ORIGINS AND INITIAL MEANING OF THE CAUCASIAN POLICY OF RUSSIA
The article describes the origins, essence and content of the Caucasian policy of Russia, its main stages, significance for the development of Russian statehood and the peoples of the region. The significance of the Caucasus region for the interests and security of the Russian state was determined by the favorable geopolitical position of the region, which was a natural geographic transit hub, the territory through which for centuries the migration of peoples and entire civilizations from south to north, from west to east and in the opposite direction took place. ... On the other hand, the geostrategic position of the Caucasus itself made it possible for the dominant states in it to control the territories adjacent to the region. This circumstance determined the specifics of the political history of the peoples of the Caucasus. It was the history of wars and armed conflicts between neighboring states for the possession of this region and, accordingly, the history of the struggle of the Caucasian peoples themselves for survival and identity. Objectively, the Russian state was also involved in these processes. From the end of the 15th century, the southern and southeastern borders of the Russian state were vast steppe areas, along which numerous nomadic peoples constantly moved, bringing death and destruction to Russian cities and villages. “The logic of the struggle made Russia strive to establish stable borders that could be defended. But up to the Caucasus Mountains, the Black and Caspian Seas in the south, there were no such borders”. This predetermined the involvement of the peoples of the Caucasus in a single all-Russian political space and the adoption of measures to ensure the security of Russia from the Caucasus direction.