Alexander Seravin: "The Caucasus has ceased to be united"

Alexander Seravin, research director of the center of modern Caucasian policy "Caucasus" We conducted more than 40 studies within our research programs. Briefly, we had three large research units there. For example, we studied the image of the Caucasus in the media of six language groups - the image of the North Caucasus and the Caucasus. For example, for three months we have been monitoring everything that was written about the North Caucasus in the Chinese-language media, in the Arabic-language, Turkish-language, English-language, French-language, Polish-language and, of course, Russian media. We saw that they perceived various information very differently; the news that they perceive in the Caucasus is not the news that we perceive. Each language group perceives this in its own way. In addition, we did a lot of fieldwork in all 14 subjects, those that we have identified in the North Caucasus, the Caucasus in general; we conducted, for example, an interesting study: we randomly found people for the focus groups, put a sheet of paper and pencil or pen in front of them and asked: "Please draw the political map of the Caucasus." Our ethnographic research shows that about 100-150 years ago people had a common image of the Caucasus. Now we have seen that the average person, in principle, is capable of doing it in a minute and a half, our study showed that people spent about four minutes drawing a map of the Caucasus. And we saw that a general image of the Caucasus does not exist. They draw their entity and maybe a close one, but there is no overall image. If, for example, we look at the first movie that was filmed as part of "ARMENFILM " in 1926 - it was called "Namus". This is a special inner essence of Circassian etiquette. Then there were some communications, and now, unfortunately, these connections are lost. That is, it turns out that the Internet and cell phones have brought closer areas that are incredibly far away geographically, and areas that are geographically close – at a distance of 50, 100, 150 km – became very far away.