CC BY
58
Sudaba ZEYNALOVA
Ph.D. (Hist.) (Baku, Azerbaijan).
THE FORMATION OF WEST SLAVIC ETHNIC COMMUNITIES IN THE CAUCASUS ( 19TH-BEGINNING OF 20TH CENTURIES)
Abstract
This article takes a look at various aspects of the migration policy pursued by Russian czarism in the Caucasus that resulted in significant changes in the ethnodemographic structure of the Caucasian region in the 19th-beginning of the 20th centuries. The author focuses on the migra-
tion of West Slavic ethnicities to the Caucasus and uses statistics to show the dynamics of the quantitative indicators of the Polish and Czech communities that formed in the region during the period under review, as well as the special features of their resettlement and economic and sociocultural life.
Introduction
The Caucasus is a region of the world that boasts a multitude of different cultures, rich historical past, and diverse ethnic map. It is also a region with a long history of interaction among many different ethnic cultures that ultimately formed the distinctive features of the Caucasian subculture.
For centuries, the Europeans have been drawn to the Caucasus, a region with abundant natural resources, a rich historical and cultural heritage, and ethnographic diversity. At the end of the 18th-be-ginning of the 19th centuries, representatives of European ethnicities migrated en masse to the Caucasus where they formed communities throughout the 19th-beginning of the 20th centuries. This was promoted by the favorable conditions in the region for socioeconomic development and preserving ethnocultural identity, ethnocultural values, and ethnographic features.
Migration Policy of Russian Czarism and Ethnodemographic Changes in the Caucasus
When the Russian Empire conquered the Caucasus, new ethnosocial processes and changes began in the ethnodemographic structure of the region. During the 19th-beginning of the 20th centuries, non-indigenous people from both outside and inside the Russian Empire migrated en masse
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
to the Caucasus and settled there. The migration processes that took place in the Caucasus in the 19th century under the czarist migration policy were of both a targeted compulsory and voluntary nature.
This migration policy covered a wide range of social and ethnic groups. The main objective of colonization was to create a strong ethnosocial foundation by integrating non-indigenous people into the local population, in so doing ensuring ideological control and economic support of the territory, as well as accommodation of land poor and landless peasants from the central regions of the Russian Empire. Imperial colonization in the Caucasus cannot be considered strictly Russian in the ethnic sense. Many different ethnicities were drawn into the czarist migration policy—Russians, Ukrainians, Germans, Greeks, Poles, Czechs, Moldavians, Bulgarians, Estonians, and so on.
This migration policy can provisionally be divided into several stages. At the end of the 18th-first half of the 19th century, czarism carried out mass and targeted deportation of the Russian and Ukrainian population, German colonists, Greek migrants, Polish servicemen, and exiles to the Caucasus. However, during the second half and end of the 19th century, after the peasant reform, resettlement of various ethnic communities was of a partially spontaneous and voluntary nature, supported and encouraged by czarism. During these years, due to the economic and industrial development of the region, mass deportation began of the land poor Russian peasantry from the central provinces of Russia, as well as of German colonists, Estonian, Moldavian, Czech, Bulgarian, and other peasants. The inflow of European migrants into the cities of the Caucasus also increased at this time due to the industrial boom. There was quite a large number of white-collar workers, specialists in various spheres, businessmen, and so on among these migrants. As a result, the period from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th centuries was characterized by the development of capitalism and industrial-economic growth, which largely promoted greater migration and movement of the non-indigenous population both from outside the region and from within the boundaries of the Russian Empire to the Caucasus.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the representatives of more than 20 ethnicities from outside the Caucasus lived alongside the indigenous people in the region. The time, reasons, and circumstances of the appearance of these people in the Caucasus varied. The nature of the migration processes also differed, which could largely be divided into two groups:
1) migration directed and carried out by the state; and
2) spontaneous migration, during which primarily small groups and families moved.1
The changes in the ethnodemographic map of the Caucasus, as well as the migration processes, had a direct impact on the quantitative indices of many local ethnicities and alien ethnic communities. In particular, within a short space of time, new European ethnic communities appeared on the ethnodemographic map of the region, the quantitative indices of which gradually grew due to the constant inflow of migrants that continued throughout the 19th-beginning of the 20th centuries. This is graphically shown by the data of censuses and statistical sources. The quantitative indices of European ethnic communities in the Caucasus at the end of the 19th century can be examined on the basis of the data provided by the First Universal Population Census of the Russian Empire of 1897.
We will note that as early as the beginning of the 20th century, the formation of European ethnic communities in the Caucasus was essentially complete. Representatives of the European ethnicities who moved to the Caucasus en masse and mainly lived compactly in the cities and villages formed as ethnic communities and the long-standing diasporas. In the 1920s, the quantitative indices of the European ethnic communities were registered and the ethnic composition of the Caucasus was specified in greater detail in the all-Union census of 1926.
1 See: N.G. Volkova, Etnicheskiy sostav naseleniia Severnogo Kavkaza v XVIII-nachale XX veka, Nauka Publishers, Moscow, 1974, pp. 193-197.
