Since Russia (first in the form of Russia and Muscovy, then the Empire) has become part of the history of the Caucasus, this history can no longer be separated from Russia or imagined without it. Long before the inclusion of the Caucasus in the Russian Empire, the combination of their "stories" began in the context of centuries-old neighboring communication and mutual knowledge. To turn this most difficult process into a continuous Potemkin village, where peace, harmony, prosperity reigned, exactly the same as calling it the "four hundred year Russian-Caucasian war."