Allah's mountains : politics and war in the Russian Caucasus / Sebastian Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Sebastian.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Insurgency--Russia (Federation)--Caucasus, Northern.

Insurgency.

Caucasus, Northern (Russia)--Ethnic relations.

Caucasus, Northern (Russia).

Physical Description:

x, 288 pages : maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : I.B. Tauris, 1998.

Summary:

This book explores first-hand the turmoil of the North Caucasus. Crisscrossed by billion-dollar oil pipelines and facing Iran and Turkey, this predominantly Muslim region is perhaps the most strategically important in the huge Russian Federation. It is also the most unstable. Ferocious resistance meant that Russia took almost three centuries to conquer it and the declaration of independence by Chechnya, with the vicious war that ensued in 1994, laid bare enduring tensions between the indigenous peoples and Moscow. Beyond Chechnya, many other ethnic groups, including the Dagestanis, Adyegei and Balkars, struggle to preserve their Identities, though none has taken up arms thus far. The stakes are high: for the North Caucasians, ethnic pride and even survival as distinct people; for the Russians, control over the huge oil resources of the Caspian Sea and territorial integrity of the state.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [275]-278) and index.

ISBN:

1860642152

OCLC:

39504202