Abdul "Tapa" Midgit Bey Ortsa Tchermoeff (1882 – August 28, 1937) was the first and last
Prime MinisterA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
of the
Mountainous Republic of the Northern CaucasusThe Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus was a short-lived state situated in the Northern Caucasus...
. He was in office from May 11, 1918 until the entire government was forced into exile by the advancing Bolsheviks in 1921. His official title was
General Tchermoeff, Prime Minister of the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus.
Born in
GroznyGrozny is the capital city of the Chechen Republic in Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the 2002 All-Russia population census, the city had a population of 210,720 people and in 2008 the city had a population of 230,100 people.-Name:In Russian "Grozny" means "fearsome",...
,
ChechnyaThe Chechen Republic , or, informally, Chechnya , sometimes referred to as Ichkeria, Chechnia, Chechenia or Noxçiyn, is a federal subject of Russia...
, in 1882, Tapa was the eldest son of the well-known General Ortsou Tchermoeff.
Abdul "Tapa" Midgit Bey Ortsa Tchermoeff (1882 – August 28, 1937) was the first and last
Prime MinisterA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
of the
Mountainous Republic of the Northern CaucasusThe Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus was a short-lived state situated in the Northern Caucasus...
. He was in office from May 11, 1918 until the entire government was forced into exile by the advancing Bolsheviks in 1921. His official title was
General Tchermoeff, Prime Minister of the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus.
Early life
Born in
GroznyGrozny is the capital city of the Chechen Republic in Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the 2002 All-Russia population census, the city had a population of 210,720 people and in 2008 the city had a population of 230,100 people.-Name:In Russian "Grozny" means "fearsome",...
,
ChechnyaThe Chechen Republic , or, informally, Chechnya , sometimes referred to as Ichkeria, Chechnia, Chechenia or Noxçiyn, is a federal subject of Russia...
, in 1882, Tapa was the eldest son of the well-known General Ortsou Tchermoeff. He was educated at the
VladikavkazVladikavkaz is the capital city of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Russia. It is situated in the south-east of the republic at the foothills of the Caucasus mountains, situated on the Terek River. Its population mostly consists of Ossetians, Russians, Armenians and Georgians...
secondary schoolSecondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of compulsory schooling, known as secondary education, takes place. It follows on from elementary or primary education....
and at the Nicolayevsky Cavalry College in St. Petersburg. He graduated in 1901 and joined an elite military unit, His Majesty Tsar
Nicholas IINicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, and claimed the title of King of Poland...
's Own Life Guard Convoy.
Tapa Tchermoeff married
PrincessPrincess, is the feminine form of prince . Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or his daughters....
Hava Hannum Hibrahimbekova of Persia in 1906. Although still a young man he was obliged to leave the army in 1908 when his father died. During this time he threw himself into economic and industrial activities. His family owned important parcels of oil-bearing land in the Grozny area. Tapa automatically became one of the most active and energetic pioneers of the Grozny oil industry.
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
interrupted Tapa's economic activity. He joined the famous native
Savage DivisionThe Savage Division or Wild Division was a cavalry division of the Imperial Russian Army composed of volunteers from Chechnia, Ingushetia, Daghestan, Karachay, Circassia, Kabarda and Azerbaijan...
of the
Imperial Russian ArmyThe Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917.-Precursors: Regiments of the New Order:...
with the rank of Captain. In the war he proved himself a brilliant military leader and a fearless soldier. After the
October RevolutionTheOctober Revolution , also known as the Soviet Revolution or Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution. It began with an armed insurrection in Petrograd traditionally dated to 25 October 1917 Julian calendar...
Tapa returned to his native land intent to stem the rise of Bolshevism in
ChechnyaThe Chechen Republic , or, informally, Chechnya , sometimes referred to as Ichkeria, Chechnia, Chechenia or Noxçiyn, is a federal subject of Russia...
.
The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus
Tapa believed the unifying of all Caucasian highlanders to be the only way of saving the Northern Caucasus from the Bolsheviks. On his initiative and thanks to his unrelenting energy a convention of Caucasian highlanders took place on March, 1917. This meeting resolved to form an independent highland state. On 11 May, 1918 The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus was officially established. Tapa was first the
prime ministerA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
and then the minister for foreign affairs.
Early in March 1919, Tapa headed a delegation to
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in an attempt to take part in the
Treaty of VersaillesThe Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
. The object of the delegation was to secure the recognition of the independence of the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus. A year later the
North CaucasusThe North Caucasus is the northern part of the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas and within European Russia. The term is also used as a synonym for the North Caucasus economic region of Russia....
were in the hands of the Bolsheviks and in January 1921 the
Soviet Mountain RepublicMountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic or Mountain ASSR was a short-lived autonomous republic within the Russian SFSR in the Northern Caucasus that existed from January 20, 1921 to July 7, 1924....
of the
Russian SFSRThe Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , also called the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the Russian SFSR and the RSFSR for short, was the largest and most populous of the fifteen Soviet republics of the Soviet Union and became the Russian...
was established.
External links