Painting depicting Circassians trying to evacuate their town in order to avoid being massacred
Circassian population remaining in Circassia after the genocide. After the genocide, only those forced into exile, hiding in marshes and caves, and, in rare cases, who could make agreements with the Russians, survived.
The Circassian genocide,[10][11] or Tsitsekun,[a][b] was the Russian Empire's systematic mass murder, ethnic cleansing, and expulsion of 95–97%[c][d] of the Circassian population, resulting in 1 to 1.5 million deaths[15][e] during the final stages of the Russo-Circassian War.[16][17][18] The peoples planned for extermination were mainly the Muslim Circassians, but other Muslim peoples of the Caucasus were also affected.[17] Killing methods used by Russian forces during the genocide included impaling and tearing the bellies of pregnant women as means of intimidation of the Circassian population.[16][19] Russian generals such as the ethnically Baltic GermanGrigory Zass described the Circassians as "subhuman filth", and glorified the mass murder of Circassian civilians,[16][20][21][page needed] justified their use in scientific experiments,[22] and allowed their soldiers to rape women.[16]
The Genocide is considered to have had its first steps in the deportation and/or massacre of the Muslim Circassian population of the Russian Empire. The Muslim Circassians were deported to the Muslim Ottoman Empire. During the Russo-Circassian War, the Russian Empire employed a genocidal strategy of massacring Circassian civilians. Only a small percentage who accepted Russification and resettlement within the Russian Empire were completely spared. The remaining Circassian population who refused were variously dispersed or killed en masse.[23] Circassian villages would be located and burnt, systematically starved, or their entire population massacred.[24]Leo Tolstoy reported that Russian soldiers would attack village houses at night.[25] William Palgrave, a British diplomat who witnessed the events, adds that "their only crime was not being Russian".[26] In 1864, "A Petition from Circassian leaders to Her Majesty Queen Victoria" was signed by the Circassians requesting humanitarian aid from the British Empire.[27][28][29] In the same year, mass deportation was launched against the surviving population before the end of the war in 1864 and it was mostly completed by 1867.[30] Some died from epidemics or starvation among the crowds of deportees and were reportedly eaten by dogs after their death.[26] Others died when the ships underway sank during storms.[31]
The Circassian genocide was the deadliest ethnic cleansing campaign of the 19th century.[32] Calculations, including taking into account the Russian government's archival figures, have estimated a loss of 94–97%[33][34][35] of the Circassian population, who were either mass murdered or forcibly expelled during the genocide. The displaced people were settled primarily in the Ottoman Empire.[36] Most sources state that as many as 1 to 1.5 million Circassians were forced to flee in total, but only around half of them could make it to land.[9][37]Ottoman archives show more than one million migrants entering their land from the Caucasus by 1879, with nearly half of them dying on the shores as a result of disease.[8] If Ottoman archives are correct, it would make this the biggest genocide of the 19th century.[38] In confirmation of Ottoman archives, Russian records documented only the presence of 106,798 Circassians in the region, following the events of the genocide. Other estimates by Russian historiographers are even lower, with figures ranging from 40,400 to 65,900.[13] The Russian census of 1897 recorded 150,000 Circassians still remaining in the now-conquered region.[39][40]
As of 2023[update], Georgia is the only country to recognize the Circassian genocide.[41] Russia actively denies the Circassian genocide,[42][43][44] and classifies the events as a migration (‹See Tfd›Russian: Черкесское мухаджирство, lit. 'Circassian migrationism'). Some Russian nationalists in the Caucasus region continue to celebrate the day when the Circassian deportation was launched, 21 May (O.S), each year as a "holy conquest day". Circassians commemorate 21 May every year as the Circassian Day of Mourning commemorating the Circassian genocide.[45] On 21 May, Circassians all over the world protest against the Russian government, especially in cities with large Circassian populations such as Kayseri and Amman, as well as other large cities such as Istanbul.[46][47]
^Levene, Mark (2005). "6: Declining Powers". Genocide in the Age of the Nation-State Volume II: The Rise of the West and the Coming of Genocide. 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010. p. 300. ISBN1-84511-057-9.
^Levene, Mark (2005). "6: Declining Powers". Genocide in the Age of the Nation-State. Vol. II: The Rise of the West and the Coming of Genocide. 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010. p. 301. ISBN1-84511-057-9. anything between 1 and 1.5 million Circassians perished either directly, or indirectly, as a result of the Russian military campaign
^ abNeumann, Karl Friedrich (1840). Russland und die Tscherkessen [Russia and the Circassians] (in German).
Shenfield 1999, pp. 149–162: "The number who died in the Circassian catastrophe of the 1860s could hardly, therefore, have been fewer than one million, and may well have been closer to one-and-a-half million"
Richmond 2013, pp. 91–92: "This would mean that a minimum of between 726,000 and 907,500 Circassians were sent down the mountains. If we add to that another 10 percent who died hiding and fleeing from the Russians, the figure rises to between 798,600 and 998,225."
^Richmond 2013, p. 132: "If we assume that Berzhe's middle figure of 50,000 was close to the number who survived to settle in the lowlands, then between 95 percent and 97 percent of all Circassians were killed outright, died during Evdokimov's campaign, or were deported."
^Rosser-Owen 2007, p. 16: "with one estimate showing that the indigenous population of the entire north-western Caucasus was reduced by a massive 94 percent."
^Levene, Mark (2005). "6: Declining Powers". Genocide in the Age of the Nation-State Volume II: The Rise of the West and the Coming of Genocide. 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010. pp. 300, 301. ISBN1-84511-057-9.
^Leitzinger, Antero (October 2000). "The Circassian Genocide". The Eurasian Politician. No. 2. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
^Kayseri, DHA (May 2017). "Çerkeslerden anma yürüyüşü" [Circassian memorial march]. Sözcü (in Turkish). Retrieved 15 January 2021.
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