Conflict in the Caucasus: Georgia, Abkhazia and the Russian Shadow

by Svetlana Chervonnaya

English (translation)
Original Russian

Genres: Russia, Politics, History

228 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating, if early and incomplete, history of the Georgia-Abkhazia conflict, which is notable for several reasons--first, it was and is significantly undercovered in the West; secondly, the aftereffects of the conflict are still reverberating in contemporary politics both in the Cacasus and in the post-Soviet states more broadly; and thirdly, it provides an exact template for the type of Russian malfeasance we've seen since in Moldova, Georgia (again, this time in South Ossetia in 2008), in Ukraine (2014 and 2022), and will likely see in Estonia or Latvia next. The author's analysis of the "Centre"--aka the Soviet state--and how it paradoxically used ethnic separatism to keep the Union together is very keen, as well as her very early post-Cold War analysis of how the central authorities might lose control of those groups would prove to be well-founded.

The only reason it doesn't get more stars is that she glosses over some pretty key points about Georgia's road to representative democracy and because some of the data is a bit dated at this point--but there is great value in seeing a contemporary viewpoint from an observer who came up in the Soviet system.

[Raughley Nuzzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chervonnaya offers a detailed look into the origins of the 1992 Abkhaz-Georgian war. She does an excellent job of providing facts and perspectives from all sides of the conflict, but does not pull her punches when it comes to calling out lies and disinformation.

This book offers an excellent primer on the Georgian-Abkhaz conflicts and the extent to which Russia played he role of a spoiler for one side or the other.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written just as the 1992 war in Abkhazia began, Chervonnaya offers a background to the conflict, albeit one with an extreme anti-Soviet (and therefore Abkhaz) slant, which she makes no effort to hide. If one keeps that in mind, this book proves very insightful to the immediate actions that led to the conflict. There is some historic details included, but the main scope is in the issues that occurred in the late 1980s when perestroika allowed for dissent to be made within the USSR, and as someone who arrived in Abkhazia literally the day of the conflict starting, Chervonnaya is able to provide details that are hard to come by otherwise. The only other real issue that can be said, aside from the obvious bias, is the lack of proper citation to some of the claims. While she admits some of them are impossible to produce (being Xerox copies of documents not made available publicly), other things like newspaper reports are mentioned and cited, but not properly catalogued, which makes it difficult for anyone reading or researching to assert some of the claims made, without considerable effort. Even so, this book is something anyone looking to understand the post-Soviet conflicts in Georgia, and the situation in Abkhazia, should read.