Abstract:

The aim of this work is to underline the fact that the historical bases of a significant part of the ethnic and political problems in the Caucasus region were laid by Jozef Stalin and is to demonstrate that today's Russia uses these inherited problems to legitimize its military, political and cultural presence in the region. In this study, will be discussed analitically Russia's policies that persist from Tsarist and Soviet era up to now in the Caucasus. Thus, we will try to show that Russia has historical deepness rather than conjunctural policies of the Caucasus. After the World War II, Jozef Stalin, who was constantly intervening in the ethnical structure and natural borders of the Caucasus, turned this region into a convolute set of problems. A key role in solving these artifically created problems was given to the Soviet Union(today’s Russia). According to this scenario, autonomous republics had to be convinced that the problems in the region could not be solved without the Soviet Union. The Soviet elites, who never imagined that the Soviet Union could collapse, left the present-day Russia open to foreign intervention, moreover in terms of foreign policy Russia could be a useful tool as long as it kept its military strength.

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