Acknowledgments -- Maps -- Introduction -- Chapter One. The Caucasus: Geography and People -- Peoples and Languages -- Religions of the Caucasian Region -- 1. Christianity -- 2. Islam -- Social Structures and Patterns of Power -- 1. Vertical power structures -- Some Conclusions -- Why Was Slave Trade So Important For the Caucasian Societies? -- Some Conclusions -- Chapter Two. Christians in Heterodox Captivity: The Historical Roots of Russian Abolitionismin the Caucasus -- The Case of an Invisible Slave Trade -- Some Conclusions -- The Two Abolitionisms: The European and American Enterprise and Their Distant Cousin from Russia -- Some Conclusions -- Historical Myth and Mythical History: Muscovy and the Caucasus Before the 18th Century -- Some Conclusions -- The Beginning:The First Attempts to Ban Slave Trade -- Some Conclusions -- Chapter Three. The Southern Caucasus -- Some Conclusions -- A Case of Success: Vorontsov in the Southern Caucasus -- Some Conclusions -- Chapter four. The Northern Caucasus -- Some conclusions -- A Case of Failure: Vorontsov in the Northern Caucasus -- Some Conclusions -- The Northern Caucasus after the Crimean War -- Some Conclusions -- Conclusion. Explaining an Unlikely Abolitionism -- Bibliography -- Index.