Caucasian Multiculturalism, as the Burden and the Opportunity and the Private Archive of Russian Empire's Georgian General

Abstract

The Caucasus is considered as one of the difficult geopolitical regions. It includes Georgia, which differs from other Caucasian ethnics in religious-cultural context. Georgia, which has been strongly influenced by Persia and Ottoman Turkey for centuries, as well as by Europe, fully becomes a part of Russian Empire and gets under even stronger European influence. The 19th century Caucasus was characterized by multiculturalism that, in general, causes the atrophy of values and the marginalization of national components, as a result. The subject of our research is the private archive, namely, 700 letters of Grigol Orbeliani (1804-1883), Georgian poet, military person and public figure, the General of the Russian army. In this material, we can find the various concepts of self-identity. In this regard, it is significant to analyze what place was taken by Russian on the one hand and Eastern on the other hand phraseology and sayings in his mentality. How does Orbeliani understand and develop the phenomenon of “homeland”; what forms of tolerance does he reveal; what is his perception on Imperial, Caucasian and Georgian contexts, and so on. These very letters give us the opportunity to find not only Orbelianian contours of self-identity concept, but contributes to our attempts of marking human groups and societies’ ethnic and religious identities as well.