85 Russian Ethnographers and Caucasus Mountaineersnot, or should not be, dispersed throughout an empire or region as a re-
sult of exile, but should possess a historic homeland. Imperial adminis-
trative distinctions more or less corresponded to such a notion of a
territorially defined and homogeneous ethnic identity. The mountain-
eers of Shamil’s imamate were divided in the eastern Caucasus when
Chechnia became part of Terek oblast and Dagestan oblast was formed
from what had been the Transcaspian Region (minus Kubinskii
district). The right and left flanks of the Caucasus Line became the
boundaries for Kuban and Terek oblasts.^186 The military-native admin-
istration announced by Prince Bariatinskii in 1860 extended beyond
Terek and Dagestan oblasts to Kuban oblast, to where the Adygei had
been moved, Zakatal’skii okrug, and Sukhumi otdel, the central region
of Abkhazia. The new Adygei settlements in Kuban oblast were com-
posed of many different tribes. Fourteen settlements comprised as
many as five to six tribes, and the villages of Khatazhukai and Urupskii
contained nine different tribes. The surviving Shapsugs were dispersed
among eight different villages of Ekaterinodar district, nine villages of
Maikop district, and four villages of Batalpashin district.^187 Tribal
affiliation among the Adygei became less important as a result of
Russian rule. The general administrative structure of territorial divi-
sion according to narod was in place, and it appeared as a result of
Russian imperial rule.
The okrugi (districts) under military-native administration in Terek
oblast included the Kabard, Ossetian, and Ingush districts of the
Western Military Section and the Chechen, Argun, and Ichkerian dis-
tricts of the Central Military Section. The Eastern Military Section, ex-
tending to the Caspian Sea, included a district for the Kumyks.^188 In
spite of the changing concerns of the imperial regime in the North
Caucasus in the later nineteenth century, this process of administra-
tive division according to narodnost’ remained constant. In 1883
Governor-General A.M. Dondukov-Korsakov formed a commission
to provide recommendations to alleviate the deteriorating conditions
among the Cossacks of the North Caucasus and to regulate the pro-
cess of settlement so as to avoid conflicts between Cossacks, the new
Russian emigrants from the southern provinces (the inogorodnyi pop-
ulation), and Greek and Armenian settlers. The members of this com-
mission were far from sympathetic to the plight of the mountaineers.
While Dmitrii Starosel’skii, of the Caucasus Mountain Administra-
tion, participated in the discussions, other individuals, such as
V.Butyrkin, frequently warned their colleagues of the need to main-
tain the economic position and “military spirit” of the Cossacks, who
had fought and won the war but still endured the thievery and
attacks of armed mountaineers.^189 The commission declared entire