CRITICISM AND BIBLIOGRAPHY. REVIEWS

Moscow: Russkaya Panorama Publ., 2001, 372 p.

(c) 2002 M. Yu. ROSHCHIN

Quite a lot has been written about Shamil, one of the main characters in the Great Caucasian War of the first half of the 19th century. The author of a new book about him has set himself the goal of "rethinking the image of Shamil, showing it in unexpected angles and hypostases, freeing this phenomenal phenomenon from the permanent dictates of ideology, whatever it may be, from Procrustean schemes of a scientific nature, from the fate of being frozen in the memory of descendants as a mummified exhibit of Russian historiography" (p.10).

V. V. Degoev's book is written in the genre of historical narrative based on a wide range of literature and sources. However, the author completely ignores the scientific literature of recent years devoted to Shamil, both domestic and foreign, and does not explain it in any way. For example, the book never mentions the most complete monograph on Shamil by the Israeli researcher Moshe Gammer, published in England (1994 )and in Russia (1998) ^.1

The author chooses those sources and literature that are more consistent with his personal preferences. So, he prefers foreign authors of the XIX century, especially the book of the American J. R. R. Tolkien. McKee, who published his biography of Shamil in 1856, when the end of the Great Caucasian War was still three years away ^.2 It cannot be said that foreign researchers and travelers were poorly oriented in the specifics of the events of the Great Caucasian War. In general, they gave a fairly reliable picture of what was happening, although, of course, they did not have the information discovered by researchers of recent times. Russian authors are also widely used by V. V. Degoev, but with a few exceptions, all these are also people who wrote in the XIX century.

Unfortunately, this approach to the selection of literature, in my opinion, affected the nature of the presentation. I will quote the very beginning of the first chapter ("Time and place"):" The main hero of the Caucasian War was born in 1797 in the village of Gimry, in the mountainous part of Dagestan, inhabited by numerous tribes, warlike and divided " (p.14). I think some foreign traveler of the 19th century might have written this, but it is hardly acceptable for a modern historian. Like Shamil, his predecessor Kazi-Mullah was born in the Avar village of Gimry; both of them were Avars, as well as Gamzatbek, which is never mentioned in the book, although this circumstance was of fundamental importance for the formation of the imamate. V. V. Degoev limits the territory of the Avars as an ethnic group to the Avar Khanate, which existed at that time on the Khunzakh plateau (see, for example, pp. 57-61). So I sat down. Gimry, in fact, is outside the abode of the Avar ethnic group, which does not correspond to modern scientific ideas. In addition, the author does not give any ethnic characteristics of the inhabitants of the village of Gimry, and after all, "numerous tribes" are now well studied and described.

V. V. Degoev notes that "the society in which the main character of the Caucasian War was formed also had a spiritual basis, a significant part of which was pagan beliefs" (p. 30). At the same time, he refers to J. R. R. Tolkien. McKee (p. 30, note 107). However, today it is reliably known that by the time Shamil was born, Mountainous Dagestan was Islamized. Otherwise, it would be quite difficult to explain the appearance of such a strong Muslim leader as Imam Shamil and the widespread support of the local population3 .

Just below, V. V. Degoev writes: "Western authors pointed out the unsuccessful attempts to spread Christianity in the North Caucasus, dating back to the time of the Crusaders.

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Traces of this missionary activity are preserved in the form of stone crosses erected in isolated places, metal crosses hanging from trees, or crosses depicted on clothing and weapons. However, such explicit Christian symbolism was an object of idolatry and was combined with pagan rites" (p.30). The Christianization of Dagestan, and particularly of Georgia, took place long before the beginning of the Crusades, which did not affect the North Caucasus in any way, mainly through the efforts of the Albanian Monophysite and Georgian Orthodox Churches. The famous Dagestani archaeologist D. M. Ataev determines the lower date of the penetration of Christianity in Avaria in the VIII-X centuries ^.4 On the territory of the Accident there are inscriptions in the Avar language, made in the Georgian script ⁵ . Subsequently, the Avars were Islamized, but traces of the ancient presence of Christianity are still widespread among them. An ancient church near Avar villages. Datuna Shamil handed over to the community of Russian Old Believers who moved to the territory of the imamate ⁶ .

In the second chapter ("The Birth of an Idea"), V. V. Degoev examines the emergence and formation of the concept of the imamate among Dagestani mountaineers. He correctly points out that its appearance was connected with the preaching of ghazawat (holy war) by the Sufi Sheikh Mahomet of Yarag (p. 41-44), who proclaimed Qazi Mullah in the autumn of 1828 (Ghazi-Muhammad) the Imam who gave him his blessing to wage a holy war against the infidels. The author correctly notes that the Qazi Mullah "completely mastered the idea of transforming traditional society on the basis of Islam - spiritual and legislative" (p. 73). The Qazi Mullah declared Russia to be the main enemy. According to the author: "the Russians were the perfect bogeyman: gentiles who came from the far North to force the mountaineers to live according to other people's laws with fire and sword" (p. 74). V. V. Degoev quite accurately characterizes the Kazi Mullah as a very gifted "troublemaker" who sought to "undermine the existing order in the name of a new one" (p. 68). This statement contains a certain hyperbole, although the Qazi Mullah was indeed a new type of religious and public figure for Dagestan. In the first half of the XIX century. Dagestan became an object of expansion of the Russian Empire, small monarchical formations on its territory and mountain free societies were fragmented and easily fell into vassalage from Russia, which required the creation of a new type of state, which became the imamate. I note that at about the same time and in a similar political situation, the state of Sufi Abd al - Qadir emerged in Algeria, which for a long time successfully resisted the French colonialists ^.7

