Renegotiating the empire, forging the nation-state: the Georgian case through the political economic thought of Niko Nikoladze and Noe Zhordania, c. 1870-1920
Abstract
This article begins with an observation of a contemporary and yet reoccurring political dilemma that small nation-(states) face with respect to larger states in being either inside or outside of supranational political entities regarding political and economic asymmetries. Employing an intellectual historical approach, the article explores this dilemma with reference to the historical context of the late-nineteenth century Tsarist Georgian nation during the two decades of the twentieth century when that territory briefly became a nation-state: it explores this through the language of political economy articulated in the thoughts and actions of two founding Georgian national intellectual and political figures, the statesman Niko Nikoladze, and one of first prime ministers Noe Zhordania.
It argues that conceiving of the nation(state) primarily in economic terms, as opposed to exclusively nationalist ones, was more conducive to the option of remaining inside a supranational space.