Dagestan, << `dah` guh STAHN >>, also spelled Daghestan, is a republic of Russia on the west shore of the Caspian Sea. Its capital is the port city of Makhachkala. Since the 1990’s, militant Islamists have attacked government facilities and conducted other operations in Dagestan.
About 3 million people live in Dagestan. There are dozens of different ethnic groups, and almost as many different languages. Russian is used for governmental purposes, and many Dagestani people speak Russian as a second language. The most widely spoken Dagestani language, Avar, is also used to communicate between people of different languages. The majority of Dagestanis practice Islam.
Dagestan lies at the far southwest corner of Russia. It has an area of about 19,400 square miles (50,300 square kilometers). The Caucasus Mountains cross the southern part of the republic. Treeless, grassy plains called steppes cover most of northern Dagestan. More than half of Russia’s Caspian Sea coastline is in Dagestan.
The primary economic activity is raising livestock, especially sheep and cattle. Farmers in the lowlands grow crops, such as wheat, grapes for making wine, and other fruit. Dagestan is rich in oil and natural gas, though these energy sources have not been fully developed. Swift-flowing rivers are used to produce hydroelectric power.
For centuries, Dagestan was divided and fought over by powerful invaders, including Muslim Arabs, Seljuk Turks, Mongols, Ottoman Turks, Persians, and Russians. In 1813, Persia surrendered Dagestan to the Russian Empire in a peace treaty. During the mid-1800’s, Muslim religious leaders in Dagestan and neighboring Chechnya headed several unsuccessful revolts against Russia.
In 1917, Communist revolutionaries known as Bolsheviks seized control of the Russian government. Dagestan was made an autonomous republic within the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR) in 1921. In 1922, the RSFSR and three other republics formed the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union broke up in 1991, and Dagestan became a republic in Russia.
In the 1990’s, militant Islamists began attacking Russian troops and government facilities in Dagestan. In 1999, militants tried to unite Dagestan and Chechnya into an Islamic state independent of Russia. Russian troops invaded Chechnya and put down the rebellion. But the militants continued to launch surprise attacks in Dagestan and Chechnya.
