2014/01/02 by Timothy K. Blauvelt · 3 citations
Social Sciences · #Soviet and Russian History #Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics #Eastern European Communism and Reforms #Clientelism #Nationality #State (computer science) #Power (physics) #Political science #Ethnic group #Empire #Citizenship #Politics #Georgian #Centralized government #Law #Political economy #Sociology #Immigration #Democracy
paper · doi:10.1080/09546545.2014.904472
openalex publication_date 2014/01/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
This article investigates the intersection of Soviet nationality policy, ethno-federal territorialism, clientelism and the creation of new administrative institutions in the course of the establishment of Soviet power in Abkhazia, an ethnically diverse territory in the periphery of the former tsarist empire. Based on materials from the Georgian archives, as well as from the personal collections of Efrem Eshba and Nestor Lakoba, this article demonstrates the ways in which nationality policy played out at the local level and how the ‘indigenisation’ of local titular elites intersected with contestations over power and the distribution of resources inherent to the construction of the new institutions of Soviet rule.