Bitter ChoicesRussia's attempt to consolidate its authority in the North Caucasus has exerted a terrible price on both sides since the mid nineteenth century. Michael Khodarkovsky tells a concise and compelling history of the mountainous region between the Black and Caspian seas during the centuries of Russia's long conquest (15001850s). The history of the region unfolds against the background of one man's life story, Semn Atarshchikov (18071845). Torn between his