Kudashev: change of political and ethnic identities in emigration

This article aims to study social and political activities of three generations of the Kabardian Kudashev family: Vladimir Nikolayevich (1865-1945), his son Vladimir Vladimirovich (1905-1979) and grandson Alexander Vladimirovich (1951). After the October Revolution in 1917 and the events in 1918-1919 in Kabarda, V.N. Kudashev and V.V. Kudashev were forced to emigrate to Europe and settle in France. This study is based on new archival materials from France and Germany, as well as interviews conducted by one of this article authors with A.V. Kudashev in Berlin (2020-2022), therefore furthering the findings of Dzagalov and Shapirova (2010). During his life in France, the views of Vladimir Nikolaevich Kudashev, who once comprehensively supported the Russian monarchy and the annexation of Kabarda in the Russian Empire, changed fundamentally. During World War 2, his son even served in the German army. The change of political identity that the Kudashevs experienced during emigration was accompanied by changes in their ethnic identity. The Kabardian language and traditions disappeared and were supplanted by Russian and later German roots. As a result, grandson and great-grandchildren of Vladimir Nikolaevich have a German identity. The article examines the features of the processes leading to changes in political and ethnic identities in the Kudashev family.

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