№ 4 - 2000
Demetradze M.R.
Interethnic Distance in the Caucasus and Politics (A Historical Excursus)

The subject discussed in the article, with the Caucasus region as example, is political regulation of problems emerging in the course of interethnic mutual activity. Attention is concentrated on the question of optimizing interethnic distances. The author retraces the evolution of the regional model of such optimization: from the model characteristic of mediaeval society - where political integration does not lead to ethnic one and ethnic mosaic does not impede the functioning of the state - to the colonial model applied in the realization of the Soviet ethno-national policy which, too, was conducive to inter-national/interethnic stability. The upsurge of interethnic tension in the second half of the 1980s and early 1990s testifies to the need for an integral regional policy of Russia to be formed, to pattern its intention on the West European models, and to be at the same time adapted to local specific features.