Keyword: «contact»

Based on many years of research by the author, the main stages of the development of the tsarist government’s policy regarding the peoples of the North-East Caucasus, methods and means, the specifics of the Russian experience are considered, which will allow a much better understanding of the nature of many past and current contradictions, using the existing positive potential of the first fortresses in the Lower Terek as important centers of political relations of the Russian state with the peoples of the North-East Caucasus, as strongholds of Russian statehood in the region. Particular attention is paid to the process of integrating the North-East Caucasus into the Russian historical system, into its imperial form, which was ambiguous, peaceful and non-peaceful in nature, which predetermined the formation of relatively peaceful zones and "fortified zones" in the modern borders of the region. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that it raised a number of issues that have not yet been adequately covered in Russian historiography. In particular, an attempt is made to substantiate the phenomenon of deep integration processes that took place in these cities, based on a symbiosis of the diversity of cultural and spiritual values and carried out in conditions of joint coexistence of peoples of different socio-political and cultural levels. The novelty of the work is also given by the fact that rich local archival material, extracted by the author in the Dagestan Republican, Astrakhan Oblast and other North Caucasian and central archives, is brought into scientific circulation. The influence that the fortified cities of Nizovii Terek had as regional trade centers, where goods from all over the Northeast Caucasus, as well as centers of culture and spirituality for the peoples of the region, was noted. Attention is focused on the progressive significance of the annexation of the North Caucasus to Russia.