Translated material
Loyalty Explosion
Kabardino-Balkaria celebrated its voluntary entry into Russia
Of the seven capitals of the Caucasian republics, Nalchik most closely resembles a large Russian city. Nalchik has always been known as a resort - almost a third of the city is occupied by sanatoriums and boarding houses, some of which managed to survive the dark 90s and continue to welcome guests. Not to mention the fact that Nalchik airport is the closest road to the Elbrus region. Which, with the opening of borders, may have ceased to be a Mecca for climbers and skiers from all over the country, but still enjoys constant popularity.Festive Nalchik turned out to be nothing like the frightened city it was in October 2005, during the militant attack , except for the huge number of policemen in full dress uniform and trucks with soldiers hiding mainly on the outskirts. On the occasion of the holiday, the streets and buildings were decorated with flags, and a long phrase about “the 450th anniversary of the voluntary entry of Kabardino-Balkaria into Russia” literally intertwined the capital of the republic with hundreds of repetitions. There were few local residents among all this beauty - either because of the heat that lasted all Friday and Saturday, or because half the city was blocked off by the police, and residents in large numbers paraded with flags and posters in the designated areas. However, Nalchik, of course, is not Moscow, and the police restrictions looked more humane than those introduced by the capital’s mayor’s office in connection with the recent 860th anniversary.
The pretty roundness of the date chosen for the celebrations in Kabardino-Balkaria, as well as the name of the holiday itself, are much more controversial than even a conventional calculation of the age of the Russian capital. Many, apparently, did not understand what exactly was being celebrated. The wording was confusing: there was no trace of Kabardino-Balkaria 450 years ago; this “two-part” word first appeared on the map of the Caucasus only in 1922. Moreover, the Kabardians are ethnically closer to the Circassians, and the Balkars are closer to the Karachais, that is, they belong to completely different language groups.
The President of Kabardino-Balkaria himself, Arsen Kanokov, on Saturday gave a whole lecture on the history of his republic, from which it became clear that the date could have been more impressive. He recalled the very gray times when the Caucasian foothills first saw Russian shields - about the campaign of the Kyiv prince Svyatoslav in 965 and about the Russian Tmutarakan principality, which existed in the 10th-11th centuries in the modern Kerch Strait. Tmutarakan, the name of which became a common noun for a remote and remote corner, was the southernmost enclave of the then Rus' and either fought or was friends with the “Kasogs,” as Russian chroniclers called the ancestors of today’s Kabardians, Circassians and Adygeis.
Over time, the principality faded away, and for several centuries the Wild Field lay between the Russian lands and the Caucasus, threatening both with either ruinous raids or the appearance of Golden Horde tribute collectors, and therefore practically impassable.
But in 1554, the army of Ivan the Terrible occupied Astrakhan. To consolidate its success, Moscow needed allies with whom it could resist Persia, Turkey and the Crimean Khanate. The Kabardians turned out to be such allies. In 1557, the Supreme Prince of Kabarda Temryuk Idarov proposed a treaty on a military alliance to Ivan the Terrible. Moscow warriors began to help the Kabardian princes in internal affairs and wars with the Crimeans, and the Kabardian cavalry fought on the side of the Russians with the Swedes and Poles in distant Livonia. They decided to consolidate the matter with marriage: in August 1561, Temryuk’s daughter converted to Orthodoxy and became the wife of Ivan the Terrible, replacing Queen Anastasia, who had died the year before.
50 years ago, in the center of Nalchik, a monument was even erected to this Kabardian princess: a bronze woman in national dress decisively steps forward, clutching in her raised hand either her marriage contract or a military-political agreement. This monument turned out to be the central symbol at the current holiday. It is not customary to remember the sad fate of the princess, who was poisoned in Moscow several years later, in a festive context.
It is also not customary, apparently, to remember that after the “voluntary accession” there was another whole century of the Caucasian War (XVIII-XIX centuries). In Nalchik, where there once was a Russian fortress, there is a monument to the Circassians who died in this war or lost their homes. The war in the Western Caucasus lasted several years longer than in rebellious Chechnya and Dagestan. After which families and entire principalities that refused to recognize the supremacy of the Russian Tsar were deported to Turkey. In memory of these gloomy events, part of the Kabardian public refused to take part in the celebrations.
The holiday did not particularly inspire the Balkars either. There are about 10% of them in the republic. Under Stalin, they, along with the Chechens, Ingush, Karachays and several non-Caucasian peoples, were subjected to total deportation and were rehabilitated only in 1957 - for them this year is also an anniversary, but in a completely different way. They didn’t forget about the deportation at the festive events, but they didn’t particularly emphasize this tragic page. And the Balkar public organization “Council of Elders of the Balkar People” noted “voluntary accession to Russia” back in the spring of this year: according to their version, it happened 180 years ago.
But critics appear to be in the minority. In any case, both Kabardians and Balkars took part in all the festive events. At the festive concert on Friday, the lezginka was equally energetically danced by both leading folk ensembles - “Kabardinka” and “Balkaria”. Only Russian artists were somewhat inferior in “number and skill” to the highlanders in authentic national costumes with sabers and daggers. Just like in life, where the share of the Russian population is declining, although not as quickly as in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan.
