist, he studied the current policy of the Soviet government in the Caucasus, using Soviet sources. Thus, in the note "Cossacks, non-residents and highlanders," he wrote: "Six years have passed since the Northern Caucasus was cleared of the volunteer army and occupied by the Bolsheviks as a result of a bloody civil war. A new government has come. Has it managed to overcome the national and social contradictions of the region? In this regard, vivid pages can be found in the recently published verbatim report of the regional conference on work among the Cossacks, which took place at the North Caucasus Regional Committee of the RCP(b) (22.6 - 26.6.1925, Rostov-on-Don). Then he presented fragments of the report of the secretary of this regional committee N.F. Gikalo on the situation in the North Caucasus. At the end of the message, Tsalikov expressed his view on the problem: "The ugly manifestations of social and national enmity can be eradicated only under the conditions of a legal democratic system, with its respect for the rights of the individual, with its free space for public initiative and the struggle of social forces, with its broad opportunity for cultural development".87 This is how he saw the future of life for the highlanders of the North Caucasus. In the same issue, there is another note of his, which is dedicated to the work of the Society for Caucasian Studies in Prague. It follows from it that Tsalikov, already being the chairman of the bureau of this society, made a speech at its meeting in which the goals and objectives of the society were indicated, and then made a report in which physical-geographical, ethnographic, linguistic, historical, economic, and other information about the Caucasus was presented. This society operated until 1927, ceasing its work due to lack of funding, about which Tsalikov wrote to Chernov, asking him to help in this matter.88
By January 1926, Tsalikov had completed work on the essay "The Mountaineers' Republic". In addition, as a writer, he was working on what he called an epic of five novels: "Brother Against Brother", "Bloody Mountains", "Seven Stars", dedicated to the events of the civil war in the North Caucasus and Georgia, "The Truth of Life" (about emigrant life in Czechoslovakia) and "Villa of Said Pasha" (about events in Turkey).89 Only one work was published, namely: the novel "Brother Against Brother" appeared in Prague in 1926. There were different reviews of this work. Thus, the famous Russian linguist and political emigrant S.I. Kartsevsky saw in this work, dedicated to the Ossetians, half of whom were then Muslims and half Christians, "the self-awareness of a small nation emerging in the fire of civil war", arrogantly characterizing the national feeling of this people, whose number was then about 200 thousand people. 90
In Prague in November 1926, the People's Party of the Caucasus Mountaineers arose. Its main goal was to create an independent Mountaineers' Republic as part of the Caucasian Confederation.91 The party was headed by Tsalikov.92 In historiography, it is erroneously believed that S. Shamil headed it from the very beginning.
In 1927, a new magazine, "Free Mountaineers," began to be published here, which was the printed organ of this party. Each of its issues contains Tsalikov's texts in which he expounded his views. Thus, he wrote that "today's communism is the same old Russian despotism, repainted in red, which has crushed our people, not allowing them the opportunity to breathe freely".93 In May 1927, he called in this journal to condemn the Parisian Mountaineers' center, "claiming political representation".94 Here we are talking about the Temporary United Political Center of the Northern Caucasus and Azerbaijan, which was created in Paris in January 1927 by Bammatov, an old rival of Tsalikov.95 From Prague, Tsalikov had to leave for Poland. In a letter dated April 7, 1928, he wrote from Warsaw to his comrade in Berlin: "I have moved from Prague to Warsaw to the Eastern Institute, where a Mountaineers' section is being organized." Here, "the Mountaineers colony is more interesting than in Prague, where in the end nothing came of it except slanders and quarrels. In the collapse of the Prague colony of highlanders, Kazi Khan Besholty played no small role.96 Well, Allah be his judge! Personally, I am glad that I left Czechoslovakia; otherwise, in this swamp, I could have committed suicide. Let's see what Warsaw and the Eastern Institute will give ... ".97 This departure of Tsalikov is a consequence, firstly, of the conflict between representatives of two émigré groups of the highlander elite: the democratic republicans and the monarchists. Secondly, in Prague, Tsalikov, as the Caucasus expert S.E. Berzeg rightly noted, became disillusioned with the Russian socialists, who, in his opinion, were no longer socialists or revolutionaries, and came to the conclusion that the Caucasian peoples in the struggle for their political independence can rely only on themselves. Tsalikov was the leader of the Promethean movement in Prague, which was already in place. 98 Thirdly, Tsalikov’s appearance in Warsaw was connected with the fact that the Prometheus Society was created there in 1928.
