The Georgian-Abkhazian Conflict | The value of the past, by Victor A. Shnirelman
The following section is taken from The Value of the Past: Myths, Identity and Politics in Transcaucasia by Victor A. Shnirelman, published by the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka in Osaka, Japan (2001).
Spanning pages 199–335, Part II: The Georgian-Abkhazian Conflict explores how historical narratives have been contested between Georgians and Abkhazians, particularly in the context of national identity and territorial legitimacy. Shnirelman examines the political, ethnographic, and historiographical debates that have shaped perceptions of the past, highlighting the ways in which history has been rewritten to serve contemporary claims.
| Part/Chapter | Title | Page |
|---|---|---|
| PART II | THE GEORGIAN-ABKHAZIAN CONFLICT | 199 |
| Chapter 1 | A republic with restricted sovereignty | 201 |
| Chapter 2 | The Abkhazian republic in search of its glorious ancestors | 215 |
| Chapter 3 | The adventures of the early Georgians in Asia Minor | 227 |
| Chapter 4 | Eternal Georgia | 245 |
| Chapter 5 | The Colchian mirage | 259 |
| Chapter 6 | Turchaninov’s “discovery” | 269 |
| Chapter 7 | The Abkhazians in a struggle for the “right” past | 273 |
| Chapter 8 | The Abkhazian-Georgian competition | 285 |
| Chapter 9 | From competition to confrontation | 299 |
| Chapter 10 | History, religion, demography, politics | 335 |
The full part in PDF can be downloaded by clicking here (3.8 MB)
Viktor A. Shnirelman
Born in 1949, Viktor Alexandrovich Shnirelman is a Doctor of Historical Sciences and a Chief Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, 119334, Leninsky Prospekt, 32-A). He is also a full member of Academia Europaea.
His research interests include nationalism, racism, antisemitism, ethnic conflicts, social memory, neo-paganism, eschatology, and conspiracy theories.
Dr. Shnirelman is the author of over 500 scholarly publications, including more than 30 books, among them:
- Agrarian Evolution: From Early Agricultural Communities to Stratified Societies (Moscow: LENAND, 2020)
- Three Myths of Conspiracy: Antisemitic Propaganda in Contemporary Russia (Moscow: All-Russian Public Organization "Lawyers for Human Rights and a Dignified Life", Academia, 2017)
- The Tribe of Dan: Eschatology and Antisemitism in Contemporary Russia (Moscow: BBI, 2017)
- The Aryan Myth in the Contemporary World (Moscow: NLO, 2015, Vol. 1–2)
- The Khazar Myth: The Ideology of Political Radicalism in Russia and Its Origins (Moscow: Bridges of Culture–Gesharim, 2012)
- "The Threshold of Tolerance": Ideology and Practice of New Racism (Moscow: NLO, 2011, Vol. 1–2)
- Being Alans: Intellectuals and Politics in the North Caucasus in the 20th Century (Moscow: NLO, 2006)
- Wars of Memory: Myths, Identity, and Politics in Transcaucasia (Moscow: IKC Akademkniga, 2003)
- The Myth of the Khazars: Intellectual Antisemitism in Russia, 1970s–1990s (Jerusalem, 2001)
- The Value of the Past: Myths, Identity, and Politics in Transcaucasia (Osaka, 2001)
- Who Gets the Past? Competition for Ancestors among Non-Russian Intellectuals in Russia (Washington, Baltimore, London, 1996)
- At the Origins of War and Peace (1994)
- The Emergence of Productive Economy (1989)
- The Origins of Cattle Breeding (1980)
Additionally, he was one of the co-authors of the three-volume History of Primitive Society (1983–1988) and the editor and contributor to Neo-Paganism Across Eurasia (2001).
Dr. Shnirelman’s extensive work provides profound insights into the intersections of history, ideology, and identity, making him a leading scholar in the study of ethnic and political mythmaking in Eurasia.