Commemorating Vassan-Girey Dzabagy on the 63rd Anniversary of his death

Türkçe Tercüme
Today, we commemorate Vassan-Girey Dzabagy on the 63rd anniversary of his death with a short but striking letter that he wrote to his colleague Ibrahim Haydar in the turbulent days of 1920.  In the early spring of 1920, as General Denikin's Volunteer Army started to leave the Terek, having suffered an absolute defeat under the deadly blows of the Allied Madjlis, the Defence Council, and the armed forces of the North Caucasus Republic, Vassan-Girey Dzabagy watched Denikin's forces fleeing the North Caucasus and crossing from Kazbek into Georgia.  The defeat of General Denikin after eight months of hard struggle should have meant for the Mountaineers’ government a return from exile to the homeland and the reactivation of the state organs of the North Caucasus Republic, but due to the conspiracies of the Dagestani Bolsheviks, the outcome turned out to be very different.
Instead of an independent state in the North Caucasus, the main goal of the Bolshevik Mountaineers was to obtain a federal status in the Soviet system under the wing of the Russian Bolsheviks.  For this reason, they had preserved their resources during the national struggle against General Denikin and preferred to stay out of the events and watch from the sidelines as the national forces were battered.  They have been preparing to sacrifice the tired and resource-depleted independence supporters to the Russian Bolsheviks. In this letter, which allows us to better perceive the conditions of those days, the Caucasian Ingush patriot Vassan-Girey Dzabagy wrote the following to his Lezgin compatriot Ibrahim Haydar:

Dear Gaidarov!
I ask you to receive and listen to the bearer of this letter, Mr. Altidukov, and take all measures to help arrange the matter, which he will explain to you personally.
I hope that your mountaineer’s sentiments will tell you how to act in this case.
I request you to keep everything as secret as possible so that the same story as with Kereselidze's detachment does not happen here. Our Bolshevik Mountaineers and Russian Bolsheviks will, of course, try to prevent it.
A "Mountaineers’ Government" was formed earlier in Vladikavkaz with you, Bammatov, and Akhmed Dudarov at its head, but it lasted only one day. Now the SOVDEP is already sitting in Vladikavkaz. Artskhanov let the detachment through almost without any benefit.
I spoke with the Georgians about distributing weapons to the mountain units, and they promised to do this if these units would go to the mountain territory.
I am sitting in Kazbek while Denikin's units are passing by. Grozny is already occupied according to the visitors, occupied by Gikalo.
Thus I can congratulate you if it smiles on you with the Soviet power in Terek. This will especially please Babiev and others.
I feel that upon arrival I will find myself in extremely difficult conditions.

As a matter of fact, only 5 days after this letter, on 30 March 1920, the Bolshevik occupation of the North Caucasus, which started in mid-March with the capture of Port Petrovsk by the XI^th Red Army, was completed in a short period of two weeks. Since the beginning of 1918, the Caucasian Mountaineers, who had fended off the invasions of the Reds, then the Whites, General Bicherakhov and General Denikin, had almost exhausted all their resources, especially in the struggle against Denikin, who the British supported with all kinds of weapons and money.  The war was won, but the people had neither the strength nor the will to fight a new war.  The Bolshevik Mountaineers, abusing their power in the decision-making mechanisms of the Defense Council, disarmed the population and the independence supporters with various tricks and let the Russian Bolsheviks find a defenseless North Caucasus when they arrived. Under these circumstances, the Russian Bolsheviks invaded the North Caucasus as easily as they picked the fruits ready to fall from the tree.

Cem Kumuk
Istanbul, 18 October 2024