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.

This article is about the dynamics of the judicial powers of the head of the Center for the Caucasian Line in the 30s – 50s. XIX century. A general overview of the activities of the head of the Caucasian Line Center is given. The study is based on an analysis of the administrative documents of the Caucasian Line Center and subordinate organizations. Attention is drawn to his order of interaction with subordinate institutions of local judicial and administrative control. The features of the administration of justice in the process of interaction between representatives of the local population and the Caucasian line command are analyzed. The article analyzes the set of judicial powers of the head of the Center, the nature of the cases subject to his jurisdiction. The judicial functions of the head of the Center are considered within the framework of the judicial and administrative system that took shape in the Caucasus in the second quarter of the 19th century. Attention is drawn to the fact that the granting of judicial powers to representatives of executive structures was characteristic of most of the national outskirts of the empire and corresponded to the level of development of the Russian legal culture of that time. Attention is drawn to its role in regulating the activities of the Provisional Kabardinsky Court, the judicial functions performed in the framework of interaction with bailiff institutions, the role of the head of the Center in regulating the activities of traditional bodies of administration of justice both among the indigenous population of the Central Caucasus and among migrants (residents of the Aleksandrovskaya German settlement and the Nalchik mountain Jewish colony). It is concluded that the execution of a number of judicial powers by the head of the Caucasian Line Center was explained by the low efficiency of the institutions of local judicial and administrative control, the difficulties of adapting local residents to the Russian presence in the region, and the search for optimal management models.

Part of the preparatory work for writing a generalizing history of the Kabardin-Balkaria is summing up the results of a scientific study of its key problems, which include the interpretation of the traditional system of socio-political or inter-social interactions in the Central Caucasus. In the previous publication, the formation of the historiographical tradition in the 18^th – early 20^th centuries was considered. The proposed article aims to continue the study of this topic using the material of Soviet and post-Soviet historiography. The material considered in the article shows that the construction of a generalized concept of the traditional system of inter-social interactions in the Central Caucasus is a complex problem that touches upon the fundamental issues of the study of regional history. The first of them is the question of the applicability of categories developed in other social sciences or on historical material from other eras and regions to the North Caucasian reality of the 16^th – 18^th centuries. In this case, individual elements and relationships are identified with the structure of the system as a whole. Inter-social interactions that unfold both in space and in time receive a static, exclusively spatial representation. The second question is related to the need to differentiate ethnic and socio-political nomenclature in the representation of the Central Caucasus as a space of inter-social interactions. Contemporary historiography explicitly or implicitly places the social interactions of the owners and societies of the region in an “interethnic” and / or “ethnopolitical” context. Historical concepts to a certain extent are divorced from the sources of data of the 16^th – 18^th centuries, in which ethnic communities – "peoples" are never the subjects of inter-social interactions. A generalized interpretation of the historical experience of inter-social interactions in the Central Caucasus is possible on the basis of combining a “narrative”, descriptive approach with a “supra-ethnic” representation of the region as a space with a complex natural and social landscape. The most stable general function of the traditional system of inter-social interactions is the maintenance of order that is understandable to all their participants and ensured the reproduction of each ethno-social unit that occupies its own natural-ecological niche.

In publicist writings of G. Bayev were reflected many issues of socio-cultural development of the peoples of the Terek region in the second half of XIX – early XX centuries.  Considerable attention Ossetian public figure paid to social and economic problems of peoples of Nalchik district. In particular they were treated in a context of functioning of their self-government – Congress of entrusted of the Great and Minor Kabarda and Five mountain societies. In January 1905, nine villages of Minor Kabarda concluded with G. Bayev an agreement to represent their interests in the petition to restore the unity of Great and Minor Kabarda within the Nalchik district. In the course of fulfilling of this task G. Bayev prepared an explanatory note and organised its information support. The basic positions of the petition's substantiation were stated in the article published in several issues of "Pyatigorskiy listok" at the beginning of June 1905. By its substantive qualities the material represented a detailed work on the history of the public self-government of Kabardians in the genre of zemstvo journalism. G. Bayev's systematic characterization of cultural and historical preconditions and administrative expediency of reunion of Great and Minor Kabarda convincingly testified to a deep understanding of socially significant tasks and the ways of their achievement necessary for socio-political and economic modernization of the territory. The result of his petition was the order of the viceroy of Caucasus I.I. Vorontsov-Dashkov of August 24, 1905 to incorporate the villages of Minor Kabarda to the Nalchik okrug. The publication of G. Bayev's article introduces into scientific circulation an informative source testifying to the formation of constructive skills of socio-state interaction in political culture of peoples of Terskaya oblast’ initiated by representatives of national intelligentsia of the region.

