Libmonster ID: U.S.-1766

The article is devoted to the problem of including the mountain peoples of the North Caucasus in the process of building the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s .During this period , conditions were created for the social, cultural and intellectual development of mountain youth and the formation of their Soviet public consciousness. This process developed in a complex and non-linear way, but in general it led to the desired result - the inclusion of mountain peoples in the life and fate of the country.

words: Keywords: Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, North Caucasus Military District, mountain peoples of the North Caucasus, mobilization, military accounting work.

In pre-revolutionary Russia, the mountain population of the North Caucasus was not conscripted into the army on a general basis. This was due to the lack of state registration of the population, poor command of the Russian language and Russian literacy by mountaineers, and socio-political tensions in the region. Starting from the Crimean War of 1853-1856, as in the subsequent wars of tsarist Russia, volunteer national formations were a kind of palliative, which removed the problem of recruiting motivated mountaineers for military service and leveled the language barrier between military personnel within one military unit.

The highlanders understood the absence of military service as their "natural", inherent privilege. During the First World War, conscription among mountaineers was prepared, but due to fears of uprisings, it was never implemented. Just as unsuccessfully during the Civil War, the problem was approached in 1918, first by the Soviet government, and in 1919 by the administration of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia (VSYUR), which occupied the territory of the North Caucasus.

Therefore, the Soviet government, which finally established itself in the North Caucasus in the spring of 1920, faced great challenges in this regard. For the Bolsheviks, it was fundamental not just to use the highlanders as a resource for recruiting the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (especially since after the Civil War the Red Army was repeatedly reduced and did not lack people), but to actively involve them in the construction of a new state. The most important function of the Red Army was its participation in socialist construction. It was a political project aimed at creating a unified Soviet nation and Sovietizing non-Russian peoples.

In the first decades of Soviet power, mountaineers were primarily recruited by national units and national military educational institutions, so the language problem was not acute. But national military construction alone is not enough.

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it made it possible to pass mountain youth through the army ranks en masse and prepare a large trained reserve in case of mass mobilization into the ranks of the armed forces. Therefore, the Soviet authorities conducted preparations for the mandatory conscription of mountaineers on a general basis.

The main obstacle to the planned use of the non-Russian population in the Red Army was the rudimentary state and / or complete absence of military, and often civilian, registration of the population on the national outskirts. The North Caucasus was no exception in this respect. In the absence of proper and systematic accounting, the authorities could only count on a small influx of volunteers.

With the return of the Red Army to the North Caucasus in the spring of 1920, local military administration bodies - military commissariats-were formed. On March 25, 1920, the Dagestan Regional Military Enlistment Office was formed in Temir-Khan-Shur (now Buinaksk). On April 17, 1920, the Terek Regional Military Enlistment Office was established. Almost simultaneously, a network of district (uyezd) military enlistment offices appeared. So, in April 1920, the military enlistment offices of Southern and Middle Dagestan, the Kizlyar district military enlistment office, were formed. As the administrative map of the North Caucasus became more complex, new military enlistment offices appeared. On May 23, 1920, the Kabardino-Balkar military enlistment office was separated from the Terek regional military enlistment office, and then, on August 5, 1921, the Balkar District military Enlistment Office was separated from the latter. In January 1921, with the proclamation of the Mountain ASSR, the Terek Regional Military Enlistment Office was divided into the Terek provincial military enlistment office and the Mountain Regional military Enlistment Office. On April 1, 1922, after the creation of the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Region on January 12, 1922, the Batalpashinsky military enlistment office was renamed the Karachay-Cherkess Regional military Enlistment office. On December 26, 1922, the Adyghe-Circassian regional military Enlistment Office was separated from the Kuban-Black Sea Regional Military Enlistment Office. On February 27, 1923, the Chechen Regional Military Enlistment Office was established, etc. [RGVA, f. 54, op. 1, d. 103, l. 74-104].

Already in 1921, the first military registration measures were carried out in the most peaceful areas of the Terek region (at that time it included Pyatigorsk and Kizlyar districts, Kislovodsk, Svyato-Krestovsky, Georgievsky, Mozdoksky counties), mainly with the Russian population [RGVA, f. 25896, op. 9, d. 2, l. 151].

