Caucasus Visuals

We’ve got a new name. Pan Caucasus is now Caucasus Visuals. Nothing is changing about the content you came here for. We’ll keep exploring the Caucasus through history, art, photography, architecture, and visual storytelling. Same page. Same focus. New identity. Thank you for following along.

Georgian wrestlers. Mtskheta, Tiflis Governorate, 1887.

Residents of Baku welcoming the leader of the USSR, Leonid Brezhnev. Azerbaijani SSR, 1982. Photo: Behruz Huseynzade

Sunflower bloom, Stavropol Krai. artemmeletov / IG

Portrait of a young Agul girl, Dagestan. The Aguls are one of the Dagestani peoples, closely related to the Lezgins. They live in the central part of southeastern Dagestan.

Os-Bagatar I, a medieval ruler of Alania and a 9th-century military commander whose figure lies at the intersection of real history and Caucasian epic. He lived and ruled during the birth of a unified Alanian Christian state. Os-Bagatar I is considered the founding ancestor of numerous Ossetian families. The name "Os-Bagatar" (Ossetian: Ос-Бæгъатыр) translates as "Ossetian warrior/hero." The word "Bagatar" originates from the Turkic baghatur ("brave warrior", "hero"), which the Alans adopted from the Huns in the 4th century. According to the Arabic geographer Ahmad ibn Rustah, this term was used as a title for the kings of Alania, highlighting their origin from the military-aristocratic elite, and later became established as a personal name. According to historical chronicles, Os-Bagatar I died in 888 in the Battle of Aspindza (the territory of modern Georgia).

"Don't abuse cosmetics!" A Soviet poster in Georgian and Russian. Georgian SSR, 1978.

Abaza Muhajirs (settlers) in the village of Loukyt (now Osmaniye, Turkey). Ottoman Empire, 1890s. Photo: Hakob Khararyan

Armenia, USSR. Summer 1982.

A medieval crypt in the historical region of Malkhista. Chechnya, 1980s.

Portrait of the Ingush Aminat Tutaeva. Nasyr-Kort village, 1930s. Her father, Idris Tutaev, a former officer of the Russian Imperial Army, was executed during the Stalinist repressions in 1938. Her sister, Asiyat, a Major in the Medical Corps of the Red Army, died in German captivity in 1944.

A Karachay men's tombstone. Arkhyz village. Karachay Autonomy, 1935. Photo: Erna Siebert (1908-1981)

Khalisat Magomedova, a performer of Lak folk dances. Vachi village. Dagestan ASSR, 1968.

Circassians from Gelendzhik, 1845. Artist: Grigory Gagarin (1810-1893) / Scènes, paysages, moeurs et costumes du Caucase dessinés d'après nature par le prince G. Gagarine. Paris, 1845.

Portrait of the Ossetian Milena Dzboeva, Upper Zgid village, North Ossetia. Photo: Alan Tsagaraev

Makhmud Matsiev, a Chechen public and state figure, and a representative of the Matsiev merchant family from the village of Shali in Chechnya. During the revolutionary events in Russia, Matsiev became one of the founders and leaders of the Chechen Youth Union "Niyson Nakost" ("Comrade of Justice"). During the Civil War, he fought against the White Guards in the ranks of the Chechen Red Army. Following the establishment of Soviet power, Matsiev held various leadership positions in government. He was repressed in 1932 as part of the so-called "Chechen Nationalist Center" case. The "Chechen Nationalist Center" case was a large-scale, OGPU-fabricated case spanning 1932-1934, which served as a pretext for mass Stalinist repressions in the Chechen Autonomous Oblast. Around 3,000 people were arrested in connection with this case. The crackdown targeted members of the Chechen Intellectuals, clergy, and former participants in peasant uprisings.

Khevsurs from the village of Juta. Georgia, early 20th century

Soviet mosaics on apartment buildings in Vladikavkaz. North Ossetia, early 1980s. Photo: Roman Boyko