Bezhta people
ethnic group
The Bezhta (also Kapuchi) are an Andi–Dido people living in the Tsuntinsky region in southwestern Dagestan. In the 1930s along with the rest of the Andi-Dido peoples they were classified as Avars. However, some people identified themselves as Bezhta in the 2002 census of Russia. They speak the Bezhta language, but many of them also speak Avar, Russian or other Tsezic languages of their region. They numbered 1,448 in 1926. According to the Russian census in 2002, there were 6184 self-identified "Bezhtins", though the real number is probably higher.
History
The territory of the Bezhtas was nominally part of the Avar Khanate. In 1806, the Bezhtas were incorporated into the Russian empire. Tight colonial control of the region was enforced during the 1860s and 1870s. During Soviet rule, the Bezhtas witnessed collectivization, urbanization, education mainly taught in the Russian language, and a erosion of Islam and traditional Bezhta culture.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bezhta people” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.