Republic of Dagestan (English) Республика Дагеста? (Russian)
Location of the Republic of Dagestan in Russia
Coat of Arms	Flag
Coat of arms of Dagestan	Flag of Dagestan
Anthem: National Anthem of the Republic of Dagestan
Capital	Makhachkala
Established	January 20 1921
Political status Federal district Economic region	Republic Southern North Caucasus
Code	05
Area
Area - Rank	km 52nd
Population (as of the 2002 Census)
Population - Rank - Density - Urban - Rural	inhabitants 22nd  inhab. / km 42.8% 57.2%
Official languages	Russian, languages of the peoples of Dagestan
Government
President	Mukhu Aliyev
Chairman of the Government	Shamil Zaynalov
Legislative body	People's Assembly
Constitution	Constitution of the Republic of Dagestan
Official website
[1]

The Republic of Dagestan IPA: [dæɡɪˈstɑːn (IntEng), ˈdeɪɡəstæn (AmEng)] (Russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н; Avar: Дагъистанлъул ДжумхIурият, Daɣistanłul Džumħuriyat), older spelling Daghestan, is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic).

Terminology

The direct romanization of the republic's name is Respublika Dagestan. It is the largest republic of Russia in the North Caucasus, both in area and population.

The word Daghestan or Daghistan means "country of mountains", it is derived from the Turkic word dağ meaning mountain and Persian suffix -stan meaning "land of". The spelling Dagestan is a transliteration of the Russian name and is rather modern.

The republic's name in Persian and Arabic is داغستان.

Geography

The republic is situated in the North Caucasus mountains. It is the southernmost part of Russia.

• Area: 50,300 km²
• Borders:
• internal: Republic of Kalmykia (N), Chechen Republic (W), and Stavropol Krai (NW)
• international: Azerbaijan (S), Georgia (SW)
• water: Caspian Sea (E)
• Highest point: Bazardyuzi Mountain (4,466 m)
• Maximum N->S distance:  km ( mi)
• Maximum E->W distance:  km ( mi)

Time zone

Dagestan is located in the Moscow Time Zone (MSK/MSD). UTC offset is +0300 (MSK)/+0400 (MSD).

Rivers

There are over 1,800 rivers in the republic. Major rivers include:

• Sulak River
• Samur River
• Terek River

Lakes

Dagestan has about  km ( mi) of coast line on the Caspian Sea.

Mountains

Most of the Republic is mountainous, with the Greater Caucasus Mountains covering the south. The highest point is the Bazardyuzi peak at 4,466 m.

Natural resources

Dagestan is rich in oil, natural gas, coal, and many other minerals.

Climate

The climate is hot and dry in the summer but the winters are hard in the mountain areas.

• Average January temperature: + C ( F)
• Average July temperature: + C ( F)
• Average annual precipitation: 200 (northern plains) to 800 mm (in the mountains).

Administrative divisions

Main article: Administrative divisions of Dagestan

Demographics

Because its mountainous terrain impedes travel and communication, Dagestan is unusually ethnically diverse, and still largely tribal. Unlike most other parts of Russia, the population of Dagestan is rapidly growing.

• Population: 2,576,531 (2002)
• Urban: 1,102,577 (42.8%)
• Rural: 1,473,954 (57.2%)
• Male: 1,242,437 (48.2%)
• Female: 1,334,094 (51.8%)
• Females per 1000 males: 1,074
• Average age: 25.2 years
• Urban: 25.1 years
• Rural: 25.2 years
• Male: 24.0 years
• Female: 26.3 years
• Number of households: 570,036 (with 2,559,499 people)
• Urban: 239,338 (with 1,088,814 people)
• Rural: 330,698 (with 1,470,685 people)
• Vital statistics (2005)
• Births: 40,814 (birth rate 15.5)
• Deaths: 15,585 (death rate 5.9)

Birth rate was 15.2 in the first half of 2007. [2]

Ethnic groups

The people of Dagestan include a large variety of ethnic groups. According to the 2002 Census, Northeast Caucasians (including Avars, Dargins and Lezgins) make up 75% of the population of Dagestan. Kumyks and Nogais make up 16%, Russians 5% and Azeris 4%. Other ethnic groups each account for less than 0.5% of the total population. With such ethnic diversity, 90.4% of the population are Muslims.

