Lukman Kodzokov

(after baptism, Dmitrii Stepanovich Kodzokov). Born 1818 in the village of Abukovo, now the village of Pervomaiskoe, Stavropol’ Krai; died 1893. Kabardinian public figure and thinker in the 1860’s and 1870’s. From the dvorianstvo (nobility or gentry).

Kodzokov graduated from the philosophy department of Moscow University in 1838. His world view formed under the influence of Russian progressives. In 1840 he met M. Iu. Lermontov. In his articles, memoirs, letters, and notes, Kodzokov touched on many aspects of the economic and cultural development of the peoples of the Northern Caucasus. He pointed to the class inequalities and criticized the ruling elite as well as the colonial policy of the tsarist government in the Caucasus. Kodzokov called for closer relations between the Russian nation and the Caucasian peoples. From 1863 to 1869 he presided over the Terek-Kuban’ class-land commission and from late 1869 to 1888 he chaired the commission studying the social class (soslovis) privileges of the mountain peoples of the Kuban’ and Terek regions.