In areas inhabited by mountain peoples, the mere appearance of a network of local military authorities did not mean the establishment of military registration of the population. As noted in February 1921 in the report of the military commissar of the Dagestan region G. M. Zusmanovich, " the work of commissariats in Dagestan consists only in accounting and mobilization, but here one must take into account local conditions, since no one will register except the Russian population, and this is natural, since native tribes even under tsarism they were not subject to any accounting, and now they are even more so" [RGVA, f. 109, op. 10, d. 30].

A similar situation was observed in all national regions of the North Caucasus. In many national regions, before the revolutions of 1917, there was no metric record at all. For a long time, throughout the 1920s, the registration of civil status in rural areas in the mountainous regions was in the hands of Muslim clergy. During conscription events, this inevitably led to confusion and abuse. For example, during the conscription of citizens born in 1907 in 1929 in Dagestan, out of 9955 people who came to the polling stations, 2048, i.e. more than 20%, did not belong to the conscripted age [RGVA, f. 4, op. 1, d. 1297, l. 7 vol.]. A comprehensive attack on the clergy in the second half of the 1920s gradually deprived him of the privilege of keeping a metrical record in the countryside.

In the 1920s, the military enlistment offices, which did not have sufficient and fully trained staff, were primarily tasked with registering citizens of pre-conscription ages, i.e. those young people who could be called up to the Red Army in the near future. Older people were not registered in the late 1920s,

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they were not reflected in any mobilization statistics and did not have military accounting documents on hand [RGVA, f. 54, op. 1, d. 81, l. 20]. At the same time, natives of the North Caucasus, temporarily or permanently residing in those regions of the USSR where conscription was not limited, were called up on a general basis, about which the Main Directorate of the Red Army (GU of the Red Army) made special circular explanations at the request of military enlistment offices [ibid., l. 17].

For these reasons, after the end of the Civil War, the mobilization resources of the North Caucasus regions could only be estimated approximately. For example, in Dagestan, the number of persons who were subject to conscription in 1922 was estimated in the range from 5 to 7 thousand people [RGVA, f. 25896. op. 3, d. 1061, l. 504ob.]

In 1924, the first all-Union conscription into the Red Army took place after the end of the Civil War, but only the Slavic population was registered in the military enlistment offices of the North Caucasian autonomies. It was also subject to regular appeals [ibid., op. 2, d. 35, l. 16]. Due to the small number of contingents of those liable for military service and conscripts subject to registration and conscription, by the mid-1920s, the staff of regional military enlistment offices in the national regions of the North Caucasus was reduced, and they were kept in the states of county military enlistment offices. Only in 1925, due to the deployment of national units in the framework of the implementation of the five-year program of national construction in the Red Army, the staff of regional military enlistment offices was expanded again, and national cadres were selected for their leadership. Since June 10, 1925, all national military enlistment offices were reassigned to the Revolutionary Military Council of the North Caucasus Military District (RVS SQVO) [RGVA, f. 4, op. 2, d. 10, l. 116ob.].

In July 1924, for the first time, the national composition of the young replenishment of the district units, which arrived following the results of the first (spring) part of the conscription of 1902, was accurately recorded [RGVA, f. 9, op. 28, d.193, l. 29]. Only 59 Ossetians and 31 Ingush (0.72% of the total conscription) accounted for 12,527 people. Representatives of other North Caucasian peoples were not among the recruits. In 1926, Ossetians accounted for only 0.1% of those conscripted into the North Caucasus Military District (SKVO).

The mountaineers who found themselves in the army during these years were volunteers. In May 1926, in connection with the preparation for the current draft, the Main Directorate (GU) of the Red Army, in response to a request from the headquarters of the North Caucasus Military District, specifically stipulated that "until you receive the final instructions approved by the RVS of the Union [SSR], do not necessarily involve the Highlanders of the North Caucasus in military service" [Ibid., d. 510, L. 5-5ob.]. Article 16 of the law "On compulsory military service" was applied to them, which stipulated a special procedure for attracting them to military service in the form of pre-conscription training, voluntary conscription, etc. [ibid., op. 29, d. 510, l. 5-5ob.].