	census 1926	census 1939	census 1959	census 1970	census 1979	census 1989	census 2002
Avars	177,189 (22.5%)	230,488 (24.8%)	239,373 (22.5%)	349,304 (24.5%)	418,634 (25.7%)	496,077 (27.5%)	758,438 (29.4%)
Dargins	125,707 (16.0%)	150,421 (16.2%)	148,194 (13.9%)	207,776 (14.5%)	246,854 (15.2%)	280,431 (15.6%)	425,526 (16.5%)
Lezgins	90,509 (11.5%)	96,723 (10.4%)	108,615 (10.2%)	162,721 (11.4%)	188,804 (11.6%)	204,370 (11.3%)	336,698 (13.1%)
Laks	39,878 (5.1%)	51,671 (5.6%)	53,451 (5.0%)	72,240 (5.1%)	83,457 (5.1%)	91,682 (5.1%)	139,732 (5.4%)
Tabasarans	31,915 (4.0%)	33,432 (3.6%)	33,548 (3.2%)	53,253 (3.7%)	71,722 (4.4%)	78,196 (4.3%)	101,152 (4.3%)
Rutuls	10,333 (1.3%)	20,408 (2.2%)	6,566 (0.6%)	11,799 (0.8%)	14,288 (0.9%)	14,955 (0.8%)	24,298 (0.9%)
Aguls	7,653 (1.0%)		6,378 (0.6%)	8,644 (0.6%)	11,459 (0.7%)	13,791 (0.8%)	23,314 (0.9%)
Tsakhurs	3,531 (0.4%)		4,278 (0.4%)	4,309 (0.3%)	4,560 (0.3%)	5,194 (0.3%)	8,168 (0.3%)
Kumyks	87,960 (11.2%)	100,053 (10.8%)	120,859 (11.4%)	169,019 (11.8%)	202,297 (12.4%)	231,805 (12.9%)	365,804 (14.2%)
Nogais	26,086 (3.3%)	4,677 (0.5%)	14,939 (1.4%)	21,750 (1.5%)	24,977 (1.5%)	28,294 (1.6%)	38,168 (1.5%)
Russians	98,197 (12.5%)	132,952 (14.3%)	213,754 (20.1%)	209,570 (14.7%)	189,474 (11.6%)	165,940 (9.2%)	120,875 (4.7%)
Azeris	23,428 (3.0%)	31,141 (3.3%)	38,224 (3.6%)	54,403 (3.8%)	64,514 (4.0%)	75,463 (4.2%)	111,656 (4.3%)
Chechens	21,851 (2.8%)	26,419 (2.8%)	12,798 (1.2%)	39,965 (2.8%)	49,227 (3.0%)	57,877 (3.2%)	87,867 (3.4%)
Others	43,861 (5.6%)	52,031 (5.6%)	61,495 (5.8%)	63,787 (4.5%)	57,892 (3.6%)	58,113 (3.2%)	25,835 (1.0%)

There are also forty or so tiny groups such as the Hinukh, numbering 200, or the Akhwakh, who are members of a complex family of indigenous Caucasians. Notable are also the Hunzib or Khunzal people who live in only four towns in the interior.

The lingua franca in Dagestan is Russian. Over thirty local languages are also commonly spoken.

History

The oldest records about the region refer to the state of Caucasian Albania in the south, with its capital at Derbent and other important centres at Chola, Toprakh Qala, and Urtseki. The northern parts were held by a confederation of pagan tribes. In the first few centuries AD, Caucasian Albania continued to rule over what is present day Azerbaijan and the area occupied by the present day Lezghians. It was fought over in classical times by Rome and the Persian Sassanids and was early converted to Christianity.

In the fifth century AD, the Sassanids gained the upper hand and constructed a strong citadel at Derbent, known henceforward as the Caspian Gates, while the northern part of Dagestan was overrun by the Huns, followed by the Eurasian Avars. It is not clear whether the latter were instrumental in the rise of the Christian kingdom in Central Dagestan highlands. Known as Sarir, this Avar-dominated state maintained a precarious existence in the shadow of Khazaria and the Caliphate until the ninth century, when it managed to assert its supremacy in the region.

In 664, the Persians were succeeded in Derbent by the Arabs who clashed with the Khazars over control of Dagestan. Although the local population rose against the Arabs of Derbent in 905 and 913, Islam was eventually adopted in urban centres, such as Samandar and Kubachi (Zerechgeran), from where it steadily penetrated into the highlands. By the 15th century, Albanian Christianity had died away, leaving a tenth-century church at Datuna as the sole monument to its existence.

Due to Muslim pressure and internal disunity, Sarir disintegrated in the early twelfth century, giving way to the Khanate of Avaristan, a long-lived Muslim state which relied on the alliance with the Golden Horde and braved the devastating Mongol invasions of 1222 and 1239, followed by Tamerlane's raid in 1389.