It is significant that his last article, devoted to the social life of the Caucasus mountaineers, was published in August 1928 in the Prometheus magazine. In it, he predicted that the time was not far off when the yoke of red despotism would collapse with the same crash as the tsar’s, and the mountaineers would become free citizens of their own states.99 On September 2, 1928, he died at the age of 45.
On September 4, 1928, the Polish newspaper Kurier Varshavsky placed an obituary about him under the Eastern Institute, describing him as an outstanding Ossetian writer and publicist, a political and public figure of the mountain peoples of the Caucasus, noting that the funeral would take place on September 4 at the Muslim cemetery on ul. Tatarskaya in Warsaw.100
In early 1935 in Paris, at the opening of the conference of Caucasian political figures and organizations that were part of the Prometheus movement, representatives of Azerbaijan, Georgia and the North Caucasus stood up to honor the memory of N. Ramishvili, A.M. Topchibashev and A. Tsalikov, thereby highly appreciating the contribution, in particular, of Tsalikov to the Prometheus movement, as one of the initiators of the creation of the Caucasian Confederation. 101
Some of the documents that were kept in the personal archive of A. Tsalikov in Prague ended up in the so-called Russian Foreign Historical Archive in Prague, which was taken to the USSR in 1945, and subsequently these materials ended up in the special storage of the TsGAOR USSR (the Prague Archive) and were declassified only during perestroika. Now these documents are in the GARF of the Russian Federation and are scattered across various funds. For example, fragments of the aforementioned manuscript of Tsalikov, "Mountaineers of the Caucasus in the Fight against the Volunteer Army, " have been preserved there.102 All these materials and other unknown sources that have yet to be found in the archives of different countries, including Warsaw and Paris, can significantly expand knowledge about the specific contribution Tsalikov made to the Promethean movement. Thus, A. Tsalikov is a bright, unique representative of the democratic community of the Muslim population of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. He began his political life as a Muslim socialist. In 1917, he headed the All-Russian Muslim Council, which fought for the rights of Muslims in Eurasia, including the North Caucasus. He was an undoubted democrat, modernist, and progressive, but at the same time, he attached great importance to preserving national and religious traditions and institutions. While in the North Caucasus in 1918-1921, he did a lot for the self-determination of the mountaineers, for their independence. His work as a historian, journalist, publicist, political scientist, writer, and playwright in exile is of great interest. Dozens of his publications, usually under a pseudonym (which was first deciphered), are available in various émigré publications, especially in the Berlin-Paris newspaper "Dni", which has yet to be analyzed from various points of view. Like many emigrants, Tsalikov had the usual need for their literary life not to name themselves in print for the purposes of conspiracy, using a pseudonym to avoid any revenge from their enemies. His emigrant pseudonym "Genie" is very expressive, evoking several associations. In emigration, he, having repeatedly visited Paris, carried out a great deal of Promethean activity, created the People's Party of the Caucasus Mountaineers, and made a great contribution to the creation of the Caucasian Confederation. Analyzing the driving "springs" of the long-term struggle of the North Caucasian mountaineers for their freedom, he was convinced that any non-Mountaineers' Government does not and will not have support among the mountain masses, that the idea of ​​a Mountaineers' Republic will remain attractive to them.

Dr. Salavat Iskhakov is a historian, Doctor of Historical Sciences, and a leading researcher at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His research interests cover the history of the Russian Empire of the early 20th century, in particular the period of the October Revolution, as well as the history of the Muslim minority in Russia.

Notes:

  1. Коцев П. Как не пишется история // Кавказ (Париж). 1936. № 3/27. С. 10.
  2. История Северо-Осетинской АССР: С древнейших времен до наших дней. В 2 т. Изд. 2-е, перераб. и доп. Орджоникидзе, 1987. Т. 1. С. 487-488.
  3. История народов Северного Кавказа (конецХVШ в. - 1917 г.). М.,1988. С. 419,473,489,540.
  4. См. : Исхаков С.М. А.Т. Цаликов // Политические деятели России. 1917. Биографический сло варь. М., 1993. С. 336-338.
  5. См., Turan М. А. Fırtınalı Yıllarda Bir Mücadele Adamı: Ahmet Nimbolatoviç Tsalıkattı (1882-1928) // Yedi Yıldız. 1994. No: 3; Turan M.A. Kuzey Kafkasya ve Rusya Müslümanlarının Öncü Aydınlarından Ahmet Tsalıkattı // Tarih ve Toplum. 1996. No: 153.
