Eurasianet -- You could call it poetic justice. Thrown out of his own boyhood home in Abkhazia on the orders of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, Valery Mizadei now is responsible for maintaining all five of the former Soviet dictator’s residences in the sub-tropical Black Sea territory.

Chapter 15. Demography: ''The Abkhazians: A Handbook'' by George Hewitt (Editor) Richmond, Surrey: The Curzon Press 1999 (Caucasus World /Peoples of the Caucasus & The Black Sea), pp. [218]-239.

Demography has many aspects. With regard to the Abkhaz, their famed longevity comes immediately to mind. However, it is difficult to prove just how old one is when, at the supposed time of one s birth, registration was the exception rather than the norm. It has been noted that in the (15 January) 1970 All-Union Census the number of people in some higher age cohorts was actually larger than had been the size of corresponding (eleven year younger) cohorts in the (15 January) 1959 Census. Unless we assume a pensioner-invasion of the USSR in between, this must caution us to realize that some people may have a tendency in old age to advance more rapidly in years than the rest of us!

Georgians and Abkhazians. The Search for a Peace Settlement © August 1998, Vrije University, Brussel - Chapter 7

The post-Soviet period, reminiscent of and in many cases seeming to repeat, the events of 1917-1921 after the break-up of the Russian Empire, has demonstrated quite clearly that the difficulties in Abkhazian-Georgian relations cannot be resolved by those two countries alone, without involving the Caucasus as a whole in this issue.

T. TATLOK (Ramazan TRAHO)  

Born in Northern Caucasus. Philologist. Until World War II he worked in various academic and educational institutions, both in Moscow and in the Caucasus. Published monographs and articles on Northern Caucasus. Editor of the Vestnik of the Institute of Study of the USSR.

''The Ubykhs'', Caucasian Review, Vol. 7 (1958), pp. 100-109 (Munich)

CONFERENCE

Abkhazia in the Context of Contemporary International Relations
Pitsunda, The Republic of Abkhazia: June 29 - July 1, 2004

Diasporal Policy and the Formation of the Abkhaz State

Yuri G. Argun