  We study, both numerically and variationally, the interplay between different
types of elementary excitations in the model of a spin chain with anisotropic
spin-orbit coupling, in the vicinity of the "dimer line" with an exactly known
dimerized ground state. Our variational treatment is found to be in a
qualitative agreement with the exact diagonalization results. Soliton pairs are
shown to be the lowest excitations only in a very narrow region of the phase
diagram near the dimer line, and the phase transitions are always governed by
magnon-type excitations which can be viewed as soliton-antisoliton bound
states. It is shown that when the anisotropy exceeds certain critical value, a
new phase boundary appears. In the doped model on the dimer line, the exact
elementary charge excitation is shown to be a hole bound to a soliton. Bound
states of those "charged solitons" are studied; exact solutions for N-hole
bound states are presented.
