(Untitled)

[pence]

I am having difficult time forming conclusions about Russian-Georgian conflict in the cacus region.  Despite my questionable 'Russianess' (living on the continent for more than half of my life), being an American citizen and coming from a no longer existing country, this conflict still manages to hit close to home... as did Kosovo.  I am reading

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history comes back to haunt you

[thisoldanvil]

The troubles in Georgia illustrate the shortcomings of history. George W. Bush talks about the “Georgian nation’s territorial integrity.” But is Georgia really a “nation?” The war is about an area mainly populated by non-Georgians. Conflict between occupants of this part of the world goes back to the ancient days of the mythical Greek Jason and his quest for the Golden Fleece, when Georgia was known as Colchis.

The empires of Persia, Rome, and Byzantium held sway at various times. Then came the Arab empire, followed by the Ottoman Turks. There were periods of “independence,” when a homegrown dynasty ruled. In the late 1700s, the local rulers, under pressure from Persia, invited Catherine the Great to send troops to help them resist. This led to the incorporation of Georgia into the Russian Empire and the end of any real national development.

Contrast this to, say, France. A series of wars - and marriages (funny how they go together) - in the 15th and 16th centuries led to a unified kingdom that was overthrown by the Great Revolution of 1789-93, and the birth of a nation (and a national market - the growth of capitalism was behind all this, of course).

Georgia - and many other countries of the Transcaucasus, the Balkans, and many other parts of the world - missed all that. The “national idea” grew, of course, under the influence of foreign examples, and foreign oppression, but without the economic, social and political means to put it into effect.

The 1917 revolution opened the door to independence, under the leadership of Menshevik refugees from Bolshevik rule. They, of course, opened their borders to the White armies fighting the Reds in the Civil War, and to their foreign backers.

In 1921, the Red Army conquered Georgia (in one of the shabbier episodes of the otherwise heroic early years of the revolution).

Look, this could go on forever. Let me just say this. History has left Georgia in the rather hopeless position of being unable to resist control by one or another “great power.” The only solution is to get rid of the great powers.