Rakityanskiy N.M., Zinchenko M.S. Mental and Political Expansion of Islamism in the Northern Caucasus

Abstract: In this article, we offer a political and psychological analysis of reislamization, in the context of mental transformation of the Northern Caucasus. Enhancement of Islam on the south of Russia is explained by a multitude of historic, religious, global and domestic aspects, which have controversial influence on the state of North Caucasian society. The authors point out that one of the key mental and political factors of the political expansion of Islam in its radical forms is the Stavropol region, which is not only a cultural, but also an education and economic center of the Russian North Caucasus, as well as a nexus of intensive communication processes, especially in the polymental environment of youth, which is susceptible to radical Islamic ideologies. The methodology of this research is a systemic, structural and functional, comparative and historical, comparative and political, geopolitical and cultural-civilizational approaches, as well as methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, modeling and observation. The authors reach a conclusion that the global operators of political Islam are realizing a strategy of reformatting of self-identification views and settings of North Caucasian citizens. The goal of this plot is the destruction of a historically established polymentality of this region, and the forming of a basis for a religious dogma-based totalitarian monomentality, which is a part of the «new Islam» project for separating North Caucasus from Russia.

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