Multinational dances against the backdrop of cardboard images of the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower and a huge Kabardian princess took place in the Green Theater, which was built specially for the anniversary in the main city park. According to President Kanokov, the theater and several other social facilities commissioned for the holiday should be a guarantee that changes for the better will not end immediately after the celebrations are over. In total, 430 million rubles were allocated for the anniversary of brotherhood with Russia, including for the construction of a theater and putting roads in order.
The theater was even opened twice: on Friday for President Kanokov, on Saturday for Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Naryshkin and presidential envoy to the Southern District Dmitry Kozak. The guests had to literally sweat, discovering new objects - in addition to the theater, there was also a memorial arch with the inscription “Forever with Russia” and a monument to the first president of Kabardino-Balkaria, Valery Kokov.
Along the route of the motorcade of top officials, it was quietly joined by neighbors - the head of North Ossetia Taimuraz Mamsurov, the president of the unrecognized South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity, the president of Karachay-Cherkessia Mustafa Batdyev and the president of Adygea Aslan Tkhakushinov. At the ceremonial meeting in the Green Theater, it fell to the leader of Adygea to speak on behalf of the presidents. Mr. Tkhakushinov said that the holiday in Nalchik is just the beginning: Adygea and Karachay-Cherkessia are also ready to count their unity with Russia from 1557. By the end of September they will celebrate the date at home, and on October 5 all three republics will gather for a big celebration in the Kremlin.
In this regard, the President of Adygea asked the Kremlin guests not to give all valuable gifts to Kabardino-Balkaria alone and joked about the long-standing friendship of the Kabardians with the Naryshkin family: the Kabardian prince Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky was one of the associates of Peter the Great, whose mother, in turn, came from the Naryshkin family . Mr. Naryshkin, who for some reason sat throughout the entire ceremony with a very worried expression on his face, smiled politely.
Of the clergy, the first to speak was Bishop Feofan of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz, although the majority of the population of Kabardino-Balkaria is still Muslim, and only about a quarter of Russians remain. The Bishop read the address from the patriarch, and then went to the presidium and handed the embarrassed President Kanokov a heavy Bible with a gold edge. The head of the coordination center for Muslims of the North Caucasus, Mufti Ismail Berdiev, could only join in the bishop’s congratulations.
Then the Speaker of the Parliament of Tatarstan Farid Mukhametshin several times recalled that in addition to the 450th anniversary of joining Russia, the republic is also celebrating the 85th anniversary of statehood, and the Minister of the Moscow Government Vladimir Malyshkov admitted that his family and the family of Yuri Luzhkov were very friends with the late President Kokov. Words about statehood were dissonant with the general loyal tone, and memories of family friendship probably reminded many of how several Moscow companies in the 90s almost “cut up” a unique mining and processing plant in Tyrnyauz.
The Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Southern Federal District, Dmitry Kozak, spent the whole solemn day pleasantly talking with President Kanokov, who in 2005 became one of his first appointees in the North Caucasus. But at the end of the ceremonial part, he asked everyone to be more attentive to the present and future. And “keep in mind that turning to the past often ends in even greater tragedies and injustices”: “The mistakes and victories of predecessors are their victories and mistakes.”
It is very likely that the plenipotentiary remembered at that moment that the long-term crisis in Chechnya, in essence, also began with a holiday. In 1982, the Soviet leadership of Checheno-Ingushetia held a pompous celebration of “voluntary accession,” which outraged the national intelligentsia to the core and served as a signal for the beginning of the nationalist movement. Which in the early 90s spilled out into the streets in armed crowds.
Present-day Chechnya was first represented at all celebrations by the mayor of Grozny, Muslim Khuchiev, who clearly liked the idea of an expensive celebration of loyalty. But there were races planned for Sunday. Two motorcades - the President of Kabardino-Balkaria Arsen Kanokov and the President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov - rushed to the government stand of the hippodrome, located inside the racing track. The Chechen motorcade turned out to be larger and more expensive. Two dozen bearded fighters with machine guns and full ammunition instantly jumped out of it. They scattered around the podium and formed a striking contrast with Mr. Kanokov's modest guards and ordinary Nalchik policemen. The old flag of Ichkeria, hung at the hippodrome due to the lack of a new one, was not changed.
“Private owner” Ramzan Kadyrov entered four English thoroughbred horses worth several hundred thousand euros each in three of the five races – and the fourth race for the 450th Anniversary Prize was won by his stallion. Mr. Kadyrov was clearly worried and crudely joked with the head of the security platoon about shooting if the right horse did not win. Mr. Kanokov smiled politely. The fifth race for the Elbrus Cup was won by a horse from another private owner, but also from Chechnya. After that, the bearded fighters immediately settled into their cars, Mr. Kadyrov jumped behind the wheel of a Porsche Cayenne and ended his visit to the celebration, it seems, before the announcer had time to read out the names of the winning jockeys. Maybe he was in such a hurry when he learned that amid the festive bustle in Nalchik there was an explosion - a shell-free bomb went off near the location of the riot police, fortunately causing no casualties or destruction.