SUMMARY:

The article by Viktor Avksent’ev and Igor’ Babkin is an in-depth research into the history and recent developments of religious forms of mobilization in the North Caucasian region. The article follows the emergence and advance of religious orders, in particular among Chechens and Daghestani’s thus providing rich empirical material for the understanding of the challenges faced by Russian imperial policies in the region. The author challenges many recent prejudices and old theoretical postulates about the dynamics of North Caucasian national(ist) movements. The contemporary situation and its implications in the social, economic and political spheres is also described with the precision and knowledge of the scholar from the region.