Archival Collection on Circassian Diaspora in the Ottoman Empire after 1864 Now Available Digitally

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 25 – Four years ago, the Kabardino-Balkar Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences issued a collection of archival materials, many never published before that time, on the Circassian diaspora in the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the 19^th and first part of the 20^th centuries.

            Unfortunately, like many such books, The Circassian Diaspora in the Ottoman Empire (in Russian; Nalchik, 2018, 216 pages), was issues in a print run of only 500 copies putting it beyond the reach of many both in the scholarly community and in the Circassian nation itself. Now, that shortcoming has been corrected.

            The book has now been issued in an online digital format, and its complete text is available at zapravakbr.ru/images/khrestomatiya.pdf). This breakthrough has been announced at zapravakbr.ru/index.php/analitik/1806-khrestomatiya-po-istorii-zarubezhnoj-cherkesskoj-diaspory-chast-pervaya-cherkesskaya-diaspora-v-osmanskoj-imperii-vtoraya-polovina-xix-nachalo-xx-veka.

            Because of the centrality of the genocide and expulsion of Circassians from the tsarist empire in the thinking of the members of that community – see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/05/circassian-genocide-core-part-of.html – this is an essential source for anyone interested in the North Caucasus and Russian policy there.