“Evangelization of the peoples of Dagestan” through the prism of the socio-economic and socio-political situation of the Republic of Dagestan (1990-1999)

The aim of the article is to show the intensity of the development of the religious component of the Dagestan society by example of evangelical missions of Western preachers against the backdrop of the analysis of the socio-economic and socio-political development of the republic in the first post-perestroika decade. The authors proposed the following objectives to reach the aim: to determine the changes in the legislative basis of the post-perestroika time which served to promote the democratization of all spheres of society, including religious; to analyze the processes that took place in the socio-economic and socio-political life of the republic which caused a complex psychological resonance in the society and created a favorable ground for the “Evangelization” of the Dagestan peoples. The methodological basis includes the principles of an interdisciplinary historical sociological research approach, the systematization and comparative analysis of information, historical impartiality. Documents from the Central State Archive of the Republic of Dagestan, field material collected during personal visits to the religious communities examined in the study, as well as a sociological survey among the population of the republic carried out within the RFBR research project by a group of scholars including the authors of this publication, were used as materials for the study. The authors came to the following conclusions in the course of research. One of the most striking manifestations of the religious component of the country, including Dagestan, after the collapse of the Soviet Union against the backdrop of the socio-economic and political depression that developed in the country was the active growth and activities of Protestant organizations, including the emergence of new charismatic non-traditional churches. The activities of Protestants in the national republics, in particular Dagestan, became a very difficult psychological factor for Dagestan, mainly Muslim, society. Migration processes associated with the outflow of the Russian population from the republic had a negative impact on the ethnic component of the new communities in the republic. This is shown by a retrospective survey among the residents of the republic, which confirms that among the changes that took place in the republic in the considered period the “moral component of society” (55.2%), the “state of the economy as a whole” (49.8%), the “living standard” (51.8%) were worsening. The crisis in society provoked the “influx” of Western missionaries with the purpose of creating sustainable communities here. Visits of the missionaries were manifested in various forms. On the one hand, “exchange activities” (visiting the leaders of their brothers and sisters in other countries) from the local Protestant communities were organized. However, there were also missionaries who, having arrived in the mountainous areas and settled with their families in the mountains of Dagestan, “unobtrusively”, relying on the Bible postulates of faith “in love that comes from God and rules the world, and God commanded compassion for those in need”, tried to “build international bridges of friendship”.

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