Republic of Dagestan
There is a strong gun culture in Dagestan, and many people kept arms even in Soviet times. It is a tradition in Dagestan to possess arms and to carry them in public. However, Dagestani culture does not provide for training in handling arms historically there were no tournaments, martial arts, competitions or other games connected with the use of weapons. A rich person differed from the poor only in the length of his knife: the poorer the individual, the longer the knife tied to his waist-belt. No serious person could go out into the street without carrying a gun.
The mass proliferation of firearms helped to cut the wave of street crime. The proliferation of arms in society made people calmer men did not pester young women and stopped insulting each other or making verbal threats, as was typical in the Communist era. But unlike in the Soviet period, murders were no longer rare. They were hardly ever solved and often not even investigated.
Arms are now very widespread. In the 1990s arms were sourced from a local military unit which was selling military equipment to local people on a large scale. The main source of weapons currently appears to be Chechnya. In the early 1990s, Dagestan developed unique political institutions to suit its ethnic diversity. These institutions, combined with the influence of traditional clan communities known as jamaats, were successful in preventing tensions in the region escalating into war. Recently, Moscows influence in the area has increased, prompting fears that interference from the centre could undermine this stability. There are four federal brigades on Dagestani territory, and also Border Guard troops. There are also a number of informal paramilitary groups who are loyal to individual politicians and leaders and a number of Chechen militants in the republic.
At the beginning of the 1999 clashes, there were three brigades deployed in Dagestan, two of them from an elite tier of federal forces. They are currently based in Buinaksk, near Kizlyar and Derbent. In October 2000, a year after the clashes, Russia started to form another separate brigade the 77th Marine Brigade, based in Kaspiisk. Besides these four brigades, Dagestan is a base for the Russian Border Guard. The 136th Guards Uman-Berlin Red Banner Orders of Suvorov, Kutuzov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky motorized rifle brigade, military unit 63354, is stationed in Buinaksk, Republic of Dagestan.
The Dagestani economy is increasingly run by a small group of ruling clans. Therefore, many successful businessmen, who enjoyed freedom of action during the initial capitalist period, have had to submit to the constraints of working under these ruling groups or transfer their activities to Russia proper. The monopolisation of power and the economy has also caused capital flight into industries not yet controlled by local oligarchs. The human and financial resources of many defeated groups have been invested in the black economy, such as clandestine vodka production (though this business too is gradually being taken over by the ruling elite) and drug trafficking/production.
| National composition | ||
| Avars | 850.0 | 29.4% |
| Dargins | 490.4 | 17.0% |
| Kumyks | 431.7 | 14.9% |
| Lezgins | 387.7 | 13.3% |
| Laks | 161.3 | 5.6% |
| Azerbaijanis | 125.1 | 4.3% |
| Tabasarans | 121.9 | 4.2% |
| Russians | 104.0 | 3.6% |
| Chechens (Akkintsy) | 93.7 | 3.2% |
| Nogais | 40.4 | 1.4% |
| Aguly | 28.1 | 1.0% |
| Rutulians | 27.8 | 1.0% |
| Tsakhury | 9.8 | |
| Karatintsy | 4.8 | |
| Armenians | 5.0 | |
| Archintsy | 5.0 | |
In terms of size and population, the Republic of Dagestan is the largest of the Caucasian republics within the Russian Federation. The length of the territory from north to south is about 400 km, from west to east - an average of 200 km. Dagestan borders on Kalmykia in the north, on the Stavropol Territory in the northwest, and on the Chechen Republic in the west. Along the Dividing Range of the Greater Caucasus, Dagestan borders on Georgia. In the south, Dagestan borders on the Republic of Azerbaijan. In the east, the territory of Dagestan for almost 530 km. washed by the waters of the Caspian Sea.
The Dagestan - the southernmost region of Russia - is located in the eastern part of the North Caucasus, in the east it is washed by the Caspian Sea. It borders in the north - with the Republic of Kalmykia, in the west - with the Stavropol Territory, the Chechen Republic, in the southwest - with the Republic of Georgia, in the south - with the Republic of Azerbaijan. According to the 2002 Population Census, 2,576,531 people live in the region. According to the 2010 Census - 2,910,249.
All six republics of the North Caucasus entered the top 20 regions in terms of the share of the population, whose monthly official income in 2020 was less than 10 thousand rubles. A similar situation was recorded in the neighboring Southern Federal District: there, in all subjects, except for the Krasnodar Territory, the number of poor people is higher than the national average.
The share of the poor in the regions was identified by the analytical service of the international audit and consulting network FinExpertiza. According to her research, on average 13.3 million (9.1%) Russians across the country in 2020 barely made ends meet financially. But in a number of places, primarily in the south, this figure is much higher.
The first place in the number of the poor in Russia was taken by Tyva - here less than 10 thousand a month are officially received by 28.6% of the inhabitants. The second is Ingushetia with 27.8%. The third place belongs to Karachay-Cherkessia, where 22% of the population is considered poor. They are followed by Kabardino-Balkaria (10th place, 16% of the population lives below the poverty line), Chechnya (13th place in the rating, almost 16%), North Ossetia (17th place, 14%). Of the national republics of the North Caucasus, the situation is best in Dagestan - there are 13% of the poor, which corresponds to the figures for the Ulyanovsk and Penza regions.
