Caucasian Identity in the Life of North Caucasians in European Emigration: Modernity with Historical Roots

The purpose of the article is to analyze the preservation of national identity among North Caucasian emigrants in Europe during the 20th–21st centuries. The study is based on the mechanism of formation of the Caucasian identity of the highlanders in different historical periods. The study is based on the collection of primary material: archival (from the archives of France and Russia) and field ethnographic (interviews conducted in France and Switzerland) in 2010–2024. Most North Caucasian emigrants who lived in Europe since the 1920s sought to maintain ties with their homeland and preserve their North Caucasian identity. This included: rejecting European passports, living in a compact group, and turning to mountain traditions in their relationships with each other, the creation of charitable unions to help the highlanders, the desire to marry fellow tribesmen, the opening of Caucasian restaurants in Europe, the creation of a Caucasian environment, the holding of North Caucasian events with highland dances. And finally, the publication of magazines that described the life and customs of the Caucasus. Caucasian politicians in Europe in those years actively defended the concepts of a "mountain nation" and the existence of a "common Caucasian identity." The Caucasian community was the basis for the political activity of emigrants from the Caucasus. In the 1990s and 2000s, during the years of military action in Chechnya, representatives of the peoples of the North Caucasus, mainly Chechens, settled in Europe. Modern North Caucasian emigrants also strive by all means to preserve their culture, or at the very least to join the European Islamic cultural field. In everyday life, food, dances, celebrations, weddings, and funerals are preserved, however, language changes (the use of European languages by children of mountain migrants in communication with each other) are an important criterion for the weakening of mountain cultures in Europe. In the 2000s, it became more difficult to preserve the North Caucasian identity due to the powerful European tendency of acculturation of emigrants.