Regional and republican military commissars reported on the desire of the mountain population to serve in the Red Army. According to the military commissar of the Adyghe Autonomous Region A. Mirzoev, the work of the military enlistment office under his jurisdiction is conducted "only among the Russian population, bypassing most of the Circassian population. The proposed formation of the national part found a lively response from the population. Horses, burkas, Circassians, and weapons were collected. There were no further orders from the district, so the Circassian population became indifferent to the work of the voenved, although the desire to study military affairs and serve increased... " [RGVA, f. 25896, op. 2, d. 35, l. 16].

In November 1924, the RVS of the USSR adopted a five-year program for the development of national formations, which involved the extensive construction of national units in all regions with a predominantly non-Russian population and bringing their number to approximately 10% of the Red Army staff. The mobilization burden on national regions following the implementation of the five-year program was estimated as follows (see Table 1) .

The Revolutionary Military Council of the North Caucasus Military District believed that in 1926-1928, the mobilization registration of the mountain population could be fully introduced, and in 1928-1929, their planned registration could begin.

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Table 1

Mobilization load on the mountain population of the North Caucasus at the end of all formations according to the plan of the five -year program for the construction of national formations

Total population, pers.

Men of six ages (1899-1904) minus 30% for unfitness, pers.

Men of four ages minus 30% for unfitness

Men of the same age minus 30% for unfitness

Staff, people., %

Variable composition, pers., %

Total load, pers., %

Dagestan ASSR

571 000

15 750

10 500

2625

0.1

0.3

0.4

Chechen Autonomous Region

313 000

4947

3293

527

0.08

0.2

0.28

Ingush Autonomous Region

69 566

1412

874

269

0.07

0.4

0.47

North Ossetian Autonomous Region

152 400

4146

2554

796

0.21

0.6

0.81

Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Region

198 970

3960

2604

677

0.2

0.5

0.7

Karachay Autonomous Region and Circassian National District

163 290

3320

1274

481

0.01

0.4

0.41

Circassian-Adyghe Autonomous Region

113 000

1800

1274

763

0.1

0.7

0.8

Total

1581 446

35 335

23 457

6438

Source: [RGVA. f. 9, op. 28, d. 218, l. 9-10].

conscription to the army on general grounds (for Chechnya and Ingushetia-since 1930) [RGVA, f. 9, op. 28, d. 218, l. 21a].

At the beginning of February 1928, the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) decided to hold a call-up of mountaineers to the Red Army in the current year. The republican and regional regional committees were immediately notified of this and started preparatory work [RGASPI, f. 17, op. 21, d. 1022, l. 57]. For example, in Dagestan, the campaign to prepare conscription locally began as early as February 1928 with the universal convocation of plenums of district executive committees, non-partisan conferences in labor collectives, and aul gatherings, which, in order to observe the democratic procedure, made collective decisions on the possibility of conscription. In most cases, these decisions were expected to be positive, although occasionally aul gatherings issued negative verdicts, and then it was necessary to raise the issue a second time. The result of such a discussion was summed up at a meeting of the bureau of the Dagestan Committee of the CPSU (b) on May 11, 1928: "By agitation, conducting pre-conscription training for three years and the existence of a national division, we prepared the population..." [ibid., p. 236].

During the agitation campaign, which lasted until the end of September 1928, the rights and privileges of Red Army servicemen and their family members were explained to the mountaineers. Special attention was paid to the fact that conscripts will be sent for service only to the national unit. For persuasiveness in the course of campaigning-

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In addition, the Dagestan National Cavalry Division toured several districts [ibid., p. 402].

The assigned campaign of February-March 1928, according to the OGPU, ended on the whole successfully. A large number of volunteers were registered, which was explained not only by the" militant traditions " of the mountaineers, but also by the high level of unemployment in the region. At the same time, the Kulak-religious bloc actively opposed the campaign. Thus, in Chechnya, the campaign to register young people was not understood everywhere, and in Nozhai-Yurt and Gudermes districts it was thwarted under the influence of the" upper classes " [ibid., p. 402]. In Dagestan, the conscription campaign "met with opposition from the kulaks, Muslim clergy and sheikhs, who were active in the beginning and had temporary success" [RGASPI, f. 4, op. 2, d. 112, l. 18ob.].

