Global Politician, NY
Dec 13 2004

The Circassian Genocide

12/14/2004

By Antero Leitzinger

The genocide committed against the Circassian nation by Czarist
Russia in the 1800s was the biggest genocide of the nineteenth
century. Yet it has been almost entirely forgotten by later history,
while everyone knows the later Jewish Holocaust and many have heard
about the Armenian genocide. “Rather than of separate, selectively
researched genocides, we should speak of a general genocidal tendency
that affected many – both Muslim and Christian – people on a wide
scene between 1856 and 1956, continuing in post-Soviet Russia until
today”, writes Antero Leitzinger. This article was originally
published in “Turkistan News”.

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A professor of the university of Munich (München), Karl Friedrich
Neumann (not to be confused with the later Naumann), wrote in 1839 a
book titled “Russland und die Tscherkessen” (published in the
collection “Reisen und Länderbeschreibungen”, vol. 19, in 1840). He
describes, how Russia settled Christians to the parts of Armenia
gained from Persia in 1828 – actually, Neumann had written about the
issue already in 1834. (p. 68-69) Neumann considered this a very
sound policy and predicted, that all Caucasus would become under firm
Russian rule within the next decades. (p. 125) European powers would
not intervene, because it was the destiny of all Europe to rule over
the lands of Turks, Persians, and Hindus. (p. 129-130)

Neumann was no racist, but he certainly advocated colonialism and was
a Russophile in relation to the southern lands. He had a Darwinist
approach many years before Charles Darwin or Herbert Spencer
presented their ideas. This appears to have been more typical to 19th
century German thought than any anti-Armenian sentiments. Neumann
makes it clear in his very first words of the preface: “The European
humanity is selected by divinity as ruler of the earth.”

Although Neumann respected the bravery of Circassians, he anticipated
their destruction by Russia, because in a modern world, there would
be no place for chivalrous “uncivilized” people. Neumann estimated
the total number of Circassians, including the Kabardians and Abkhaz,
at 1.5 million persons, or 300.000 families. (p. 67) Both the Russian
figure of 300.000 persons, and the Circassian figure of four
millions, were exaggerated.

Neumann divided the Circassians into ten tribes: Notketch, Schapsuch,
Abatsech, Pseduch, Ubich, Hatiokech, Kemkuich, Abasech, Lenelnich,
Kubertech (in German transliteration). They formed a loose
confederation very much like old Switzerland, with democratic
majority votes deciding the affairs of villages. Their princes had no
privileges, and were regarded only as military commanders. Women were
more free than anywhere in the Orient. There was no written law, and
death penalties were unknown. Many Circassians were Muslims, but
there were also Christians and pagans, all completely tolerated.

Russian prisoners-of-war were used as slaves, but if they were of
Polish origin, they were regarded as guests. Therefore, Poles
recruited in the Russian army, deserted en masse at every
opportunity, and even Russians often declared themselves to be Poles.
(p. 123) Slavery as such included no shame. Circassians used to sell
their own family members as slaves to Turkey and Persia, and many
went to slavery voluntarily, returning later on back home as rich and
free men. (p. 124) This system could be compared to the Gastarbeiter
emigration from Turkey since the 1960s. We should also remember, that
in those times, slavery or serfdom existed in Romania and Russia as
well.

The Circassians had been fighting against Russia already for forty
years when appealing to the courts of Europe in a “Declaration of
Independence”: “But now we hear to our deepest humiliation, that our
land counts as a part of the Russian empire on all maps published in
Europe… that Russia, finally, declares in the West, that
Circassians are their slaves, horrible bandits…” (p. 140-141)

The fight continued for two more full decades, until a national
Circassian government was set up in Sochi. In 1862, Russia began the
final invasion, annihilation and expulsion, as predicted by Neumann
well in advance.

According to Kemal H. Karpat, “Ottoman population 1830-1914” (Madison
1985), “Beginning in 1862, and continuing through the first decade of
the twentieth century, more than 3 million people of Caucasian stock,
often referred collectively as Cerkes (Circassians), were forced by
the Russians to leave their ancestral lands…” (p. 27)

Salaheddin Bey mentioned, in 1867, a total of 1.008.000 refugees from
the Caucasus and Crimea, of whom 595.000 were initially settled in
the Balkans. (p. 27) Half a million followed by 1879, and another
half a million until 1914. (p. 69) Most of them were Circassians,
although there were Crimean Tatars, Chechens, and other Muslim people
among them. Hundreds of thousands Circassians perished on their way.

Neumann’s estimate of 1.5 million Circassians corresponds to 1/30
ethnic Russians, or 1/3 Czechs, or 3/4 Slovaks. (p. 66) According to
Neumann, there were over two million Armenians in the world. (p. 69)
Now, according to the Soviet census of 1989, the number of Russians
has increased to 145 millions, whereof 1/30 would be almost five
millions. There are 10 million Czechs and 5 million Slovaks, which
would lead us to assume that there should be over 3 million
Circassians. Armenia alone has a population of over 3 million
Armenians, despite of the past ordeals; 2 million Armenians live
elsewhere. The number of Czechs, Slovaks, and Armenians has more than
doubled in 150 years, while the number of Russians has tripled; but
where are the missing millions of Circassians?

“The Encyclopaedia Britannica”, 11th edition (Cambridge 1911),
divided the Armenian population equally between Russia and Turkey
(little over a million in each empire), and numbered 216.950
Circassians (including Abkhaz etc.) in Russia. Again we must
conclude, that about 1.5 million Circassians had been massacred or
deported. This disaster exceeded both absolutely and proportionally
whatever fell upon Armenians in 1915. Was it intentional? Yes. Was it
ideological? Yes. The conquest and Christian colonization of the
Middle East was expected not only by Germans, but by most Europeans
during the 19th century, and the expulsion of Muslims from Europe was
considered a historical necessity. Russia had practicized massacres
and mass deportations in the Crimea and Caucasus, and “ethnically
cleansed” Circassia specially in 1862-1864. During that period,
Panslavists like Mikhail Katkov provided the Russian public with
nationalistic excuses for what had started as imperial ambition
(“Third Rome”) and strategic interests (“Access to sea”).

A vicious cycle was created and increased the stakes at both
frontiers: the Caucasus, and the Balkans. Circassian refugees settled
in the Balkans were provoked to commit the “Bulgarian atrocities”,
that inspired some of the Armenian revolutionaries. After the Balkan
Wars, Muslim refugees were roaming in Anatolia, thus spreading
terror, and hostility. This was exploited by Russia, at the cost of
many innocent Armenians. The massacres of 1915 were a tip of the
iceberg – the part best visible for Europeans, who had been actively
seeking and expecting horror news to justify anti-Muslim prejudice,
and to prevent interventions on behalf of Turkey, as had happened in
the Crimean War of the 1850s.

Was it a genocide? That depends on the definition. Rather than of
separate, selectively researched genocides, we should speak of a
general genocidal tendency that affected many – both Muslim and
Christian – people on a wide scene between 1856 and 1956, continuing
in post-Soviet Russia until today.

The article was originally written in October 2000.

Antero Leitzinger is a political historian and a researcher for the
Finnish Directorate of Immigration. He wrote several books on Turkey,
the Middle East and the Caucasus.