RUSSIA'S TINDERBOX - Belfer Center for Science and International ...

formally sub-divided. 105 Such a unification would imply territorial change at the expense of
Krasnodar, Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria.
The major promoter of unification, the pan-Circassian Adyge bloc has consistently used the
KNK to push its demands, but has not taken radical action. The proposal for unification has also
been rejected by the Russian government. In the meantime, the draft Constitution of the republic of
Adygeia permits the Adyge diaspora both within and outside the Russian Federation to become
citizens of the republic and the Russian Federation. This provision directly contradicts the
Constitution of the Russian Federation which does not permit subjects of the Federation to make
decisions on citizenship. Given the size of the Adyge diaspora—there are 600,000 Adyge
(Circassians) in Russia and several thousand more in Turkey, Jordan, Syria who still retain their
distinct identity—it also poses a threat to the status of the ethnic Russians living in the republic. 106
In spite of its abstention from radical action, the pan-Circassian movement is a major force in
the western North Caucasus, and, as noted in the preceding sections, there are also significant Adyge
blocs in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachaevo-Cherkessia.
Shapsugs:
The Shapsugs, part of the now fragmented Circassian peoples, are concentrated in the
Lasorevsky, Tuapse and Sochi districts of Krasnodar. 107 Their national movement has pushed for the
restoration of a Shapsug autonomy on the basis of these districts. The Shapsug population of the
region is extremely small––approximately 10,000 people or only 5% of the total population––and is
very close to assimilation. Without the creation of an autonomy and an active program of cultural
development that this would bring, the Shapsugs will find it very difficult to maintain their identity
as a distinct ethnic group.
105 Prior to the Caucasian Wars (also known in English as the Circassian Wars), the Sunni Muslim Circassians
dominated the western portion of the Caucasus, numbering approximately 3 million. (The Abkhazians in
Georgia and the Abazins in Karachaevo-Cherkessia are also closely related to the Circassians although they
consider themselves to be separate peoples.) The majority of the Circassians emigrated to the Ottoman Empire
during and immediately after the wars as a result of Russian pressure. In the 1920s, the Circassians were divided
into two branches, the Cherkess to the west and the Kabardinians to the east. At this juncture, the Adygei were
considered to be part of the Cherkess. In the late 1920s and 1930s, the Shapsugs were distinguished as a subdivision
of the Adygei. Finally, in the 1930s, the Circassians were divided into three distinct territorially-based
ethnic groups: the Adygei in the west, the Cherkess, and the Kabardinians in the eastern portion of their
geographic range. The frequent ethnic sub-divisions were combined in the 1930s with the development of
separate languages and literary traditions by the Soviet government to complete the dissolution of the
Circassians as a unified people.
106 See Larisa Khaperskaya, “The Constitutional Processes in the Northern Caucasus,” CMG Bulletin, February
1995, pp.48-51 (p.50).
107 As mentioned above, the Shapsugs were distinguished from the Adygei in the late 1920s. They were the largest
of the western Adyge tribes and were settled along the Black Sea coast on the southeast slopes of the Caucasus.
During the Caucasian wars, the Shapsugs suffered particularly heavy losses as the Russian Empire secured its
position on the Black Sea. The Soviet government briefly granted the Shapsugs their own autonomous oblast
between 1925-1945 but then reclassified them as Adygeis in administrative reforms.
54