Cases like the following have been reported. Residents of one of the villages, having learned about the upcoming draft, sent a delegation to the sheikh to find out his opinion. The sheikh replied: "Dagestanis have never served in the army. We should send a delegation to Dagtsik and offer bread, money and cattle in exchange for people." The village Council accepted this proposal and sent a delegation to the DAGTSIK [ibid., l. 19].

In general, the recruitment process in the North Caucasus autonomous regions, although not without difficulties, was satisfactory. In the report of the Head of the Department for Military Mobilization and Staffing (UVMU) The Main Directorate of the Red Army noted that in some national regions (North Ossetia, Adygea) dissatisfaction with the small number of conscripts was noted [ibid.].

The report documents of the Main Directorate of the Red Army on the results of the draft of 1928 for the first time identified the mountaineers of the North Caucasus in a separate category, although they did not differentiate them by nationality. This makes it possible to analyze the socio-demographic characteristics of mountain contingents in this period as a whole.

The results of the draft of 1928 among the mountain population were as follows. In total, 10,152 mountaineers were called up (including 1,262 people in Transcaucasia), which accounted for 0.74% of all those called up in the USSR (1,379,300 people) and 21.8% of the number of peoples called up in 1928 for the first time (there were 46.5 thousand of them in total) [RGASPI, f. 4, op. 2, d. 112, l. 15ob]. Representatives of non-Russian nationalities usually had a much larger party-Komsomol stratum than the national average. From the very first recruits to the Red Army, this indicator was given the highest priority. The high proportion of Communists and Komsomol members in the army, as it was believed, guaranteed a decent political and moral level of the mountain replenishment. According to the results of the draft of 1928, among Russian conscripts there were 2.7% of members of the CPSU (b) and candidates for party membership and 8.5% of Komsomol members, while among the highlanders of the North Caucasus these figures were 3.0% and 15.8%, respectively [RGASPI, f. 54, op. 1, d. 1238, l. 23]. In terms of social origin, mountaineers significantly differed from European nationalities : only 4.5% of them were workers (18.1% for Russians), but 89.2% were peasants (73.1% for Russians) [ibid., p. 41].

But if the question of admission to the party or the Komsomol was solved quite simply and did not require the candidate to obtain systematic knowledge, then in the field of literacy, the national regions were still very far from the Slavic ones. If among Russians 8.0% were illiterate, and among Ukrainians-9.8%, then among mountaineers it exceeded 68%. Only the Azerbaijani Turks (Azerbaijanis) had worse indicators in the country - 79.6% of illiterates. The average rate of illiteracy throughout the Soviet Union was 13.3% [ibid., pp. 26-30].

From year to year, conscription contingents of mountaineers were increasingly drawn into pre-conscription training. Regardless of what the quota for conscription was, all conscripts were required to complete a complex of pre-conscription military, educational and medical training. The complex included passing the GTO and Voroshilovsky Strelka standards, other military and sports standards, and eliminating illiteracy and low literacy.-

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ti, socio-class selection, passing health-improving measures for those conscripts whose health condition did not allow them to serve in the army [RGASPI, f. 17, op. 21, d.1260, l. 77]. For the implementation of pre-conscription programs, personal responsibility was assigned to the secretaries of district and city committees, the chairmen of district executive councils and city councils, and the Komsomol bodies.

In the early 1930s, local authorities formed conscription promotion commissions in districts and cities, which provided comprehensive assistance to military enlistment offices and Osoaviakhim organizations. Local authorities were responsible for preparing the premises for conscription centers, working with the families of conscripts in connection with their enrollment in state support, as well as organizing propaganda support for the campaign. Conscription campaigns (like all others) were given a competitive spirit, and therefore social competitions were announced in one or another area of preparation for conscription.

In the 1930s, the regular number of peacetime SQUAW troops was relatively small - 32,390 people. On mobilization in the event of war (according to the mobilization schedule No. 15, 1933), this figure reached 283,729 people due to the conscription of nine ages of those liable for military service. The mobilization deployment rate was 8.7.

Until 1939, the highlanders of the North Caucasus who were called up to the Red Army were usually sent to serve in national units and divisions. When distributing mountain contingents among military units, special provisions were made to "prevent their dispersion" by nationality [RGVA, f. 4, op. 1, d. 792, l. 16ob.]. The capacity of national formations of the North Caucasus Military District constantly fluctuated, but in general it was small, so the number of mountaineers who annually entered active military service was only a small part of the total number of combat-ready contingents. As noted in the report of the headquarters of the North Caucasus Military District on the draft of 1930, "the district must every year more and more take into account the intolerance of the fact that the call mountaineers actually idle due small percentage their admission to cadre units (emphasis added-A. B.)" [RGVA, f. 9, op. 29, D. 129, L. 76].

Part of the problem of underutilization of mountain human resources suitable for combat service was solved by the so - called concentration-the practice of recruiting mountain contingents of individual units in ordinary (numbered) units. For the first time in the North Caucasus Military District, it was applied to mountaineers in 1929 due to a significant influx of mountain contingents into the troops. As reported in the final report of the RVS of the USSR on conscription in 1929, "this experience, judging by the first reports, gave favorable results" [RGVA, f. 4, op. 1, d. 1297, l. 7b]. The usual, mixed recruitment of mountaineers of the Red Army units was hindered by their poor knowledge of the Russian language and low level of literacy.

The number and exact national composition of mountaineers conscripted in the North Caucasus Military District, as well as the methods of their distribution among military units, can be estimated based on the results of the autumn draft of 1932 for young people born in 1910. In the report of the district headquarters in the GU of the Red Army, the nationalities of all conscripts without exception were indicated, which is rare in documents of this kind. So, during the registration process, which took place in January-February 1932, 112,131 people were assigned to conscription stations, including 16,672 mountaineers (14.9% of those assigned). About half of the number originally assigned was called up-57,709 people, including 1,654 mountaineers (2.9% of those called up) [RGVA, f. 9, op. 33, d. 90, l. 17]. By nationality, the conscripted contingents of 1932 were distributed as follows (see Table 2) .

A sharp, more than five-fold discrepancy in the proportions of assigned and conscripted contingents is noteworthy. This is explained by the fact that the Highlanders were mainly used in a targeted way in national units and divisions of the North Caucasus Military District (see Table 3) .

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Table 2

Results of conscription to the North Caucasus Military District in 1932 by national composition

Conscript's nationality

Number, pers.

Conscript's nationality

Number, pers.

Conscript's nationality

Number, pers.

The Russians

43 198

The Greeks

5

Chechens

235

Ukrainians

9887

Karel

1

Kabardians

200

Belarusians

153

The Germans

604

Balkar residents

32

Tatars

140

Estonians

26

Karachay residents

34

Chuvash people

13

For Latvians

18

Dargintsev

70

Of Armenians

948

Polyakov

77

Ingush people

74

Georgian

64

Lezgin

94

Abazin

47

The Turk

16

Lackey

31

Circassians

359

Jews

216

Ossetians

343

Shapsugov

21

Mordovians

18

Avartsev

114

Total

57 709

Source: [RGVA, f. 9, op. 33, d. 90, l. 18]. The ethnic names of the peoples of the North Caucasus are highlighted.

In the late 1930s, due to the approaching great war, the Red Army was radically reformed. The system of conscription and recruitment of troops has fundamentally changed. In the spring of 1938, a decision was made to abolish national formations. Mountain conscripts were now to be sent for service outside the region of residence (extraterritorially). The autumn draft of 1938 for citizens born in 1917 combined transitional features: on the one hand, as before, it covered only a certain part of the mountain conscription contingents (3,450 people were sent to the troops, which accounted for 5.1% of the total total of conscription in the North Caucasus Military District [RGVA, f. 9, op. 33, D. 241, L. 128]). On the other hand, these contingents were distributed extraterritorially mainly in the Western military districts and in various branches of the armed forces. Moreover, the most part of conscripts (58.7%) fell into the complex technical branches of the armed forces (artillery, aviation, tank and motorized, automobile, railway units), while only 41.3% fell into the cavalry and infantry traditional for mountain contingents [ibid., op.29, d. 441, l. 209].

