The Struggle over the Past and the Georgian-Abkhazian Conflict: Borderlands History and Postcolonial Faultlines

The discipline of History has been deeply entangled in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict in every stage of its development. The pivotal dissenting events of the 20th century in Abkhazia, mainly expressed through the epistolary form of public letters and declarations, were haunted by the spectres of the past. The discipline of history became a site for the articulation of political, cultural and economic grievances and the assertion of national identities and rights. It is against a backdrop of the intrinsic yet constituent historical element  of the conflict that I explore the ways in which the conflicting sides sought to employ history so as to lay claim to the future. Further, I enquire into the narratives of the past that come into conflict with each other and the power configurations that lurk within these historiographies. Finally, I will  interrogate the postcolonial aspect of the claims made by both the Georgian and Abkhaz sides and the faultlines these claims produced.