  6. Цаликов А. Избранное.Владикавказ, 2002.
  7. Белоус А.В. Поэтика А. Цаликова: моноrрафия. Владикавказ, 2017. С. 7.
  8. https://nanovic.nd.edu/events/2012/10/05/midwest-russian-history-workshop-2/
  9. См.: Очерки А.Цаликова «Гражданская война в Терском крае»// Гражданская война в России и мусульмане. Сборник документов и материалов. М., 2014. С. 420-447.
  10. См.: Бабич ИЛ. Теория построения rосударства на Северном Кавказе (северокавказская эми грантская мысль 1920-1930-х rr. в Европе // История rосударства и права. 2011. № 21-23; Она же. Северокавказская нация в европейской эмиrрации (1917-1930-е rоды): миф или реальность // Общество как объект и субъект власти. Очерки политической антрополоrии Кавказа. СПб., 2012. С. 376-402; Она же. Кавказцы и российская rосударственность (на примере участия кавказцев в русских масонских ложах Франции 1920-1940-х rr.) //Вестник российской нации. 2014. № 6 (38). С. 173-188; Она же. Кубанцы и кавказцы: вместе и врозь в европейской эмиrрации (1919-1930-е годы) // Научная мысль Кавказа.2012.№ 1 (69).С.84-92; Она же. Осетины во Франции (1919-1939 rr.) // Вестник Владикавказскоrо Научного центра РАН. 2016. Т. 16. № 3. С. 16-19; Она же. Исламские ценности в жизни кавказских эмигрантов во Франции (1919-1939 rr.) // Исламоведение. 2016. Т. 7. № 1 (27); Она же. Осетинские судьбы во Франции // Известия СОИГСИ.2016.Вып.19 (58).С.131-133; Она же. Жители Северного Кавказа и юта России в эмиrрации (1919-1939 rr.): между Родиной и Францией // Исторический журнал: научные исследования. 2016. № 3 (33). С. 309-322; и др.
  11. Государственный архив Российской Федерации (ГАРФ). Ф. Р-5764. Оп. 3. Д. 6204.Л. 1. Эта дата указана в анкете, заполненной и подписанной Цаликовым 22 мая 1924 r. в Праге. На сайте Архив ной службы Республики Северная Осетия - Алания указана ошибочная дата его рождения - 26 сентября. (URL: http://archive-osetia.ru/).
  12. ГАРФ. Ф. 102. Оп. 100. Д. 1704. Л. 5-6, 12 об, 13; Исхаков С.М. Указ. соч. С. 336-338; Он же. Первая русская революция и мусульмане Российской империи. М., 2007. С. 20-21, 83.
  13. Кэмпинасий Э.В. Российская интеллигенция: история и судьбы (региональное северо-кавказ ское исследование). М., 2005. С. 209; Он же. Пятигорская республика в декабре 1905 года: исследо вание и материалы. М., 2006. С. 71.
  14. См., например: Цаликов. В горах Кавказа. Революционное движение в северной Осетии//Итоги и перспективы. Сб. статей. М., 1906. С. 94-114.
  15. Цаликов. К инородческому вопросу на Кавказе// Возрождение. 1908. № 1. С. 56.
  16. Цаликов. Среди мусульман // Возрождение. 1909. № 1-2. С. 79.
  17. Цаликов. В горах Кавказа... С. 105.
  18. История Северной Осетии: ХХ век. М., 2003. С. 45-46.
  19. ГАРФ. Ф. 63. Оп. 21. Д. 493. Л. 23, 28, 31; Оп. 44. Д. 74. Л. 1-6; Оп. 44. Д. 5476. Л. 2-5; Ф. 102. Оп.205.Д.2508.Л. 1, 3, 7, 10, 11.
  20. История Северной Осетии...С.99.
  21. См. подробнее: Салагаева 3. Ахмед Цаликов // Цаликов А. Избранное. Владикавказ, 2002. С. 415-502.
  22. Слово (Петербург).1909.16 июня.
  23. См.: Национальные проблемы. 1915. № 1-4.
  24. Центральный государственный архив Москвы. Ф. 417. Оп. 28. Д. 70. Л. 2, 6, 9, 14.
  25. Известия Всероссийского мусульманского совета (ИВМС). 1917. 27 октября.
  26. Там же. 1О ноября.
