ABSTRACT
Ethnically defined provinces, or administrative units, in the Soviet experience engendered a two-way experience: the ethnicisation of political, cultural and economic discourse in the local context and the territorialisation of ethnicity. Instead, it appears once again that it was unhelpful to portray the war as the 'ethnic conflict' of mad Caucasians who were incapable of understanding where their own interests lay in a rational way and to facilitate peace negotiations between the parties in a direct way. Most significant for our discussion is the fact that the long lasting solution to the problems in Chechnya is a political one, not one of interethnic reconciliation, and that the 'smokescreen' of ethnic conflict to explain the Chechen war has evaporated. All, except Armenia, have significantly multi-ethnic populations finally, all the Caucasus region in cultural life and social customs have more in common with each other than their neighbours: dance, music, singing, marriage patterns, hospitality rules and so on.
