The Making of the Georgian Nation

415 Pages·1988·9.597 MB·English

by  Ronald Grigor Suny

THE
MAKING
OF THE
GEORGIAN
NATION
STUDIES OF NATIONALITIES IN THE USSR
Wayne S. Vucinich, Editor
PUBLISHED BY THE HOOVER INSTITUTION PRESS
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Alan W. Rsher
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Azade-Ay§e Rorlich
The Kazakhs
Martha Brill Olcott
Estonia and the Estonians
Toivo U. Raun
The Making of the Georgian Nation
Ronald Grigor Suny
MAKING
OF THE
GEORGIAN
NATION
Ronald Grigor Suny
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Bloomington and Indianapolis
in association with
HOOVER INSTITUTION PRESS
Stanford University
Stanford, California
© 1988 by Ronald Grigor Suny
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American
University finesses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only
exception to this prohibition.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Suny, Ronald Grigor.
The making of the Georgian nation.
(Studies of nationalities in the USSR)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Georgian S.S.R—History. I. Title.
II. Series.
DK511.G4S78 1988 947'.95 87-21367
ISBN 0-253-33623-6
OSBM 0-253-21277-4 (pbk.)
1 2 3 4 5 92 91 90 89 88
For Armena,
in memory of our son
Grikor Martiros Suni
(1978—1980)

Contents
Foreword ix
Preface xiii
Note on Transliteration and Dating xvii
PART ONE
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GEORGIAN
MONARCHIES
I
The Formation of the Georgian Nation 3
2
Christian Georgia: The First Thousand Years 20
3 The Long Twilight of the Georgian Kingdoms 42
PART TWO
GEORGIA IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE
4 Russian Rule and Georgian Society 63
5 Emancipation and the End of Seigneurial
Georgia 96
6
The Emergence of Political Society 113
7 Marxism and the National Struggle 144
8
The End of Tsarist Georgia 165
viii Contents
PART THREE
REVOLUTIONARY AND SOVIET GEORGIA
9 Revolution and Republic 185
IO
Bolshevik Georgia 209
ii
Stalin’s Revolution 237
12
Stalinism in Georgia 260
IJ Georgia and Soviet Nationality Policy since
Stalin 292
14 Conclusion 314
Glossary 319
Notes 325
Bibliographical Note 381
Index 387
Foreword
Ronald Grigor Suny’s The Making of the Georgian Nation is the fifth
volume in the Studies of Nationalities in the USSR, a series published by the
Hoover Institution Press. The present volume, copublished by Indiana Uni­
versity Press, presents a comprehensive history of Georgia and the Georgians
from the earliest times to the present day. Eminently qualified for the task
that he has undertaken, Professor Suny is a widely recognized scholar, one of
America’s leading authorities on the history of Russia, the Soviet Union, and
the Caucasus, and the first holder of the Alex Manoogian Chair in Modern
Armenian History at the University of Michigan.
With their long history and rich culture, the Georgians hold a unique
place among the Soviet nationalities. A good history of Georgia has long
been needed. Previous books by W. E. D. Allen (History of the Georgian
People) and D. M. Lang (History of Modern Georgia), though still useful,
are antiquated. Although Soviet historiography on Georgia and the Geor­
gians is impressive in quantity and quality, it is marred by vacillating Soviet
political and ideological objectives. Professor Suny’s main objectives in this
book are to trace the Georgians’ national formation and to show how history
has shaped the Georgians into a self-conscious nationality and a nation. He
has sought to produce a balanced work and to unravel and interpret various
historiographic controversies.
The first part of the book covers the history of the Georgians from their
origin until they came under the rule of imperial Russia. Situated in a
strategically valued location between East and West, Georgia was frequently
invaded by foreign armies, its lands devastated, and its people subjugated to
foreign rule and quarreling native feudatories. Together with local unrest,
X Foreword
epidemics, and droughts, the invasions disrupted the social system, depleted
the population, and inflicted upon the Georgians foreign rule and culture.
Yet, even as Georgians accepted features of other cultures, they maintained
their own. Their ethnic community was like a balloon: squeezed at one place,
it popped out at another, always outliving its enemies.
In the second, larger part of the book, Suny gives an excellent analysis of
the process of integration of the Georgians into the Russian empire and their
reaction to Russian rule and culture. The historical significance of Russian
rule in Georgia has been a subject of controversy in Soviet historiography.
Suny assesses critically this debate and its political implications. In some
detail he explores Russia’s political, economic, and cultural impact on Geor­
gian society, the conflict between tsarist officialdom and established social
conventions, and the relations between social classes in Georgia.
The Georgian Orthodox Church—founded in the fourth century, auto­
cephalous since the sixth century, and a mark of Georgian ethnic identity—
was incorporated into the Russian Orthodox Church administration in
1811. The Georgian nobility merged with the Russian nobility. Yet, imperial
Russia failed to Russify Georgian society; instead, it stimulated a diverse new
Georgian national awareness. The result was that the Georgians emerged as a
politically and culturally conscious nationality. Not only did Georgians
retain their national identity, but their encounter with Russia actually forged
a more cohesive ethnicity with a new national leadership.
By becoming a part of Russia’s market system, Georgia’s economy
developed rapidly, and the nation was more readily exposed to Russian and
European cultural and political thought. The literary creations and political
movements of Georgia were modeled on those in Russia. And in 1892
Georgia acquired a Marxist organization (mesame dasi; “Third Group”). Its
leaders, most of whom later became Mensheviks, formed a dynamic political
elite that eventually led Georgia into a brief independence. Among those
Georgian Marxists who turned to Bolshevism was Josef (loseb)
Jughashvili—later known as Joseph Stalin.
Among the best pages in Ptofessor Suny’s superb study are those, in the
third part of the book, on Stalinism and its implementation, including the
purges. His discussion of the party structure and analysis of the party cadres
also deserve special attention, as does the discussion of the sociopolitical
formation and transformation of Stalinism and the results of the policy of
korenizatsiia. In a masterly fashion Professor Suny shows how Stalin was able
to organize a group of dedicated followers in Georgia’s governing and party
circles, the closest of whom was Lavrenti P. Beria, chief of the secret police.
The fact that Stalin was of Georgian background could not but shape
Georgian attitudes toward him and the Soviet Union. Suny notes that despite
the Stalinist purges in 1937-1938, the severe repression in Georgia, and
Stalin’s espousal of “Great Russianism” (which was detrimental to small
nations like Georgia), many Georgians consider Stalin a great fellow coun­