Familiar Strangers: the Georgian Diaspora in the Soviet Union

Familiar Strangers: The Georgian Diaspora in the Soviet Union By Erik Rattazzi Scott A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Yuri Slezkine, Chair Professor Stephan Astourian Professor Victoria E. Bonnell Professor Victoria Frede Professor Leslie P. Peirce Spring 2011 Familiar Strangers: The Georgian Diaspora in the Soviet Union © 2011 By Erik Rattazzi Scott Abstract Familiar Strangers: The Georgian Diaspora in the Soviet Union By Erik Rattazzi Scott Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor Yuri Slezkine, Chair The experience of the Georgian diaspora in the Soviet Union is a story of the paradoxes of Soviet empire. On the one hand, the arrival of the Red Army in Tbilisi in 1921 brought Georgia’s brief period of independence to an abrupt end. On the other hand, membership in the newly-constituted Soviet Union opened up new opportunities for Georgians and other ethnic minority groups. Such opportunities were seized upon most effectively by an internal Georgian diaspora within the Soviet Union, a small but highly mobile and visible community. The Georgians, who traveled to Moscow from the periphery of the Soviet empire, could be seen at the center of Soviet life at every stage of Soviet history. Georgians headed the state that built socialism, provided the food and entertainment when Soviet citizens desired new forms of consumption and leisure, dominated the burgeoning second economy, and were among the first to seek an exit from the Soviet Union amidst the rising nationalism that accompanied its demise. By examining the aspects of Soviet life where Georgian prominence was greatest, the dissertation explores the broad sweep of Soviet history from the perspective of this dynamic ethnic minority. The dissertation begins by introducing the concept of internal diasporas in Soviet history and outlining the unique roles played by the Georgians. Subsequent chapters explore the rise of Georgians in the Soviet political elite, the dissemination of Georgian food and drink through institutionalized Georgian social networks, the unique forms of ethnic entertainment created by Georgian cultural entrepreneurs, and the vital role played by Georgian traders in the second economy of the Soviet Union. The final chapter looks at how Georgian ambitions, bred in the Soviet context, led the republic’s intelligentsia to eventually seek an exit from the Soviet Union, and an epilogue takes the story of the Georgian diaspora up to the present day. While scholars in the past have focused on the periphery as a way of challenging theories of revolution and society based on the Soviet empire’s Russian core, this project looks at how a multiethnic center was created by groups from the periphery, and how lines between center and periphery, as well as those between colonizer and colonized, were particularly blurred in the Soviet context. Unlike earlier studies of nationality, the dissertation looks not at a particular group in a specific territory in isolation from all others, but rather examines the interplay of diverse ethnic groups across geographic 1 boundaries. It also brings into focus social and cultural factors previously neglected in the study of nationality and empire, including entertainment, everyday life, and material culture. Finally, the Georgian case challenges our understanding of the concept of diaspora. Rooted Soviet cosmopolitans, members of the Georgian diaspora maintained and capitalized on their connection to a specific territory and culture even as they traveled beyond the borders of their native republic. 2 Table of Contents Dedication ii Acknowledgements iii Chapter 1 1 The Georgians in the Soviet Empire of Diasporas Chapter 2 20 Georgian Revolutionaries Between the Caucasus and the Kremlin Chapter 3 59 Edible Ethnicity: How Georgian Cuisine Conquered the Soviet Table Chapter 4 90 Dances of Difference: Georgian Entertainers on the Soviet Stage Chapter 5 119 Ethnic Entrepreneurs in the Imperial Marketplace: Georgians and the Soviet Union’s Second Economy Chapter 6 147 The Georgian Intelligentsia and the Limits of Soviet Empire Epilogue 176 The End of the Empire of Diasporas Bibliography 187 i Dedication For Keeli and Sabina ii Acknowledgements To begin with, I wish to express my most sincere gratitude to the members of my committee, whose timely comments, critique, and encouragement helped shape this dissertation and guide it to completion. Victoria Frede provided countless suggestions to improve the structure and substance of my arguments; Leslie Peirce inspired me to place my subject in a broader chronological and geographical framework; Stephan Astourian offered his knowledge of the Caucasus and its other diasporas; and Victoria Bonnell introduced me to a range of sociological theories that changed my thinking about history. Most of all, my adviser, Yuri Slezkine, was a source of profound intellectual influence, wit, and subtle but steady guidance. This dissertation was born in conversations that began in his office