As the Mongol authority gradually eroded, new centres of power emerged in Kaitagi and Tarki. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, legal traditions were codified, mountainous communities (djamaats) obtained a considerable degree of autonomy, while the Kumyk potentates (shamhals) asked for the Tsar's protection. Russians intensified their hold in the region in the eighteenth century, when Peter the Great annexed maritime Dagestan in the course of the First Russo-Persian War. Although the territories were returned to Persia in 1735, the next bout of hostilities resulted in the Russian capture of Derbent in 1796.

The eighteenth century also saw the resurgence of the Khanate of Avaristan, which managed to repulse the attacks of Nadir Shah of Persia and impose tribute on Shirvan and Georgia. In 1803 the khanate voluntarily submitted to Russian authority, but it took Persia a decade to recognize all of Dagestan as the Russian possession (Treaty of Gulistan).

The Russian administration, however, disappointed and embittered the highlanders. The institution of heavy taxation, coupled with the expropriation of estates and the construction of fortresses (including Makhachkala), electrified highlanders into rising under the aegis of the radical Muslim Imamate of Dagestan, led by Ghazi Mohammed (1828-32), Gamzat-bek (1832-34) and Shamil (1834-59). This Caucasian War raged until 1864, when Shamil was captured and the Khanate of Avaristan was abolished.

Dagestan and Chechnya profited from the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878, to rise against Imperial Russia for the last time. During the Russian Civil War, the region became part of the short-lived Republic of the Mountaineers of the North Caucasus. After more than three years of fighting White movement reactionaries and local nationalists, the Dagestan ASSR was proclaimed on 20 January 1921. Nevertheless, Stalin's industrialization largely bypassed Dagestan and the economy stagnated, making the republic the poorest region in Russia.

In 1999, a group of Muslim fundamentalists from Chechnya under Shamil Basayev, together with local converts and exiles from the 1998 uprising attempt, staged an abortive insurrection in Dagestan in which hundreds of combatants and civilians died. Russian forces subsequently reinvaded Chechnya later that year.

Dagestani conflict

Since 2000, Dagestan has been the venue of a low-level guerilla war, bleeding over from Chechnya; the fighting has claimed the lives of hundreds of federal servicemen and officials – mostly members of local police forces – as well as many Dagestani national rebels and civilians.

More recently, among other incidents:

• In early 2005, government forces surrounded a group of five rebels in a two-story house on the outskirts of Makhachkala. The rebels battled the authorities for seventeen hours, killing one of Russia's elite Alpha Group commandos and wounding another, until armored vehicles and a helicopter blew apart most of the house and its neighbour. All the rebels were killed.
• In the weeks preceding the battle, insurgents had derailed two trains, sabotaged gas supplies and shot dead a high-ranking intelligence officer from Moscow, as well as a local police chief. A month later, Major General Magomed Omarov, the deputy interior minister, was assassinated in Makhachkala.
• On July 1, 2005, eleven Russian MVD OSNAZ troops were killed and seven wounded in the capital when their trucks were bombed.
• On August 20, 2005, a remote-controlled bomb killed at least three police officers and wounded several more on a downtown street in the Makhachkala. The bomb detonated as a foot patrol walked past a grove of trees.
• In January 2006, a three-day battle between three thousand Russian troops led by the republic's Interior Minister and an estimated eight rebels took place on a mountain near Avary. At least three OMON and Spetznaz servicemen died and more than ten were wounded. Despite heavy artillery and aerial bombardment, the rebels managaged to avoid encirclement, leaving behind an abandoned dugout.
• On March 22, 2006, a group of assailants fatally shot the chief administrator of the Botlikh district of Dagestan during a fierce gunbattle in Makhachkala.
• On August 27, 2006, three police officers and four suspected militants were killed during a two-hour gun fight in Makhachkala.

Politics

The Parliament of Dagestan is the People's Assembly, consisting of 121 deputees elected for a four-year term. The People's Assembly is the highest executive and legislative body of the republic.

According to the Constitution of Dagestan, the highest executive authority lies with the State Council, comprising representatives of fourteen ethnicities. The members of the State Council are appointed by the Constitutional Assembly of Dagestan for a term of four years. The State Council appoints the members of the Government.

The ethnicities represented in the State Council are Aguls, Avars, Azeris, Chechens, Dargins, Kumyks, Laks, Lezgins, Russians, Rutuls, Tabasarans, Tats, and Tsakhurs.

