Gunib ( av, Гъуниб), also spelled Ghunib,
[e.g., ]Francis Galton
Sir Francis Galton, FRS FRAI (; 16 February 1822 – 17 January 1911), was an English Victorian era polymath: a statistician, sociologist, psychologist, anthropologist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto- ...
, ''Vacation Tourists and Notes of Travel in 1860 861, 1862-3', Vol. 3, p. 81; Moshe Gammer, ''Muslim Resistance to the Tsar: Shamil and the Conquest of Chechnia and Daghestan'' (Taylor & Francis, 2003; ), p. 277. is a
rural locality (a ''
selo'') and the
administrative center of
Ghunib District of the
Republic of Daghestan
Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North Ca ...
. Population: After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the population of Gunib went into decline. Only in 2014 did it reach its Soviet-era population again.
History
Ghunib was historically important as a natural fortress during the
Caucasian War of the 19th century.
Imam Shamil, leader of the
Chechen and Daghestani tribes, made his last stand against the
Russians at Ghunib, where he gave himself up to the Russian commander, Prince
Alexander Baryatinsky, on 25 August 1859. The name is derived from the
Avar word ''Guni-meer'' which translates to ''heap of stones''.
Olga Forsh was born in Ghunib in 1873.
In 1895, the town housed the barracks of the Samur regiment and the Terek-Dagestan fortress artillery, and grew into a self-sufficient entity with merchants, conscripts, an Orthodox church, and a post office. During the
Russian Empire, the settlement was the administrative capital of the
Gunibsky Okrug.
References
{{Authority control
Rural localities in Gunibsky District