My Motherland! My Dagestan.

A land of mountains and a mountain of languages!

The land of heroic spirit, poets and the land of folk artistic craft

The land of strict traditions, legends and customs.

Indeed, the very name of Dagestan means the land of mountains and it is a home for such variety of nationalities that there are several languages spoken just by inhabitants of one village.

The national folklore of Dagestan is rich in epic and lyric songs depicting the courage of its inhabitants against invaders. Here I’d like to recall the Lak epic song “Partu Patima” telling about valor of Dagestanians in the struggle against the Mongol-Tatar invaders.

One cannot imagine the poetry of Russia of the 20-th century without the names of such poets as Rasul Gamsatov and Sulieman Stalsky.

Dagestan is known as an area of folk arts. Here special mention should be made of Tabasaranian rugs, Kubachi jewelry masterpieces and Balkhar pottery.

Despite of globalizations penetrated the uttermost ends of the Earth the Dagestanians strictly keep up their traditions called ‘adats’, pass legends through generations and rigorously observe customs.

If in many countries in the word urbanization is in progress here in Dagestan the people, leaving in high mountain areas actively reconstruct their old houses or build new, more beautiful and comfortable, ones.

Really Dagestan is a lovely place.

I’d like to conclude my composition by paraphrasing the words of the great poet of another mountain land, Scotland, Robert Burns:

Wherever I wander, wherever I rove

The hills of Dagestan for ever I love