Аннотация:Soils of abandoned agricultural landscapes are the informative objects for study of the natural processes following the land use transformation. In the mountains of the North Caucasus, agricultural landscapes including the terraced slopes occupy the vast areas of intermontane basins. During the centuries, the slopes at the altitudes 1000 (1400) – 1800 (2000) m a.s.l. were predominantly used under croplands. Arable lands were converted into the grasslands 60 – 100 years ago and were grazed or mowed up to 1990th; grasslands are abandoned or underused during the last 25 years. Therefore, mountain soils have experienced a number of transformations and various impacts such as terracing, plowing, grazing, and abandoning. At present, meadow steppes occupy the former croplands regardless of the windward or leeward mountain slope. Soils of the opposite slopes have such similar properties as thin grey-brown humus horizon, low humus content and degraded soil structure; stones are removed from the topsoil; difference depends on parent rock and degree of erosion. Their place in the classification has to be defined. At that, buried soils discovered in the soils of the southern slopes have clear Chernozem-like properties, and buried soils on the northern slopes we identified as Phaeozems and Cambisols. Contrasting buried soils are evidences of the climate-induced soil diversity in the past, before intense and long unifying impact of agricultural land use causing the soil convergence. The post-arable time was not enough to restore soil properties. In the absence of anthropogenic impact, the most favorable conditions for the organic matter accumulation are on the platforms of agricultural terraces; unmanaged soils of terraces escarps and steep slopes being under permanent erosion contribute in the fragmentation of soilscape.