CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 137

ZURAB TARGAMADZE
dence of his goals, to create the annals in order to introduce a real history
to the Georgians and thus develop allegiance, common memories and val-
ues system in the country population. 10
In the second half of the 18th century, this movement had a wider
scope in the united Kartli and Kakheti. 11 Erekle the Second (King of Ka-
kheti in 1744-1762, king of the Kartli and Kakheti in 1762-1798) even
aimed to set a system of common values in all strata of the society by
developing the primary and secondary educational systems (also, by reg-
ulating the legislation and promotion of the socio-economic life), where
the history of Georgia and the Georgian literature were taught together
with other subjects. In 1790, signing the Iverians 12 Union Treaty points
out that the political and cultural elite absolutely agreed with the main
postulates adopted by Vakhtangi and Vakhushti. It should be said, that in
the Treaty, where the common origin of Georgians and a historical desti-
ny are underlined, was signed by all the rulers of Georgian kingdoms and
principalities with the exception of Abkhazia.
So, in the 18th century, the Georgian elite tried to revive the feeling of
the common destiny and collective memory icons. They wanted to create
a common valuable system between the Georgians.
In parallel to discussing the meaning of history and memory, Vakhush-
ti Bagrationi made his own defi nition of the Georgian unity. He special-
ly underlined the fact that despite the breakdown into separate kingdoms
and principalities, partitioned Georgia was and still remained united from
the historical and cultural point of view. The mentioned fact is corroborat-
ed by the following:
If you ask any Georgian or Imerian, Meskhian, Heretian or Kakhetian:
“what is your origins?”, they answer “Georgian” immediately. They share
a common book and the language, created by the king Parnavaz I and
when asking the same people: “which language and book do you know?”
– They answer immediately: the Georgian one. They will not say: “the or-
igin, language and written language of Imerians, or Meskhians, Heretians
and Kakhetians, but of the Georgians. 13
As we see, Vakhushti determinesthe initial and main feature of the
Georgians. The most importantmarkers are the ethnical origin, language
and alphabet. It is evident from the text that Vakhushti emphasizes the
10
11
12
13
Vakhushti Bagrationi, The Description of the Georgian Kingdom. The text established accord-
ing to all main manuscripts by Simon Kaukhchishvili. ( Tbilisi: Sabchota Sakartvelo), 2, 4.
Kartli and Kakheti are the historical and ethnographic regions of the Georgia. After the de-
cline Georgian Kingdom, fractured into several kingdoms and principalities, among them
were kingdom of Kartli and Kakheti.
Iveria is a self-name of the Georgians into the old Georgian language.
Bagrationi, The Description of the Georgian Kingdom, 291-292.
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