Table 1
Quantitative Distribution of European Ethnic Communities in the Caucasus According to Native Language Based on the 1897 Census2
Administrative-territorial Unit
in ia E -n" ö
û£ c
e
Baku Governorate __ 77,681 1,439 __ 371 158 ___ 3,430 __ 622
Elizavetpol Governorate 17,875 616 148 143 3,194 558 16
Zaqataly District 434 115 — — 11 2 —
Daghestan Region 16,044 1,630 537 78 261 — 50
Kars Region 27,856 3243 956 51 430 32,593 484
Tiflis Governorate 85,338 6,167 1,420 814 8,329 27,116 199
Kutaisi Governorate 7,476 793 242 184 290 4,372 8
Batumi Region 9,956 911 191 160 369 4,717 31
Sukhumi District 6,011 234 123 138 406 5,393 607
Black Sea Governorate 34,546 731 88 1,091 748 5,969 821
Erivan Governorate 15,937 1,385 485 363 210 1,323 403
Stavropol Governorate 803,192 961 199 110 8,601 1,715 1,532
Kuban Region 1,737,908 2,719 1,086 5,444 20,778 20,137 2,446
Terek Region 314,644 4,173 841 221 9,672 958 203
The sociopolitical and socioeconomic processes that took place in the Soviet period had an effect on the ethnodemographic structure of the Caucasus. In the 1920s-1940s, after Soviet power was established in the Caucasus, there was mass emigration of the population abroad. De-kulakiza-tion, repressions, forced exile, and deportation of the indigenous Caucasian people, as well as of the alien ethnic groups living in the region, in addition to the combat action in the Caucasus during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, had a direct influence on the ethnic composition and demographic development of the Caucasus. In particular, representatives of European ethnic communities—all of the German population and some of the Greek and Polish population—were deported
2 See: Kavkazskiy kalendar na 1908 god, Tiflis, 1907, pp. 108-124.
Table 2
European Population of the Transcaucasus According to the 1926 Census3
Nationality Transcaucasian S.F.S.R. Azerbaijan S.S.R. Georgian S.S.R. Armenian S.S.R.
Russians 336,178 220,545 96,085 19,548
Ukrainians 35,423 18,241 14,356 2,826
Byelorussians 3,767 2,867 540 360
Germans 25,327 13,149 12,074 104
Poles 6,324 2,460 3,159 705
Greeks 57,935 904 54,051 2,980
Estonians 1,043 168 871 4
Latvians 944 569 363 12
Lithuanians 572 285 283 4
Moldavians 316 156 142 18
French 347 58 282 7
Italians 257 77 172 8
Czechs and Slovaks 237 87 143 7
Bulgarians 203 40 160 3
Table 3
European Population of the North Caucasian Territory and the Daghestan A.S.S.R. According to the 1926 Census4
North Caucasian Territory Daghestan A.S.S.R.
Nationality Total Population Urban Population Rural Population Total Population
Russians 3,841,063 1,009,342 2,831,721 98,197
Ukrainians 3,106,852 353,791 2,753,061 4,126
Byelorussians 51,317 28,697 22,620 178
3 See: Naselenie Zakavkazia. Vsesoiuznaia perepis naseleniia 1926 g. Kratkie itogi, Transcaucasian Central Statistics Board, Tiflis, 1928, p. 8.
4 See: Vsesoiuznaia perepis naseleniia 1926 goda, Vol. 5, Krymskaia A.S.S.R., Severo-Kavkazskiy kray, Dagestan-skaia A.S.S.R., Moscow, 1928, pp. 52-56, 342.
Table 3 (continued)
North Caucasian Territory Daghestan A.S.S.R.
Nationality Total Population Urban Population Rural Population Total Population
Poles 18,425 12,588 5,837 460
Czechs and Slovaks 3,780 1,286 2,494 20
Serbs 277 133 144 1
Bulgarians 2,798 762 2,036 44
Latvians 4,573 2,582 1,991 73
Lithuanians 2,292 1,718 574 69
Estonians 5,201 962 4,239 33
Germans 93,915 12,734 81,181 2,551
English 59 40 19 —
Swedes 82 70 12 1
Dutch 10 8 2 13
Italians 308 242 66 1
French 164 135 29 10
Rumanians 562 201 361 58
Moldavians 9,546 446 9,100 491
Greeks 32,178 11,125 21,053 82
Finns 322 128 194 9
and exiled from the Caucasus. After rehabilitation, only a small number of them returned to the region.5
Thus, in the 19th-beginning of the 20th century, significant changes occurred in the ethnodemo-graphic structure of the Caucasus caused by the czarist migration policy, migration processes, and mass resettlement of members of the non-indigenous population both from outside and inside the Russian Empire. Russian czarism's migration policy brought new ethnic elements into this historically ethnically diverse region and promoted the appearance, formation, and increase in the size of the new ethnic communities, the area of historical dispersion of most of which stretched far beyond the Caucasus. In the 19th-beginning of the 20th centuries, new European ethnic groups appeared in the region—Poles, Czechs, Bulgarians, Germans, Swedes, Moldavians, Rumanians, Finns, Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, and others, most of whom founded monoethnic settlements, settled in mixed villages, or resided in the cities. These diaspora groups went through a long process of social adaptation and, preserving their cultural values and special features of national identity, were able by and
5 See: S.M. Zeynalova, Formirovanie evropeyskikh etnicheskikh obshchin na Kavkaze (XIX-pervaia polovina XX vv.), Mutarjim, Baku, 2010, pp. 33-56.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
large to become part of the polyethnic and subcultural expanse of the region, thus leaving their mark on the history of the Caucasus.
