The Caucasus: A History

by James Forsyth

Overview

For the first time, this major new survey of the Caucasus traces a unified narrative history of this complex and turbulent region at the borderlands of Europe, Asia and the Middle East, from prehistory to the present. For thousands of years the Caucasus has formed the intersection of routes of migration, invasion, trade and culture, and a geographical bridge between Europe and Asia, subject to recurring imperial invasion. Drawing on sources in English, Russian, Persian and Arabic, amongst others, this authoritative study centres on the region's many indigenous peoples, including Abkhazians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Chechens and Circassians, and their relations with outsiders who still play an important part in the life of the region today. The book presents a critical view of the historical role of Russian imperialism in events in the Caucasian countries, and the violent struggle of some of these peoples in their efforts to establish a precarious independence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107595590
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/26/2015
Pages:	942
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 9.06(h) x 1.97(d)

About the Author

James Forsyth is former Reader and Head of the Department of Russian at the University of Aberdeen. His publications include A History of the Peoples of Siberia (Cambridge, 1992).

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Caucasian origins; 2. Early medieval Caucasia: the seventh to tenth centuries; 3. The Caucasus, Persia, Turkestan, Azerbaijan, Europe: 10th–12th centuries; 4. The later Crusades, Mongols and Ottoman Turks 13th–15th centuries; 5. Georgia, Shirvan and North Caucasus to the 15th century; 6. Caucasia between Persia and Ottoman Turkey; 7. The Caucasus and the Russians; 8. Caucasia in the eighteenth century; 9. Russia's conquest of the Caucasus; 10. World War and Russian revolution; 11. Independent Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and North Caucasus; 12. White Russians, native insurrection, Bolshevik conquest; 13. The North and South Caucasus peoples 1920–39; 14. The Second World War, Beria and Stalin; 15. Caucasia from Stalin's death to the 1980s (1); 16. Caucasia from Stalin's death to the 1980s (2); 17. The Caucasus and the end of the Soviet Union; 18. Armenia, Karabagh, Azerbaijan; 19. Georgia 1987–93; 20. North Caucasus 1987–93; 21. The Caucasus enters the twenty-first century; 22. Russian arbitrary politics and Georgian resurgence; Bibliography.