This article is part of an extensive RuNet Echo study of the North Caucasus blogosphere. Explore the complete report and personal stories on The Caucasus Network page. The following observations reflect my study of the top 15% most commented-on blogs authored by people in the Russian North Caucasus and hosted on LiveJournal, in addition to another twelve such blogs based on the non-LJ networks Facebook, PublicPost (now defunct), and The Caucasian Knot. Within the sample described above, the activity of bloggers falls largely into the following six categories: Bloggers in the North Caucasus first prefer to write about their personal life experiences, with the exception of individuals in Dagestan, where reactions to news events populate the biggest category of blogger activity. The type of person performing this kind of blogging is usually over thirty, and just as likely to be male as female. Much of the personalized writing style resembles an extended “status update” common to online social networks like Facebook. Bloggers who write predominantly about their private lives often describe firsthand experiences in their local communities, leaving behind intricate records of local activities. While bloggers who keep records of their daily lives also tend to engage with cultural issues, it is commentary on current events that is the second most common type of writing in the North Caucasus’ blogosphere. Those writing about culture are primarily women between the ages of 25 and 35. Favorite topics within this cluster include cinema, literature, and arts and crafts, among others. (LiveJournal user Vergova, for instance, is a twenty-something Dagestani female who writes about illustration and web design.) People writing about culture are also the most geographically diverse. *** Bloggers writing about current events are more likely to be men over thirty, though Dagestan is again the exception, where “news bloggers” are equally divided between men and women. People writing about current events usually cite articles that appear on newswire websites like Interkavkaz and The Caucasian Knot, or more specialized local sites like Akhavat: A Women’s Site About Islam and Spravedlivaia Rossiia newspaper. The content usually deals with the region’s current events. Among this group’s writing, it is often unclear whether a particular blogger has witnessed news events firsthand or merely learned about them online or through mass media. *** Legal professionals and career human rights activists dominate the political opposition cluster of the North Caucasus’ blogosphere. (Indeed, active blogging has become something of a job requirement for such individuals.) This professional/netizen overlap is unique to oppositionist bloggers. In contrast, people writing about cultural events (for example, reviewing films or books) only rarely make a living in the same field. One form of political opposition that is notably subdued on blogs based in the North Caucasus is any direct mockery of state and religious officials (such as political cartoons or other kinds of satire). In more open societies, human rights organizations institute formal public relations campaigns to advance their goals and sustain their place in the public eye, whereas this task falls almost exclusively to individual blogger-activists in the North Caucasus. Oppositionist bloggers tend to cite their materials rigorously, often identifying mistakes and potential fabrications in mass media reporting. Additionally, these bloggers typically refer to their own professional experiences in legal and human rights matters to inform their criticisms of traditional journalism about the North Caucasus. Men roughly forty-years-old dominate the oppositionist section of the North Caucasus’ blogosphere, though there are notable exceptions, like Zulikhan Magomadova, a middle-aged female blogger living somewhere near Chechnya. Magomadova cross-posts her Twitter updates to Facebook, often generating large discussion threads on matters concerning regional politics. Oppositionist blogging is the fifth largest node of the North Caucasus’ blogosphere, trailing (in order of popularity) bloggers who focus on (1) personal experiences, (2) current events, (3) culture, and (4) instrumental issues. The smallest group of bloggers in the region’s RuNet consists of pro-government individuals, who address state actors’ role in local news with an invariably positive spin. Defenders of the government exercise particular caution when discussing the actions of the police. Those writing in this cluster are mostly men between the ages of thirty and forty. Bloggers in this group make special efforts to deflect accusations against the region’s current administrations and inflate the government’s social prestige.