Kbaada (Krasnaya Polyana): The Circassians’ Last Stand

Kbaada (Krasnaya Polyana): The Circassians’ Last Stand

Circassian artistic film: “Toponymy: Ubykh Dance”: Episode from the film “Circassian National Dance”.

Moscow International Film School, 2013.

Dance by “Circassia” Ensemble: Artur Dischek’, Gaspar Yezdech, Aslhen Abezoqwe, Marat Sizhazhe, Anzor Vile.

Pedagogue: Olga A. Kerzina.

Artistic Director: Alla I. Stepanova.

The final battle between the Circassians and Russians was fought in Kbaada in the land of the Ubykh on 21 May 1864. The Circassians lost. The Circassian-Russian War came to a tragic end. Circassian “Kbaada” turned into Russian “Krasnaya Polyana” (“Beautiful Glade”)! Most of the Circassians were subsequently deported by the Russians. The Ubykh emigrated wholesale from their ancestral lands to the Ottoman Empire – first extinction of the Ubykh nation (in Circassia).

Tevfik Esenç was the last speaker of the Ubykh language. He died in 1992, aged 88. The Ubykh language is now nowhere to be heard in our World, although there are a few dozen thousands of Ubykh people in Turkey and the Middle East – second extinction of the Ubykh (on Earth).

Lesson for Circassians: National extinction will be timed to the death of the last speaker of Circassian – probably in a few generations, if the mother tongue is kept being treated with such mass neglect and scorn.

Toponymy = The place-names of a country or district as a subject of study.