Abstract for "Contested Memories, Defended Identities: Religious Minorities and the Politics of Resistance in Soviet and Post-Soviet Georgia."

This paper examines how marginalized religious and ethnic communities in post-Soviet Georgia employ the politics of memory as tools of resistance against persecution and cultural erasure. Through analysis of cultural heritage sites, oral histories, and community archives, the study demonstrates how these groups—including Jehovah’s Witnesses, Azerbaijanis, and Armenians, but particularly Muslims in Adjara—actively contest dominant narratives of Georgian national identity that center Orthodox Christianity. While previous scholarship has focused primarily on the perpetrators of religious violence in Georgia or approached these communities merely as passive victims, I instead center their agency in defending their identities and resisting assimilation. I build upon earlier work examining how Georgian political elites have weaponized historical narratives, but by shifting focus to analyze how marginalized groups deploy similar memory politics as a defensive strategy, I demonstrate that memory politics are not merely expressions of elite power, but dynamic sites of negotiation where even subordinated groups can effectively challenge hegemonic narratives. Drawing on case studies ranging from the 1999 Gldani Kingdom Hall attack to the ongoing conflict over the construction of a new mosque in Batumi, I illuminate how these communities invoke religious imagery, folklore, ideology, and historical narratives to maintain their cultural distinctiveness—or to claim membership in broader Georgian and European identities. The paper also, naturally, examines the legacy of Soviet religious policy in shaping contemporary identities and informing strategies of both persecution and resistance. Ultimately, this research contributes to scholarly understanding of how groups experiencing ontological insecurity respond to threats against their identity, while also documenting important counter-narratives to exclusionary visions of Georgian nationalism.

This paper is available upon request.