BOOK: Blogger from "Social Science in the Caucasus" offer a book review from Thomas Goltz.

Book Review: Georgia Diary: A Chronicle of War and Political Chaos in the Post-Soviet Caucasus Thomas Goltz
von Social Science in the Caucasus von AaronE

This reviewer is not the first to review Goltz’s Georgia Diary: A Chronicle of War and Political Chaos in the Post-Soviet Caucasus. Most notably the Wall Street Journal lauded the book and the hardcover published by M.E Sharpe gathers teasers from a wide variety of noteworthy folks on the back cover.
However, for those new to Goltz, Georgia Diary forms the third part of a trilogy of books about the Post-Soviet Caucasus, the first two covering the bad old times in the 1990s in Chechnya and Azerbaijan. This last addition to the trilogy differs from the other two in that it is written long after the events at the heart of the book took place. In that sense, it will not be quoted in the same way in academic circles as Goltz’s earlier books were. Though some take issue with the sometimes anecdotal style of Goltz’s accounts, his work is widely cited and he often speaks to academic audiences on the topic of Azerbaijan.
Though Georgia Diary, may be quoted by fewer academics, Goltz attempts to be much more academic than he was Azerbaijan Diary. But the academic part of the book is not the book’s strongest and seems to pale in comparison to Tony Anderson’s Bread and Ashes, where the academic background makes Anderson’s trek through the high Georgian Caucasus all the more delightful.
Nevertheless, Goltz’s unforgettable fast-paced writing returns when he recounts time spent in Sukhumi before and during and after the withdrawal of Georgian troops from Abkhazia. This is Goltz at his best and his work serves to highlight for many the multiple angles of the Georgian civil war and the difficulty in writing about it clearly or classifying well from an academic perspective what exactly was going on.
For instance, the fact the supporters of the first Georgian President Gamsakhurdia were based out of Sukhumi created a complexity for those, under the banner of Eduard Shevardanadze, who were allied against Gamsakhurdia and in control of the Georgian military. While Abkhaz aligned forces were attacking Sukhumi, there was still a battle for territory in Western Georgia going on between those allied with Gamsakhurdia and those with Shevardnadze. As Goltz regales, these sides were known as the Position and the Opposition, however, which was the Position and which was Opposition appears to depend on what side you were on, and caused never ending confusion to outsiders trying to figure out what the heck was going on in a land so few in the West had ever heard of.
To someone familiar with Georgia, some of the mistakes slightly grate. The Russian use of the ploshchad instead of the Georgian moedani when Goltz claims to be speaking Georgian, the referral to Mingrelian as a dialect of Georgian rather than a separate language, or the mistranscription of the Georgian name Avtandil as Artvandil highlight Goltz’s self-proclaimed lack of familiarity with Georgia. Nevertheless, all in all, Goltz adds yet another readable volume, to what is now his trilogy on the Caucasus.This post is also published in the Georgian Times.

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TALK: A Cultural Journey Through Georgia - An illustrated talk by Tony Anderson

at the Belle Vue Conservatory
7 to 9pm, 10 April 2008

Tony Anderson read English at Oxford, and has taught both in Britain and abroad. He has worked as an editor and writer for television, books and theatre, and has recently edited works on Russia and the Caucasus. His book “Bread and Ashes” tells the story of his walk through the mountains of Georgia.

Tickets £5.00 from Derek Butler 421081
or Cath Phillpot 421103

A glass of wine or fruit juice is included in ticket price

Poster >>>

TALK: Tony Anderson, 'Reflections on Georgian History and Culture’

Hi Everyone

There has been a change of speaker for Tuesday 10th April 2008

Tony Anderson - an experienced traveller to Georgia is giving an illustrated talk on his:
‘Reflections on Georgian History and Culture’
7.00 – 9.00pm
Ticket: £5.00 inc. wine/juice

Venue:
Belle Vue Conservatory
Belle Vue Park
Newport

Due to ill health the scheduled speaker, Philip Longworth is unable to come to Newport. We have sent our best wishes for his speedy recovery and hope he may be able to give his talk at a later date.

Follow up:
Walking in Georgia: A Talk by Peter Nasmyth

For those who attended Peter Nasmyth’s talk on Georgia and heard his concern as to how Tbilisi is being developed might like to take a look at this site -
As Peter remarked to us – ‘…its Dubai meets Disneyland in the Caucasus.’

Further information contact 421103 or see:

www.nkta.org

Catherine Philpott 26.02.08

BOOK: Bread and Ashes. A Journey Through the Mountains of Georgia (Hardcover).

by Tony Anderson (Author)

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Jonathan Cape (22 May 2003)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0224063006
ISBN-13: 978-0224063005

Book Description
A wonderfully vivid account of a little-known but endlessly fascinating part of the world

Patricia Scherer, author from reports in this blog, reads this book now!

Synopsis
Tony Anderson set out in the summer of 1998 to walk from the Caspian to the Black Sea, along the southern crest of the Caucasus. He was pulled along in the wake of the many tribes and peoples who had passed through the mountains, leaving behind a whisper of their deeds and names. He wanted particularly to visit the Georgian mountain tribes - Pshavs, Toush, Khevsours, Ratchuelians and Svans - to discover if they shared a common culture and to test the old idea of the Caucasus as an impenetrable barrier from sea to sea, with ancient tribes living in isolation from the outside world. From Azerbaijan in the east to Svaneti in the west, Anderson found communities where the old customs and beliefs still triumphantly survive, despite years of communist oppression and the terrible uncertainties since the collapse of the Soviet Union. From Khevsoureti he crossed into Chechnia to hunt bear. In Ratcha he found a community of mountain Jews that had lived in the mountains since the exile from Babylon. Everywhere he met with great kindness - even in Svaneti, where he was robbed. Throughout his journey Anderson refers back to many other visits to Georgia, to the politics of independence, to the war in Abkhazia and Osetia, to the civil war and Shevardnadze's accession to power, to the history of these people at one of the most significant crossroads of the world. One of the mysteries is how Georgia, devastated time and again by all the great vagabonds of history (Huns, Avars, Khazars, Lesghians, Mongols, Tartars) and torn between great empires (Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Persian, Turkish, Russian) has managed to survive. But survive it has with a vibrant culture still intact and, in the mountains, still deeply connected to its ancient ways.

About the Author
Tony Anderson was born in 1950, read English at Oxford, and has taught languages both in Britain and abroad. He has worked as an editor and writer for television, books and theatre, and has recently edited works on Russian/Caucasian subjects. He lives in Somerset.

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