Geographically, the term North Caucasus also refers to the northern slope and western extremity of the Greater Caucasus mountain range, as well as a part of its southern slope to the West. The Pontic–Caspian steppe area is often also encompassed under the notion of a Ciscaucasus region, thus the northern boundary of the Forecaucasus steppe or Nogai steppe is generally considered to be the Manych River. Owing to its mild climate compared to much of Russia, the region has been described as Russia's "sunbelt".[f]
History
Northern Caucasus, Early Bronze Age artifacts, 3rd millennium BCE.
Ancient cultures of the Northern Caucasus are known as Klin-Yar community, with one of the most notable cultures being the ancient Koban culture.[5]
Ciscaucasus was historically covered by the Pontic–Caspian steppe, mostly on fertile calcareous chernozyom soils, which has been almost completely tilled and grazed. It is bounded by the Sea of Azov on the west, and the Caspian Sea on the east. According to the Concise Atlas of the World, Second Edition (2008), the Ciscaucasus region lies on the European side of the "commonly-accepted division" that separates Europe from Asia.[d]
Russia completed the conquest of the North Caucasus by 1864. Between the 1850s and World War I, about a million North Caucasian Muslims, including Circassians, Chechens, Ingush, Ossetians, and others, became refugees in the Ottoman Empire.[6] The Ottoman government settled North Caucasian refugees in territories of modern-day Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, Georgia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Kosovo, Greece, Cyprus, and North Macedonia, creating a large North Caucasian diaspora.[7]
Much of the Northern Caucasus seceded from Russia in March 1917 as the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus, taking advantage of the instability caused by the February Revolution and becoming a minor participant in the Russian Civil War. Mountainous Republic troops engaged in fierce clashes against the invading White General Anton Denikin's Volunteer Army, before the latter's defeat at the hands of the Red Army. The region was informally occupied by the Soviet Union shortly afterwards, and the republic was forced into accepting a nonviolent annexation in January 1921. It was reformed into the Mountainous ASSR, which was later dissolved in October 1924, replaced by a series of autonomous Okrugs and Oblasts.
The outer border of the Soviet Union's North Caucasus Krai was the same as that of present-day North Caucasus Economic Region (Raion) which includes an oblast (Rostov Oblast), two krais (Krasnodar Krai and Stavropol Krai), and seven republics. The former North Caucasus Military District (Okrug) also included Astrakhan Oblast, Volgograd Oblast, and the Republic of Kalmykia. Its administrative center was Rostov-on-Don until 10 January 1934, Pyatigorsk until January 1936, then Ordzhonikidze (today Vladikavkaz) and, from 15 December 1936, Voroshilovsk (today Stavropol).
The North Caucasus region experienced widespread unrest and insurgency after the fall of the Soviet Union, including a low-level armed conflict between Russia and militants associated with the Caucasus Emirate and, from June 2015, the Islamic State.[8][9][10]
While the insurgency was officially declared over on 19 December 2017 when FSB DirectorAlexander Bortnikov announced the final elimination of the insurgent underground in the North Caucasus,[11] counter-terrorism operations in the North Caucasus have not ended.[12]
In June 2022, the US State Department advised citizens not to travel to the North Caucasus, including Chechnya and Mount Elbrus, due to terrorism, kidnapping and risk of civil unrest.[13]
^Russian: Предкавказье, romanized: Predkavkazye; Also translated as Ciscaucasus or Forecaucasus
^ abThe northern part of the Caucasus is widely considered to be a part of the European continent, as it sits north the Greater Caucasus watershed.[1][2]
^The North Caucasus also shares borders with the two partially recognized breakaway states of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to its south, both of which are internationally recognised as part of Georgia.
^ abA primary introduction to the North Caucasus region.[4]
References
^18th-century definitions drew the boundary north of the Caucasus, across the Kuma–Manych Depression. This definition remained in use in the Soviet Union during the 20th century.
In western literature, the continental boundary has been drawn along the Caucasus watershed since at least the mid-19th century.
See e.g. Baron von Haxthausen, "Transcaucasia" (1854); review Dublin university magazine
Douglas W. Freshfield, "Journey in the Caucasus", Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, Volumes 13–14, 1869.
^"Europe". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved June 6, 2024. Among the alternative boundaries proposed by geographers that have gained wide acceptance is a scheme that sees the crest of the Greater Caucasus range as the dividing line between Europe and Asia, placing Ciscaucasia, the northern part of the Caucasus region, in Europe and Transcaucasia, the southern part, in Asia.
^"El'brus". National Geographic. Retrieved June 6, 2024. Mount El'brus is located in southwest Russia and is part of the Caucasus Mountains. It is the highest point in Russia as well as the highest point in all of Europe. It makes up part of the Prielbrusye National Park.
^Hill, Fiona; Gaddy, Clifford (2003). The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. p. 121. ISBN978-0-8157-9618-3. "The North Caucasus region extends across Rostov oblast and Stavropol and Krasnodar krays. It also encompasses the seven autonomous republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetiya, North Ossetiya, Kabardino-Balkariya, Karachayevo-Cherkessiya, and Adygeya. The region accounts for about 2 percent of the territory of the Russian Federation and in 1989 had a population of 13,183,860, or about 8 percent of the Russian population. The North Caucasus could qualify as Russia's "sunbelt."
^"Six Russian soldiers killed in Chechnya". BBC News. 24 March 2017. Archived from the original on 16 June 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2017. Russian troops in Chechnya have faced a low level insurgency for years ... They still face a low-level insurgency in the mainly Muslim region in Russia's volatile North Caucasus area.
^ ab"Russia's North Caucasus Insurgency Widens as ISIS' Foothold Grows". www.worldpoliticsreview.com. 12 April 2016. Archived from the original on 3 October 2017. Retrieved 3 October 2017. Russia's North Caucasus insurgency has gone relatively quiet, but reduced casualty numbers belie a still-worrying situation where long-standing grievances remain.