An important stage in the formation of the Soviet autonomy of Kabardino-Balkaria is the secession of Balkaria from the Mountain Republic and the solution of the issue of its entry into the united autonomy of the Kabardian and Balkarian peoples. The national self-determination of Balkaria took quite a long period – June 1921 – August 1922. In June 1921, M. Eneev was one of the first statesmen of Kabarda and Balkaria to declare the mistake of creating the Mountain Republic and the need for Balkaria to secede from it. In August 1922, the Regulation on the unification of Kabarda and Balkaria was adopted, which completed the difficult process of agreeing on the mechanisms of unification of Kabarda and Balkaria. During this time, the problem has been discussed at various levels. A large array of archival documents and materials has accumulated, the publication of which will contribute to a deeper study of the creation of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Region in the early 1920s. Analysis of the documents indicates that attempts to form a separate autonomous region of Balkaria revealed the impossibility of resolving the land issue of the Balkar people at the expense of the territory of Kabarda outside the framework of the general ethnopolitical system. The center, which initiated the unification of Kabarda and Balkaria, pursued an appropriate policy and brought this process to its logical conclusion. At the same time, the historical features of the relationship between Kabardins and Balkars, a long stay in a single administrative-territorial space, the positive experience of administrative and political interaction of elites during the revolution, the Civil War and the post-war period, as well as their national-state preferences were taken into account. There are no documents and materials indicating the unwillingness of the Balkar people to join the united autonomy of Kabarda and Balkaria. Moreover, the decisions of the Constituent Congress of Soviets of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Region in December 1922 are nothing more than an act of free expression of the will of the Balkar people.

The aim of this article is study social and political activities by ingush Jamal Albogachiev (1894–1949). This is the first study of this person. This article is based on the archives from France and Germany. Albogachiev was educated in Europe, knew European languages, and became a member of the Foreign Delegation of the Mountain Republic (Versailles, 1919). He married a German woman from Berlin. In 1921–1928 he and his family lived in Germany. In France      (1929–1942) Albogaciev lived alone. He collaborated with many public figures: Ali Mardan Topchibashi, brothers Vassan-Girey and Mohammed-Girey Dzhabagiyev. At the same time he worked as a dancer in russian cabarets in Paris. In 1942–1945 Jamal was in Germany, where he became a member of the North Caucasian National Committee. After returning to France, the police investigated the reasons for his stay in Germany. As a result, Jamal was forced to leave for Morocco in 1948, where he died next year. The study of the life of Jamal Albogachiev, his socio-political views and activities showed that his fate was dramatic. Having received an excellent European education and knowledge of European languages, having got to Europe, he could not realize his intellectual potential, couldn’t make a career in Europe. He had the views of the creation of an independent state in the North Caucasus. However, he didn’t become an active member of the most famous and largest emigre movements of the North Caucasus. Despite the fact that he was part of the political North Caucasian elite, he was most often used in secondary or third roles.

During the war against the Soviet Union in 1941–1945, the German leadership turned to the idea of creating and using formations from the Caucasian and Turkic peoples living on the territory of the USSR to their advantage. They went down in history under the general name of the Eastern Legions. Details of their organization and combat use at the front are reflected in a number of works by researchers. The same cannot be said about the ties of the Eastern Legions with the Soviet partisans of Western Belarus. The purpose of the study is to identify cases of transitions from these units of the German army to the opposing side in this region and determine their total number. The article focuses on the motivation and contribution to the fight in the enemy rear of the former soldiers of the Eastern Legions, and also examines their fate after joining the Red Army units. The scientific novelty lies in considering the issue on the territory of a particular region with its own specifics.

The article shows that the land question was a priority in the activities of Kabardian public associations at the beginning of the XXI century. Kabardian public associations protested against the decisions of the Parliament of the KBR in 2005–2009 on the liquidation of inter-settlement territories and their distribution among some rural settlements. The leaders of the Kabardian national movement announced a disproportion in the distribution of «inter-settlement territories» along ethnic lines – the allocation of more than 90% of inter-settlement territories to villages with a predominantly Balkarian population, and appealed to the leadership of the Russian Federation and the KBR with requests to repeal of all laws on the boundaries of municipalities adopted in the KBR in 2005–2009 and the subsequent adoption of the law «On distant pastures», with the allocation of mountain pastures in a separate category of land, equally belonging to mountainous and lowland villages, regardless of the nationality of the people living there. In the context of the aggravated socio-political situation, the Parliament of the KBR suspended consideration of a draft law on changing the boundaries of municipalities in the republic (November 2009), and also adopted a law (June 2011), according to which distant pastures are classified as republican property and are not subject to privatization. But, despite the normative acts adopted by the Parliament of the KBR, the distributed «inter-settlement territories» remained in the use of some rural settlements. 

