ABSTRACT
In 1985, Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev announced the beginning of perestroika in the USSR, raising hopes for positive change across the enormous territory of the Communist empire. These hopes were thwarted when numerous, long smoldering ethnic conflicts reignited. The Caucasus was the first to fall prey, in 1988, with the outbreak of conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Disputes in neighboring republics soon reemerged, making the Caucasus the most explosive region in the USSR.
