ტოპონიმების განსაბჭოება საქართველოში (1987-1991 წწ.)

Abstract

For totalitarian systems such as the Soviet Union, the control of all symbolic and social spaces – including toponymy – is essential. For such regimes, place names carry explicit political significance: they function as instruments of representation and as symbols through which regime ideology is embedded and normalized within society. In the Soviet Union, and consequently in Georgia – incorporated into the Soviet state through occupation and de facto annexation – the naming and renaming of geographical entities constituted a mechanism of ideological control. The topic under investigation is particularly salient because toponyms vividly reflect the interplay of collective memory, identity, and power. They serve as tools through which these forces are articulated, while their transformation signals deeper structural changes within both the state and society. In the second half of the 1980s, the Soviet Union entered a period of profound transformation commonly associated with the policy of perestroika. Following the ascent of Mikhail Gorbachev to the leadership of the Communist Party, a series of reforms was initiated with the stated objective of renewing and prolonging the existence of an empire facing systemic crisis. Socio-economic restructuring was accompanied by processes of political and cultural liberalization, encapsulated in the doctrine of glasnost, as well as by efforts to normalize relations with Western states. Numerous aspects of public and political life were revisited and reassessed. Dissident and national liberation movements, previously suppressed or marginalized, re-emerged into the public sphere. The processes of perestroika and glasnost directly affected toponymic practices, as they catalyzed a gradual rejection of Soviet-era naming conventions and encouraged the restoration of historical place names. The primary objective of this research is to examine how the process of toponymic change was initiated in the Soviet Union and in Georgia, how it unfolded, and which actors played decisive roles in shaping it. To what extent was the process deliberate and systematic? How did the population respond? Why did these transformations begin prior to the restoration of Georgia’s state independence? Was the process driven predominantly “from above” by political authorities, or “from below” by societal pressures? The chronological framework of the study extends from 1987 – marking the onset of the active phase of perestroika – to 1991, the year in which Georgia restored its state independence. This research offers a measure of scholarly novelty, as the issue of toponymic de-Sovietization in Georgia has not, to date, received sustained and systematic academic attention. The study therefore seeks to address and partially fill this gap. The findings demonstrate that the de-Sovietization of toponyms in Georgia during the perestroika period corresponded to a longstanding societal aspiration: the symbolic and cultural restoration of conditions that had existed prior to Soviet occupation and de facto annexation. Both the transformation of toponymy and the broader processes of de-Sovietization and political emancipation formed integral components of the national liberation movement that intensified in the late 1980s. In this sense, toponymic change also embodied characteristics of decolonization within a formerly subordinated political space. Despite these developments, the process of toponymic de-Sovietization remains incomplete. This is evidenced both by the continued official presence of certain Soviet-era place names and by the persistence of Soviet nomenclature within public memory, even where such names have been formally abolished.