Dagestani journalists emphasized the importance of Kazenin's research

Scientist Konstantin Kazenin has died at the age of 54. His research demonstrated a profound understanding of the processes unfolding in the North Caucasus. Kazenin loved and knew Dagestan better than many of the republic's residents, according to Dagestani journalists.

Konstantin Kazenin died at the age of 54, reported his co-author Irina Starodubrovskaya. "Talented, successful. He recently defended his PhD in Stockholm. Just the night before last, we were discussing his future plans. And now he's gone. It's unbearable," she wrote on her Facebook page*.

Konstantin Kazenin is a researcher of Dagestan. A man who loved Dagestan and knew Dagestan better than many Dagestanis.

"Kazenin was one of the best experts on the Caucasus—objective and meticulous. And he was a highly respectable and well-mannered person," wrote journalist Khadzhimurad Sagitov on his Telegram channel.

"Konstantin Kazenin is a researcher of Dagestan. A man who loved Dagestan and knew Dagestan better than many Dagestanis. "A researcher with a good command of the Lak language, who studied many of the republic's pressing land issues, and who contributed greatly to the formation of dialogue platforms in Dagestan," Chernovik emphasized. "In Dagestan, he will always be remembered as a fair professional who wished prosperity, harmony, and peace for our republic and the entire country," Novoye Delo writes today. Kazenin worked extensively in the fields, conducting in-depth research. His most recent book is about the life of rural communities in the North Caucasus ("Between Tradition and Modernity: The Life of North Caucasian Rural Communities in the Post-Soviet Era" - Caucasian Knot note). The research on Sogratl, Gubden, Andi, and others is very in-depth and yields interesting conclusions. I remember him and I discussing the remarkable history of the Lvov settlements in the Babayurt district. Living in Dagestan, I had no idea about their history. "Konstantin examined the issue of transhumance lands in great detail, providing scientific analysis and forecasts," noted journalist Ramazan Radzhabov.

Kazenin pointed out the differences between Dagestan and Chechnya and the other republics of the North Caucasus Federal District.

"Caucasian Knot" wrote that at the presentation of the report "The North Caucasus and the Modern Model of Democratic Development," prepared in 2016 jointly by scientists Konstantin Kazenin and Irina Starodubrovskaya, Kazenin noted that the North Caucasus is undergoing accelerated modernization. "In Chechnya and Dagestan, the old order is crumbling before our eyes," he said.

The clan system continues to operate in politics in the North Caucasus, said Konstantin at the presentation of the report. Kazenin.

"This system is based not on nationality or clan, but on loyalty to the clan leader," he noted. Clans have a rigid hierarchical organization, including the leader, his "inner circle," and officials, law enforcement officers, and entrepreneurs controlled by members of this circle. The main factor determining one's position in this hierarchy is personal ties with those who already hold high positions. The emergence of new clan structures is blocked by existing clans, who do not want to have competitors.

According to Kazenin, the situation with clans in Dagestan is particularly acute. The rivalry between clans in the republic occurs within the framework of a "democracy for the elite" – those outside these clans effectively have no access to social mobility, he noted then. Scientist.

At the same time, he noted that there is no need to fear unpredictable consequences from a change in power. "It is believed that any attempts to change the governing stratum in the North Caucasus, to somehow promote rotation or renewal there, are dangerous, because the current elites are structured according to principles that are completely incomprehensible to outsiders, and if you interfere with this system even slightly, the consequences could be completely unpredictable," he explained.

According to him, the governing system is not completely immutable. "In the post-Soviet era, the elite of many republics changed significantly. In post-war Chechnya, it was created from scratch," he pointed out.

The report was published based on field research conducted by the authors in five republics of the North Caucasus Federal District: Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Karachay-Cherkessia.