Formerly, the Chairman of the State Council was the highest executive post in the republic, held by Magomedali Magomedovich Magomedov until 2006. On February 20, 2006, the People's Assembly passed a resolution terminating this post and disbanding the State Council. Russian President Vladimir Putin offered the People's Assembly the candidature of Mukhu Aliyev for the newly established post of the President of Dagestan. The nomination was accepted by the People's Assembly, and Mukhu Aliyev became the first President of Dagestan.

The Constitution of Dagestan was adopted on July 26, 1994.

Economy

As of 2000, the economy of Dagestan consisted of the following sectors:

• 24% industry
• 35% agriculture
• 26% construction
•   9% Trade and services
•   5% Transport and communications
•   1% Other sectors

Important industries include food processing, power generation, oil drilling, machine building, chemicals, and instrument making. Dagestan's major exports are oil and fuel. Important agricultural products include fish from the Caspian Sea, wine and brandy, and various garden fruits.

Dagestan has economic cooperation with Iran^[1].

Dagestan continues to be the least urbanized republic in the Caucasus.

Religion

94% percent of Dagestan's population is Muslim, with Christians accounting for the remaining 6%.

As with much of the Caucasus region, Dagestan's native Islam consists of Sufi orders that have been in place for centuries. Resul Magomedov, who is a contemporary writer of Daghestan, writes about Islamic contribution to themselves; “Before Islam, all Daghestan tribes were broke off in respect of language, religion, ethnic structure and geography like all other Caucasian peoples. This situation caused severe hostility and conflicts. After all native tribes became Muslims, a unity in belief could be sustained among Daghestan tribes which also stopped ethnic conflicts among them. If these conflicts continued, our homeland would face great disasters. This unity could only be established by medressehs spread out all the country. The scientists, scholars, imams graduated from these medressehs had an important role in stopping these conflicts in this multinational region and they helped tribes to establish friendly relations. Islam should also serve such a goal today.? ^[2]

There is a millennia-old presence of a Jewish community, the "Mountain Jews," in Dagestan. Their influx from Babylonia and Persia occurred from the seventh century B.C. to the sixth century A.D. ^[3]

References and notes

See also

• Music of Dagestan
• Former countries in Europe after 1815

External links

• "The North Caucasus," Russian Analytical Digest No. 22 (5 June 2007)
• (Russian) Official governmental website of Dagestan
• (Russian) Official Website of the Chairman of the State Council of Dagestan
• BBC Country Report on Dagestan
• University of Texas maps of the Dagestan region
• Radio Free Europe discusses religious tension in Dagestan
• ISN Case Study: The North Caucasus on the Brink (August 2006)

•  • [ e] Subdivisions of Russia
Federal subjects
Republics	Adygea Altai Bashkortostan Buryatia Chechnya Chuvashia Dagestan Ingushetia Kabardino-Balkaria Kalmykia Karachay-Cherkessia Karelia Khakassia Komi Mari El Mordovia North Ossetia-Alania Sakha Tatarstan Tuva Udmurtia
Krais	Altai Kamchatka Khabarovsk Krasnodar Krasnoyarsk Perm Primorsky Stavropol
Oblasts	Amur Arkhangelsk Astrakhan Belgorod Bryansk Chelyabinsk Chita1 Irkutsk2 Ivanovo Kaliningrad Kaluga Kemerovo Kirov Kostroma Kurgan Kursk Leningrad Lipetsk Magadan Moscow Murmansk Nizhny Novgorod Novgorod Novosibirsk Omsk Orenburg Oryol Penza Pskov Rostov Ryazan Sakhalin Samara Saratov Smolensk Sverdlovsk Tambov Tomsk Tula Tver Tyumen Ulyanovsk Vladimir Volgograd Vologda Voronezh Yaroslavl
Federal cities	Moscow St. Petersburg
Autonomous oblasts	Jewish
Autonomous okrugs	Aga Buryatia1 Chukotka Khantia-Mansia Nenetsia Ust-Orda Buryatia2 Yamalia
Federal districts Central Far Eastern Northwestern Siberian Southern Urals Volga 1 On March 1 2008, Chita Oblast and Agin-Buryat Autonomous Okrug are due to merge to form Zabaykalsky Krai. 2 On January 1, 2008, Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug is due to merge into Irkutsk Oblast.

•  • [ e] Countries and regions of the Caucasus
Caucasia 1952-1991  Adygea  Armenia  Azerbaijan  Nagorno-Karabakh  Chechnya  Dagestan  Georgia  Abkhazia  South Ossetia  Ingushetia  Kabardino-Balkaria  Karachay-Cherkessia  Krasnodar Krai  North Ossetia-Alania  Stavropol Krai Caucasia in 1882

Coordinates: