The Dagestan reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Dagestan

Dagestan (Russian: Дагеста́н) is a constituent republic of the Russian Federation. Bordering Kalmykia to the north, Stavropol Krai to the northwest, Chechnya to the west, Azerbaijan to the south, and the Caspian Sea to the east, it is located in Northern Caucasus mountains, in the Southern Federal District.

Dagestan is divided into 42 districts, 10 cities and 14 urban settlements. The capital is Makhachkala. The oldest city in Dagestan is Derbent.

Table of contents

1 History 2 Economy 3 Geography 4 Ethnic groups 5 Religion 6 External links

History

Main article: History of Dagestan

In 1999, a group of Muslim fundamentalists from Chechnya under Shamil Basayev, together with local converts, staged an unsuccessful insurrection in Dagestan. This helped prompt the Russian decision to invade Chechnya later that year.

The famous Muslim leader Imam Shamil was from Dagestan. He was an Avar.

Economy

As of 2000, the economy of Dagestan was broken down as follows:

• Industry – 24%
• Agriculture – 35%
• Construction – 26%
• Transport and communications – 5%
• Trade and services – 9%
• Other – 1%.

Important industries include food processing, power generation, oil extraction, 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 continues to be the least urbanized republic in the Caucasus.

Geography

Dagestan has about 400 km of coast line on the Caspian Sea. Its main rivers are the Terek, the Sulak and the Samur.

Most of the Republic is mountainous, with the Greater Caucasus Mountains covering the south. The highest point is the Bazarduzi peak at 4,466 m. The climate is hot and dry in the summer but the winters are hard in the mountain areas.

Ethnic groups

Because its mountainous terrain impedes travel and communication, Dagestan is unusually ethnically diverse, and still largely tribal.

There is no single ethnic group with the name Dagastani. The people of Dagestan include over a dozen sizeable groups, including:

• Dagestani Peoples - 80%, including:
  • people from the Dagestani language group
    • Avar - around 500,000
    • Dargins - around 300,000
    • Lezgins - over 200,000
    • Tabasarans - around 70,000
    • Rutuls - around 15,000
    • Aguls - around 15,000
    • Tsakhurs - around 10,000
  • Kumyks - over 200,000
  • Laks - around 100,000
  • Nogays - around 35,000
  • Azeris - around 85,000
• Russians - 9%, around 85,000
• Chechens - 3%, around 65,000
• Other - 8%, including
  • Tats - around 10,000
  • Ukrainians - around 10,000
  • Tatars - less than 10,000
  • Ossetians - less than 5,000
  • Mountain Jews - likely less than 5,000

There are also tiny groups like the Balkars (mostly in the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic instead), or the Ginukh, numbering 200, members of a complex family of indigenous Caucasians — some 40 groups, including other little-known peoples such as the Akhwakh, many of them crowded into Dagestan. Notable are also Lak people who immigrated after a Soviet population transfer, and the Hunzib or Khunzal people who live in only four towns in the interior.

The lingua franca in Dagestan is Russian.

Religion

Most of Dagestan's population is Muslim. As with much of the Caucasus region, Dagestan's native Islam consists of Sufi orders that have been in place for centuries. In recent years there has been tension and even violence between local Sufi orders and Wahabbi missionaries who have come to the region seeking converts.

External links

• Dagestan at the NUPI Center for Russian Studies
• History of Dagestan at the Daghestan State University
• University of Texas maps of the Dagestan region
• Sobaka's independent reporting on Dagestan
• BISNIS report - US government report on the economy of Dagestan (2000)
• Radio Free Europe discusses religious tension in Dagestan

Russia | Republics of Russia

Adygeya | Altai | Bashkortostan | Buryatia | Chechnya | Chuvashia | Dagestan | Ingushetia | Kabardino-Balkaria | Karelia | Khakassia | Komi | Kalmykia | Karachay-Cherkessia | Mariy El | Mordovia | North Ossetia-Alania | Sakha | Tatarstan | Tuva | Udmurtia

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