MILITARY CLASS AND MILITARY ORGANIZATION OF TRADITIONAL CIRCASSIAN SOCIETY (15 – MID 19th CENTURY)

The subject of research in the article is the evolution of the structure, social composition, number, mobilization capabilities, principles of the formation of the military class of Circassia in the period from the 15^th to the 60s of the 19^th century. The study of these issues contributes to the understanding of the historical-political and socio-economic processes that took place in the Central and North-Western Caucasus during the period from the Late Middle Ages to the New Age. These goals are considered using the principle of historicism, historical-comparative, retrospective, comparative and other methods. The article analyzes the state of sources and historiography, various assessments of researchers on the indicated problem, and expresses its own point of view. The scientific novelty of the proposed article lies in the fact that it defines the main factors that influenced the evolution of the military class of Circassia: the spread in the 17^th century. firearms in the form of wick guns and a change in the armament complex during the 18^th century, which was the result of the appearance of guns with a rifled barrel and a flint lock. The article deals with the growth of the military class in the 17^th century. at the expense of the peasant classes; formation in the 18^th century. from the peasant militia, previously used exclusively in the infantry, mounted armless troops; increase in the proportion of the nobility in the structure of the population of the feudal possessions of Circassia. The specifics and differences in the composition of the military class, methods of mobilization, principles of the formation of troops and military organization in the aristocratic and democratic polities of Circassia are noted. On the basis of the analysis of sources, the real and potential military resource of the aristocratic and democratic politicians of Circassia, the demographic potential and their evolution during the period of the 17–19^th centuries are determined. In the 15–16^th centuries the basis of the armed forces of all the polities of Circassia was a small, professional equestrian army of the nobility. In the period of the 17–19^th centuries, the military class of Circassia increased at the expense of various categories of the peasantry. The real military resource of Circassia for the 17^th century estimated at 70 thousand people, for the 18 and 19^th centuries – about 90 thousand people. The general demographic potential of Circassia in the 18 – mid 19^th centuries is estimated at 900 thousand people.

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