The peasantry and Cossacks of the Terek region in the collisions of the civil war of 1917-1920: historical and anthropological analysis

The article attempts to examine the role of the individual rather than faceless masses in the revolutionary events of 1917-1920 in the Terek region through the prism of historical and anthropological methods. The relevance of the topic is connected with new methodological approaches that allow us to take a fresh look at the problem of revolution in the region, comprehensively consider changes in the behavior, mentality of contemporaries and their desire or unwillingness to engage in civil confrontation. The attraction of new archival materials allowed us to consider the processes of breaking traditional social practices, the transformation of an ordinary man in the street into a “man with a gun” who was guided by other concepts and principles. During the frequent changes of political power, the bulk of the peasantry repeatedly aligned itself with different camps, largely due to the influence of acquaintances, relatives or the successful propaganda of one of the opposing sides, rather than conscious goals. In this respect, it is noted that the subject matter of the article is promising for study in view of the evaluative potential it contains for the history of the early Soviet period.