After the inglorious collapse of the USSR, in almost each of its former republics the new leadership was faced with the fact that some national and/or religious minorities lived on their territory. And almost everywhere the test for the ability to compromise with one’s own minorities was tragically failed. This resulted in numerous armed conflicts. Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are an incomplete list of regions where blood was shed. Why did it happen that a huge country suddenly split into separate states, in which, under the banner of democracy, people went to kill their recent brothers? The famous military historian and publicist Evgeniy Norin talks about this and how events developed in hot spots, as well as what happened in Russia itself after the collapse of the USSR.