მარიამ ჩხარტიშვილი.ქეთევან მანია.ქართველთა ნაციონალური კონსოლიდაციის პროცესის ასახვა ბეჭდურ მედიაში ივერია და მისი მკითხველი საქართველო I. Coverage of the Process of the Georgian National Consolidation in Print Media Georgians as Readers of Iveria (original) (raw)

The present study is part of the project Print Media and the Process of Shaping of Georgian National Identity : Ilia’s “Iveria” (2008–2010), funded by LEPL Foundation for Georgian Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences (Rustaveli Foundation). The monograph focuses on the modern epoch and the process of the Georgian national consolidation. It is the fourth book of the research series The Georgian community and Its Identity : Ideas , Symbols , Perceptions . The first three books of the series were devoted to the studyof Georgian identity in the pre−modern epoch, having been implemented within the framework of the project Collective Cultural Identities in the Context of the Religious Conversion : A Study of the Georgian Case and Generalizations (2006–2008), also funded by LEPL Foundation for Georgian Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences (Rustaveli Foundation).The idea of the establishment of the said research series belongs tothe deceased scholar Lela Pataridze who was a participant of the both above mentioned grant projects. The present book is dedicated to her blessed memory. With respect to the theoretical knowledge available in the field of nationalism studies, the book is aimed at observing the process of the Georgian national consolidation based on one of the Georgian medias, specifically, the development of the process in question beginning from the 1870s till the middle of the first decade of the 21st century. Our study addresses specifically 1877–1906, that is, the period when Iveria was published. It is the principal source upon which we base the historical representation.According to the widely shared approach, media plays a decisive role in the establishment and further development of collective cultural identities. The post-modern epoch is characterized by the media, based on qualitatively new technologies, threatening the existing world order with explosions, casing the strain of relationships between global and national identities both on political and cultural levels.In its turn, the invention of writing had a similar powerful impetus.Written languages facilitated the creation of ethnic communities. As for the national stage of the identity evolution, it is associated with print media as a pre-requisite for the emergence of standard print languages.Print media facilitates the establishment of a network of readers of a common national scale – “imaginary society” (the term introduced by Benedict Anderson). Print media is both a reflector and a catalyst of the process of nationbuilding. The double role makes it a unique source for the study of the issue in case. The first Georgian printed book dates back to 17th century. As is known, it was a Georgian–Italian dictionary, published by Catholic missionaries in Rome in 1629. However, it was a detached fact and it could not essentially influence the development of Georgian identity. The situation changed in the 18th century; books were being printed in Georgia. Since the 19th century, the process of printing has become intensive. In 1819, the first Georgian newspaper was published. Since then, periodicals eventually began to play a significant role in the development of the Georgian unity. Among these publications, the significance of Iveria has been quite particular as one of the most long-lasting print media in Georgia of the said epoch. The general history of the periodical is as follows: its first issue was published on March 3, 1877, and its last issue was published on August 27, 1906. In the beginning, Iveria was a weekly newspaper. Since, 1879, Iveria turned into a monthly magazine. However, its 11th–12th issue was not published, as stated in the announcement appended to the magazine. Since 1880, it was published in the form of an anthology once in three months. Since 1881 till 1885, it was published as a monthly magazine. Since 1886, Iveria was a daily newspaper. Ilia Chavchavadze was a founder and editor of Iveria. At various periods of time, it was edited by Sergei Meskhi (since January, 1880, till November, 1886, when the editorial boards of Droeba and Iveria merged), Ivane Machabeli (1st–5th issues in 1882), Alexandre Sarajishvili (since December 5, 1901, till A. Sarajishvili was a temporary editora, and I. Chavchavadze was a publisher; since July, 1902, A. Sarajishvili was an editor and publisher), Grigol Kipshidze (since July 5, 1903, till July 1, 1905, G. Kipshidze was a temporary editor, while A. Sarajishvili was a publisher); later, till the closing of the newspaper (since July 1, 1905, P. Gogichaishvili was a temporary editor, while Pavle Tuamanishvili was a publisher), it was edited by Pilipe Gogichaishvili. Materials from Iveria have been widely applied in scholarly circulation.While studying various problems, scholars frequently