Territorial conflicts, religions and the collapse of communism in the post-Soviet area

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict can be regarded as a final attempt to avert the disintegration of the Soviet Union. During the CIA-orchestrated privatisation of the Soviet Union, as well as the agency’s Operation Cyclone in the context of the Soviet-Afghan War, the USSR experienced a severe economic crisis that rendered Mikhail Gorbachev’s Glasnost and Perestroika reform programme essential. The text provides a comprehensive analysis of the motivations behind a KGB general’s efforts to prevent the dissolution of the USSR through the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In addition, it sheds light on the role of increased oil demand in prompting the United States to pursue the break-up of the USSR, with the objective of securing access to Soviet oil reserves. Finally, the role of Russia and Turkey as the United States’ main trading partners is examined.

Daniela Köhler graduated from the Free University of Berlin, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a master’s degree in Eastern European Studies. She has mainly focused on the sociology of Eastern Europe. In her research, she has studied the role of elites. One of these elites, the secret services, plays an important and central role in her book.