The history of multiethnic Karachay-Circassia, and particularly Karachay and Circassian political elites, as well as their role in the creation of the state and the nation, includes many terrae incognitae. The present state of research does not help the attempts of reconstruction of it, while it is deeply entangled into historical policy, actively used in the game of power and the future of the republic. This politics oscillates between facts and falsification or manipulation. With this in mind, the author made an attempt to reconstruct the events from the records of history of Karachays and Circassians that directly or indirectly influence contemporary problems of political system of Karachay-Circassia and its political elites. The study shows that the main causes of the current constitutional and political problems of the republic have their roots not in the recent decades, but deeply in history and, above all, the period of Russian conquest and the mistakes of Soviet policy associated with the decomposition of the natural processes of nation-building and state-building and the creation of the artificial two-subject autonomous area. Due to the new conditions and circumstances they manifest themselves in various mutated and often more dangerous forms.