Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus | |||||||||
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1918[1]–1919[2] | |||||||||
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Capital | Temir-Khan-Shura | ||||||||
Religion | Sunni Islam (majority and state-backed faith) Russian Orthodox Church (minority) | ||||||||
Demonym(s) | North Caucasian | ||||||||
Government | Confederated parliamentary republic under a provisional government | ||||||||
Prime Minister | |||||||||
• 11 May 1918 – December 1918 | Tapa Tchermoeff | ||||||||
• December 1918 – 12 May 1919 | Pshemakho Kotsev | ||||||||
Establishment | |||||||||
History | |||||||||
6 March 1917 | |||||||||
• Independence declared | 11 May 1918 | ||||||||
• Replaced by North Caucasian Emirate[8] | September 1919 | ||||||||
• Established | 1918[1] | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1919[2] | ||||||||
Area | |||||||||
• Total | 430,874 km2 (166,361 sq mi) | ||||||||
Population | |||||||||
• 1919 census | 11,221,860[9] | ||||||||
Currency | Tumen | ||||||||
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Today part of | Russia |
The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus (MRNC), also referred to as the United Republics of the North Caucasus, Mountain Republic, or the Republic of the Mountaineers, was a state in Eurasia and encompassing the entirety of the North Caucasus that emerged during the Russian Civil War and existed from 1918 to 1919. It formed as a consolidation of various Caucasian ethnic groups, including the Abazins, Circassians, Chechens, Karachays, Ossetians, Balkars, Ingush, and Dagestanis.
The MRNC encompassed the former territories of Terek Oblast and Dagestan Oblast within the Russian Empire. These territories now constitute the present-day republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia–Alania, Kabardino-Balkaria, Dagestan, and a portion of Stavropol Krai in the Russian Federation. Spanning approximately 430,874 square kilometers (166,361 sq mi), the MRNC had a population of approximately 11.2 million. Throughout its existence, the capital of the MRNC relocated from Vladikavkaz to Nazran and ultimately settled in Temir-Khan-Shura.
The MRNC broke away from the Russian Empire after the February Revolution, just before the outbreak of the Russian Civil War. The Russian Volunteer Army captured the state in 1919, and it ceased to exist.[2] However, in September 1919, the North Caucasian Emirate was proclaimed as the successor of the Mountain Republic.[8] However, in August 1920, it was captured by the Soviet Russia, which led to an uprising.[10] In April 1921, the Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was established by the Bolsheviks within the RSFSR, but the uprising lasted until 1925.[11]
On 11 May 1918 the independence of the Republic of the North Caucasus was declared. The government sought international recognition and when on 8 June 1918 a Treaty of Friendship was signed with Turkey this implied recognition of the new Republic.
The government of Kotsev was not able to defend its territory, and in May 1919 the White Army of Denikin conquered the territory of the Mountain Republic in Chechnya and Daghestan, and the Mountain Republic ceased to exist.
In 1919 Sheikh Uzun Haji, Pshemakho Kotsev and Sheikh Akushinskii called for a fight against the White or Volunteer Army of Denikin and in September 1919 the Emirate of the North Caucasus was proclaimed, comprising the North of Daghestan, Chechnya and part of Ingushetia. To secularist nationalists the Emirate was seen as the successor of the Mountain Republic.
In August 1920 however, the Bolshevik army attacked Chechnya from the north, and the leaders of the emirate called for a jihad, asking the grandson of Imam Shamil, Sait Shamil, to lead the fight. He was one of the two survivors of this fight and later fled to Turkey.
It took the Russians until 1925 to arrest and kill Gotsinskii. The uprising was inter alia successful because the Caucasians obeyed the requests of the Sufi clerics who organized the revolt. In April 1921 a Mountain ASSR, of which Chechen territory was part, was established within the RSFSR. On 20 January 1921 the Daghestan ASSR was declared. On 30 November 1922 a Chechen Autonomous Oblast was created.