Memory Strategies in Contemporary Georgia
Journal cover Central European Political Studies, no. 4, year 2017
PDF

Keywords

Georgia
collective memory
identity transformation
memory sites
lustration
Occupation Museum

How to Cite

Karaia, T. (2017). Memory Strategies in Contemporary Georgia. Central European Political Studies, (4), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssp.2017.4.1

Abstract

Georgia, as a former Soviet republic, began dealing with its Soviet past, but in the 1990s these processes were limited and delayed. Therefore, we cannot speak about a continuous politics of memory and this led to changeable foreign policy priorities. After the Rose Revolution, the new government introduced reforms in most of the key spheres of institutional life. Re-addressing the totalitarian past saw a number of problematic manifestations in political and cultural life in this post-Soviet country. For the renovation of the state system, it was essential to make corresponding boundaries with the pre-revolution state system. Analyzing the politics of memory, symbolism is the most notable attitude in this period. After 2006, when Georgian citizens were deported from the Russian Federation, the tendencies of the politics of memory changed rapidly. Terms such as “occupation,” “repression” etc. appeared in the political discourse. From this period on, the strategies of memory could be associated with a politics of victimization and the formation of the collective memory prioritized as a national security issue.

https://doi.org/10.14746/ssp.2017.4.1
PDF

References

CxeiZe T. (11.09.2010), rogor iwereba istoriuli simarTle, “netgazeti”, moZiebulia 30.09.2010.

goris centridan stalinis Zegli aiRes (25.06.2010), “Civil.ge” http://www.civil.

miXeil saakaSvili istoriuli simartlis damdgeni komisiis SesaXeb (09.04.2010), http://www.priesident.gov.ge, moZiebulia 12.05.2011

mixeil saakaSvilma gazsadenis afeTqebasTan dakavSirebiT telekompania “bi-bi-si”-sTvis komentari gaakeTa (26.01.2006), http://www.priesident.gov.ge, moZiebulia 04.05.2011.

mixeil saakaSvilma stalinis Zeglis demontaJTan dakavSirebiT gancxadeba gaakeTa (25.06.2010), moZiebulia 30.11.2011, 35.

otsdakhuti Tebervali sabWoTa okupaciis dRed gamocxadda (21.07.2010), “civil.ge”, http://www.civil.ge/geo/article.php?id=22991, moZiebulia 02.10.2010.

RuxaZe V. (30.01.2010), koleqtiuri mexsiereba, “24 saati”, http://www.24saati.ge/weekend/story/2904-koleqtiuri-mekhsiereba, moZiebulia 30.02.2010.

saqarTvelos parlamentis dadgenileba saqarTvelos sabWoTa okupaciis Sesaxeb (26.06.2010), saqarTvelos parlamenti.

saqarTvelos parlamentis teritoriuli mTlianobis aRdgenis sakiTxTa droebiTi komisiis sxdomis oqmi, N 85 (08.08.2012).

saqarTvelos prezidenti mixeil saakaSvili parlamentSi wlis saangariSo moxsenebiT gamovida (24.02.2005), http://www.priesident.gov.ge, moZiebulia 24.05.2012.

saqarTvelos prezidentis gamosvla miunhenis 42-e saerTaSoriso konferenciisadmi miZRvnil sadilze (3.02.2006), moZiebulia 05.05.2011.

saqarTvelos prezidentis mixeil saakaSvilis gamosvla qarTvel iunkerTa xsovnisadmi miZRvnil RonisZiebaze (25.02.2006), http://www.priesident.gov.ge , moZiebulia 04.05.2011.

saqarTvelos prezidentis mixeil saakaSvilis gamosvla zugdidSi (20.11.2005), http://www.priesident.gov.ge, moZiebulia 04.05.2011.

saqarTvelos prezidentis mixeil saakaSvilis sagangebo gancxadeba (22.01.2006), http://www.priesident.gov.ge, moZiebulia 04.05.2011, 36.

saqarTvelos prezidentis mixeil saakaSvilis sajaro gamosvla saqarTvelos damoukideblobis dRisadmi miZRvnil aRlumze (26.05.2004), http://www.priesident.gov.ge , moZiebulia 04.05.2011.

saqarTvelos prezidentma mixeil saakaSvilma saqarTvelos teritoriidan ruseTis samxedro bazebis gayvanasTan dakavSirebiT or qveyanas Soris miRweuli SeTanxmebis Taobaze brifingi gamarTa (31.05.2005), http://www.priesident.gov.ge, moZiebulia 04.05.2011.

Tavisuflebis qartia (28.10.2011), saqarTvelos parlamenti.

TbilisSi sabWoTa okupaciis muzeumi gaixsna (27.05.2006), radio tavisupleba, http://www.radiotavisupleba.ge/content/article/1547061.html, moZiebulia 04.05.2011.

xuciZe N. (30.10.2005), opozicia lustraciis kanonis miRebas iTxovs.sivil jorjia, moZiebulia 30.11.2011. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0038-1628453

yviTeli baraTi inteligencias (19.02.2004), dilis gazeTi, http://experti.ge/2004kviteli_barati_inteligentsias.htm, moZiebulia 30.11.2011.

