A millennium after the Arab geographer of the 10th century Al-Masutsi, who discouraged the Caucasus as the "Mountain of Languages," experts of various profiles are still trying to count and understand the exotic diversity of the region. In contrast, Derlugyan - himself a native of the region, now working in America - overcomes exoticization and consistently fits the Caucasus into the world context. Analytically accurately using the rather broad categories of social capital and sub-proletariat taken from Bourdieu, he shows exactly how the demographic cocktail of the local opposition intelligentsia and uneducated active youth left outside the system exploded, how the power of the Soviet Leviathan collapsed