Türkçe TercümeToday we commemorate the 134th birthday of Haydar Bammat, one of the most prominent figures in the history and political life of the North Caucasus. Born on November 3, 1890, in Temirhan Shura, Dagestan, the younger of two children of Najmuddin Bammat and Ummu Rashidat, Haydar Bammat was at the age of 19 and studying law at St. Petersburg University when his father died. His active political life began as he joined the editorial staff of the St. Petersburg office of the Parisian magazine Moussoulmanine in 1910 and his first article “Duma” was published in V Mir Musulmanstva in 1911. From then until March 31, 1965, when he gave his last breath, he was actively involved in the political life of the North Caucasus.
(Click on the image for a larger view)
At the time when the Cossack volunteer armies of General Denikin were advancing on Kursk and Orel, and the working peoples of Dagestan and Chechnya, having raised the banner of rebellion against the generals' reaction in the name of their freedom and independence, were drawing the best units of the Volunteer Army from the Tsaritsyn and Astrakhan fronts to the North Caucasus, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Chicherin wrote in an appeal to the workers and peasants of Dagestan: "We consider it timely to declare before the entire world that the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic has never acted intending to seize foreign land or to restore Soviet power by force of arms on foreign territory. In particular, we declare about your republic: Comrade workers and peasants of Dagestan, Soviet Russia does not intend to march on your republic with arms in hand to restore its power. It firmly stands on the principle of self-determination of peoples. And if you, Muslims of the Caucasus, are satisfied with the way your republic is governed, live in peace, determine yourselves, and restore good-neighborly relations with us."
The head of the Eastern Department of the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs, Narimanov, wrote to Nazhmutdin Gotsinsky: "You know that Soviet Russia does not impose its power on the people if they themselves do not want it. The Soviet government recognizes the independence of Dagestan."
These promises, given in the face of the entire world, supported the Mountaineers in an unequal struggle; neither dozens of burned villages, nor thousands of shot women and children, nor desecrated mosques and ruined farms broke their revolutionary energy in unprecedentedly difficult conditions; deprived of any help from outside - without ammunition and means, the Mountaineers heroically fought against the common enemy - reaction, and long before the arrival of Soviet troops, they liberated almost all of Dagestan and most of Chechnya from Denikin's gangs. Now that the territory of the Republic of the Union of Caucasus Mountaineers has been cleared of the enemy, the Mountaineers believe that the moment has come for Soviet Russia to implement the promises it made to the Muslim East. The Caucasian Mountaineers are waiting for a corresponding clear and categorical act on its part. They do not understand the current course of action of the Soviet government. Soviet troops are occupying cities abandoned by volunteers or taken from them by Mountaineers’ units in battle. Elements alien to the indigenous population of the region have already proclaimed Soviet power in Grozny, which is not only an oil field, but also the geographical and cultural-economic center of Chechnya, in Vladikavkaz - the center of Ingushetia and Ossetia, in Nalchik - the center of Kabarda. The idea of an independent Mountaineers’ Republic and the power of the working Mountaineers, for which the Mountaineers fought with Denikin for 8 months, is being dealt an irreparable blow. The sovereign will of the Mountaineers is being trampled. Considering this state of affairs to be contrary to the will of the central Soviet government and fraught with the horrors of new anarchy, I insist on immediate confirmation of the recognition of the independence of the Mountaineers’ Republic and the issuance of appropriate instructions to the Soviet troops and agents of the Soviet government on the ground moving into the Mountaineers’ territory.
The labor congress of the Mountaineers convened by the Provisional Government of the Working Masses of the North Caucasus - the Defense Council - must meet without pressure from the armed forces of Russia and, in a free country, freely lay the foundation for good-neighborly relations and friendly cultural and economic cooperation with the Russian people.
Representative of the Defense Council
of the Republic of the Mountaineers of the North Caucasus
Haydar Bammat
Cem Kumuk
Istanbul, 3 November 2024