Pride of Small Nations: The Caucasus and Post-Soviet Disorder

by Suzanne Goldenberg
London: Zed Books (distributed by Humanities Press International), 1994. 233 pp. $55 (cloth), $22.50 (paper).


Reviewed by Daniel Pipes

Middle East Quarterly
March 1995

http://www.meforum.org/867/pride-of-small-nations-the-caucasus-and-post

The mountains of the Caucasus, the area's remoteness, and its long incorporation in a Russian-dominated empire make it singularly little known in the West. And yet, the region is also one of the most fascinating on earth, what with its intense diversity of languages, its wild beauty, and its celebrated liquors. In recent years, it has also become one of the most troubled regions, as ethnic conflicts have proliferated.

Goldenberg, a journalist working for the Guardian, provides an excellent introduction to the Caucasus, mixing scholarship and personal observation. She makes sense of the devastating civil war in Georgia and offers a balanced account of the Azerbaijan-Armenia war. But perhaps the most valuable section deals with the North Caucasus, a region nominally part of Russia but seething with ethnic and territorial problems, as well as an Islamic revival. To those mystified by the Russian assault on Chechenya, she provides a helpful introduction: how they provided most of Shamil's troops resisting Russian conquest in the mid-nineteenth century, how they suffered from deportation to Central Asia at Stalin's hands, and declared independence in 1991. Goldenberg sketches a vivid portrait of Dzhokar Dudayev, the Chechens' military strongman, and the eccentric, violent state he has established. Two examples: his bodyguard consists mainly of of hardened criminals he sprung from jail and his foreign minister comes from the Chechen population living in Jordan.

Related Topics:  Central Asia, Russia/Soviet Union  |  Daniel Pipes  |  March 1995 MEQ receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free mef mailing list To receive the full, printed version of the Middle East Quarterly, please see details about an affordable subscription. This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.