Representatives of the West Slavic ethnicities—Poles, Czechs, and a small number of Slovaks—formed some of the ethnic communities that settled and lived for a long time in the Caucasus. Migration of members of the West Slavic ethnicities to the Caucasus should be viewed as a whole within the framework of the czarist migration policy and the migration processes that took place in the 19 th century.
Polish Community in the Caucasus
The Polish community was the largest of the West Slavic ethnicities that moved to and lived for a long time in the Caucasus. The migration of Poles and formation of a Polish community in the Caucasus differed from similar processes that ended in the formation of European communities in the region. The differences were expressed in the reasons for migration and the course it took, on the one hand, and directly in the social adaptation and formation of the Polish ethnic community, on the other.
After the divvying up of the Rzeczpospolita and the Napoleonic wars, most of Poland went to the Russian Empire, which led to resettlement of groups of the Polish population in different regions of the empire, including in the Caucasus. The resettlement of Polish migrants in the Caucasus in the 19th century can be described as both compulsory and voluntary. When examining the migration of Poles to the region, several main cause-effect trends can be identified:
(1) migration to the Caucasus of Poles from Napoleon's army who were prisoners-of-war and recruits from Poland to the regular Russian troops as a result of military colonization of the region;
(2) compulsory deportation of Poles as political exiles accused of participating in Polish uprisings; and
(3) voluntary migration of Poles from other provinces to the Caucasus.
At the end of the 18th century, Polish soldiers serving in Russian squadrons began arriving in the Caucasus. Poles primarily settled in the region as servicemen in the Caucasian army forces. It is known that Polish legions took part in the Napoleonic wars. After defeat of Napoleon's troops, many Polish prisoners-of-war were sent to the Caucasus to serve in the army. On the other hand, recruits from the Kingdom of Poland were also sent to the Caucasus to serve in the army. Thus, quite a large number of Polish officers served in the military units stationed in the Caucasus on fortified lines.6 The length of service in the Caucasus was quite long and afterwards many Poles and their families stayed on permanently.
The largest category of the Polish population in the Northern Caucasus was composed of exiled Poles, participants in the national uprising of the 1830s and 1860s in Poland. After the Polish uprising of 1830-1831 was suppressed, hundreds of convicts were exiled to Siberia, recruited into the army, or sent to live in remote provinces of Russia, including in the Caucasus, despite the amnesty declared by Russian czarism.7 In the 1830s, Polish exiles began descending on the Caucasus en masse. A large number of exiled Poles also appeared in the Caucasus after repression of the 1863-1864 uprising. As
6 See: V.B. Vinogradov, Sredniaia Kuban: zemliaki i sosedi, Armavir, 1995, pp. 128-132.
7 See: Istoriia Polshi, in three volumes, Vol. 1, U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences Publishers, Moscow, 1954, pp. 438-
453, 464.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
a result, from the end of the 18th century right up until the 1860s, the Polish ethnic community in the Caucasus was formed mainly from exiles (participants in the Polish uprisings) and Polish servicemen sent to the region. After expiration of their active service or the end of their exile term, many Poles decided to stay on permanently. However, after czarism declared amnesty, some of the Polish exiles returned to their historical homeland.
Polish servicemen and exiles were deployed in legions throughout the Caucasus. In particular, a large number of Poles served in Azerbaijan in the Zaqataly and Husar districts. A large number of Polish servicemen were deployed at military posts in Georgia and the Northern Caucasus. At the beginning of the 1830s, a large group of Polish officers of the Chernigov Infantry Regiment and Lithuanian Squadron exiled to the Caucasus served in Vladikavkaz. Many Poles served in the 76th Kuban Infantry Regiment that formed the basis of the First Maykop Garrison. Their descendants built a Catholic church in Maykop at the beginning of the 20th century.8 Some researchers believe that a total of 25-30,000 Poles served in the Caucasian Corps in 1840.9
In the second half of the 19th-beginning of the 20th century, the size of the Polish population in the Caucasus grew. Migration intensified due to the rigorous increase in capitalist relations and industrial development in the region. Along with representatives of various ethnicities, Polish specialists in different spheres began coming to the Caucasus, mainly engineers, physicians, lawyers, architects, and white-collar workers. This migration wave of the Polish population was voluntary and mainly associated with the good accommodation and job prospects in the region.
