Lonely horse

Svetlana, member of a Circassian folk troupe, with an accordion

Mass graves in the Makopse river valley a few kilometers from the Black Sea are the only material evidence of the mid-19th-century Circassian tragedy in this area. People buried in these graves were the deportees who, waiting to be picked up by the Turkish ships, died of hunger, cold and disease. A Russian witness, shocked by the scene, later noted: «…The mountaineers <…> gathered in masses <…> along the Black Sea coast wherefrom they were transported to Turkey by the Turkish ships and, in part, by ships hired by the Russian government. But because these vessels were not at all enough to transport half a million people, they had to wait their turn for 6 months, for a year, or even more. All this time, they stayed on the shore in the weather without any means of living. <…> They were dying of hunger literally by thousands. In winter, cold added up to it. The Black Sea’s entire northeastern shore was covered with corpses and moribund men, women and children with those alive but weakened lying amongst them and waiting to be deported».

The Ashe river valley located in an area near Sochi where a few thousand Circassians live in compact communities. Before the Russian-Caucasian war, a large Circassian village was located along the river Ashe – stretched from its mouth up to the mountains for 20 km. During the mid 19th-century Circassian tragedy, all native villages have been completely erased.

View of the central Sochi. On early 19th-century maps, this area was known as Ubykhia after a Circassian tribe that used to live here but was completely exterminated or deported to Turkey as a result of the Russian-Caucasian war.

The Ashe river valley located in an area near Sochi where a few thousand Circassians live in compact communities. Before the 19-century Russian-Caucasian war, a large Circassian village was located along the river Ashe – stretched from its mouth up to the mountains for 20 km. During the mid 19th-century Circassian tragedy, all native villages have been completely erased.

A Circassian graveyard in the village of Khadzhiko located in an area near Sochi where a few thousand Circassians live in compact communities. These communities are home to those few who, about 50 years after the mid-19th-century Circassian tragedy, have managed to return to their homeland.

During the mid-19 century Circassian exodus, many perished on their way because treacherous ship owners, after receiving money for transporting the deportees to Turkey, threw their weakened passengers out to sea and returned to pick up the next party and get more money quicker.

The Ashe river valley located in an area near Sochi where a few thousand Circassians live in compact communities. Before the Russian-Caucasian war, a large Circassian village was located along the river Ashe – stretched from its mouth up to the mountains for 20 km. During the mid 19th-century Circassian tragedy, all native villages have been completely erased.

Zaurkhan Kheishkho with his dogs, village of Ashe.