The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire. Margus Kolga

to the Uzbek and Tadzhik economies and cultures has been notable. The composer, S. Yudakov, who wrote the Tadzhik national anthem, is a Jew. However, the Jews who are active in public life, do not usually boast of their origin.

      As mentioned above, all Central Asian Jews speak Tadzhik, or a kind of Jewish-Tadzhik dialect which is on the verge of dying out. In Tashkent and in Fergana Valley the second language is Uzbek. Most of the Jews today, especially the young, are fluent in Russian. Linguistic relations have become strained in the past few decades because there is a covert, but at the same time systematic, attempt to oust the Tadzhik language from Samarkand, Bukhara and other places in Uzbekistan where the Tadzhiks form the majority. The aim is to replace it, in all spheres of public life, with the Uzbek language. The Tadzhik people have come under pressure as they are forced to give up their national identity and Tadzhik-language schools are being closed. The situation of the Jews as non-Muslims is a little easier, but in this climate of hostility they cannot avoid suffering too.

      THE CHAMALALS

      The Chamalals are a numerically small people who occupy a few doz:en villages in the Tsumada district of Dagestan. Their settlements are located on the left bank of the middle reachles of the Andi-Koisu river. The major Chamalal villages are Lower-Gaquar, Agual, Tsumada, Urukh, Gachitl, Quenkh, Gigatl and Gadyr. Their neighbours are mainly Ando-Dido peoples: Godoberis to the north, Avars, Bagulals and Tindis to the east and Avars to the south.

      Their self-designation is chamalaldu, and they call their language chamalaldub mitchtch. The Chamalal language belongs to the Andi subgro•up of the northwestern (Avar-Ando-Didlo) group of Dagestan languages. In t:he genealogy of Dagestan languages, thee closest to Chamalal are Bagulal and Tindi. An occasional influence from the Godoberi language is also discernible (in the Gigatl dialect). The Chamalal language is divided into two dialects — the Gaquar dialect and the Gigatl dialect, with the former having the following subdialects: Upper-Gaquar, Lower-Gaquar, Quenkh and Gadyr.

      The Chamalals have no written language, and use the Avar language instead. The Chamalal language has been little researched. The first to pay attention to Chamalal as an independent linguistic unit were A. Dirr and R. Erckert in the late 19th century. More systematic research commenced only after World War II (A. Bokarev, Z. Magomedbekova).

      The 1926 census noted the population of the Chamalals, but later they were counted as Avars. The following data comes from academics who have studied the Chamalals, and is approximate.

1926	3,438
1958	5,000	(Y. Desheriyev)
1967	4,000	(Z. Magomedbekova)

      Islam reached the Chamalal villages in the 8th—9th centuries following Arab conquests. Sunnite Islam began to spread further only in the 13th—14th centuries, and then it took a couple of centuries more to firmly take root. In the 8th century, Christianity also made an attempt to advance into the Chamalal territories from Georgia, but it was forced to retreat before Islam.

      Anthropologically the Chamalals are related to the Caucasian type of the Balkano-Caucasian race. Features characteristic of the Caspian types (Lezgians) are also observable. Ethnoculturally the Chamalals resemble the Avars, in a spiritual as well as a material sense. Minor differences in folk costume and traditions must be regarded as variations from a common cultural source, not principal divergences.

      Historically the Chamalals have had much in common with the Avars and have been politically and economically associated with Avaria. There is no universal agreement on the origin of the Chamalals. It is supposed that such a tiny people could emerge only in circumstances of a prolonged isolation, but other hypotheses see the main reason as being the endogamous arrangement of the society, or the polystructural political system established in the Andi-Koisu river basin.

      Since the 8th century, Avaria has been under foreign rule. From the 8th to the 14th centuries, it was the Maisum representing the Arab regime, from the 15th to the 18th centuries the Turks and Iranians displayed an aggressive interest in Avaria, and in the 19th century it was the Russians. Their supremacy was maintained until very recently. The rulers of Kakhetia have also, on occasion, cast their eye on the mountain areas of northwestern Avaria, most notably during the period when Georgia was a great power (12th—15th centuries). In the 16th century, 16 Chamalal villages formed a separate political unit, a “free community”, which concentrated on management of the political and economic life of the Chamalals.

      The nature of the Chamalal economy has been determined by the development of seasonal livestock-breeding. The main domestic animals were sheep, and, to a smaller extent, cattle and goats. Large-scale land cultivation was of no great importance because of the shortage of arable land. Agriculture on irrigated terraced fields attained a degree of success. The main crops were wheat and rye, and later, potatoes and vegetables, with flax and hemp as industrial crops. The yield was small. There was not enough grain to last the year round, and therefore additional stocks had to be bastered from the inhabitants of the Avarian plains.

      On January 20, 1920, the Soviet regime was established in Dagestan. However, the struggle for real power lasted until the late 1930s. The mountainous area in southern Dagestan became the centre of active anti-Soviet resistance, where the White Guards, and Islamic and nationalist forces gathered. The Soviet regime retaliated with military might and deportations.

      Alongside overt power politics, the central Soviet administration had to use more covert means to strengthen their regime, with its principal aim of transforming the social order and the psychology of the local populace. The new educational system was a tool to this end. As the Chamalals were considered too few to have their own written language, Avar was used for schooling. (The educational system is the same at the present time: during the first five years, classes are conducted in Avar, after that Russian takes over.) To offer an education to a small illiterate people is commendable, but it must be borne in mind that the ultimate aim was to repress the perception of national identity and character, and to restrain free thought.