Why read Bitter Choices?

Book cover of Bitter Choices: Loyalty and Betrayal in the Russian Conquest of the North Caucasus

Book description

Russia's attempt to consolidate its authority in the North Caucasus has exerted a terrible price on both sides since the mid-nineteenth century. Michael Khodarkovsky tells a concise and compelling history of the mountainous region between the Black and Caspian seas during the centuries of Russia's long conquest (1500-1850s). The history…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Bitter Choices as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Stephen Badalyan Riegg

Author

This short and beautifully written book follows the fascinating life of a junior officer in the tsarist army in the Caucasus, Semën Atarshchikov, son of a Chechen father and Kumyk mother.

The reader is taken on a winding journey as the protagonist switches sides between the mountaineers and Russians several times. The crux of the argument is that a person with real connections to both Russian and Muslim communities could align with one side against the other temporarily, but overcoming the divisions permanently was difficult. In this case, it proved impossible: Atarshchikov became not a privileged intermediary but a victim…

From Stephen's list on The best books to understand how the Russian Empire engaged the Caucasus.