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Klychnikov Yu.Yu., Lazaryan S.S. «Nabezhavshimi khishchnikami vzyat v plen…»: Poles in captivity among the highlanders of the North Caucasus. Pyatigorsk: PSU, 2018. 84 p.
Authors: Sergey L. Dudarev
Number of views: 224
A study by professors of the University of Pyatigorsk is devoted to the previously little-studied subject of people of Polish nationality held captive by the mountaineers of the North Caucasus. They were in the hands of the mountaineers due to the fact that as a result of various historical events (the participation of the Poles on the side of Napoleon in his campaign against Russia in 1812 and the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1830−1831 by the tsarist troops) they were in the territory of this region. The authors consider the circumstances of the capture of the Poles by the mountaineers, which allows us to highlight a number of typical situations and causes associated with this. They are partly similar to those in which the highlanders found themselves prisoners of war and deserters of Russian origin (reckless behavior on the way, abduction, desertion, the desire to avoid violence by commanding persons, the desire to fight the Russian army on the side of the highlanders, etc.) Historians also paid attention to the ways of adaptation of captured Poles in the mountain environment, which, above all, among the Circassians, in most cases were in the position of slaves. The peer-reviewed work enriches our ideas about the situation of persons of foreign origin who were in mountain captivity in the first half of the 19th century in the North Caucasus.