This book discusses a number of issues concerning the service of the nationalities of the Caucasus in the Red Army within the context of Soviet nationality policies and an intensification of repressive tendencies in the USSR's armed forces during World War II. It is the first study of the role and function of the Caucasian national troops in the Red Army and of related political debates between state and military leaders of the Caucasian national republics and USSR. The political aspects of the mobilization of various Caucasian nationalities in the army, and the reasons for the gradual...