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Editors' note: We publish here posthumously one of the last unpublished articles by the great historian of the Caucasus, Moshe Gammer (1950-2013). Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University, Gammer specialized in the history of Muslim resistance to Russian rule in the Northern Caucasus, to which subject his best-known works, Muslim Resistance to the Tsar: Shamil and the Conquest of Chechnia and Daghestan and The Lone Wolf and the Bear: Three Centuries of Chechen Defiance of Russian Rule, were dedicated. The current article was originally written in 2010 for submission to Europe-Asia Studies, but could not be completed for health reasons. The text has been left unabridged, and the author's original preferences in terminology and toponymic spellings have been retained. The editors thank Ruth Frankl-Gammer and Dr Chen Bram for their kind assistance in publishing this article.

Religious diversity has had a dramatic impact on the development of the North Caucasus region. People do not identify primarily with either a national or international Islamic community, although the fundamentalist Vakhabite community has become a major regional force during the past decade. Numerous official attempts to suppress Vakhabite influence has resulted in the emergence of a clandestine Vakhabite network supported by Islamic radicals from abroad, mostly of Saudi & North African Arab origin. These have joined with the Khattab group to receive military training in terrorist camps in support of the Chechen resistance to Soviet forces. Following the first Chechen war (1994-1996), differences arose between the Sufi & Vakhatiite movements, with Sufi Muslims called for creation of a secular state that would preserve traditional social patterns, while Vakhabites demanded the eradication of local customs which they regard as having tainted Islamic purity. Adapted from the source document.

Der Nordkaukasus stellt als südlicher Pfeiler Rußlands eine Region von hoher strategischer Bedeutung dar. Der Konflikt in Tschetschenien hat die Verwundbarkeit Rußlands durch ethnischen Separatismus im Kaukasus gezeigt. Im Nordkaukasus gipfelte der Konflikt zwischen Ingush und Osseten im Oktober 1992 in einen blutigen Bürgerkrieg, der eine militärische Intervention Rußlands nach sich zog. Der Verfasser gibt einen Überblick über Hintergründe, Verlauf und Ergebnis dieses Konflikts. Darüberhinaus werden drei weitere ethnische Konflikte behandelt: das Streben der Lezgin in Daghestan und Aserbaidschan nach nationaler Einheit, der Konflikt zwischen den Karachai und den Circassischen Völkern in den benachbarten Republiken Karachaevo-Cherkessia und Kabardino- Balkaria sowie das Konfliktpotential in der multiethnischen Gesellschaft Daghestans. (BIOst-Wpt)

Der Autor untersucht den ethnischen Bürgerkrieg in Südossetien, die durch die südossetischen Flüchtlinge in Nordossetien geschaffene Lage sowie den nordossetisch-inguschetischen Konflikt und analysiert die diesen Problemen zugrunde liegenden Zusammenhänge. Die historisch bedingte Assoziierung Nordossetiens mit Rußland hat für das Land ambivalente Resultat erbracht. (BIOst-Mrk)