After the Revolution

In his blog, “This is Tbilisi Calling,” journalist and author Matthew Collin provided a link to a EurasiaNet audio slideshow portraying displaced ethnic Georgians who fled the breakaway region of Abkhazia during the civil war there.

Since I’ve been on the topic of breakaway regions, I’ll give a little history of Abkhazia.

The Abkhaz people are closely related to Russians in the North Caucasus. Abkhaz became a protectorate in the Russian empire in 1810 and was annexed in 1864. At that point Russians and Georgians began to move there while many ethnic Abkhaz fled.

Abkhazia gained some independence after the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, but Stalin, who liked to vacation there, incorporated it into Georgia as a tightly controlled ”autonomous republic” in 1931.

When Georgia left the Soviet Union, residents of Abkhazia favored independence and closer ties with Russia. Georgians sent troops in 1992 and fighting broke out in the region in 1993, forcing many ethnic Georgians out.

Abkhazia declared independence in 1994 and, like South Ossetia, survives solely on the support of Russia. Many citizens of both regions also hold Russian citizenship.

I found an interesting blog titled “Imagining the State” written by an English professor and a photographer who traveled through three breakaway republics, including Abkhazia, in 2000. It gives a very readable account of their travels and interactions with Abkhazians; I recommend at least skimming through.