After the death of the Qazi Mullah in late October 1832, Gamzat beg became the second imam in Gimrah. His term of office was only two years. V. V. Degoev and many other authors consider him as an intermediate figure between the Qazi Mullah and Shamil (p. 83). V. V. Degoev notes that " according to British observers of that time, Gamzat bek fought not so much against Russia as against those who were indifferent or hostile to it. to the cause of his fellow countrymen" (p. 80). Indeed, Gamzat bey to a certain extent helped strengthen the imamate's position in mountainous Dagestan, and his main, although very ambiguous (due to excessive cruelty), achievement was the destruction of members of the ruling house of Avar khans, which led to the law of blood feud and his own death.

On September 24, 1834, Shamil was elected the new imam. He was a spiritual disciple of Sheikh Jemaleddin of Qadikumuh, a staunch follower of the Naqshbandi Sufi brotherhood. According to V. V. Degoev, it can be assumed that Shamil "saw or rather guessed a pragmatic aspect in the mystical teaching of Sufism, which opened up the possibility of healing and improving society through a radical revolution - in consciousness, lifestyle, and social relations" (p.88). This interesting observation of the author is confirmed not only by the experience of the history of Imamat Shamil, but also by the experience of the anti-colonial struggle in Algeria led by Abd al-Qadir, as well as the experience of the Senussi brotherhood movement in the territory of modern Libya. In all these cases, Sufi brotherhoods have become the core foundation of State-building in the face of the growing challenge to the Islamic world from European powers.

In the third chapter ("The Ruler"), V. V. Degoev draws fragmentary pictures of the imamate's management system, which is not devoid of contradictions. It seems that he exaggerates the importance of the repressive apparatus, which, of course, existed in the imamate, but it is quite obvious that without broad popular support, Shamil would not have been able to fight the tsarist army for 25 years. Explaining the success of Shamil's resistance to the Russian army, V. V. Degoev writes:

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"For the mountain tribes, who had not yet united into a single ethnic body, the simple ideas of holy war were immeasurably closer and clearer than the immature ideals of the"people's liberation struggle". The consolidating principle in the imamate was not the" anti-colonial ideology", but the despotic power of Shamil and the "crusades" against the wicked, which promised the soul to rest in paradise and a comfortable existence on earth " (p. 100). In my opinion, this quote reveals the author's hostility to the mountain tribes with their tendency to gazavat and raids on their non-Religious neighbors, as well as his desire to explain the success of the mountaineers by the despotic power of Shamil. In this regard, I would like to point out two points: first, Islam as a religion has a pronounced universal character, and the preaching of pure Islam, conducted by Shamil, was addressed to all mountaineers and aimed at integrating them into a single Muslim ummah (nation); second, a certain degree of ethnic homogeneity in the imamate still, it was, since the majority of the population in it were Avars and Chechens.

V. V. Degoev rightly notes that in the first years of his rule Shamil tried to avoid clashes with Russian troops (p.115). Unfortunately, the author does not give an analysis of the reasons for this policy of the imam, and a little later unexpectedly writes: "However, the continuation of this "idyll" would be unnatural. Russia did not come to nagorny Dagestan to turn it into a small "Basurman kingdom" headed by some rootless impostor" (p.116), meaning Shamil. It is written so emotionally that it gives the impression that for the author Shamil is still the protagonist of the ongoing Caucasian drama.

Describing the peculiarities of Shamil's warfare, V. V. Degoev writes: "Shamil... he constantly puzzled Russian generals with his "barbaric" tactics. The more carefully they adhered to what they were taught, the more often they were defeated. The more "correct" they were, the more wrong they were. Shamil imposed on them a different," non-classical " war, which was extremely difficult to adapt to. It seemed to lack logic: the obvious victories of the Russian side turned out to be just as deceptive as the crushing defeats of the enemy. When there was confidence in Tiflis and St. Petersburg that the war would soon end, it actually only subsided for a while, only to flare up with renewed vigor" (p. 135). Such specifics of Shamil's military tactics well explain the reasons why the imam was able to successfully fight for a long time against the Russian army, which was many times larger than his own armed forces.

Certainly, V. V. Degoev is right, noting at the end of the third chapter that Shamil "created a fundamentally new system of relations for mountaineers - the State" (p. 148).

The fourth chapter ("The Priest") examines Shamil's religious activities. Its name seems to me unfortunate, as it does not correspond to Muslim views on the role and place of the religious elite in society.