Over the post-Soviet period, the North Caucasus has been in the focus of Russian peacebuilding practices. Analysing the developments in Kabardino-Balkaria, we demonstrated the causal relationship between stabilisation by the federal centre and regional political dynamics. We used the framework drawn from conflict studies to interpret the strategies implemented by the national government and political settlement analysis to describe the dominant political settlements that emerged under the successive heads of the republic. The first political settlement was a result of institutional arrangement within a broad elite coalition with the late-Soviet nomenklatura in its foundation. Indirect rule by Moscow amounted to transfers of budget subventions in exchange for the provision of relative stability in the region. In the early 2000s, this political settlement failed to effectively respond to internal political problems; amidst federal recentralisation, the new political settlement was established in the republic. It was marked by reduced inclusivity of elites and greater dependence on the federal centre. This political settlement lacked success in tackling complications of elite cleavages and religious violence. In 2013, Moscow replaced the republican governor and constructed a new institutional arrangement with larger subservience to federal elites and substantial attention to security matters. Thus, peacebuilding practices implemented by the centre sought to stabilise the situation in the region; it resulted in a successful tightening of vertical elite control but at the cost of reducing the inclusiveness of the political system within Kabardino-Balkaria.

Since the 1990s, the North Caucasus has experienced various conflicts between state and religious actors, sometimes with dreadful consequences. A comprehensive perspective on these outbursts of conflict is often constrained by the sole focus on the revival and internal dynamics of Islam in the post-Soviet period. The changes in the Russian state since the 2000s, which were in the nature of recentralization and strengthening of the state’s monopoly over violence and the state’s control over organizations, can be considered as an important factor influencing the legal existence of opposition groups or organizations. The case study of Kabardino-Balkaria, traditionally a stable republic of the North Caucasus, contributes to understandings of how the transformation of the state in Russia since the late 1990s influenced the development of religious conflict and the institutionalization of Islam.

The article is devoted to the study of the ballad genre in Kabardian literature: the features of its genesis and evolution are considered in the context of the general Adyge literary process. For the first time, the issues of the origin of the genre in national poetry are studied, the entire evolutionary path is traced, from the origins to the present. The specificity of mastering the genre by Kabardian authors is investigated, specific works are analyzed for compliance / non-compliance with its canons. The ballads of Z. Naloev, B. Utizhev, A. Orazaev, Kh. Kazharov, A. Bitsuev are subjected to a comprehensive, complex analysis, their content and structural-compositional features are revealed. The article uses a number of scientific methods, including the main ones - analysis, description, as well as comparative-historical and hermeneutic methods. The results obtained can be helpful in studying the history of the ballad genre in the Adyghe literature, more generally in the North Caucasian literature, as well as in compiling special courses and writing qualification and other types of research papers.

The article examines aspects of the research interpretation of ideologized creativity based on early Soviet Kabardian poetry. The collection of poems and songs "The First Step" is involved in the analysis. The main attention is paid to the specificity of the ideals associated with the implanted system of values, and the problem of determining the axiological foundations for the interpretation of politically engaged works. The relevance of the study is due to the need to concretize the history of the first decades of the Adyghe Soviet literature, as well as the fact that the collection of poetry, significant for the indicated period, has not yet been the object of interpretation of modern literary criticism. The axiological aspect of the study of this collection is revealed in the correlation of the events depicted in it with their cultural and historical context. In the chosen research perspective, the obvious imperfections of the collection, concerning the formal features of the works included in it, are transformed into one of the components of its value content, read as a way of perception by the authors of the significant phenomena of contemporary reality. In addition, the studied material allows us to conclude that in the context of the transformations of the period under consideration, two different realities dramatically coexist, which are commonly denoted by the word “ideal”. In one of them, the ideal is the result of a difficult path that runs through the levels of the value system, in the other, it is a certain predetermined template that is not burdened by the preceding “value history”, but, nevertheless, is obliged to take on all the functions of the ideal.

The article examines the fable heritage of the Kabardian writer Barasbi Tkhamokov. The relevance of the study is associated with the absence of scientific works in Adyghe (Circassian) literary criticism, devoted not only to fables, but in general to the literary work of B. Tkhamokov, and for the first time the author of the article made an artistic translation of fables into Russian. Fables from the poetry collection of the writer «Quiet Word» namely «The Frog and the Snake» («Хьэндыркъуакъуэмрэ Благъуэмрэ»), «Barbarea and Grass» («Хьэкъыршымрэ Шыдудзымрэ»), «Dugout and a spring» («ЩIыунэмрэ Псынэмрэ»), «Duck head» («Бабыщыщхьэ»), «Wasp and bees» («Хьэдзыгъуанэмрэ Бжьэхэмрэ»), «Insect and cabbage» («ХьэпIацIэмрэ Къэбыстэмрэ»), «Bear and Wolf» («Мыщэмрэ Дыгъужьымрэ»), «Respect and Happiness» («Нэмысымрэ Насыпымрэ») are in the center of research attention. B. Tkhamokov's ideological views, his philosophical understanding of life and reliance on the Circassian code of ethics «Adyge khabze» are traced in the designated works. The study used the method of literary analysis. The results obtained can be used in the preparation of special courses on the Circassian literature.