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Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus

Federation
← 1917 – 1920 →
Flag
Capital	Buynaksk 42°49′N 47°07′E
Language(s)	Chechen, Ingush, Ossetic, Dagestani languages
Government	Republic
Historical era	Interwar period
- Independence	March, 1917
- MRNC is annexed by the Soviet Union	June, 1920
Currency	Ruble

Leaders of the MRNC with prime minister Tapa Charmoyev front row centre

The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus (MRNC; also known as the Mountain Republic or the Republic of the Mountaineers) (1917-1920) was a short-lived state situated in the Northern Caucasus, now forming the republics of Chechenya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia-Alania, and Dagestan of the Russian Federation. The total land area of the MRNC was about 70,000 km², with a population of about 1 million. Its capital was initally at Vladikavkaz, then Nazran and finally Buynaksk.

The "Union of the Peoples of the Northern Caucasus" was created in March 1917, and an Executive Committee of the Union was elected. The Chairman of the Executive Committee was one of the leaders of the National-Liberation movement of the Peoples of the Northern Caucasus, Tapa Charmoyev. The "Nizam" of Imam Shamil (the Constitution of Shamil of 1847) was adopted on 5th August , 1917 by the "Central Committee of the Northern Caucasus". The republic was officially established on 11 May , 1918, after the collapse of the Russian Tsarist empire in the Russian revolution of 1917, when the Government of the MRNC was established (see photo). The main founders of the MRNC were Sayd Shamil (grandson of Imam Shamil, who was later (1924) one of the founders and leaders of the "Committee of Independence of the Caucasus" in Germany), Tapa Charmoyev- prime minister, Sheikh Ali-Khaji Akusha, Haidar Bamat and others. The capital of the republic was Temir Khan Shure (now Buinaksk).

This Mountainous Republic was de jure recognized by Turkey, Germany and the Democratic Republic of Georgia.

During the Russian Civil War, the Mountaineers were engaged in fierce clashes against the invasive White troops of General Anton Denikin's Volunteer Army. The fighting ended in January 1920, when Denikin's army was completely defeated by the XI Red Army. The advancing Red Army was at first greeted by red flags in the villages of the Northern Caucasus but the promises of autonomous rule made by the Bolsheviks went unrealized.

In June 1920 the MRNC was occupied and annexed by the Red Army of Bolshevik Russia. The legal Government of the republic was forced to leave the Caucasus. In January, 1921 the Soviet Mountain Republic of the Russian SFSR was established.

• J. "Obedinennyi Kavkaz" ("Vereinigtes Kaukasien"), No: 1-3 (30-32), Munchen, 1954 (in Russian)
• Levan Z. Urushadze, About the history of the question of unity of the Caucasian Peoples.- J. "Amirani", XIII, Montreal-Tbilisi, 2005, pp. 72-87 (in Georgian, English summary)
• Baddeley, J. F., 1908, The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus, Longmans, Green, and Co., London
• Henrey, Mrs Robert, 1954, Madeleine Grown Up, J. M. Dent & Sons, London
• Caucasian Republic Mission to the Peace Conference Appeal for Help, Friday 4 April 1919, The Morning Post, London.
• Tapa Charmoyev's Obituary The Times written by Elti Temihan
• Storozhenko (Ed.), 1995, Ingushetia and Chechen Republic Map, Northern Caucasian Aerogeodesic Company of Roskartografia, Russia.

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