SUMMARY

The “Archive” section in the present issue is dedicated to publication of the recently rediscovered text of the legislative proposal to institute a separate form of confessional governance (Spiritual Assembly) for Muslims of the North Caucasus. The proposal was initiated by the members of the Fourth Russian State Duma in 1913, but the history of contemplation of ordering religious affairs in that region dates back to the earlier periods of imperial history. The expansion of the Russian Empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries prompted the imperial government to consider ways of regulating the religious affairs of the newly acquired Muslim population. In the early stages of incorporation of the North Caucasus, the imperial policy toward Muslims was influenced primarily by the course of military campaigns of the Caucasian war and relations with the bordering Ottoman and Persian empires. In later years, the question of confessional policy in the North Caucasus was linked to the religious policy of the imperial center in the South Caucasus. Proposals to institute a spiritual assembly for the North Caucasus were prompted by the introduction of these forms of confessional governance for the South Caucasus but were not followed through. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the rise of religious and nationality questions rendered particular urgency to the idea of introducing confessional governance to the North Caucasus. A State Duma bill of 1913 devised a system of religious governance of Muslim communities in Terek, Kuban, and Stavropol’ provinces. It aimed to control ulama, reform the system of religious education, and eradicate what were considered to be excesses of Muslim traditionalism (lex talionis, banditry). However, the imperial government was divided on the issue. The bill was tabled in view of fears of antigovernmental consolidation of Muslims of the North Caucasus headed by the Muslim “clergy.”