On 14 October 2021, a session of the People's Assembly of Dagestan was held , the deputies approved Sergei Melikov as head of the region. In 1994 he was transferred to the North Caucasus District of the Internal Troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. He held the positions of senior assistant to the chief of staff of the regiment, battalion commander of the operational division (1994-1995), senior officer of the military intelligence department of the intelligence department of the headquarters (1995-1996), chief of staff - deputy commander of the operational regiment of the operational division (1996-1997). Participated in hostilities during the first Chechen campaign (1994-1996). In September 2011, he was appointed Commander of the Joint Group of Troops (Forces) for Counter-Terrorist Operations in the North Caucasus Region of the Russian Federation - First Deputy Commander of the North Caucasus Regional Command of the Internal Troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. He has the rank of Colonel General (2016).
Melikov, called poverty one of the acute problems in the region at a meeting of the regional parliament. "An analysis of the situation shows that one of the most acute problems of our society is poverty. According to statistics, the average salary in our republic is about 32,000 rubles, which is 60% lower than in the country. In actual communication with the population, we understand that 32,000 rubles a month is a great gift for the average Dagestani, said Melikov. According to him, almost half a million Dagestanis live below the poverty line, and this figure has grown by about 18% in five years.
The "deprivation" of the Dagestanis lies not only in the amount of wages, Melikov added. "Poverty is also manifested in the fact that the very living conditions of the majority are very far from modern ideas. Constant interruptions in electricity, gas, water supply, poor-quality drinking water, lack of proper sewerage, spontaneous dumps, broken roads and dilapidated bridges. All this has become a habitual feature of the life of the inhabitants of the republic, regardless of the place of residence and the amount of income," the speaker said. He added that this is most evident in the capital of the republic - Makhachkala , which has grown significantly in size over the past decades, but has lost almost proportionately in the quality of the urban environment.
The Republic of Dagestan ranked 45th in the RIA Rating analysis of average incomes in relation to the cost of a fixed set of goods and services. The ratio of income to the cost of a fixed set of goods and services in the region is observed at 2.88 (in 2019 1.48). The share of the population below the poverty line in 2020 (income less than 1 minimum wage) was 14.8% (in 2019-15.2%). The share of the population below the extreme poverty line in 2020 (income less than 0.5 of the minimum wage) is 2.1% (in 2019 2.3%). In other regions of the North Caucasus Federal District, the situation is more complicated. Ingushetia took 83rd place (30% of the population below the poverty line), the Karachay-Cherkess Republic - 82nd place (23.6% of the population below the poverty line), Stavropol Territory - 78th place (14% of the population below the poverty line), the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic - 76th place (24.2% of the population below the poverty line), the Chechen Republic - 72nd place (20.4% of the population below the poverty line), the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania - 64th place (13.9% of the population below the poverty line).
The republic has significant reserves of oil, gas, coal, hydropower resources. Industry includes power industry and oil refining industry, as well as mechanical engineering, chemical and food industries. The largest hydroelectric power stations are Chiryurtovskaya, Chirkeyskaya, Gergebilskaya and some others. Agriculture with a specialization in viticulture, horticulture, vegetable growing. Sheep breeding of the meat and wool direction, goat breeding are developed.
The main rivers are Terek and Sulak. The climate is continental, warm and dry.
The territory of Dagestan was mastered by man in the Paleolithic era. The oldest monuments of the Stone Age, discovered here, belong to the Acheulian era. Among the ancient ancestors of the peoples of Dagestan are the tribes of Legs, Gels, Udins, etc., who lived on the territory of modern Dagestan in the 1st millennium BC. At the end of the 1st millennium BC. the territory of Dagestan with these and other tribes was part of Caucasian Albania. At the turn of the two eras, Albania was involved in heavy, exhausting wars between the Romans and the Parthians, who were competing for hegemony in Asia Minor and the Caucasus. In the 3rd century AD southern Dagestan was captured by Sasanian Iran, and the northern plains of Dagestan in the 4th century. the Huns invaded.
Starting from the 5th century, a number of state formations were formed on the territory of Dagestan. These are Derbent, Lakz, Tabasaran, Serir, Zirihgeran (Kubachi), Kaitag, Gumik, and others. In the 6th century, on the plain north of the Sulak River and to the south, on a narrow coastal sttrip,a "Kingdom of the Huns" with the cities of Varachan, Chungars and Semender was formed. whose population consisted of the local population mixed with the Huns. In the middle of the 7th century in the steppes of the North-Eastern Caucasus, the Khazar state (Khazar Khaganate) was formed, which included the northern plains of Dagestan, and from 664 onwards, incessant invasions of Arabs began from the south. Dagestan for a long time turns into an arena of political rivalry between the Khazars and the Arabs and, at the same time, is significantly influenced by their cultures. Only by the beginning of the IX century. the campaigns of the Arabs and the speeches of the Khazars cease.
