The Nogai Nomads in the XVIII–XIX centuries: the choice between the Russian State and the Ottoman Empire

The article examines the process of formation of the Russian multinational state by the example of the inclusion of Nogai nomads into the Russian Empire in the XVIII–XIX centuries and the subsequent ambiguous phenomenon, the resettlement of part of the ethnos into the Ottoman Empire, to be precise. The relevance of the study is due to the little-studied and fragmentary coverage of the problem of Nogai society’s choice between Russian and Ottoman citizenship in the XVIII-XIX centuries. The novelty of the author’s approach consists in understanding the need to study this issue not only through the prism of the Russian-Turkish rivalry in the North Caucasus and the Northern Black Sea region, but also through the process of integration of Nogai nomads into the Russian Empire in the historical period under consideration. The study reveals the main position of the imperial authorities regarding the formation and development of the administrative and legal system in Nogai society, the inclusion of nomads in the all-Russian political, legal and economic space. The process of formation and functioning of the bailiff apparatus is considered in the context of the implementation of the normative legal acts developed for nomadic Nogai society, such as “The Order for the management of Nogais” (1822) and “The Charter for the management of Nogais and other Mohammedans nomadizing in the Caucasus region” (1827). The author pays special attention to the problem of land ownership and land use faced by nomadic societies in the first half of the XIX century, which was reflected in practice in the restriction and reduction of nomadic lands, and this undoubtedly influenced the economic situation of Nogai nomads. By the middle of the XIX century, the Nogais faced a difficult choice: to join the Russian Empire, sacrificing their identity to a certain extent, or to resist this process, preferring a more radical version of their own historical path. The result of these events was the resettlement of most of the Nogais lived in the North Caucasus and the Northern Black Sea region to the Ottoman Empire. The author highlights the processes of adaptation of Nogai nomads to legal and political conditions in the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the XIX century. The problem of choosing citizenship, which faced the Nogais in the XVIII-XIX centuries, eventually led to their dispersed living in our days.

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