The author correctly notes that "a researcher of the past will never understand the people of ancient cultures if he is not able to share their "prejudices" and see in them the most important historical facts. To some extent, it is necessary to turn into a person of the epoch under study, to delve (not so much with feeling as with reason) into the motives of his "irrational" behavior, into his "false consciousness" sincerely, deeply, without a mockingly condescending look from the height of his civilized time " (p. 177). Unfortunately, V. V. Degoev himself does not stand up to the rigor of this approach, so he makes mistakes. Thus, at the beginning of the chapter, he correctly notes that "Shamil was first of all a deeply religious person. For him, religion first became a conscience and a way of life, and only then an ideology" (p. 164). It follows that Muslim norms and values have always been a priority for the imam, and he tried to carefully observe them all his life. It seems incorrect to say that in the imamate "a religion of power was formed in the mass consciousness: Shamil was not just a representative of God, he himself became a God, an unshakeable embodiment of omnipotence, holiness and some magic that caused pagan fear, reverence, worship" (p. 176). It is quite obvious that this approach is blasphemous for Islam , a religion of strict monotheism, and could not be cultivated in the imamate in any form. Of course, Shamil could not sincerely believe "that he is creating a paradise abode for people on earth in accordance with the precepts of the Prophet Muhammad"(p.180). At the same time, V. V. Degoev correctly notes that "the imam condemned 'base materialism', which had a corrupting effect on the Muslim religion" (p.186).

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The fifth chapter ("Strategist"), which examines Shamil's military activities, seems to me generally successful. The author reveals well the features of the imam's" non-classical " tactics, which provided him with certain successes despite the obvious inequality of forces. However, due to the fact that the imamate's territory was an enclave surrounded on all sides by the Russian Empire, the imam's resistance had no serious prospects, which was confirmed by the strategy of the Russian governors of the Caucasus M. S. Vorontsov and A. I. Baryatinsky, which consisted in squeezing the imam's forces deep into the mountains and gradually narrowing the imamate's territory. In the end, in the summer of 1859, Shamil's forces were surrounded in the mountain village of Gunib.

In the sixth chapter ("Crash"), V. V. Degoev analyzes the reasons that led the imamat to defeat in the war with the Russian Empire. In general, they are revealed objectively, although sometimes the author, who clearly does not sympathize with the main character of his story, is overly emotional. He correctly notes the success of the policy of A. I. Baryatinsky, the Russian governor of the Caucasus since July 1856, who actively promoted the restoration of adat (customary law) in Nagorny Dagestan and Chechnya, which was so decisively eradicated by Shamil. Along with military successes, this eventually led to the mass refusal of the highlanders to support the imam and the blocking of the remnants of his forces in Gunib.

Shamil almost until the last moment did not believe in the possibility of surrender to the royal representatives on honorable terms. As V. V. Degoev notes, " A. I. Baryatinsky sympathized with Shamil, but he felt this feeling and showed it all the more freely because he knew that Alexander II fully shared it. The emperor ordered the imam to be brought to St. Petersburg with all the honors due to a distinguished guest, without hinting at his actual position as a capitulated prisoner " (p. 267). It seems that the generosity of Alexander II towards the defeated enemy largely contributed to the reconciliation of Dagestanis with defeat and their successful further integration into Russian society.

The last seventh chapter ("Layman") is devoted to the period of Shamil's life in Kaluga, which is well covered by numerous Russian sources, and which the author made full and skillful use of. In my opinion, this is the most successful and objectively written part of the book.

In conclusion, V. V. Degoev writes: "It seems that there was a certain pattern and justice in the fact that fate released (Shamil. - M. R.) such a long time: he knew better than others how to dispose of it" (p. 320). It's hard to say anything against this. Unfortunately, the author is often biased and excessively picky about his hero, accusing him of cruelty, authoritarianism and excessive intoxication with power. After reading the book, it seems that for V. V. Degoev Shamil is still a living character. I think this is true to a certain extent: Shamil is still alive in the memory of posterity, and we are probably not yet ready to look at this hero of the past objectively and impartially.

notes

^{Gammer M.} 1 Shamil. Muslim resistance to tsarism. Conquest of Chechnya and Dagestan, Moscow, 1998.

^{Mackie J. M.} 2 Life of Shamil & Narrative of the Circassian War of Independence against Russia. Boston, 1856.

³ See about this: Shikhsaidov A. R. Islam in medieval Dagestan. Makhachkala, 1969.

^{Ataev D. M.} 4 Khristianskie drevnosti Avarii [4 Christian antiquities of Russia]. Uchenye zapiski Inst. istorii, yazyka i literatury [Scientific Notes of the Institute of History, Language and Literature], vol. IV.Makhachkala, 1958, p. 170.

⁵ See, for example: Gudava, T. E., Two inscriptions (Georgian and Georgian-Avar) from Dagestan, Materials on the History of Georgia and the Caucasus, Issue 30, Tbilisi, 1954, pp. 185-196.

^{Takhnaeva P.} 6 The amazing fate of the Datun Church. The temple that came to life again under Shamil during the Caucasian War. No. 19 (90), October 10, 2001.

^{Landa R. G.} 7 The struggle of the Algerian people against European colonization (1830-1918). Moscow, 1976.pp. 67-69.

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