History of the Caucus Mountains

The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus by Charles King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Caucus mountain range straddle the borders of Europe, Turkey, Russia and Iran. It is home to a multitude of different people and just as many governments. The residents of the Caucus Mountain range follow a variety of different religions , Orthodox Christianity, Shia Islam, Suno Islam and even nomadic Buddhists. Before the Russian take over the Caucus people were very tribal with power residing in the hands of local chieftains. Through the history of the Caucus three major empires have vied for control, the Persian Empire, Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Historically no Empire has been able to completely control the Caucus as the local warlord, whom power relied often times shifted alliances based on self interest and putting one empire against the other. The reverse was also true the major empires would pit the various warlords against each other. Classic divide and conquer which is easy to do as the various ethnic groups did not always like each other .

The book traces military history and documents how Russia was able to beat out the two other empires and take control over the Caucus. There were many conflicts with the local population. The most noted would be with the Daghestani people. The Circassian would put up fierce resistance to Russian rule. Often times using guerrila tactics the Russians found themselves taking on heavy casualties. Military leaders like Ermelov would mow down entire villages. Other leaders would deport major sections of the population . The communist take over would complicate things. Ur eventually Russia took over,

To the Russians the Caucus was at times a savage place but going their could be liberating . Often times Rusdia sent their undesirables like the Cossacks out there as colonists. Some times other nationalities would defect from forced conscription in the Russian Army and end up siding with the highlanders. Sometimes being a slave to a high lander was the same as being a serf to a noble or a forced conscripts in the military.

With Gorbachev reforms countries like Armenia,Azerbaijan and a Georgia broke away from the Soviet Union . This did not lead to peace but rather it lead to infighting among various ethnic groups. Chechenya tried to violently break away from Russian rule twice,their tactics involved invoking religion as a motivating factor. They used violent terror tactics to achieve their means .

Great over all history of the region. Of course, I will tell to go read the book if you want more information.

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