Russia and Azerbaijan A Borderland in Transition by Tadeusz: Swietochowski, Columbia University Press, 1995.

Abstract

The last centuries of human history bear witness to the generation of havoc
and carnage brought about by the disintegration of world empires and superpowers
that ruled vast areas inhabited by people of different ethnic. religious,
and national backgrounds. One such event took place in the early period of this
century: the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Its downfall left a power vacuum
in many areas of the Balkans. North Africa and the Middle East. Out of the ashes
of its ruin, new and independent states emerged.
Toward the end of the twentieth century, the Soviet Union totally disintegrated
and suddenly disappeared from the international scene in a relatively short
time. As mentioned. history has recorded the gradual decline and final fall of
great empires. The collapse of the Soviet Union differs from other older
empires. We will draw a comparison between its disintegration and the fall of
the older Ottoman Empire.
There are abundant scholarly and literary analyses indicating that the Ottoman
Empire underwent a process of gradual dismantling from it initial decline to its
final collapse. The Soviet Union, however, underwent an abrupt end to its reign
and. entered ultimate oblivion without experiencing a prolonged loss of vitality.
This abrupt fall and quick end may be auributed to various factors, from the failure
of economic policies to the yearning for freedom. including the revival of
ethnic, religious. and national identities. These are the points emphasized by
Swietochowski's timely book on Russia and Azerbaijan.
The current wave of world events exerts itself nor only upon the political elite
but also within academic quarters and on publishing trends. As the 1979 Iranian
revolution drew greater attention to Islam and was followed by the establishment
of new departments of Islamic studies and the publication of hundreds of
books on the subject, the collapse of the Soviet Union generated a significant
amount of interest and, accordingly, academicians and publishing houses
responded to the growing search to know more about the region.
Swietochowski's look should be considered a significant contribution to these
effons.
It is a widely held observation thal the disintegration of Lhe Soviet Union dramatically
changed and traumatized the geopolitical and geocullural landscape of
the area. Swietochowski's book concentrates specifically on Azerbaijan by
examining closely the last two centuries of this unknown land's history. As the
title Russia and Azerbaijan: A Borderland in Transition suggests, the author
deals with a people whose land is divided between north and south. He uses
archival sources, official documents, and numerous books and articles written in
various languages to inform readers about a land and a people about which little
was known before the Soviet Union's downfall. Swietochowski's work ...