Caucasia

Caucasia, oil-rich region that straddles the Caucasus Mountains in the southwest of the Russian Federation. After the Russian Revolution the southern part, called Transcaucasia, was organized as the republics of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. In 1922, they became the Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, but in 1936 they were again reorganized as 3 distinct republics of the Soviet Union and gained independence in 1991.

See also: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.