The paper is devoted to the general problems of development of the North Caucasus region and various aspects of its investigation. This theme was not easy for scientists and analysts at all times, and it cannot be understood in a one-dimensional measurement. In general the Caucasus has provided and continues to exert considerable influence on the formation and development of the Russian identity and this is both theoretical and practical importance for us. Therefore much attention is paid to the present situation in Russian society, its ability to meet the challenges of the times in a rapidly changing world and changes in domestic and foreign policy on its southern borders. The paper presents different approaches to analysis and different comments on them. But all Russian researchers are united in one thing -in the understanding and preservation of this unique region as an integral part of the Russian state and Russian identity.

The article is devoted to the entry of the peoples of the North Caucasus into the Russian socio-cultural space on the basis of the entry of the region into the Russian Empire. In the research the authors focus their attention on the issues of implementing such socio-cultural activity as charity within the mentioned process. Being traditional phenomena for worldview bases and cultural practices of the peoples of the North Caucasus that joined the Russian Empire and the peoples of the Russian Empire itself, encouragement for doing good and charity as such became significant factors contributing to peoples' cultural rapprochement. This is confirmed by the analysis of specific historical data, facts of creating charity communities and diverse charity activities in Terek Oblast in particular, covering the second half of XIXth-early XXth centuries, that is presented in the article. At the same time the authors primarily consider the process of public care of the development of education in the region and the substitution of the efforts of the state that were organised into charity communities by society in the sphere of concern for socially disadvantaged groups of the region's population.