The Making of a Description of Highlanders in the Early 1830s: On the History of Ethnographic Studies of the Caucasus

Abstract

The article examines the project of making a thorough description of ethnic groups inhabiting the highlands of the Caucasus, which was initiated by Tsar Nicholas I in the early 1830s. It discusses the special role that the General Staff Department, and a number of officers such as V.E. Galyamin and I.F. Blaramberg in particular, played in the realization of the project. Drawing on archival records, I focus on the principles and techniques of collecting and systematizing the geographical, statistical, historical, and ethnographic data on the new highland borderland of Russia. I argue that the account that emerged as the outcome of this project was of major significance both as a work that showed the richness of local cultural diversity in the region, and as a foundation source that became a landmark in the development of ethnographic studies of the Caucasus.