The peoples of the North Caucasus in the works of Russian writers of the first half of the 19 th century

The paper deals with the problem of attitude of different strata of Russian society towards the North Caucasus and highlanders in the first half of the 19th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, Russia began to expand its influence in the North Caucasus region, yet Russian society had a vague idea of its peoples. The author focuses on the fact that a prominent Russian poet A.S. Pushkin showed the Caucasus as a ‘wonderful land’ inhabited not by ‘predators’, but by proud, freedom-loving, courageous highlanders. Pushkin’s poetry exerted an enormous influence on his contemporaries. M.Yu. Lermontov, A. Polezhaev, and K. Belevich, active participants in the Caucasian War, did even more in glorification of the liberation struggle of highlanders and condemnation of the policy of tsarism in the North Caucasus. A.S. Griboyedov, one of the brightest representatives of advanced Russia, made a great contribution to Russian-Caucasian social and cultural relationships when he served in the Caucasus. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, the Decembrist writer, also contributed to the formation of a positive image of a highlander as a knight gifted with noble qualities. His first works appeared in 1832 and had great success among the progressively-minded Russian people.