Sultan Sosnaliev: First Commander of the Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus, by Musa Shanibov

Sultan Aslambekovich Sosnaliyev (23 April 1942 – 22 November 2008) was a Soviet Army officer of Circassian [Kabardian] ethnicity who served as a commander of Abkhaz and North Caucasus forces during the (1992-93) Georgian-Abkhaz war and as the defence minister of the Republic of Abkhazia in 1993–1996 and 2005–2007.

Sultan Sosnaliyev was born in Baksan, in the Russian North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria to Kabardian parents. He graduated from the Syzran Higher Military Aviation School and from the Zhukov Air and Space Defense Academy and served in the Soviet anti-aircraft forces for 29 years. He retired in 1990 in the rank of a colonel and worked in Kabardino-Balkaria's construction industry till 1992.

Musa Shanibov (1936-2020), former president of the Confederation of Peoples of the Caucasus. Founder and Scientific Director of the Centre for Sociological Research of the Kabardino-Balkaria State University.

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See also:

+ How nations united: Formation of the Confederation of Caucasian Peoples

+ 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

+ Obituary | A Hero of His Times: Yuri/Musa Shanibov, 1936-2020, by Georgi Derluguian