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Soviet Union [USSR] Nationalities of the Caucasus
A small mountainous region in the southwestern portion of the
Soviet Union known as the Caucasus has been the home to three major
nationalities--the Armenians, Georgians, and Azerbaydzhanis--and to
twenty-four minor nationalities. The three major nationalities had
their own union republics along the southern slopes of the Caucasus
Mountains, sometimes known as the Transcaucasus. The other
nationalities resided in their own autonomous republics or
autonomous oblasts, mostly along the northern slopes of the
Caucasus Mountains, or lived scattered within the boundaries of the
three Caucasian republics or the Russian Republic. Over 15.7
million people, or 5.5 percent of the total population of the
Soviet Union in 1989, lived in the Caucasus, a region not much
larger than the territory of the three Baltic republics. Although
they have shared historical experiences, the three major
nationalities of the Caucasus have far greater differences than the
three Baltic nationalities or the three East Slavic nationalities.
The differences are particularly sharp between the Azerbaydzhanis
and the Armenians and Georgians. The Turkic-speaking Azerbaydzhanis
are Muslims. Culturally and historically linked to both Iran and
Turkey, they have not experienced independent statehood except for
a brief period after the fall of the tsarist government in 1917.
Both Armenians and Georgians have been Christian since the fourth
century, and their history of independent statehood dates back to
classical antiquity.
Data as of May 1989
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