The author of this monograph, Ramazan Traho, was born in the North Caucasus. He graduated from the Faculty of Languages and Literature of Moscow University in 1934. Until World War II he worked in academic institutions in Moscow and in the Caucasus. In emigration he was a regular contributor to the Caucasian Review published in Munich. He died in 1964. This monograph was translated from Russian by Mr G. Guirey who kindly allowed us to publish it in this special North Caucasian issue. Ramazan Traho expressed the wish to offer his sincere thanks to Aytek Namitok, who died in 1962, for his valuable indications and remarks on this work and for supplying excerpts from his own manuscript materials on this history of the North Caucasus. In addition to the pages we publish here, the original manuscript contains seperate chapters on the geography and economy of the Kabardian and Adyghe-Cherkess territories in the USSR, on language, literature and folklore, on the Circassian diaspora in Turkey and the Middle East, as well as a bibliography and many valuable historical notes and comments by G. Guirey. Students of the North Caucasus can consult this manuscript at the Society for Central Asian Studies. We have tried to make as few editorial amendmends as possible in order not to distort the value of this document which provides a rare insight by a Cherkess historian into the past of his people.