All this suggests that the mountain youth was already quite suitable for service in the modern mechanized army in terms of the level of general education training. This is exactly what the military reform of the second half of the 1930s was aimed at. The last pre-war conscripts of 1939 and 1940 were also distributed extraterritorially. It was they who were destined to take on the first blows of the German-fascist troops and share the tragic fate of the Red Army in 1941. It is no coincidence that among the defenders of the Brest Fortress were Chechens and Ingush.

On September 15, 1939, for the first time in history in the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, mass conscription was announced in the ranks of the Red Army, RKKF (fleet) and NKVD troops of young people of local nationalities born in the second half of 1918 and 1919, as well as older people who had not been conscripted before (these were about 40% of those called up). The appeal was to be organized as a national holiday, and the local press was obliged to thoroughly promote them and cover its progress and results [RGASPI, f. 17, op. 21, d. 1075, l. 30-31].

The results of the appeal showed its timeliness, since the mountain youth reached a fairly high general education level and was in good physical shape. Broad explanatory and propagandist activities had a positive impact-

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Table 3

The use of mountain contingents to complete the SQUAW troops in 1932

Military unit, place of deployment

Composition type

Number of people

Nationality

222 jv 74th sd

Polka School

15

Adygeans

222 sp 74th sd, 1st battalion

Variable

One battalion

Adygeans

82nd Joint Venture 28th sd, Grozny

Shot

40

Chechens

83rd joint venture 28th sd, Buinaksk

Shot

40

Dagestanis (Kumyks)

84th Joint Venture 28th sd, Vladikavkaz

Shot

40

Ossetians

83rd joint venture 28th sd, Buinaksk

Shot

40

Dagestanis (Avars)

77th Cavalry Regiment of the 10th CD, Mozdok

Shot

12

Kabardians

77th Cavalry Regiment, 10th CD, Mozdok

Variable

One squadron

Kabardians

78th Cavalry Regiment of the 10th CD, Nevinnomysskaya

Shot

12

Circassians

78th Cavalry Regiment of the 10th CD, Nevinnomysskaya

Variable

One squadron

Circassians

CCCS

Candidates for the Kav School of Mountain nationalities

101

Different nationalities

65th cavalry Regiment of the 2nd kbr KKA, Leninakan

20

Different nationalities

Natskavpolk

Variable

309

Different nationalities

26th Cavalry Regiment of the 5th CD, Pyatigorsk

30

Kabardians

26th Cavalry Regiment of the 5th CD, Pyatigorsk

45

Chechens

26th Cavalry Regiment of the 5th CD, Pyatigorsk

15

Ingush people

26th Cavalry Regiment of the 5th CD, Pyatigorsk

30

Circassians

52nd cavalry regiment

75

Chechens

32nd cavalry regiment

100

Ossetians

The Caspian Fleet

10

Dagestanis

OGPU troops of the North Caucasus Region

84

Different nationalities

Service staff of national schools

54

Dagestanis

To different special units of the district

40

Different nationalities

Source: [RGVA, f. 9, op. 33, d. 90, l. 18]. Abbreviations: sp-rifle regiment, sd-rifle division, cd-cavalry division, kbr-cavalry brigade, KKKS - Cavalry Advanced training courses for command staff, KKA - Red Banner Caucasian Army, OGPU United State Political Administration.

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Military service is a strategic activity aimed at encouraging conscripts ' positive perception of military service and a sense of its personal and social usefulness.

The overall results of the call-up for the North Caucasus Military District were expressed in the following indicators. 162,608 people came to the polling stations, of which 87.9% were considered fit for military service, and 134,052 people were eventually enrolled in personnel units [RGVA, f. 37837, op. 24, d. 166, l. 17ob. -18]. According to the national composition, the conscripts enrolled in the cadre units were distributed as follows: Russians-99,218, Ukrainians-5,442, Belarusians-528, Tatars-957, Jews-569, Armenians-1,634, Georgians-198, Turks (Azerbaijanis)-351, Germans-1,662, Poles-124, Kazakhs-1,065, Ossetians - 2741, representatives of the peoples of Dagestan-8011, Kabardins and Karachays (so in the document - A. B.) - 3,851, Chechens-3146, Ingush-658, Kalmyks-1,699, other peoples-2,594 [ibid., l. 72ob. -73]. It should be noted that a large number of representatives of the peoples of Dagestan (2,452 people) and Ossetians (2,023 people) were also called up in the Transcaucasian Military District (the former Caucasian Red Banner Army), which included Azerbaijan (Lezgins and a number of other peoples of Dagestan lived compactly here) and Georgia with a fairly large Ossetian population. In other military districts, representatives of mountain peoples were called up in a single order. Thus, a total of 20,141 representatives of mountain peoples were called up in two districts (15,666 people in the North Caucasus Military District and 4,475 people in the Transcaucasian military District).