When examining the statistical sources of the second half of the 19th-beginning of the 20th centuries, it can be concluded based on demographic and qualitative indices that the Polish population was one of the largest European ethnic groups in the Caucasus. In particular, according to the 1897 census, a total of 17,264 people who considered Polish their native language lived in the Transcau-casus and 7,853 in the Northern Caucasus.10 According to the 1926 census, 6,324 Poles lived in the Transcaucasian S.F.S.R., 2,460 of whom lived in the Azerbaijan S.S.R, 3,159 in the Georgian S.S.R., and 705 in the Armenian S.S.R. Four hundred and sixty Poles lived in the Daghestan A.S.S.R. A total of 18,425 Poles lived in the North Caucasian Territory, 12,588 of whom were city-dwellers and 5,837 rural residents.11 Due to the demographic growth that occurred as a result of the migration processes and natural population increment, the number of Poles living in the Caucasus in the 1930s increased to around 25-30,000. Changes in the quantitative indices were caused by burgeoning of the ranks of recruits and exiled Poles, the independent and voluntary resettlement of Poles in the region, as well as the return of some of the Polish exiled settlers to their historical homeland after amnesty was declared.
As can be seen from the statistics presented above, most of the Polish population lived in the cities, and only a small number resided in rural areas. For example, at the end of the 19th century, there was a small population of Polish state-owned farmers (53 farms, 231 people) living in the Transcaucasian Territory who settled in the Tiflis province.12 A small number of Poles also lived in mixed rural settlements in the Northern Caucasus.
A large number of Poles settled in large cities—the industrial and cultural centers of the Caucasus—Baku, Tiflis, Ekaterinodar, Stavropol, Vladikavkaz, and others. According to the data for 1884, 10,263 Poles lived in the Northern Caucasus, including 8,444 in the Kuban Region (2,400 in
8 See: O.V. Matveev, "Poliaki goroda Maykopa (vtoraia polovina XIX-nachalo XX vv.)," available at [http:// slavmir.orthodoxkuban.com.ru/2008/08/21/ov_matveev_poljaki_goroda_majjkopa.html].
9 See: R.F. Badirbeyli, Poliaki v Azerbaidzhane v XIX-nach. XX vv., Author's dissertation for a Ph.D. in History, Baku, 1985, pp. 9-14.
10 See: Kavkazskiy kalendar na 1908 god, pp. 108-124.
11 See: Vsesoiuznaia perepis naseleniia 1926 goda, Vol. V, pp. 52-56, 342; Naselenie Zakavkazia. Vsesoiuznaia perepis naseleniia 1926 g. Kratikie itogi, p. 8.
12 See: I.G. Antelava, Gosudarstvennye krestiane Gruzii v XIX veke (proreformennyy period 1864-1900 gg.), Vol. II, Georgian S.S.R. Academy of Sciences Publishers, Tbilisi, 1962, pp. 281-283.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
Ekaterinodar). The number of Poles in Vladikavkaz increased during general colonization of the territory by means of migrants from the Warsaw province and other provinces of the Kingdom of Poland, the Baltic states, and the Russian provinces, mainly Voronezh. In 1882, there were 1,021 people in the city, in 1899, 1,037, and by 1914, 1,879 people were living there. According to the 1897 census, the size of the Polish population in Stavropol amounted to 711 people.13 A large number of Poles lived in the large cities of the Southern Caucasus—Baku and Tiflis. According to the data of a one-day census conducted in Tiflis on 25 March, 1876, 1,592 Poles lived in the city.14 According to the data for 1886, 1,093 Poles lived in Baku.15 The inflow of Poles into the Caucasus also intensified during World War I. Masses of Polish refugees showed up in the cities of the Caucasus—Baku, Tiflis, Vladikavkaz, and others. According to the Baku census of 1913, 1,770 Poles lived in the city.16 A large number of Polish residents was designated in Baku during a one-day census carried out in 1917, according to which almost 2,000 Poles (1,982) lived in the city.17 The size of the Polish population in the cities of the Caucasus decreased during the 1920s after Soviet power was established.
In contrast to the representatives of other European ethnic groups who moved to the Caucasus and founded compact settlements, for example, Germans, Greeks, Czechs, Estonians, and so on, the Poles mainly lived in the large cities and did not have national settlements. As mentioned above, only a small number of Poles lived in the rural areas, mainly in mixed settlements. In order to retain control over the Polish population, the Russian government did not strive to create national settlements for the Poles.18 On the other hand, most of the Poles who moved to the Caucasus were noblemen, white-collar workers, members of the military, and members of the clergy by birth, and only a few were peasants. These strata of the population were mainly city-dwellers who had difficulty adapting to rural life. However, despite the control over the activity of the Poles, most of the Polish natives were able to quickly adapt to the new living conditions and occupy a certain socioeconomic niche. In addition to engaging in private business activity, Poles served in the civil service and army. There were quite a few high-ranking military officers, prominent scientists and teachers, artists, physicians, and well-known architects among the Polish population living in the Caucasus. The Polish community in the Caucasus was characterized by a high social status and level of literacy. For example, in the mid-1920s, according to the statistics, among the representatives of the European ethnic communities in the Transcaucasus (with a total of no less than 3,000 people), more than 75% of Poles and Germans ranked first in terms of level of literacy per 1,000 people, there being 831 Poles of this category per 1,000 people and 755 Germans per 1,000 people.19
By the beginning of the 20th century, Polish communities with a high level of ethnocultural consolidation had formed in the large cities of the Northern and Southern Caucasus. The Polish community settled in very compact districts in some cities, Vladikavkaz for example. The Poles opened several private establishments—stores and medical and educational institutions. At the beginning of the 20th century, a Roman Catholic school and Catholic church, which was restored in the 1930s, functioned in Vladikavkaz.20 In the 1840s, a Catholic church was built in Stavropol, at which a prima-
13 See: "Poliaki na Kubani: istoria i sovremennost," available at [http://poloniakuban.by.ru/polish_kub.htm];
Kavkazskiy kalendar na 1908 god, p. 122; Z.V. Kanukova, Staryy Vladikavkaz, Iriston, Vladikavkaz, 2002, 310 pp., available at [http://nocss.ru/projects/24/gl1_p2.php].
