Circassian Mejlis (1861-1863): Methodological Aspects of Ethnosocial Research

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the "Circassian Mejlis" (1861-1863). This social institution "Circassian Mejlis" in regional historiography is considered as a representative body of power of the subethnos of the Adygs (Ubykhs, Shapsugs and others) - the autochthonous population of the Black Sea coast of the 19th century. A scientific criticism of the concepts presented in regional historiography and the Internet, in which the Mejlis is considered as a state authority, is given. Based on the structural-functional and comparative analysis of historiographic sources, facts and judgments about the reasons for the formation, structure and functions of this social institution are generalized. The signs of ethnosocial and axiological approaches to the analysis of ethnopotestary processes in the border zones of southern Russia at the end of the 19th century are revealed. It is noted that the content of the administrative-territorial and social reform proposed by the Majlis is of high importance in the ethnic history of the Adyghe sub-ethnic groups of the Western Caucasus as one of the stages in the formation of institutions of state power. The possibilities of integrating social institutions formed by subethnos of the Western Caucasus into the structure of the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Port in the middle of the 19th century are considered. The focus is on the genesis of the Mejlis as a social institution was a vivid indicator of the processes of ethnopoliti-cal consolidation that determined the specifics of regional national and confessional policy in the transboundary zone of southern Russia during the imperial period.