The Rhetoric and Practice of Loyalty in the Local Government of the Kabardians and Balkars in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Based on archival documents and materials of periodicals the socio-political events of local self-government of Kabardians and Balkars, connected with the representation of loyalty feelings, are considered. The author reveals essential features of those practices, their ritual, symbolic and verbal canon, main scenarios of which were formed since the second quarter of 19th Centuries. The author determines the importance of memorial aspects of loyalty practices, connected with commemorations of historical tradition of loyalty to the Russian throne since Ivan IV times. When regularly reproduced in various combinations, elements
of these practices in public events acted not only as a means of ethnic self-resentation and symbolization of gratitude, but also to draw the attention of the monarch's family to public needs, for the solution of which the social capital of the historical tradition of allegiance could be functional. It has been established that because of repeated use of the loyalty ceremonial a stable political and cultural canon was formed, which manifested itself not only in ritual veneration of the ruling dynasty, but also in fi xing social and political orientations of Kabardians and Balkars to unity with the Russian state.