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Europe draws its last breath and fades into Asia in this crooked wedge of southern Russia, known as the Northern Caucasus as it composes the northern half of the Caucasus region (which also comprises Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia). This land has been fought over for centuries, and still is thanks to separatist sentiments among the primarily Muslim popula-tions of Chechnya and Dagestan.

A whiff of danger means most foreign tourists stay away – for now. The seaside resort of Sochi has won the 2014 Winter Olympics, and big changes are in store. It seems the entire region is preparing to milk the Olympic cow, as ambitious development plans have sprouted along the length of the Black Sea Coast and throughout the spectacular central Greater Caucasus mountain range.

Future visitors are in for a treat. There aren’t too many places where, without freezing your butt off, you can ski and kite-surf on the same day. The Caucasus is one of them. Add rafting, ice climbing and virtually any other extreme sport you can think of to the list. Scores already arrive to climb Europe’s highest peak, Mt Elbrus. Of course there’s no obliga-tion to climb it; just being in its lofty presence is enough to satisfy most.

Less sporty types can soak up rays by day and rave by night in a Black Sea resort, or submerge in the mineral waters around central spa towns Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk. There are dozens of ethnic groups here, all seemingly united by the Caucasus’ famous hospitality. Their history and culture is worth studying when travelling through these parts.

Russian Caucasus Кавказ

HIGHLIGHTS

Text your friends that you’re atop Europe’s highest peak, Mt Elbrus ( p525 )

Catch rays by day and party with Russia’s nouveau riche by night in palm tree–lined Sochi ( p505 )

Hike or ski in the dramatic, sharks-teeth mountains surrounding Dombay ( p519 )

Make turns on the future Olympic ski slopes or go heliskiing in Krasnaya Polyana ( p507 )

Struggle to contain your emotions at the site of the school siege in Beslan ( p531 )

PolyanaKrasnaya

BeslanDombay

Mt ElbrusSochi

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S l o n e l y p l a n e t . c o m R U S S I A N C A U C A S U S • • H i s t o r y

History The Caucasus has stood at the crossroads of Asian and European cultures since the Bronze Age. The result is an extraordinary mix of races with three main linguistic groups: Caucasian, Indo-European and Turkic. The Caucasus has suffered many invasions and oc-cupations, having been squeezed between rival Roman, Byzantine, Persian, Arab, Ottoman and Russian empires.

LIFE BEFORE THE RUSSIANS Earliest human traces in the Russian Caucasus date from Neolithic times when farming was replacing hunting and gathering. The first communities evolved in Dagestan’s valleys around the same time as agriculture developed in West Asia and China, estab-lishing this region as an early cradle of civilisation.

Mass migrations brought in many differ-ent peoples, including Scythians in the 8th century BC followed by Sarmatians five cen-turies later. In the 1st millennium AD, groups including Kipchaks (ancestors of the present-day Balkar), Huns, Pechenegs and Khazars all left their mark, some settling and mixing with existing inhabitants.

The first dominant state was created by the Alans, ancestors of modern Ossetians. It blossomed during the 10th century AD and at its peak ruled most of the northern Caucasus. The Alans were Christians, probably hav-ing been introduced to the religion by the Georgians. The Alan state was conquered by the Mongol Tatar invasions of the early 13th century and any remnants destroyed by the army of Timur (Tamerlane) in 1395.

THE RUSSIANS ARRIVE Escaping Russian serfs and adventurers had already settled in the lower Terek River region when Russian military power ar-rived here in the late 1500s. In 1696 Peter the Great captured the Turkish stronghold of Azov and expanded imperial influence southward. Peter temporarily captured Derbent in present-day Dagestan as part the Russian campaign against Persia in the 1720s before withdrawing.

Several decades later Catherine the Great began the subjugation of the Caucasus in earnest, assisted by the area’s Cossacks. The campaign picked up steam in the early 1800s as the Caucasus became a strategi-

cally important region in the ‘Great Game’ being played out between Russia and Great Britain.

In 1816 General Yermelov, a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, began a ruthless campaign to pacify the mountain peoples. The predomi-nantly Muslim populace resented this intru-sion by European and Christian Russians, and bitter guerrilla-type warfare ensued, led by the Cherkess (Circassians) in the north and the legendary Dagestani leader Imam Shamil further south. Shamil united Dagestani and Chechen tribes for a 30-year fight against the Russians that ended with Shamil’s surren-der in 1859. When the Cherkess surrendered in 1864, Russian hegemony in the region was entrenched.

THE SOVIET ERA During the October Revolution, many tribes united to form the Mountain Republic. Independence lasted until 1921 when Soviet forces overran the Caucasus. Soviet policy was to divide and rule by creating small autonomous regions, often combining two totally different nationalities. The Muslim-dominated portion of the Caucasus was split into five autonomous regions: Dagestan, Adygeya, Chechnya, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia.

In 1944 Stalin ordered the mass deporta-tion of Balkar, Chechen, Ingush and Karachay peoples to Central Asia and Siberia, on the pretext of potential collaboration with German forces. Those left behind took over the property and land of the deported. Khrushchev allowed the exiled groups to re-turn in 1957 but without compensation or repossession of their property. The Soviet regime smothered any potential conflict caused by this injustice, but the situation changed quickly after the failed 1991 coup in Moscow.

POST-SOVIET ERA The slipping of the Soviet leash let loose a host of ethnic-based rivalries, paramount of which has been the Chechnya conflict; see p532 . But the battleground has spilt over into other republics. North Ossetia was the site of bombings in the late 1990s and the infamous Beslan school siege of 2004 (see p529 ), as well as a suicide bombing that killed 12 in late 2008. In 2003 a bomb on the Kislovodsk–Mineralnye Vody elektrichka in the normally

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