Since July 2021, the Heinrich Boell Foundation Tbilisi Office – South Caucasus Region supports Ziari Press (former Poezia Press) within the framework of the project - Contribution to a Discussion on History, Nation-building and Memory Politics in Georgia. During project implementation period, Ronald Suny’s book “The Making of the Georgian Nation” will be translated and published in Georgian language.
Ronald Grigor Suny, who is currently Emeritus Professor of political science and history at the University of Chicago, is a highly respected scholar of history and nationalism of the former Soviet space. His book “The Making of the Georgian Nation” was first published in 1988 and the second edition appeared in 1994. The book studies the emergence of the Georgian nation in the ethnically diverse region of the Caucasus, largely in opposition to various external occupying forces. It traces the roots and rise of Georgian national consciousness in modern times and attempts to explain some of the underlying reasons for Georgian nationalism.
The Georgian translation of “The Making of the Georgian Nation” will contribute to this nascent discussion of history and memory politics as well as nation-and state-building in Georgia. It will be important for students, historians and decision makers to understand the process of nation-building, the origins of nationalism and its impact on the conflicts and potential peacemaking in Georgia.