The most educated, physically, morally and politically prepared young people were sent to military schools. There were 1,358 Russians, 65 Ukrainians, 5 Tatars, 11 Jews, 10 Armenians, 1 Georgian, 61 Ossetians, 152 representatives of the peoples of Dagestan, 11 Karachays and Kabardins, and 26 Chechens [ibid.]. It is easy to calculate that among Russian youth, 4.9% of conscripts were selected for military schools, among Ukrainians-5.0%, while among Chechen youth - only 1.4%, Dagestani - 2.7%, Ossetian - 3.4%.

Compared to the mountain youth, physical and military training, as well as the educational level of the bulk of the adult male population of the North Caucasus - the main mobilization resource - were significantly lower. The low level of military training and education was explained by the fact that the life of the rural, especially high-altitude adult population of the North Caucasus was only slightly affected by the Soviet Cultural Revolution and remained essentially patriarchal. The army reform of the late 1930s almost did not affect the large masses of those liable for military service. They did not fall under the general draft, first announced in 1938. A.D. Daniyalov, who held the position of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the DASSR in those years, recalled :" By 1941, the adult population of the mountains spoke little Russian. The historically established way of life, when mountaineers did not go further than their village, or at best a district, without extreme need, was a huge difficulty in mobilizing mountaineers into the active army... The trouble was, except for those who had served in the army before the war, the Highlanders didn't even know how to handle a rifle. As for the submachine gun, machine gun, mortar or grenade, they simply did not see them" [Daniyalov, 1991, p.233].

The most trained of the mountaineers who were liable for military service (reservists of the 1st category) during the re-registration in the autumn of 1940 were assigned to the personnel units and formations of the North Caucasus Military District. A good command of the Russian language was a mandatory requirement for enlisted personnel, but there was a shortage of such people. It was covered by those liable for military service who understood Russian colloquial speech. This category was then estimated at no more than 25-30% of the total personnel [TsAMO, f. 209, op. 1091, d. 4, l. 250].

So, during the twenty years of Soviet power, the Soviet military and civilian authorities managed to make a huge leap in accounting and attracting mountain youth to serve in the Red Army. The Soviets succeeded in what the tsarist regime failed to do in the decades following Russia's annexation of the North Caucasus.

In general, military registration of the population and pre-conscription training of young people was established (elimination of illiteracy and low literacy, training in the Russian language, etc.).-

page 62
A long and difficult path was passed from the trial conscription of several dozen people to the admission of tens of thousands of natives of the mountain autonomous regions of the North Caucasus to the army. Various organizational forms of using mountain contingents in the Red Army were tested, which gradually evolved from specialized national formations to the extraterritorial distribution of mountain contingents in ordinary numbered units.

Of course, all these achievements were hardly possible without the dramatic leap of the mountain peoples in the cultural, educational, and socio-political spheres that they made during the two decades of Soviet power. However, there were still a lot of shortcomings, the existence of which should also be directly related to the sharp, abrupt, often uneven development of mountain societies after the October Revolution. The revolution and Sovietization affected young people quite strongly. However, traditional relations continued to prevail in rural areas. Here, Soviet institutions were relatively poorly established, military registration had a lot of gaps, and the degree of literacy and Russian language proficiency among older military personnel was significantly lower than among young people of military age. During the Great Patriotic War, this imbalance played a negative role in the staffing of mountain reservists in military units of the Red Army.

list of literature

Daniilov A. Memoirs. Makhachkala: Daghestani Book Publishing House, 1991.

- RGASPI Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI).

- RGVA Russian State Military Archive (RGVA).

TsAMO Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense (TSAMO).

page 63


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