This book is an abridged version of the extensive study by Ukrainian historian Kuzari, The Perished Civilization — An Unnoticed Catastrophe. The full edition is a substantial documentary work devoted to the history of the "perished" Turkic civilization of the Caucasus and the causes of its destruction. It offers a fresh interpretation of a number of historical events and processes that have shaped the contemporary ethnic and political map not only of the South Caucasus, but also of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Drawing on an extensive body of evidence comprising 1,765 sources, the author convincingly demonstrates how, over the course of centuries, Moscow fuelled interethnic hatred in the Caucasus. Ultimately, this proved fatal for an entire civilization.
The present edition has been prepared for those who wish to grasp the central argument of the book without immediately immersing themselves in the full body of documents and sources. The abridged format inevitably omits a significant portion of the argumentation, quotations, footnotes, and supplementary materials contained in the complete edition. For this reason, this book should be regarded not as a substitute for the full version, but as a condensed exposition of it and an introduction to the subject.
The complete work comprises 30 chapters, thematically organized into three sections: "History," "Demography," and "Ethnography." The present edition includes only 3 chapters from the "History" section — those in which one of the central threads of the study, Russian imperialism, is most vividly revealed. The author shows how, over the centuries, Russia manipulated the peoples of the Caucasus, inflamed antagonisms among them, and used the resulting conflicts as an instrument of its own influence.
To help the reader navigate the overall design of the study, this edition also includes a section entitled A Concise Summary of the Full Version of the Book, which distils the author's principal conclusions.The same conclusions are presented in their most concise form in the section "Ten Milestones of Russia’s Expansion in the East and the Catastrophe of the 'Perished' Civilization," placed at the very end of the book, after the final chapter.
The defining feature of Kuzari's work is its open evidentiary base. The author does not confine himself to retelling events: he presents the documents, quotations, book excerpts, and testimony of contemporaries on which his conclusions rest. All materials are available on the website, and every reader may independently verify the sources. Each chapter is preceded by a QR code that takes the reader to a page containing the full list of sources used in that chapter.
In the interest of maximum neutrality, the study has been constructed without recourse to Turkish or Azerbaijani sources. Its evidentiary foundation rests primarily on Armenian, French, Russian, and Soviet sources.
The full edition is scheduled for publication in Ukraine in 2026 under the editorship of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Print editions are also being prepared in Moldova, Poland, Germany, the Baltic states, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. The complete text of the study, together with the full evidentiary base, is already accessible on the website: https://www.perishedcivilization.com/.