Religious life of north Caucasian emigrants in France (1920-1940)

The purpose of this article is to describe the features of the religious life of the North Caucasian emigrants, which to go to France in 1920-1940. The author used the following groups of sources: written (émigré's magazines "Russian Thought", "Latest News", "Illustrated Russia", "North Caucasus", "Mountainers of the Caucasus"), archival materials (archives of A.M. Topchibashi, A.A. Topchibashi, the family archives of Gadjemukov, Abatsiev, the archives of the Grand Lodge of France), as well as the materials of the Oral history (interviews with children of emigrants, who were born in the 1930s in France, interviews with contemporary North Caucasian emigrants). The author used a method of historical description of religious life. This article examines the belonging of the Caucasians to Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism, as well as the Armenian Church. The author separately studies cases of transition from one religion to another (from Orthodoxy to Islam, for example, kabardian Fedor N. Bekovich-Cherkassky, from Islam to Orthodoxy, etc.). The author studies the cases of the adoption of Orthodoxy by Armenians, Georgians and even Azerbaijanis. Religious values were for emigrants from the Caucasus an important part of the mechanism of their adaptation. Religious values helped for emigrants from the Caucasus to create a new community in the new country. The author came to the conclusion that, meanwhile the religious affiliation for the North Caucasian emigrants was not decisive in the formation of the Caucasian (North Caucasian) identity in the European emigration in 1919-1939. In addition, religious values were not an instrument of social and political struggle of the Caucasian emigrants. The author of this article concludes that religious values became elements of their everyday, private life.