The Caucasus in Russian Culture



For over two hundred years, the Caucasus has occupied a unique place in the political and cultural life of the Russian empire, Soviet Union, and Russian Federation. Wars, ethnic cleansing, and mass deportations have occurred here. This course aims to demonstrate the complexity of the “Caucasus question” and examine its many echoes in Russian culture from Romanticism through Postmodernism. The course’s core readings include works by the greatest authors of the past two centuries (Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Mandelshtam, Pasternak) and also works by lesser-known but important writers (Marlinskii, Polonskii, Makanin). The course will also examine several films on the Caucasus theme, from Nikoloz Shengelaya’s Eliso (1928) through Aleksei Uchitel’s Captive (2008).