Nationalism and the issue of nation-building in the nineteenth century’s Georgian political thought

Abstract

In this article, we discuss two different directions about the Georgian nationalism of the 19th century: first we consider, thetrinity of language, homeland, faith – maybe one of the best classical formulations of nationalist project. And second, in the process of creation of the nation, in the course of research of the Georgian nation-building of that period, we can not avoid the role of printed media. Georgian intellectuals published their opinions on general internal problems or foreign policy processes and all the most important ideas expressed by them were widespread by the printed media. Under strict censorship, discussing foreign policy processes was an indirect way to disclose the attitudes of Georgian intellectuals to the building Georgian nation, restoration of state, territorial integrity and independence, as well as to the colonial politics in generall.
“Let’s be self-sufficient” is a phrase best describing the main purpose of Georgian intellectuals. However, it is noteworthy that the creators of that time Georgian nationalismprimarily sought to gain autonomy within the Russian Empire, while full political independence was due to the reality a far and difficult goal. Generally, Georgian nationalism developed during that period was clearly mild and was far from ethno-cultural discrimination that is o"en characteristic for nationalism.