The authors recount their experiences of conducting fieldwork and traveling as researchers in the Caucasus region in the final years of the Soviet Union. Today, several decades later, conflicts in the Caucasus region resulting from the Soviet dissolution process remain unresolved. This period, from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, is crucial for the understanding of current developments not only in the Caucasus but in all countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.

The authors report on the political processes they witnessed in both North and South Caucasus, including the emergence of new movements for independence, the increasing tensions with Moscow, the breakdown of Soviet structures at different levels, and the growing importance of national cultures. They describe how premodern traditions still play a role, despite Soviet modernization, account for specific cultural features and similarities, and witness deepening ethnic antagonism. The Caucasus region, like the Baltic republics, was on the periphery of the Soviet Union; however, these two regions were to play an important role in the reform process and gradual disintegration of the union.

The authors are political scientist Ib Faurby, cultural geographer Lars Funch Hansen, slavicist Märta-Lisa Magnusson, historian and Iranologist Søren Theisen, and general linguist and Caucasologist Karina Vamling.