Georgia After Stalin: Nationalism and Soviet Power

215 Pages·2016·5.561 MB·English

by  Timothy K. Blauvelt, Jeremy Smith

Georgia after Stalin
This book explores events in Georgia in the years following Stalin’s death in
March 1953, especially the demonstrations of March 1956 and their brutal
suppression, in order to illuminate the tensions in Georgia between veneration
of the memory of Stalin, a Georgian, together with the associated respect for the
Soviet system that he had created, and growing nationalism. The book considers
how not just Stalin but also his wider circle of Georgians were at the heart of the
Soviet system, outlines how greatly Stalin was revered in Georgia, and charts
the role of Khrushchev and his denunciation of Stalin. It goes on to examine
the different strands of the rising Georgian nationalist movement, discusses the
repressive measures taken against demonstrators and concludes by showing
how the repressions transformed a situation where Georgian nationalism, the
honouring of Stalin’s memory and the Soviet system were all aligned together
into a situation where an increasingly assertive nationalist movement was firmly
at odds with the Soviet Union.
Timothy K. Blauvelt is Associate Professor of Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies at
Ilia State University in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Jeremy Smith is Professor of Russian History and Politics at the Karelian
Institute, University of Eastern Finland.
BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and
East European Studies
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Editorial Committee:
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Birgit Beumers, Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies,
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Richard Connolly, Centre for Russian and East European Studies,
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Terry Cox, Department of Central and East European Studies, University
of Glasgow
Peter Duncan, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University
College London
Zoe Knox, School of History, University of Leicester
Rosalind Marsh, Department of European Studies and Modern
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David Moon, Department of History, University of York
Hilary Pilkington, Department of Sociology, University of Manchester
Graham Timmins, Department of Politics, University of Birmingham
Stephen White, Department of Politics, University of Glasgow
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George Blazyca, Centre for Contemporary European Studies, University
of Paisley
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Georgia after Stalin
Nationalism and Soviet power
Edited by
Timothy K. Blauvelt
and Jeremy Smith
First published 2016
by Routledge
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© 2016 selection and editorial material, Timothy K. Blauvelt and Jeremy
Smith; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Timothy K. Blauvelt and Jeremy Smith to be identified as author
of the editorial material, and of the individual authors as authors of their
contributions, has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and
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ISBN: 978-1-138-94523-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-67132-1 (ebk)
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Contents
List of contributors ix
Foreword xi
Note on transliterations and spelling xiii
Note on Georgian archives xiv
Acknowledgments xv
1 Introduction 1
TIMOTHY K. BLAUvELT AND JEREMY SMITH
2 Kremlin – Tbilisi: purges, control and Georgian nationalism
in the first half of the 1950s 13
OLEG v. KHLEvNIUK
3 The March 1956 events in Georgia: based on oral history
interviews and archival documents 32
LEvAN AvALISHvILI
4 “What is the cult of personality and what has it to do with
Stalin?”: the role of ideology, youth and the Komsomol in
the March 1956 events 53
IRA JäNIS-ISOKANGAS
5 Nationalism after the March 1956 events and the origins
of the national-independence movement in Georgia 77
GIORGI KLDIASHvILI
6 “A kind of silent protest”? : Deciphering Georgia’s 1956 92
CLAIRE P. KAISER
viii Contents
7 Resistance, discourse and nationalism in the March 1956
events in Georgia 116
TIMOTHY K. BLAUvELT
8 Georgian–Abkhaz relations in the post-Stalinist era 129
NINO KEMOKLIDZE
9 Conclusion: Georgian nationalism after 1956 146
JEREMY SMITH
Appendix: Documents from the archives on the
March 1956 Events 152
Index 196
Contributors
Levan Avalishvili is a PhD candidate in the Department of Humanities of Tbilisi
State University. He is an archival researcher, and also a founder and Chairman
of the board of the NGO and research organization the Institute for Development
of Freedom of Information (IDFI). His main research interests are the history
of the Great Terror and Political Propaganda. He has published several articles
in Tbilisi State University journals and in the Archival Bulletin including
“Foreign political propaganda of the USA and the USSR in the beginning of
the Cold War” (2004), “The Akhmeteli Case: Political Repressions in Georgia”
(2008, co-authored with Giorgi Kldiashvili), and “The ‘Great Terror’ of 1937–
1938 in Georgia: Between the Two Reports of Lavrentiy Beria” (2010).
Timothy K. Blauvelt is Associate Professor of Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies
at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, Georgia, and is also Country Director in
Georgia for American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS.
He has published numerous articles about Russian and Soviet political history,
clientalism, nationality policy and nationalism in Ab Imperio, Europe-Asia
Studies, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Kritika, Nationalities
Papers and War and Society.
Ira Jänis-Isokangas is a PhD candidate at the University of Tampere. Her
research focuses on the social and political history of the early Soviet Union
and on studies of Soviet youth. Her latest publications include articles on the
concept of hooliganism in the 1920s and on the administrative campaigns
against hooliganism in the era of the new economic policy.
Claire P. Kaiser is a PhD candidate in modern Russian history at the University
of Pennsylvania. She is completing a dissertation titled “Lived Nationality:
Policy and Practice in Soviet Georgia, 1945–1978.” Her research has been
supported by the American Councils/U.S. Department of State Title vIII
Program for Research and Training on Eastern Europe and Eurasia, the Pew
Presidential Fellowship, and the University of Pennsylvania. She has published
an article in The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review and has presented her work
at conferences throughout the United States and Eurasia. She holds a BS in
foreign service and an MA in Eurasian, Russian, and East European studies