14 See: Sbornik svedeniy o Kavkaze, ed. by N.K. Zeydlits, Vol. VI, Tiflis, 1880, pp. 134-138.
15 See: M.B. Muradalieva, Goroda Severnogo Azerbaidzhana vo vtoroi polovine XIX veka, Baku University Publishers, Baku, 1991, p. 82.
16 See: Perepis Baku 1913 g., Part III, Naseleniie, Baku, 1916, p. 5.
17 See: Izvestiia AzTsSU, No. 4, 1922, p. 34.
18 See: I.V. Tsifanova, Polskie pereselentsy na Severnom Kavkaze v XIX veke: osobennosit protsessa adaptatsii, Author's dissertation for a Ph.D. in History, Stavropol, 2005, pp. 21-27.
19 See: "Gramotnost naseleniia ZSFSR," Ekonomicheskiy vestnik Zakavkazia, No. 9, 1928, p. 5.
20 See: Z.V. Kanukova, op. cit.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
ry school and charity society functioned.21 The largest Polish community was in Kuban. Many noblemen, servicemen, physicians, teachers, and businessmen had a significant impact on the development of the Kuban Region. They included public prosecutor of the Ekaterinodar District Court V. Rakov-sky, head physician of the Ekaterinodar Military Hospital and founder of the Goriachie kliuchi Health Resort M. Rymashevsky, noblemen, Kuban industrialists P. Bukovsky and G. Kozlovsky, founder of the Anapa health resort V. Budzinsky, and others. The Polish population of Kuban was distinguished by high social activity. Poles were particularly active in Ekaterinodar. In 1893, a Roman Catholic church was built and consecrated in Ekaterinodar, at which a parochial school was opened. A Roman Catholic church also functioned in Armavir, which ran a Roman Catholic academy for Poles and a library. At the beginning of the 20th century, a Polish club called Ognisko functioned in Ekaterinodar. In 1920, there were three Polish schools in the Kuban-Black Sea Region in Armavir, Novorossiysk, and Ekaterinodar.22
The Polish community represented a significant social stratum in the South Caucasian cities of Baku, Tbilisi (Tiflis), and Batumi. Polish exiles settled in Azerbaijan, where they served in military garrisons. There were talented poets, scientists, and engineers among the Polish exiles to the Southern Caucasus. Tadeusz Lada Zablotsky (1813-1847) was a Polish poet who lived for more than a decade in the Caucasus. He was one of those exiled in 1837 to serve in the Caucasian Corps for participating in the anti-monarchial movement. In 1841, he went to Guba and then to Shemakha. Travelling through the southeast of the Caucasus, he devoted many of his literary works to this region, studied the national Caucasian languages, and translated Azerbaijani folk songs and folklore. Vladislav Stshelnitsky (1820-1846) was another Polish poet exiled to the Caucasus to serve in the army. Many of his literary works were written in Shusha, Shemakha, and Baku. Living for a long time in Karaba-kh, he wrote about this area in his Caucasian Essays.23
One of the exiled Poles was Ludwig Mlokosevich, who was sent to do military service in the Caucasus in 1851 and studied the biology of the region and cultivated rare species of plants. He carried out hydrometeorological observations in Zaqataly, studied the flora and fauna, and participated in botanic and zoological expeditions around Azerbaijan, Daghestan, and Georgia.24
The development of industry in Azerbaijan created favorable conditions for an inflow of Polish specialists. Poles who graduated from Russian higher educational institutions—physicians, pharmacists, engineers, officials, etc.—were sent to Azerbaijan in the last third of the 19th century. Baku had the largest concentration of Poles in Azerbaijan. In the variegated ethnic makeup of Baku, the Poles were distinguished by a high level of education and occupied many executive posts in the army, state administration, and industry. In particular, at the end of the 19th century, a Pole called Stanislav Despot-Zenovich was the chairman of the Baku City Duma. The Polish Rylsky family was engaged in business activity at the Baku oilfields. Some of the Polish officers held posts in the military administration in Azerbaijan, in particular, Physician Seropsky (head of the military hospital in Baku in 1831), Major Kanonensky (military commandant of Baku in 1839), and Colonel Miklashevsky (military commander of the Muslim provinces of the Caucasus). In 1847, nine high-ranking Polish white-collar workers served in Azerbaijan, in particular, head of the district military headquarters Major General M. Gursky, Major F. Dobzhansky, and others. In the second half of the 19th century, quite a large number of Polish physicians worked in Baku. By 1889, there were nine Polish physicians practicing in Baku.25
21 See: I.V. Tsifanova, op. cit.
22 See: Poliaki na Kubani: istoria i sovremennost; V.B. Vinogradov, Sredniaia Kuban: zemliaki i sosedi, Armavir, 1995, pp. 128-132.
