摘要：The article raises the question of entering the Caucasus into the composition of the Russian Empire and multiple problems and tasks, requiring the solution in the late 19th century. Of interest were the data of how the self-administration of the different population categories in the second half of the 19th century was realized, when the question came up of the highland nobility rights equialization with the rights of the Russian noblemen, for what the considerable part of the highland aristocracy stroke vigorously. The description of class gradation of the highland societies, such as Kabardinian, Adygei, Ossetian is given. Caucasian noblemen were nothing more than the petty liegemen of the princes. By the end of the 19th century the class division preserved its value only in everyday life: each family name bore the stamp of its origin.
