The novel about women in Dagestan has been withdrawn from sale in Russia after complaints.

Natalia Yeletskaya's book "Salikhat," which tells about the situation of women in Dagestan, has been removed from the publisher's website and major book services. The author of the novel was accused of creating a "negative image" of the republic.

The novel "Salikhat" was published in 2021, and the book made it to the shortlist of the national award "Manuscript of the Year." It tells the story of a 16-year-old girl from a Dagestani village, whom her father forced into marriage with a widower: according to the annotation, in her new home, the heroine is forced to please not only her husband but also his relatives.

The book's page was removed from the websites of the AST publishing house, which released the novel, the "Chitai-Gorod" store, and the services "LitRes," "Yandex Books," "Stroki," and LiveLib. The novel is not available for sale on "Labirint" and Wildberries, while on Ozon, single copies of the book can be found from individual sellers at significantly inflated prices, noted "Verska".*

The publication notes that literary Telegram channels began writing about a possible ban on "Salikhat" as early as the end of October. The author of one blog, a bookseller, told the publication that she received a letter about the "necessity to cease sales" of the novel "in order to comply with the requirements of Russian legislation."

In the spring, the head of the Dagestan branch of the Union of Russian Writers, Miyasat Muslimova, complained about Yeletskaya's novel. In April 2026, she recorded a video appeal to the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor General's Office, seeing incitement of hatred in the book.

According to Muslimova, Dagestan is depicted in the novel as a place where there are no laws, people constantly kill each other, and women are beaten in families. "The horrors are intensified as if intentionally to provoke hatred and dislike towards the people living in this republic [...] When all the characters are more monstrous than the other, all criminals, and this turns out to be a national trait [of Dagestan] – this is unacceptable. This is a conscious incitement of enmity between peoples," she stated.

Muslimova's video on Instagram** has 3,500 comments, many of which were supportive. In May, she reported that the Investigative Committee promised to consider her statement.

"I personally have not read this work, but what you listed does exist in Dagestan, unfortunately," wrote user videolist_05 under Muslimova's video.

"There are individual cases of domestic violence, but even more terrible violence with dismemberment and cannibalism, incest, and alcoholism exists among Russians. But no one generalizes individual monstrosities for the entire nation, especially since these are even more monstrous crimes in their perversion. We have an enlightened, noble, kind people with wonderful family relationships," replied miyasat.muslimova.

"Caucasian Knot" has repeatedly reported cases of women being murdered in Dagestan by husbands or former partners. For instance, on October 14 of this year, the Kizlyar District Court sentenced a mullah to nine years in prison for the murder of a woman with whom he was in a Muslim marriage. According to the investigation, the man strangled her during a conflict over jealousy and buried her body in the Tarumovsky district. The deceased was the mother of four children.

Late in the evening on September 8, a 45-year-old woman and her 23-year-old daughter were shot dead in a cafe in Khasavyurt. The former husband of the older of the deceased was detained on suspicion of double murder. According to a colleague of the woman, he had been stalking her after the divorce and demanded that she and her daughter quit their jobs at the cafe, considering such work a disgrace to the family. The younger of the deceased left behind three children.

* included in the Russian register of foreign agents.

** the activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) are banned in Russia.