From the beginning of the X century. the political disintegration of the Arab Caliphate leads to the formation of independent states. In Derbent, the rule of Arab origin is preserved, subordinate to Shirvan, and the rest of the regions of Dagestan become completely independent. In the middle of the XI century. Dagestan is experiencing an invasion from the south of the Seljuk Turks. In the first half of the 2nd millennium, a number of feudal states were formed on the territory of Dagestan. From the middle of the XII century. until the beginning of the thirteenth century. (Tatar-Mongol invasion) Derbent existed as an independent possession - an independent Derbent emirate. The Avar Khanate, the Kazikumukh Shamkhalate, the Kaitag Utsmiystvo, and a number of small independent political formations, such as Akhty, Tsakhur, Rutul, Kurakh, Khiv, Tpig, and Khnov, were formed in the mountainous Dagestan. Before the Tatar-Mongol invasion, Tabasaran also retained its independence.
In the 20s of the XIII century. Tatar-Mongols invade Dagestan, and in the XIV century. troops of Uzbek, Tokhtamysh and Timur. During this period, the process of Islamization of Dagestan intensified. From the middle of the XV century. the peoples of Dagestan faced a new political force - Safavid Iran, whose military support was the Turkic-speaking tribes, who later received the common name "Kizilbash".
From the 16th century with the formation of the Russian centralized state, especially after the Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan (1556) khanates were annexed to it, its political influence on Dagestan began to increase. Since that time, Dagestan has been involved in a confrontation between three powerful political forces for a long period; Iran, Turkey and Russia. In 1722, Peter I invaded coastal Dagestan and annexed it to Russia. However, according to the Ganja Treaty of 1735, Russia, interested in an alliance with Iran against Turkey, cedes these territories to it.
The Gulistan peace treaty between Russia and Iran, signed on October 24 (November 5), 1813 in the village of Gulistan in Karabakh after the end of the Russian-Iranian war, legally formalized the recognition by Iran of the transition to Russia of Dagestan, Georgia, Megrelia, Imeretia, Guria, Abkhazia and khanates: Baku, Karabakh, Ganja, Shirvan, Sheki, Derbent, Quba and Talysh. Russian fortified cities began to appear on the territory of Dagestan.
The colonial policy of tsarist Russia gave rise to a political movement for independence and unification in Dagestan. At the turn of the 30s of the XIX century. Under the flag of Islamic muridism, an anti-colonial liberation movement of the highlanders arose under the leadership of the imams of Dagestan Gazi-Magomed, Gamzat-bek and Shamil. In the early 40s, during the war with the Russian colonial troops, the imamate included a significant part of Dagestan and Chechnya. In 1859, Shamil, under the onslaught of Russian troops, was forced to capitulate and surrender to honorable captivity. In 1860, the Dagestan region of the Russian Empire was formed with the so-called. military-people's administration - a bureaucratic system of administration headed by a governor-general with elements of traditional self-government of the population on the ground. In 1877, with the beginning of another Russian-Turkish war in Chechnya and Dagestan, a major uprising broke out.
This time it was crushed with all colonial brutality. According to the verdict of a specially established military field court, in Gunib and Derbent, the leaders of the rebels were executed by hanging: Imam Gadzhi-Magomed, Nika-Kadi, Abas Pasha, captain Abdul-Majid, Zubair-bek, Abdul Gadzhiev, Kazi-Ahmed and others, only 300 people. A huge number of active participants in the uprising, along with their families, were arrested, about 5 thousand of them were sent to hard labor and permanent residence in the inner provinces of Russia. Abas Pasha, captain Abdul-Mejid, Zubair-bek, Abdul Gadzhiev, Kazi Ahmed and others, 300 people in total. A huge number of active participants in the uprising, along with their families, were arrested, about 5 thousand of them were sent to hard labor and permanent residence in the inner provinces of Russia. Abas Pasha, captain Abdul-Mejid, Zubair-bek, Abdul Gadzhiev, Kazi Ahmed and others, 300 people in total. A huge number of active participants in the uprising, along with their families, were arrested, about 5 thousand of them were sent to hard labor and permanent residence in the inner provinces of Russia.
From the middle of the XIX century. and especially after the construction in the 90s of the Vladikavkaz railway, which connected Dagestan with the center of Russia, with Baku and Grozny, Dagestan joined the mainstream of capitalist development. By the beginning of the XX century. in Dagestan, there were about 70 enterprises, the local bourgeoisie and the working class are being formed.
After the revolutions of 1917 and the Civil War in Russia, Dagestan acquired a political status. On November 13, 1920, at the Extraordinary Congress of the Peoples of Dagestan, a declaration was proclaimed on the autonomy of Dagestan, and on January 20, 1921, a Decree on the formation of the Dagestan ASSR was adopted.
In 1991, as a result of the collapse of the USSR and the formation on its territory of independent states from among the former Soviet republics, Dagestan became a republic within the new state - the Russian Federation. On July 26, 1994, a new Constitution of the Republic of Dagestan was adopted, which determines that Dagestan "is a sovereign, unified, democratic state within the Russian Federation, expressing the will and interests of the entire multinational people of Dagestan".
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