23 See: G.G. Abdullabekova, Temy i inspiratsii Azerbaidzhana v polskoi literature XIX veka, Ozan, Baku, 1999, pp. 46-48, 67.
24 See: "Ludwig Mlokosevich," Kavkazskaia Poloniia, No. 5, 2001, pp. 10-13.
25 See: R. Badirbeyli, "Poliaki v Azerbaidzhane v XIX i nachale XX veka," Kavkazskaia Poloniia, No. 2, 1999, pp. 2-4.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
The most vibrant representatives of the Polish population in Azerbaijan were Polish architects—Yu. Goslavsky, K. Skurevich, Yu. Ploshko, E. Skibinsky, K. Borisoglebsky, and others, whose designs were used to build a whole series of extremely beautiful architectural buildings in Baku and other cities. Polish architect Yuzef Vikentievich Goslavsky (1865-1904) was born in Warsaw and soon after graduating from the Petersburg Institute of Civil Engineers was sent to Baku. Between 1893-1900, he designed and supervised the construction of several fundamental buildings, including the Palace of Zeinalabdin Tagiev (now the Azerbaijan National History Museum), the building of the women's Muslim school, the building of the city Duma (now the building of the Baku Executive Power Branch), the Tagiev Theater (now the musical comedy theater), several residential buildings in the center of the city, and so on. Architect Yuzef Ploshko's designs were used for the Ismailiye building (now the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan), residential buildings on Telefonnaia Street (now 28 May Street) commissioned by Baku oil industrialist Musa Nagiev, the Palace of Murtuz Mukhtarov (now the Palace of Happiness), and so on.26
Polish geologists made a significant contribution to the development of geology of the Caucasus, particularly Vitold Zglenitsky (1850-1904) and Pavel Pototsky (1879-1923) who studied the oilfields and mineral deposits in Azerbaijan, as well as promising oil-bearing zones on land and in the Caspian Sea.27
Polish scientists living in Azerbaijan, particularly A. Makovelsky (the history of philosophy), P. Zdrodovsky (microbiology), and others, made a significant contribution to the development of various branches of science. Among Azerbaijan's music intelligentsia of the beginning of the 20th century, famous musician Leopold Rostropovich (1892-1942), who came from a noble Polish family, can be mentioned. The events of his creative life between 1925 and 1931 were associated with Baku. Leopold Rostropovich was a professor at the Azerbaijani State Conservatory. His son, Mstislav Rostropovich (1927, Baku-2007, Moscow), who became a world renowned musician, philanthropist, and patron of the arts, was born in Baku. People in Azerbaijan today still highly esteem his memory.28
There was a large Polish community in Georgia. At the end of the 19th-beginning of the 20th centuries, many Polish officials, military, scientists, and artists lived in Tiflis. Yuzef Khodko (18001881) held a prominent place in topography and cartography. After serving several army terms, in 1840 he was appointed to the Caucasus to engage in geodesic and topographic studies. During his service in the Caucasus, Khodko carried out several fundamental scientific studies regarding trigonometric measurements of the Transcaucasian Territory and topographic photographs of the Northern Caucasus. In 1858, the military-topographic department of the main headquarters of the Caucasian army was established in Tiflis, to which Major General Khodko was appointed head. He was also an honorary member of the Caucasian Department of the Russian Technical Society and possessed various state awards.29
At the end of the 19th century, Polish engineers worked in Tiflis, among whom Boleslav Stat-kovsky can be mentioned. After coming to Tiflis to serve in the army in 1847, he took part in rebuilding the Military Georgian Road and in building the Tiflis-Poti railroad. General Vladislav Kaluso-vsky, who was sent to the Caucasus in the second half of the 19th century, worked for many years in the military-topographic department of the Caucasian Military District in Tiflis. He took military-topographic photographs and drew many topographic maps, including the map of Tiflis.30
26 See: Sh. Fatullaev-Figarov, Tvorchestvopolskikh arkhitektorov vBaku, Baku, 2004; Sh.S. Fatullaev, Gradostroitelstvo i arkhitektura AzerbaidzhanaXIX-nachalaXX veka, Stroyizdat, Leningrad, 1986, pp. 65-66, 82, 158-162, 218, 276, 405.
27 See: Polskie neftianiki v Azerbaidzhane na rubezhe XIX-XX vekov, Baku, 2008, pp. 47-56.
28 See: O. Iushanina-Makovelskaia, A. Kostin, "O Polshe i poliakakh v Azerbaidzhane," Azerbaidzhan i azerbaid-zhantsy v mire, No. 2, 2009, pp. 165-171; Mstislav Rostropovich, Baku, 1997, pp. 29-32.
