ABSTRACT
The Caucasus is probably the most varied area in the world with regard to the ethnic and linguistic composition of its population. In toto about seventy aboriginal ethnic groups are to be found in the Caucasus, speaking languages belonging to three different linguistic families. The area was divided among four union republics – Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) in Soviet terminology: the Armenian SSR, the Georgian SSR, the Azerbaijani SSR and the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic. Common struggle and shared suffering are among the most effective ways of bringing people together. The different conflicts in the Northern Caucasus fall into two categories: conflicts between different groups of mountaineers; and conflicts between groups of mountaineers and the central authorities, and between the mountaineers’ identites and affiliations and the patriotism and nationalism of the various successor states of the USSR within which these groups are included or on which they border.