  27. Цаликов А. Мусульмане России и федерация. Речь, произнесенная на Всероссийском мусульманском съезде в Москве 1-11 мая 1917 г. Пг., 1917. С. 9, 12.
  28. Речь (Петроград). 1917. 30 мая; Вестник Временного правительства (Петроград). 1917. 21 июня.
  29. Исхаков С.М. Российские мусульмане и революция (весна 1917 г. - лето 1918 г.). М., 2004. С.189.
  30. Там же.С.199-201.
  31. ИВМС.1917.11 августа.
  32. Меньшевики в 1917 году: В 3 т. Т. 3. М., 1997. С. 669-672.
  33. Исхаков С.М. Российские мусульмане: и революция... С. 322-332.
  34. Там же. С. 347.
  35. Там же.
  36. ИВМС. 1917. 6 октября.
  37. Тамже. 15 декабря.
  38. Там же. 27 октября.
  39. Там же. 10 ноября.
  40. Там же. 24 ноября.
  41. Там же. 17 ноября.
  42. Исхаков С.М. Российские мусульмане и революция... С. 372-373.
  43. ИВМС. 1917. 29 декабря.
  44. Там же. 8 декабря.
  45. Меньшевики в большевистской России. 1918-1924. Меньшевики в 1918 году. М., 1999. С. 188, 194-195.
  46. Российский государственный архив социально-политической истории (РГАСПИ). Ф. 275. Оп.221. L.24-25.
  47. Исхаков С.М. Российские мусульмане и революция... С. 371.
  48. Public Record Office. САВ 24/57/69. Р. 8.
  49. Вахитов М. Избранное. Статьи, речи, письма, документы. Казань, 1967. С. 103.
  50. Известия ВМС.1917.29 декабря.
  51. См.: Доного Х.М. Нажмуддин Гоцинский.Махачкала, 2011.С.437.
  52. ГАРФ. Ф. Р-6396. Оп. 1. Д. 24. Л. 77 об. - 78.
  53. Коцев, вспоминая об этом событии, отрицал подлинность протокола этого последнего заседания парламента. Он считал его «вольным пересказом официального протокола», который «не вполне» совпадал с оригиналом. Коцев соглашался только с тем местом в этом пересказе, что тогда подавляющее большинство депутатов голосовало против предложения ликвидировать парламент и правительство (Коцев П Указ. соч. С. 8, 9). Тем не менее дагестанская фракция отказалась от работы в парламенте, в силу чего парламент был распущен на неопределенное время, а правительство прекратило свою работу.
  54. Возможно, имеется в виду шейх Абдул-Басыр-Хаджи Казанищенский.
  55. Имеется в виду шейх Узун-Хаджи Салтинский, который провозгласил газават против Добро вольческой армии А.И. Деникина, а после роспуска горского правительства создал Северо-Кавказский эмират со столицей в чеченском селении Ведено (1919-1920 rr.) и боролся с деникинцами.
  56. Имеется в виду Н. Гоцинский. Значит, он, будучи тогда главой Ведомства шариатских дел Горской республики, имел при этом статус имама Северного Кавказа.
  57. Борьба (Тифлис). 1919. 10 июля. П. Коцев в эмиграции писал по этому поводу, что «тенденциозная газетная заметка о неблагонадежности "большинства" парламента и правительства по ча сти симпатий их Добр-армии», появившаяся в газете «Азербайджан», была перепечатана газетой «Грузия». Коцев объясняет ситуацию иначе: значительное число депутатов находилось на фронте, многие из них разъехались по округам в целях пропаганды и мобилизации горцев на борьбу против белых (Коцев П. Указ. соч. С. 8, 9).
  58. Даутов А.Х, Месхидзе А.Х Национальная государственность горских народов Северного Кав каза (1917-1924). СПб., 2009. С. 66, 72-73.
  59. Лобанов В.Б. Терек и Дагестан в огне Гражданской войны. Религиозное, военно-политическое и идеологическое противостояние в 1917-1920-х годах. СП6, 2017. С. 466.
  60. Коцев П. Ложь не во спасение // Кавказ (Париж). 1935. № 12/24. С. 7.
  61. Гражданская война в России и мусульмане. С. 44, 566, 569.
  62. Борьба (Тифлис). 1919. 19 октября; 5, 8 ноября; Вольный горец (Тифлис). 1919. 10 ноября.
  63. Вольный горец (Тифлис). 1919. 20 ноября.
