Shapsugsky National District

Shapsugsky National District(Adyghe: Шапсыгъэ Националнэ Район, Russian: Шапсугский национальный район) is a district that was established in 1924 as a national district for the Adyghe (Shapsug) of the Black Sea tribe (Russian: причерноморские адыги) witin the currently subject of Krasnodar Krai in the Soviet Union currently Russia. and was abolished after the end of the Second World War in 1945.

The History of the Region

After the end of the Circassian Russian War in 1864 which lasted about a century between the Adyghe who formed historical Circassia and the Russian Empire a major part of the Shapsugs, who lived on the territory of modern Sochi to Tuapse in the North, were either killed in the Circassian Genocide or expelled to the Ottoman Empire like the other Adyghe tribes.

Black Sea coast near Tuapse in November

Because the Shapsugs were one of the most stubborn enemies of the Russian Empire; they suffered more than the other Adyghe tribes, because they were with their alliances the last to surrender to the occupiers' army, and kept resisting the Russians in a holly war, even after the end of the Circassian Russian War in 1864 and for more than 20 years.

As a result of the Tsars policy to kill the Mountaineers in the Circassian Genocide or expelling them to the Ottoman Empire, the remaining Shapsugs who servived abandoned their remained coastal villages to the eastern mountains of the Shapsug to protect their selves against the tyranny of their occupiers the Zaporozhian cossacks -laterly their descendants renamed their selves Kuban Cossacks and adopted the Circassians dress and uniform to falsify the history of the Kuban and Circassia and to depicts that the Kuban civilizations are related to the Cossacks not the Circassians (The indigenous dwellers of the North West Caucasus) - and the Russians. The other goal for settling the mountains was to keep resisting and striking against the Russians outpost in the Circassian coast.

When the Shapsugs felt that the resistance was impossible to carry on; due to the cut of the marine logistics' lines and to the lack of weapons, they stopped resisting, and some of them went to the Kuban previously occupied settlements for other Adyghe tribes and established their own villages. and the remaining returned to their regions in the Circassian coast (Adyghe: Адыгэ хы аушу); on the Black Sea, and established newer one in the place of their previous burned villages between 1870-1880.

The establishment of Shapsugsky National District

The Shapsugsky Nation District was established on the 6 September 1924 as a part of Black Sea Okrug of South-Eastern Oblast. The district contained around 3400 person from the Shapsugs, and the center of the district was the coastal city of Tuapse.

In the beginning of 1925 the district was divided into 4 villages' councils, Kraboviski, Jail, Kalezh, and Pseshko. it area was around 462 square kilometres (178 sq mi).

South-Eastern Oblast was abolished on October 16, 1924, and the district was transferred to newly established North Caucasus Krai. In July 1930, okrugs were abolished, and the District was directly subordinated to the krai. In 1930, the center of Shapsugsky National District was transferred to Krasnoaleksandrovskoye, and the district was divided into 8 villages' councils. In March 1931 the district center was transferred to Sovet-Kvadzhe, and in January 1934 Lazarevskoye was transferred to Shapsugsky National District as well and became the district center.

In 1945 the district was renamed Lazarevsky District and it ceased to be a national district. The Shapsug called it Adyghe: Псышӏуап instead of Lazarevsky because their national district was named by the Russians based on one of the enemies of the Circassians Adyghe nation, Mikhail Lazarev, who facilitated the invasion/capture over Circassia, and put a siege over it during the Circassian Russian War. In 1961, the district was subordinated to the city of Sochi and is currently known as Lazarevsky City District.