Description
Book SynopsisGeorgian and Soviet investigates the constitutive capacity of Soviet nationhood and empire. The Soviet republic of Georgia, located in the mountainous Caucasus region, received the same nation-building template as other national republics of the USSR. Yet Stalin''s Georgian heritage, intimate knowledge of Caucasian affairs, and personal involvement in local matters as he ascended to prominence left his homeland to confront a distinct set of challenges after his death in 1953.
Utilizing Georgian archives and Georgian-language sources, Claire P. Kaiser argues that the postwar and post-Stalin era was decisive in the creation of a Georgian Georgia. This was due not only to the peculiar role played by the Stalin cult in the construction of modern Georgian nationhood but also to the subsequent changes that de-Stalinization wrought among Georgia''s populace and in the unusual imperial relationship between Moscow and Tbilisi. Kaiser describes how the Soviet empire
Trade Review
In Georgian and Soviet: Entitled Nationhood and the Specter of Stalin in the Caucasus, Claire P. Kaiser expertly analyzes the ways Georgians carved out and promoted their national rights and identities within the USSR.
* Europe Now Journal *
This is an excellent book. It adds to our understanding of how empires work and reveals the convoluted relationships and legacies of Soviet imperial hierarchies in the South Caucasus. It will help Georgians, when it is translated (in process) to face the complexities of their own Soviet past.
* The Russian Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Pantheon as Past and Present
1. History, Nation, and Local Foundations of the Stalin Cult
2. Entitled Foreign Policy and Its Limits
3. Expulsions and Ethnic Consolidations
4. De-Stalinization, kartulad
5. A Georgian Tbilisi
6. Entangled Nationalisms
Epilogue: Stalin's Ghosts