refer to publications of Iveria. Irrespective of this fact, Iveria has never, as a whole, been presented as a historical source covering the process of national identity forging. Based on a widely accepted viewpoint, the later half of the 19th century is the period when the Georgian nation was formed. Despite of the fact that we essentially share this approach, we do not consider it satisfactory how the said process has been represented in Georgian historiography. The matter is that the judgment about the origin of the Georgian nation had been confined within a mere statement of the fact. The reason of the drawback, existing in the study of the problem, is partly due to Marxist sociology which appears to be a theoretical basis for the most of the works concerning the issue in point. In this case, we mean the main tendency. Unfortunately, the situation cannot be altered by the recent attempts to conceptualize the existing data within the framework of contemporary western theories. Our goal is to reconsider the approach, having been still dominant in Georgian historiography by now, and to reconstruct a detailed picture of the national consolidation of Georgians based on the theoretical approaches distinct from Marxism. This book does not concern the economic and political factors of Georgian nation building process, but it tells on public perceptions, on history of Georgian nationalism, on conceptualization of Georgian national identity markers. The process of the transformation of an ethnic community, having emerged based on a collective cultural identity, into a national community is characterized by the concentration of public interest on certain themes. Principal indicators of the process of national consolidation can be regarded the emergence of public interest in such themes as “people,” “education,” “mother tongue,” “homeland,” “others,” “our others,” “our unity,” “our character,” “our culture,” “our destiny,” “our women,” “our heroes,” “our roots,” “our religion,” etc. These themes and the intensity of public interest toward them can be viewed as indicators of the process of nation-making. The book analyzes Iveria publications with respect to these themes. The abundance of the collected data and the impossibility of their reduction conditioned the voluminous character of the work to be published within the framework of the grant project. That is why it was decided to publish it in two volumes. The present book, that is Volume 1, is based on the data from Iveria of 1877–1891. The following one, that is Volume 2, will present the outcomes of the research based on the Iveria issues from 1892–1906. Naturally enough, the work of the said goal initially posed the question what “nation” and “nationalism” are, as indicators of the national consolidation process. With respect to the above mentioned, thefirst part of the present book, Theoretical Foundation, presents our understanding of the said and some other notions based on the most up to-date achievements in theorizing of the said phenomena in the specialist literature. The second part of the work Historical Background: Emergence of Georgian Nationalism, tells about the realities of the earlier half of the 19th century, about the pre-requisites, based on which the Georgian nationalism of the later half of the 19th century and the earlier half of the 20th century, that is of the period when Iveria was published, emerged. The third part of the work, Data Analysis and Historical Representation : 1877–1891, is an attempt to interpret the data with a view to the principal indicators of the a national consolidation process. In its turn, this part consists of three sections; specifically, the data has been grouped according to the following periods: 1877–1881, 1882–1886, 1887–1891.The present volume ends with the part The Idea of Georgian Nationand Ilia’s “Iveria”, presenting the process of the formation of the idea ofthe Georgian nation as it was treated by Ilia Chavchavadze, having beenreferred to as a father of the Georgian nation. The Epilogue presents briefly the results of the analysis of the facts, having been collected in the publications of Iveria between 1877–1891. Volume 2 presents the data from 1892–1906, being also divided into threesections: 1892–1896, 1897–1901, and 1902–1906. “Iveria” and Georgians as Its Readers is the part of Volume 2 and of the book as a whole. It focuses on the principal results of the process of the conceptualization of the Georgian nation and the impact of the Iverian conception of the Georgian nation had on the Georgian community. The chronological limits, indicated above the main parts and sections of the work, do not mean the periodization of the history of Georgia based on a particular trait. We merely selected the periods of equal length (approximately fifteen years for parts, and five years for sections). Such an approach makes it more adequate to analyze data. Besides, the comparison of the data from the periods of equal length provides an interesting picture in terms of the dynamics of the development of the process.