Marie Bennigsen-Broxup (1944 – 7 December 2012) was an expert on the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

and

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

, with particular emphasis on

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

communities within these regions. She pioneered an area studies focus on the former Soviet south, founding new research publications dedicated to these regions, and later becoming active in advocacy for the post-Soviet Chechen leadership in the 1990s.

Biography

She was born in Paris in 1944, the daughter of the

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n émigré scholar of

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

Alexandre Bennigsen Alexandre Bennigsen () (20 March 1913 – 3 June 1988) was a scholar of Islam in the Soviet Union. Biography Count Bennigsen was born in an aristocratic family in St Petersburg in 1913. After the Bolshevik Revolution, his family left Russia ...

. Following her marriage in 1973 to Michael Broxup, she lived in Hong Kong and Moscow, where she worked for the ''Financial Times'', before returning to London in 1980. Bennigsen joined the Society for ''Central Asian Studies'' in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

in 1981 and founded the

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

-based

Central Asian Survey ''Central Asian Survey'' is an academic journal first published in 1982 concerning Caucasus and Central Asian studies. It is published by Taylor & Francis, and has four issues a year. According to the editorial staff, The editor is Rico Isaacs, t ...

quarterly soon afterwards. She also edited ''Central Asia and Caucasus Chronicle'' from 1981 to 1990, and served as a consultant on Caucasian affairs to the French ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs. In 1983 Bennigsen published ''The Islamic Threat to the Soviet State'', co-authored with her father. The Bennigsens' study hypothesised that unruly Muslim nationalities could come to constitute a major threat to the Soviet Union, a view achieving wide popularity among Sovietologists in the 1980s. It was in the North Caucasus, however, that this prediction would eventually ring truest, and in particular, in Chechnya. Bennigsen first travelled to Chechnya and neighbouring Dagestan in 1992, just after the Soviet collapse and as Chechnya was embarking on a path towards separation from Russia. She became a close associate of the Chechen leadership, engaging in international advocacy for their cause, as well as numerous charitable causes for relief to the population of

Chechnya Chechnya, officially the Chechen Republic, is a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federa ...

. In 1998–1999 Bennigsen conducted interviews with 20 Chechen field commanders and staff officers, including

Aslan Maskhadov Aslan (Khalid) Aliyevich Maskhadov (; ; 21 September 1951 – 8 March 2005) was a Soviet and Chechen politician and military commander who was the third president of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. He was credited by many with ...

, the mastermind of the Chechen victory over Russian forces in the

First Chechen war The First Chechen War, also referred to as the First Russo-Chechen War, was a struggle for independence waged by the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria against the invading Russia, Russian Federation from 1994 to 1996. After a mutually agreed on treaty ...

, later elected president of the republic in 1997 and assassinated by Russian special forces in 2005. Bennigsen was married to Michael Broxup and the couple had two sons. Marie Bennigsen died in Oxford in December 2012 after a short illness.

Main works

*''The Islamic Threat to the Soviet State'' (Croom Helm, London, 1983 coauthored with Alexandre Bennigsen) *''The North Caucasus Barrier. The Russian Advance towards the Muslim World'' (Hurst & Co, London, 1992)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennigsen-Broxup, Marie Central Asian studies scholars Caucasus 20th-century British historians British orientalists 1944 births 2012 deaths