Two geographers report on the current challenges facing the inhabitants of the
Caucasus mountains on the borders of Russia and its southern neighbors, Georgia and
Azerbaijan. The authors discuss the impacts of new post-Soviet borders and controls as well
as unresolved conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh, Chechnya, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and the
Prigorodnyy district of North Ossetia, which have disrupted traditional ways of life and
forced the peoples of the mountains to migrate or adjust their economic activities. Based on
extensive field work in 2005–2006, and in the 1990s, they detect some signs of improvement
in the new privatized environment after the difficult years of transition. However, the weak
infrastructure of the region, combined with the high costs associated with development and
modernization of peripheral locations, suggest that resettlement from the high mountains to
the cities on the plains and piedmont is likely to continue. Journal of Economic Literature,
Classification Numbers: I31, J61, O15, Q15. 2 figures, 1 table, 46 references. Key words:
Caucasus, Russia, Chechnya, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Dagestan, geographic determinism,
Ingushetia, North Ossetia, South Ossetia, mountain agriculture, Kabardino-Balkaria,
Abkhazia, tourism, Karachayevo-Cherkessia.