29 See: "Yuzef Khodko," Kavkazskaia Poloniia, No. 5, 2001, pp. 3-5.
30 See: "Boleslav Statkovsky," Kavkazskaia Poloniia, No. 7, 2002, pp. 8-10; "Puteshestvuia po stranitsam proshlo-
go," Kavkazskaia Poloniia, No. 8, 2002, pp. 5-12.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
Spiritual values were extremely important in the life of the Polish community of the Caucasus. Most of the Polish population were Catholics. At the beginning of the 20th century, Catholic churches were built in almost all the large cities of the Caucasus with a large Polish population. Charity societies and parochial schools functioned in them. We will note that the Polish population was known for its activity in social life. At the beginning of the 20th century, Polish social organizations, such as Polish House, charity societies, libraries, and so on, functioned in the large cities of the Northern and Southern Caucasus (in Vladikavkaz, Ekaterinodar, Baku, Tiflis and others). In particular, at the beginning of the 20th century, social-charity organizations existed in Baku, in the activity of which members of the Polish intelligentsia participated. The first association of Poles called The Roman Catholic Society was established in Baku in 1903 to carry out philanthropic activity. In 1909, an association called Polish House was registered, the charter of which set forth its main objective as promoting cultural development of the Polish population of Baku. At the beginning of World War I, Polish House helped refugees from Poland.31 Polish public organizations—Polish House, a Polish theater, and a library—also functioned in Tiflis at the beginning of the 20th century. In the 1920s, a Polish school functioned in Georgia.32
In 1909-1911, a Catholic church designed by Yuzef Ploshko was built in Baku. The Rylsky family of Polish industrialists, as well as Vitold Zglenitsky, took active part in financing the activity of Polish House and building the Catholic church. The Catholic church, most of the parishioners of which were Poles, was destroyed during the "militant atheism" in the 1930s. The dean of the parish, Roman Catholic priest Stefan Demurov, like many other members of the clergy, was arrested during the years of repression.33 The fact that deputy Stanislav Vonsovich represented the Polish national council in the faction of deputies from the national minorities in the Parliament of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918-1920) also demonstrates the public activity of the Polish population.34
Due to the fact that most of the Polish population in the Caucasus lived in cities and did not have national settlements, in contrast to the German and Greek communities, the ethnocultural characteristics of the Polish community were determined by urban attributes. The Polish community solicitously preserved elements of the national and spiritual culture, language, customs and traditions passed down from generation to generation. On the whole, in their lifestyle, the Poles adhered to and followed European and Christian values and dogmas. By preserving its national identity, the Polish community, which successfully underwent sociocultural adaptation, was able to harmoniously blend into the socioeconomic and sociocultural life of the cities of the Caucasus.
The Czech Community in the Caucasus
The migration of groups of the Czech population to the Caucasus in the second half of the 19th century was voluntary and supported by Russian czarism. The Czech migrants founded their own settlements in the region and engaged primarily in agriculture.
Czech migrants appeared in the Caucasus in the second half of the 19th century as a result of the migration wave, migration policy, and prospects for economic development in the region. Along with
See: R. Badirbeyli, op. cit.
31 .
32 See: A. Kozbelevskiy, "Iz istorii poliakov Gruzii," Kavkazskaia Poloniia, No. 9, 2002, pp. 13-14; M. Komakhia, "Georgia's Slavic Population," Central Asia and the Caucasus, No. 4 (46), 2007, pp. 132-143.
33 See: A. Khodubski, "Polsko-azerbaidzhanskie sviazi i istoriko-memuarnaia literature (do nachala XX v.)," in: Azerbaidzhansko-evropeiskie literaturnye vsaimosviazi, Elm, Baku, 1983, pp. 202-209; "Yan Chapla: Katolicheskaia tserkov," Azerbaidzhan i azerbaidzhantsy v mire, No. 1, 2007, pp. 72-75; Iu. Guretskiy, "Katolicheskaia tserkov v Azer-baidzhane," Kavkazskaia Poloniia, No. 12, 2003, pp. 5-9.
