Historical aspects of the North Caucasus factor in relation to modern Georgia (up to 2008), by George Anchabadze

International Alert, “Dialogue through Research”, The North Caucasus factor in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict context, 2012.

There have been relations between the people living in what is now Georgia and the tribes of the North Caucasus since the remote past. Even in antiquity, the residents of the northern and southern slopes of the Caucasus mountain chain were seen, despite their ethnic and linguistic diversity, as belonging to the same historical and cultural “community”, to use a modern term. Strabo, the famous Ancient Greek geographer, wrote in the first century BC of the inhabitants of the Caucasus uplands: ‘They all speak different languages, since they live apart and secluded as a result of their pride and savagery. But they are all … Caucasians.’

This view also underpinned the so-called genealogical schema of Leonti Mroveli (Leontius of Ruisi), the 11th century Georgian bishop, writer and historian. In his view, the Armenians, Georgians and tribes who populated the territories of modern Azerbaijan and the North Caucasus shared the same origin and a common ancestor, traditionally related to Togormah, one of the biblical patriarchs (in Georgian, Targamos).

Georgian high culture (including Georgian literature and the Georgian liturgy) spread throughout the North Caucasus, particularly in the 11th to 12th and early 13th centuries at the height of the Georgian kingdom, which the scholar Nikoloz Berdzenishvili refers to as ‘the centre of Caucasian feudal relations’. Cultural interaction went both ways. In the words of another famous Georgian historian, Simon Dzhanashiya: ‘the energies of the other peoples of the Caucasus, including Abkhaz and Circassians, made a significant contribution to the cultural mix in pre-feudal and feudal Georgia.’

In political terms, despite occasional military clashes, the North Caucasus was a relatively safe hinterland for Georgia, which it used to recruit auxiliary troops to fight alongside the Georgian people against foreign invaders. This is well attested over a historical period of more than 2,000 years, since the last centuries BC, in chronicles in Georgian and other languages. The conversion of the peoples of the North Caucasus to Islam (particularly from the 15th century onwards) created a barrier between them and Christian Georgia that we know today. However, this did not mark a fundamental change. According to historical sources, the Caucasian mountain peoples continued to take part in the military campaigns of the Georgian emperors. It is clear that they did this not simply as hired mercenaries but under the terms of an alliance – as is shown, for example, by a description of a meeting of Kabardinian troops in Tbilisi who came at the bidding of the Emperor Irakli in 1751.

It is not until the 18th century that we see signs of strain, and then only with Dagestan, whose rulers carried out looting raids in the countries of Transcaucasia. These raids, which have entered
Georgian historiography as lekianoba or “the invasion of the Leks” (“Leks” being the Georgians’ collective term for the Dagestan mountain people), ravaged the country, causing a huge demographic decline. However, Georgian-Dagestani relations, despite these regular military confrontations, never descended into all-out warfare and political, cultural and economic ties were maintained.

At the end of the 18th century, therefore, the “Caucasus factor” had a dual significance for Georgia, with the mountain peoples (who themselves did not form a single political unit) being
both enemies and allies. Both these aspects are revealed in a funeral oration for Irakli II given by the statesman and diplomat Solomon Lionidze in 1798. Here the orator, speaking of the deceased’s military glories, notes: ‘The Lion of Judah from the house of David1 … fought against three empires: the Ottoman, the Persian and the Caucasian peoples.’ The latter is a reference to
the Caucasian mountain people and primarily the Dagestanis, with whom Irakli had crossed swords on more than one occasion. However, Lionidze goes on to speak of camaraderie in battle: As soon as Emperor Irakli’s joyous banner is unfurled, the Dagestanis hasten to join his army, Ossetians and Circassians are happy to shed their blood for Emperor Irakli.’

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See also:

+ The North Caucasus factor in the Abkhaz-Georgian armed conflict of 1992-1993, by Natella Akaba

+ Volunteer-movement and the Circassian factor during the Patriotic War of the people of Abkhazia in 1992-1993 – historical and political significance, by Aslanbek Mirzoev

+ Reports on Chechnya, Abkhazia & the Chechen War