The book offered to the reader for the first time examines unknown to the general public aspects of the relationship of the Russian Empire with the peoples and political circles of Transcaucasia and its policy in this region during its annexation to Russia. It also shows important trends in the development of the situation in the Russian Transcaucasus in the 19th - mid-20th centuries, which predetermined the centrifugal processes within this region. The author documents the various anti-Russian and anti-Soviet clichés that some foreign figures, experts and the media use from time to time to replenish their political capital modern Transcaucasian countries.