34 See: Azerbaidzhanskaia Demokraticheskaia Respublika (1918-1920). Parliament, Azerbaijan Publishers, Baku, 1998, pp. 23-26; Azerbaidzhanskaia Respublika. Dokumenty i materialy 1918-1920 gg., ed. by J.B. Guliev, Elm, Baku, 1998, p. 215.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
the Czechs, a small number of Slovaks also moved to the Caucasus and settled there. As a result of the Czech farmers being deprived of their land, they began moving to the Russian Empire, where Czech settlements appeared in the second half of the 19th century in Volyn, the Crimea, and the Northern Caucasus. On the whole, by the beginning of the 20th century, the Czechs had established several settlements in the Kuban Region and Black Sea Governorate—the village of Pavlovka (migrants from Moravia at the end of 1870-beginning of 1880s), the village of Varvarovka (the Taman Branch of the Kuban Region, and from 1904 the Novorossiysk District of the Black Sea Governorate), the villages of Vladimirovka, Mefodievka, Borisovka, Glebovka (the Novorossiysk District), the villages of Te-kos and Teshebs (along with the Poles), the Georgiev hamlet (village of Anastasievka) (the Tuapse District), and the hamlet of Mamatsev (along with Poles) (the Maykop Branch).35
According to the 1926 census, a total of 3,780 Czechs and Slovaks lived in the North Caucasian Territory, 1,286 of whom were urban and 2,494 rural residents. A small number of Czechs and Slovaks lived in the Transcaucasian S.F.S.R.—237 people, 143 of whom settled in the Georgian S.S.R. and 87 in the Azerbaijan S.S.R.36
The Czechs took part in the development of various branches of agriculture and industry in the region. After settling in the Caucasus as farmers, they devoted much attention to the development of farming and cattle breeding in their settlements. The Czechs made a significant contribution to the development of the beer-brewing industry in the Northern Caucasus. Whereas Germans were initially engaged in beer brewing, beginning in the 1870s, this sphere of activity became the specialization of Czech beer brewers and wine growers. Special mention should be made of Fyodor Geiduk who helped to establish the manufacture of Abrau-Durso champagnes in the region.37
The Czechs also actively demonstrated their skills in various spheres of the local economy and cultural life of Armavir. At the end of the 19th-beginning of the 20th centuries, the J. Grzyb beer brewery, O. Lozhansky oil-pressing factory, and the Stepanek Bros. Czech Prague sausage factory functioned in Armavir.38 In the Southern Caucasus, Czechs lived in small numbers in the cities and were mainly white-collar workers and specialists in various spheres. In particular, hydraulic engineer Nikolai Smalcel, opera singer Joseph Ratil, singer Gertrude Smalcel, artist-designers Franz Novak and Joseph Broucek, physician Ivan Prbil, and others can be named among the well-known members of Georgia's Czech population.39
The Czechs, who lived in the Caucasus for almost a century, retained their cultural and ethnographic characteristics, which were expressed in the settlers' everyday life and material and spiritual culture. In particular, the Czech villages were reminiscent of European settlements with public institutions—a church, rural council, and school—in their centers. A farming and cattle-breeding way of life was characteristic of the Czech population of the Caucasus. Beer brewing was developed in the hamlet of Mamatsev, while meat and dairy stock-raising was characteristic of the Czech settlements in the Black Sea Governorate. The absolute majority of Czechs in the Caucasus were Catholics. Catholic churches and prayer houses were built in several Czech villages—Varvarovka, Pavlovka, and Teshebs.40
35 See: Entsiklopedicheskiy slovar po istorii Kubani s drevneishikh vremen do oktiabria 1917 goda, Elvi, Krasnodar, 1997, p. 553; I. Kuznetsov, Chekhi Kavkaza, Bulletin No. 1, Publication of the Center of Pontic-Caucasian Studies at the Chair of History, Sociology and International Relations of Kuban State University, available at [http://history. kubsu.ru/pdf/kn2-122.pdf].
36 See: Vsesoiuznaia perepis naseleniia 1926 goda, Vol. V, pp. 52-56; Naselenie Zakavkazia. Vsesoiuznaia perepis naseleniia 1926 g. Kratkie itogi, p. 8.
37 See: V. Pukish, "Cheshskie korni rossiiskogo shampanskogo," available at [http://smyslov.livejournal.com/ 720160.html].
38 See: S.N. Ktitorov, "Etnicheskiy sostav naseleniia Armavira po dannym torgovopromyshlennykh spiskov," in: Dikarevskie chteniia (4). Results of Folklore and Ethnographic Studies of the Ethnic Cultures of Kuban for 1997, Papers of the Scientific-Practical Conference, Belorechensk, 1998, pp. 18-21.
39 See: M. Komakhia, op. cit.
40 See: I. Kuznetsov, op. cit.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
Throughout the 20th century, changes occurred in the life of the West Slavic ethnic communities, as well as of the other European ethnic communities living in the Caucasus. The size of the Polish and Czech population in the region perceptibly decreased as a result of the repatriation during World War I, the repressions, de-kulakization, and compulsory deportations of the 1930s-1940s of the Soviet period, and the emigration in the 1990s.
Conclusion
The Russian czarist migration policy in the 19th-beginning of 20th centuries led to an increase in the size of the non-indigenous population in the Caucasus and the appearance of new ethnic communities, the historical homeland of whom was far beyond the region. Migration was both compulsory and voluntary. There were landless peasants, exiles, and also population groups of different ethnic origin who moved to the Caucasus during economic development.
The migration waves during the 19th century promoted the appearance and gradual increase in the size of the European ethnic communities, among whom representatives of Western Slavic ethnicities—Poles and Czechs—can be noted. The largest was the Polish community, which settled in the Caucasian cities and mainly represented different strata of the urban population—white-collar workers, scientists, teachers, businessmen, industrialists, servicemen, etc. Groups of Czech residents established several settlements in the Northern Caucasus and on the Black Sea coast. The Czech community was mainly engaged in farming and agricultural production.
Polish and Czech ethnic communities continued to form throughout the 19th century, but this process was completed by the beginning of the 20th century. They became successfully integrated into the economic and social life of the region, but in so doing were able to preserve their national and cultural values and ethnographic characteristics far from their historical homeland. This was vividly manifested in building churches and opening national schools, in the activity of public organizations and charity societies, and in their lifestyle in general.