and have continued in a variety of venues over the past seven years. I could not have hoped for a better adviser, and I look forward to continuing our conversations in the future. At the University of California, Berkeley, I was welcomed into several overlapping intellectual communities that enriched my life and work. I would like to express my appreciation to my fellow members of the Berkeley kruzhok for lively intellectual conversation and to Vakhtang Chikovani and Shorena Kurtsikidze for offering Georgian language instruction and a Georgian sense of community in the Bay Area. I benefited from coursework and discussions with several Berkeley faculty members beyond my committee, and am particularly grateful for the thoughtful advice and instruction offered by Ned Walker, Beshara Doumani, and Gregory Grossman. I would like to offer special thanks to my fellow graduate students at Berkeley who read and discussed my work with me, especially David Beecher, Shota Papava, Alexis Peri, and Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock. I would also like to thank the scholars beyond Berkeley who offered input on my project at critical stages, including Ron Suny, Sergei Arutiunov, Vitaly Naumkin, James Heinzen, Robert Edelman, Vadim Volkov, Jeff Sahadeo, Peter Rutland, and Michael Reynolds. At Johns Hopkins University, Jeffrey Brooks and Kenneth Moss provided thoughtful critique and welcomed me as a visiting scholar. My studies were made possible thanks to financial support from the Berkeley Department of History, the Berkeley Program in Eurasian and East European Studies, and the US Department of Education’s Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship. My research trips received generous funding from the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Grant and the Alan Sharlin Memorial Award. The Dean’s Normative Time Fellowship and the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship gave me the resources and time I needed to write my dissertation and allowed me to do so in Baltimore. I am grateful for all of the colleagues and friends in Russia, Georgia, and the United States who helped me carry out my research. In Russia, I would like to thank the helpful archivists of the Russian State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), the Russian State Economic Archive (RGAE), the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI), the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (RGANI), the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI), the Central Archive of the City of Moscow (TsAGM), and the Central Archive of Literature and Art of Moscow (TsALIM). I am also grateful for the assistance rendered by Nona Matua of the Union of Georgians iii in Russia in arranging interviews. Among Moscow’s Georgian community, I would like to thank everyone who took the time to meet with me, especially Nana Tabidze and Dzhuansher Vateishvili. In Georgia, I wish to extend my gratitude to the Archive Administration of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs for their generous hospitality. Colonel Omar Tushurashvili gave me free rein in the Ministry’s archives; the Archive Administration’s staff welcomed me into their own working quarters and insisted on sharing their food with me; and the archivists, especially Dodo Baghaturia, never tired of bringing me the documents I requested, along with many others that proved to be of great value. In addition, kind and enthusiastic support was given by the archivists of the Central Archive of the Contemporary History of Georgia’s Department of Literature and Art. I am also thankful for the assistance provided by Shalva Machavariani, Sasha Kukhianidze, Kety Rostiashvili, Giorgi Kldiashvili, Timothy Blauvelt, and Berdia Natsvlishvili in helping me carry out my research in Tbilisi. Following my research in Russia and Georgia, I benefitted from a week spent at the Hoover Institution’s Soviet Archives Summer Workshop, and I would like to express my gratitude to the Hoover Institution’s helpful archivists and to the other workshop participants. I might never have gone to Russia and Georgia at all were it not for my mentors before graduate school: Pat Herlihy, who first introduced me to the study of Russian and Soviet History as an undergraduate at Brown University; Martha Olcott, who drew my attention to the non-Slavic parts of the former Soviet Union; and Louise Shelley, who gave me an exciting opportunity to carry out research in Georgia at a dramatic juncture in that nation’s history. Before my travels even began, my parents nurtured my intellectual interests, and my grandparents gave me an intimate understanding of my family’s own story of migration and diaspora by sharing stories of their life in a small Italian village. Later on, my family supported my decision to go to graduate school, and my parents, grandparents, sister, and brother-in-law did everything they could to help me along the way. I owe the greatest debt of gratitude to my wife, Keeli.

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