Civilizational Approach in the Study of Russian – Caucasian Relations in the 18th–19th Centuries in the National Historiography

The article is devoted to the study of the features of the application of the civilizational approach in research on the history of relations between Russia and the peoples of the North Caucasus in the 18th–19th centuries. In particular, it analyzes the views and concepts of V.V. Chernous, V.V. Degoev, Ya.A. Gordin, A. Kappeller, V.V. Lapin, A.Kh. Borov and others, in which the Russian – mountain confrontation in the region during the Caucasian War is seen as a civilizational conflict between two different political, legal and sociocultural systems. The most authors defend the thesis
that the problem of armed confrontation in the region is exclusively a problem of dialogue and mutual understanding of cultures: Russian imperial and early feudal among the peoples of the North Caucasus. Among the factors that led to the Caucasian war, scientists also include differences in the military organization of the opposing subjects, a mismatch of mentalities, ideological contradictions, ethno-religious distance between the Russian population of the North Caucasus
and local peoples, etc. The author comes to the conclusion that the civilizational approach allows researchers to be as objective as possible and consider the process of Russian – Caucasian historical interaction in a multifactorial manner.