  64. Жупикова Е.Ф. Повстанческое движение на Северном Кавказе в 1920-192S гг. М., 2016. С. 1SS-1S7, 176.
  65. См.: Гражданская война в России и мусульмане. С. 541-548.
  66. Борьба (Тифлис). 1919. 2 марта.
  67. Вольный горец (Тифлис). 1920. 31 декабря.
  68. Если Бог пожелает (араб.).
  69. Le Centre d'etudes des mondes russe, caucasien et centre-europeen, l'Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales (Paris). Archives d'Ali Mardan-bey Toptchibachi. Carton n° 5. Фотокопии предоставлены Г.Мамулиа.
  70. The Caucasus Under Soviet Rule. New York, 2010. Р. 217.
  71. Оrни (Праrа). 1924. 14, 28 апреля.
  72. Кавказскийrорец (Праrа).1924.№ 1. С.71; Казачийпуть (Праrа).1924.№ 19.С.11-12; № 20.С.1-2.
  73. Русская военная эмиrрация 20-40-х rодов ХХ века.Документы и материалы.Т.5.М., 2010.С.476.
  74. См.: ГАРФ.Ф.Р-5878.Оп. 1.Д.431.Л.1-2; Д.432.Л.1-2; Д.433.Л.1-3; Оп.2.Д.109.Л.1-4,7-14, 18-19.
  75. Дни (Париж).1924.27 октября.
  76. Кавказский горец (Прага). 1924.№ 1.С.71.
  77. Дни (Париж). 1925. 22 октября
  78. Там же. 16 октября; 22 декабря.
  79. Там же. 3 ноября.
  80. Там же. 8 декабря.
  81. Там же. 3 ноября.
  82. ГАРФ. Ф. Р-5878. Оп. 1. Д. 432. Л. 1-2.
  83. Дни (Париж). 1925. 6 ноября, 29 декабря.
  84. Там же. 2 декабря.
  85. Российский государственный архив литературы и искусства (РГАЛИ). Ф. 2295. Оп. 1. Д. 38. Л. 9.
  86. ГАРФ. Ф. Р-5865. Оп. 1. Д. 542. Л. 2.
  87. Дни (Париж). 1925. 11 декабря.
  88. ГАРФ. Ф. Р-5847. Оп. 2. Д. 94. Л. 1.
  89. РГАЛИ. Ф. 2295. Оп. 1. Д. 38. Л. 9.
  90. Карцевский С. Художественная литература// Славянская книга (Прага). 1926. № 1. С. 52.
  91. «Кристаллизация» горского освободительного движения. Размышления Б. Байтугана об истории мусульман Северного Кавказа и Дагестана// Вопросы истории. 2001. № 5. С. 20.
  92. Исхаков С. «Прометей» и мусульмане Кавказа, Крыма, Поволжья, Туркестана и Урала// Ruch prometejski i walkao przebudow� Europy Wschodniej (1918-1940). Warszawa, 2012. С. 256.
  93. Ахмед Цаликов. О родине и воле// Вольные горцы (Прага). 1927. № 1. С. 14.
  94. Цаликов А. Разъединение и объединение// Вольные горцы (Прага). 1927. № 2. С. 9.
  95. Кавказская Конфедерация в официальных декларациях, тайной переписке и секретных документах движения «Прометей». Сборник документов/ Сост., пред., пер., прим. Г.Г. Мамулиа. М., 2012. С. 216.
  96. Бесолов (по-осетински Бешолпы, Бесолты) Казихан - в 1919 r. адъютант во 2-м Осетинском полку Добровольческой армии, в 1920 r. в Турции, член Союза горцев Кавказа и Народной партии горцев Кавказа, в которой являлся секретарем дипломатического представительства.
  97. ЦаликовА. Избранное. С. 499-500.
  98. Berzeg E., Kuzey Kafkasya Cumhuriyeti С. III. 1917-1922. Istanbul, 2006. S. 426.
  99. См.: Tsalykkaty La vie sociale des montagnards du Caucase // Promethee. 1928. № 21. Р. 14-19.
  100. Салагаева 3., Указ. соч. С. 500.
  101. Кавказская Конфедерация в официальных декларациях, тайной переписке и секретных доку ментах движения «Прометей»... С. 101.
  102. ГАРФ. Ф. Р-5881. Оп. 2. Д. 880.Л. 1-183.
Your experience on this site will be improved by allowing cookies.