The only attempt at unifying the three respective principal Caucasus states of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia arose following their secession upon dissolution of Imperial Russia following the revolution in 1917 as the Transcaucasian Frederation with Tbilisi as its capital. But competing separatist nationalist groups combined with war with Turkey led to the abandonment of the federation within less than a year. After a period of civil war these territories were combined again in 1922 as the Transcausacua Soviet Federative Socialist Republic until each of the three countries became nominally autononomous states within the Soviet system.
A further federation in the north Caucasus was establisged between 1917 and 1920 and included the former Terek region or "oblast" of Russia as well as the present day autonmous Russian republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia-Alania, Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan. Like its Transcaucasian counterpart, it had arisen following the collapse of the Czarist empire and obtained legal recognitions from Germany, the Ottomans, Azerbaijan and Armenia. The North Caucasus federation was hostile to Denikin and initially welcomed the advance of the Red Army and acceptance an alliance with Soviet Russia on the basis of assurances that the federation's independence and sovereignity would be respected. Following the region's complete Sovietisation in June 1920, the government of the federation were forced into exile in the following January.

