In northern Azerbaijan’s Gabala region lies a village fighting against time.  Nij, a hamlet of about 4,000 people, is home to the Udi community, a group who claim descent from Caucasian Albania, a legendary Christian kingdom which allegedly existed in the East Caucasus between the first and fifth centuries AD.  Based primarily in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia (Dagestan), the Udis have their own language, part of the Lezgian group, and, unlike their predominantly Muslim neighbors, are Christian.  

Across the USSR in the making, religious buildings were destroyed or stripped of their functions and used for other purposes.

“For me personally, it was such a relief, like I could take a breath for the first time in a very long time.”