Academic/non-fiction literature does not have a large share of the Georgian book market. Multilingual students may not have a problem with this, but overall, this limits access to information. Especially in the field of Georgian history, there are significant books in English that offer new perspectives. The translation of key academic texts into Georgian will make knowledge more accessible and introduce critical perspectives into Georgian debates.
With our support, Ziari Press is working on the Georgian translation of Timothy Blauvelt’s book “Clientelism and Nationality in an Early Soviet Fiefdom”, published in 2021. It is based on extensive research around the documents of the first Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Abkhaz ASSR, Nestor Lakoba, and demonstrates through the prism of Abkhazia how ethnicity was used to consolidate local control and build a patronage network.
The book will be of benefit to the Georgian public and to politicians and public figures with an interest in the issues of nation- and state-building. It will also be useful to students and professors who study history and political science and/or deal with the problems of ethnic conflicts.
