Chechnya Weekly from the Jamestown Foundation: "The Continuing Exodus of Ethnic Russians from the Caucasus
By Mayrbek Vachagaev
Starting in the 16th century and continuing into the 19th century, Russian settlers followed Russia’s armies in the process of annexing the Caucasus. The first Russians in the region came as refugees, fleeing their own oppressors, and settled among the mountaineers, adopting local clothes (e.g. the “cherkesska”), local lifestyles, and living next to the indigenous population in a neighborly fashion [1]. Those later migrants that came in the wake of the imperial army were unwelcome and received an entirely different treatment from the highlanders. The 19th century, the bloodiest and most tragic century in the history of the mountaineers, saw the indigenous peoples forced into the highlands and their lands given to the quasi-military communities of the Russian Cossacks. "
By Mayrbek Vachagaev
Starting in the 16th century and continuing into the 19th century, Russian settlers followed Russia’s armies in the process of annexing the Caucasus. The first Russians in the region came as refugees, fleeing their own oppressors, and settled among the mountaineers, adopting local clothes (e.g. the “cherkesska”), local lifestyles, and living next to the indigenous population in a neighborly fashion [1]. Those later migrants that came in the wake of the imperial army were unwelcome and received an entirely different treatment from the highlanders. The 19th century, the bloodiest and most tragic century in the history of the mountaineers, saw the indigenous peoples forced into the highlands and their lands given to the quasi-military communities of the Russian Cossacks. "
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