The history of the Jews in the Soviet Union is inextricably linked to much earlier expansionist policies of the Russian Empire conquering and ruling the eastern half of the European continent already before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. "For two centuries – wrote Zvi Gitelman – millions of Jews had lived under one entity, the Russian Empire and [its successor state] the USSR. They had now come under the jurisdiction of fifteen states, some of which had never existed and others that had passed out of existence in 1939." Before the revolutions of 1989 which resulted in the end of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe, a number of these now sovereign countries constituted the component republics of the Soviet Union.
Mountain Jews are the Mizrahi Jewish subgroup of the eastern and northern Caucasus, mainly Azerbaijan, and various republics in the Russian Federation: Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Karachay-Cherkessia, and Kabardino-Balkaria, and are a branch of Persian Jewry. Mountain Jews took shape as a community after Qajar Iran ceded the areas in which they lived to the Russian Empire as part of the Treaty of Gulistan of 1813.
Judeo-Tat or Juhuri is a Judeo-Persian dialect and the traditional language spoken by the Mountain Jews in the eastern Caucasus Mountains, especially Azerbaijan, parts of Russia and today in Israel. It belongs to the southwestern group of the Iranian division of the Indo-European languages, albeit with heavy influence from Hebrew. The words Juvuri and Juvuro translate as "Jewish" and "Jews".
The history of the Jews in Azerbaijan dates back many centuries. Today, Jews in Azerbaijan mainly consist of three distinct groups: Mountain Jews, the most sizable and most ancient group; Ashkenazi Jews, who settled in the area during the late 19th-early 20th centuries, and during World War II; and Georgian Jews who settled mainly in Baku during the early part of the 20th century.
Qırmızı Qəsəbə is a village and municipality in the Quba District of Azerbaijan. As of 2010, it had a population of 3,598, mostly Jews. It is widely believed to be the world's only population centre exclusively made up of Jewish people outside of Israel and the United States, and is likewise considered to be the last surviving shtetl.
Nyugdi is a rural locality in Derbentsky District of the Republic of Dagestan, Russia.
Zoya Yunoevna Semenduyeva was a Soviet and Israeli poet. She wrote in a language of the Mountain Jew (Juhuri). She was a member of Dagestan Writers' Union.
Judeo-Tat literature is the literature of the Mountain Jews in the Juhuri language.
Mikhail Gavrilov was a Soviet writer and poet of Mountain Jew descent. He wrote in Judeo-Tat and Russian. Mikhail Gavrilov held the title of Honored Worker of Culture of Dagestan.
The Judeo-Tat Theatre in Derbent, Dagestan, Russia specializes in staging plays with themes related to the lives of Mountain Jews, which are created mainly by Mountain Jews. The plays are performed in the Judeo-Tat language (Juhuri).
Khanzhalkala (Khanzhal-Kala), also known as Khanjal-Kala is an abandoned Lezgin aul in the Magaramkentsky District of Dagestan. The name comes from Judeo-Tat and means "fortress of the dagger". It was protected not only by the steep slopes of the mountain on which it was located, but also by its fortress walls. It was abolished in 1968.
The Derbent Synagogue, also known as Kele-Numaz was a former Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 94 Tagi-Zade Street, in the city of Derbent in the Republic of Dagestan, in the North Caucasus of Russia.
The Jewish community in Derbent, in the Russian Republic of Dagestan, is the oldest in the North Caucasus and dates back to the 7th century. A large influx of Jewish immigrants occurred during the Russian Civil War (1917-1923). Most Derbent Jews immigrated from the mountain and steppe villages of the northern Caucasus.
Judaism in Dagestan is mainly practiced by Mountain Jews. By the beginning of the 8th century BCE Mountain Jews had reached Persia from Israel. Under the Sasanian Empire, with the arrival in Dagestan of Iranian-speaking tribes from the north, they settled in different regions of the Caucasus.
The Jewish community in Makhachkala are Jews who have ever lived on the territory of modern Makhachkala, a city in the Russian Republic of Dagestan. During the Persian campaign in 1722 in Makhachkala was a camp for the troops of the Russian Emperor Peter I. Mountain Jews and Ashkenazi Jews were allowed to settle there.
The Tat alphabet is used for writing in the Tat language, which has two main dialects - the northern one, spoken by Mountain Jews, and the southern one, spoken by the Tats. During its existence, the Tat writing functioned primarily in the northern dialect and at the same time changed its graphic basis several times and was reformed several times. Currently, the writing of the Mountain Jews is in Cyrillic alphabets, and the writing of the Muslim Tats is in the Latin alphabet. There are four stages in the history of Tat writing:
The Jewish community in Buynaksk, in the Republic of Dagestan, is one of the oldest in the North Caucasus. After Dagestan was annexed to Russian Empire, many fortresses were built, around which cities later grew. One of them was Temir-Khan-Shurá, which was renamed Buynaksk in 1922. In 1850, in addition to military personnel, Russians and Armenians traders and several families of Mountain Jews artisans already lived here. Until the February Revolution of 1917, Mountain Jews and Ashkenazi Jews together constituted most of the city's population. Under the Soviet Union and in post-Soviet Russia, the Jewish community in Buynaksk primarily consists of Mountain Jews.
Buynaksk Synagogue was a former Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 44 Korkmasov Street, in the city of Buynaksk in the Republic of Dagestan, in the North Caucasus of Russia. The building is from the 19th century and is a historical relic of the Jews of the Caucasus that was built in 1862. It served the Jews for over a century. This is the only synagogue that has survived from the four that were in the city at the beginning of the 20th century. Nowadays, the synagogue is closed and has ceased to perform its functions.
Makhachkala Synagogue is the Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at Ermoshkina Street, Building 111, in the city of Makhachkala in the Republic of Dagestan, in the North Caucasus of Russia.
The Jewish community in Grozny, located in a former quarter in the central part of the city of Grozny, in the Russian Chechen Republic.
