Eldarkhanov, Tashtemir Elzhurkayevich

Chechen literature expert, enlightener, public figure, party activist, and statesman. Deputy of the First and Second State Dumas (1906-1907).

Born on April 1, 1870, in the village of Gekhi, Chechnya, in a family of a middle-class peasant. Graduated from a Russian school in Grozny, Handicraft College in Vladikavkaz, and Tiflis Pedagogical Institute. During his Institute studies, T. Eldarkhanov's views were influenced by the contacts with progressive Georgian and Russian pedagogues. During his student years, T. Eldarkhanov started collecting in the archives of Tiflis and Vladikavkaz the samples of the oral folkloric works of his people and published several Chechen legends in Russian in the Collection of Materials Describing Localities and Tribes of the Caucasus in 1900. In 1890s, T. Eldarkhanov worked as a teacher in Maykop and Grozny. In 1911, the first Chechen ABC book prepared by him was published in Tiflis.

T. Eldarkhanov's enthusiastic education activities brought him wide fame in the North Caucasus. In 1906, he was elected a deputy of the First State Duma of Russia. T. Eldarkhanov's speeches dismantling the czarism's policies in the Caucasus caused the awakening of the highlander people's self-determination.

After the dissolution of the Second State Duma, T. Eldarkhanov returned to Grozny, but the authorities prohibited him from teaching in the schools of Terek Region. He left for Baku, where he worked in the field of education until the February Revolution of 1917.

After the end of the Civil War in the North Caucasus, T. Eldarkhanov was elected the chairman of the Revolutionary Committee of Chechnya, then the chairman of Chechen Regional Executive Committee. He also worked as a chairman of the National Council in the Regional Executive Committee in Rostov-on-Don. In 1929, returned to Chechnya where occupied a top position in Grozneft oil company.

Tashtemir Elzhurkayevich Eldarkhanov died in 1934.