Abashidze Z., Sundua S., Karaia T. (2017), National narration and Politics of Memory in post-socialist Georgia, “Slovak Journal of Political Sciences”, vol. 17, no. 2. pp. 222–240. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/sjps-2017-0010

Andersen F. (2000), Fragile democracies: A study of institutional consolidation in six Eastern and Central European democracies, 1989–1997, “Trondheim studies on East European cultures & societies”, Program on East European Cultures & Societies, 37.

Assmann A. (2006), Memory, Individual and Collective, in Contextual Political Analysis, in: R. Goodin, Ch. Tilly, The Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Analysis (pp. 211–227), Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Berger P. L., Luckmann T. (1967), The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, Texas Tech University. Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism, Anchor Book, Doubleday, New York.

Black J. (2005), Using history, Hodder Arnold, London.

Bloom W. (1990), Personal Identity. National Identity and International Relations. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511558955

Cambridge Studies in International Relations, Cambridge University Press.

Cohen S. (1995), State Crimes of Previous Regimes: Knowledge, Accountability, and the Policing of the Past, “Law & Social Inquiry”, #20. pp. 7–50, 38. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-4469.1995.tb00681.x

Confino A. (1997), Collective Memory and Cultural History: Problems of Method, “American Historical Review”, vol. 102, no. 5, pp. 1386–1405. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2171069

Connerton P. (2008), Seven Types of Forgetting, “Memory Studies” 1(1), pp. 59–71. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698007083889

Corney F. C. (1998). Rethinking a Great Event: The October Revolution as Memory Project Social Science History, vol. 22, no. 4, Special Issue, “Memory and the Nation” (winter), pp. 397, Duke University Press on behalf of the Social Science History Association. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1171570

Curry L. (2007), When an Authoritarian State Victimizes the Nation: Transitional Justice, Collective Memory and Political Divide, “International Journal of Sociology”, vol. 37, no. 1, Aggressors, Victims, and Trauma in Collective Memory (Spring, 2007), pp. 58–73 M. E. Sharpe. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2753/IJS0020-7659370104

Dietler M. (1998), A Tale of Three Sites: The Monumentalization of Celtic Oppida and the Politics of Collective Memory and Identity, “World Archaeology”, Taylor & Francis, Ltd. vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 72–89. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1998.9980398

Earl A. (2011), Cultural Memory Studies, an International and Interdisciplinary Handbook, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin–New York.

Ellis M. (1996), Purging the past: The Current State of Lustration Laws in the Former Communist, “Law and Contemporary Problems”, vol. 59, no. 4, Duke University School of Law. pp. 181–196. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1192198

Gedi N. Elam Y. (1996), Collective Memory – What Is It?, “History and Memory”, vol. 8, no. 1, Indiana University Press.

Gillis J. (1994), Memory and Identity: The History of a Relationship in Commemorations, Princeton University Press, Princeton. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691186658-003

Goldstone R. (2000), Reconstructing Peace in Fragmented Societies, “Facing Ethnic Conflicts: Center for Development Research” (ZEF Bonn).

Halbwachs M. (1992), On Collective Memory, „Heritage of Sociology Series”. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226774497.001.0001

Hobsbawm E. (1983), Introduction, in: Inventing Traditions, in The Invention of Tradition, ed. E. Hobsbawm, T. Ranger, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 40.

Horne C. M., Levi M. (2003), Does Lustration Promote Trustworthy Governance? An Exploration of the Experience of Central and Eastern Europe Prepared for Trust and Honesty Project, Collegium THIRD DRAFT, Budapest. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403981103_4

Huntington S. (1991), The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

Huyse L. (1995), Justice after Transition: On the Choices Successor Elites Make in Dealing with the Past, “Law and Social Inquiry” #20, pp. 51–78. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-4469.1995.tb00682.x

Kammen M. (1991), The Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture, New York, 3.

Kansteiner W. (2002), Finding Meaning in Memory: Amethodological critique of Collective memory Studies, “History and Theory”, vol. 41. pp. 179–197. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/0018-2656.00198

Kansteiner W., Fogu C. (2006), The Politics of Memory in Postwar Europe, Duke University Press, Durham.

Kitschelt H., Mansfeldova Z., Markowski R., Toka T. (1999), Post-Communist Party Systems: Competition, Representation, and Inter-Party Cooperation, Cambridge University Press, New York. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139175173

Lebow R. (2006), The Memory of Politics in Postwar Europe, in: The Politics of Memory in Postwar Europe, eds. R. N. Lebow, W. Kansteiner, C, Fogu, Duke University Press, Durham. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11cw204

Narvaez R. F. (2006), Embodiment, Collective memory and Time, “Body and Society”, vol 12(3), pp. 51–73. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X06067156

Nora P. (1989), Between Memory and History, “Representations”, no. 26, Special Issue: Memory and Counter-Memory, (Spring, 1989), pp. 7–24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2928520

Paabo H. (2011), Potential of Collective Memory Based International Identity Conflicts in Post-Imperial Space, University of Tartu, Dissertation.

Sontag S. (2003), Regarding the Pain of Others, Picador, New York. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/dio.201.0127