The amazing story of Gyulboor Davidova. (1892 - 1983) and winegrowing in Dagestan

Gyulboor Davidova

With the attacks on churches and a synagogue in Derbent, Dagestan we took a look at this place and were amazed to find the following story told of one of its citizens in the last century,

With thanks to Wikipedia;

Gyulboor Davidova was born on March 8th 1892, in the Mountain Jewish village of Khoshmenzil, Dagestan Oblast, Russian Empire, in a peasant family. Since childhood, she worked in the fields and helped her parents. After the death of her husband, she was left with two little children.

In 1928, when the collective farm “New Life” was formed in the village, Gyulboor Davydova was not accepted into it, believing that women could not work on an equal basis with men. Then she gathered 14 widowed farmworkers and organized a women's collective farm, to which women named it “Red Farmwoman”, and Gyulboor Davydova was elected chairwoman. The women's collective farm completed the spring sowing, prepared the ground for melon crops, and their yield turned out to be higher than in the men's agricultural farm. Subsequently, both of these collective farms merged into one large farm.

Two of Davydova's sons, David and Ruvin, died in the Great Patriotic War.

On July 27, 1949, for obtaining high grape yields in 1948, the title of Hero of Socialist Labor was awarded to her by the decree of Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the highest body of state authority in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Gyulboor Davydova was only Mountain Jewish woman who was awarded such a high award.

Gyulboor Davydova was repeatedly elected as a deputy of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, as well as a deputy of the local Council of People's Deputies.

Davydova died on April 9, 1983, and was buried at the Jewish cemetery in Derbent.

Wines in Dagestan today

From the website of  the Derbent Wine company;

Derbent is the oldest city in Russia.

and

The terroir of the Derbent region is ideal for growing quality grapes. The peculiarities of our landscape, soil and climate have created a powerful potential for growing grape varieties unique in their taste: both classic Chardonnay, Sauvignon, Riesling, and unique autochthons - Gulabi, Dokur, Djunga, Latsuchere, Narma, Girma, which we plan to revive.

Already some of their wines are made from obscure grape varieties including

Agustine (a table grape), Bianca, Citron Magaracha, Firstborn of Magarach, Moldova, Pervenets and Perborn.

Interesting that Derbent is in South Caucusus and is on the Caspian Sea whereas what we know of Russian wine is mainly from the Black Sea and North Caucasus.

When the terrible war in Ukraine is finally over and Russia is no longer a pariah state, it would be very interesting to research the wines of South Caucasus. They have been going for thousands of years so will outlive the present situation.