Russian in the Caucasus The Caucasus is one of the most linguistically diverse regions on earth. However from the mid to late 1800’s all the way through to 1991 Russian became a language that initially infiltrated and then completely took over the region when Lenin and his Bolshevik buddies put the Soviet Union together. Despite the Soviet Union’s collapse, ties with the west and the influx of English, Russian still remains a very useful language in the region. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan have had varying relationships with mother Russia. After Russian intervention in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Georgia is pulling away from its former master with aspirations of joining the European Union. Armenia retains reasonably good relations with Russia, whilst at the same time balancing warm ties with the United States, Iran and China. Azerbaijan is now much closer to Turkey…