Igor Marykhuba (Игорь Марыхуба)
About The Abkhazians And Abkhazia
(Historical Notes)
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Republic of Apsny
City oi Sukhum (Akua)
1993
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Igor Marykhuba’s (Markholia) brochure “About the Abkhazians and Abkhazia” is made up of short historical notes devoted to the main stages in the formation and development of the Abkhazian nation and their Homeland – Apsny (Abkhazia, Abkhazian Republic, the Republic of Abkhazia).
The brochure gives Igor Marykhuba’s verses (in the Abkhazian language) on Georgia’s military aggression against the Sovereign Abkhazian Republic on August 14, 1992.
The brochure is intended for a wide range of readers, interested in the history of Abkhazia and the Abkhazian people. (1)
(1) This is the English translation of the first issue of the esse “About the Abkhazians and Abkhazia” published in September 1992 in Gudauta.
Английский перевод первого издания брошюры «Об абхазах и Абхазии», опубликованный в сентябре 1992 года в Гудаутской районной типографии Производственно-полиграфического объединения Республики Абхазия.
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I. Stalin and Historical Science
Stalinism, having affected all spheres of public life, also created its own system of elucidating the past. Historical science was thus brought down to the role of serving propaganda... But, just as with the appearance of Stalinism not only one «leader» was lo blame, so a considerable role, in the distortion of the past, was played by historians, and especially leading ones, because the basic destructive work was carried out by these same historians.
Falsification lies at the foundation of the entire Stalinist elucidation of the past. Examples include passing over events in silence, a biased choice of information, a refusal to analyse, changing that for categorical but goundless assertions of administrative trends — «consider this in this way», «everyone knows»... The whole of un-Marxist historiography was pronounced an anathema, and as a result the progress of knowledge in the USSR became isolated from world science with all its pernicious consequences...»
In 1932 Lev Trotsky, having published the book «The Stalinist School of Falsification» in Berlin, wrote that «now. that one comes lo think of it, falsehood in politics, as in everyday life, is the function of the class system of a society. The falsehood of the oppressors is a system of obscuring the masses for the support of their rule. Lying lo the oppressed is a defensive weapon of the weakness of the rulers»!
At all times, including the «forbidden Stalin-Beria» and the «stagnation» years, the Abkhazian people knew and understood that their history had been taken away from them in order lo deprive them of their historical memory once and for all; that which is presented as history is false, for the facts, events, the entire life strata of societies of ancient and Middle Age descendants of Abkhazians have been subject lo jugglings, lacquering and, even, (o direct falsification, to Georgianizalion...
2. Kaskeitsy, Apeshlitsy, Abeshlys, Kashki-Kosogis, Apsilys, Abazgi, Apsuaa...
According to data of modern hislorical science, archeology, anthropology, ethnography and linguistics, present-day Abkhazians — «Apsuaa» — are one of the most ancient of the peoples of Western Caucasia, direct descendants of the antique Kh a tsko-Abkhazo- Adygei tribes of the 4th-3rd-2nd centuries В. С («Apeshlaiisy», «Abeslas» and «Kashki» — «Kashagi» — «Kosogi»), of the ancient and Middle Age centuries («Apshilov»— «Apsilov», «Abazgov» — «Abasgov», «Sanygov», «Misimian». etc.) Ab-khazovs, who had not shared ethnic hegemony with anyone else on the main part of the territory of their country — «Apsny».
In the 2nd century В. С, in language among the native population of Asia Minor — «in the mountains and forests of the Tavra by the Black Sea, from the mouth of the river Gahs and in the direction of Western Transcaucasia, there lived the Kaska, or Kaskeilsy», who had «their own fortified permanenl villages», obviously engaged «in agriculture, perhaps combining it with cattlebree-ding (using the mountain pastures lor grazing their cattle)...» «The names of the tribes and settlements on the territory populated by the Kaskas. point to the kinship of their language with that of the Khatls, living to their south, in the bend of the river Galis and to the south of it...» «The similarity of the ethnic appellation Kaska with one of the ancient names of the Adygei-Cherkess tribes (ancient Georgian «Kashaky», «Kashag», ancient Armenian «Gashk», Byzantine-Greek «Kasakhia». Arabic «Kashak», ancient Russian «Kosog»)... to a certain extent is enforced by the name of one, apparently the most eastern of the «Kaska tribes Apeshlaitsy — coinciding... with the ancient appellation of the Abkhazovs (Greek — «Apsily», ancient Georgian «Apshil», ancient Armenian — «Apshilk», among the present-day self-named Abkhazians A-aps-ya, or A-apshua). ft is known that, like the Cherkess, the Abkhazians belong in language to one common Abkhazo-Ady-gei language family, and it would not be astonishing at all if the Kaskas belonged to it also».
«The grammatical structure of the Khatlsk language, beginning to clear up as a result of enormous labour, conducted (by scientists — I. M.)... is very near in structure to the Abkhazo-Adygei and in a less degree to the Kart-vel languages, (especially that of the Svans), However, V. Ivanov has recently presented impressive data also in favour of the genetic kinship of the Khatsk with the Abkhazo-Adygei».
And what is more, «the last few years were marked by new investigations, important for Caucasian linguistics devoted to the study of genetic ties between the Caucasian languages, which allowed in part to approach in real earnest the study of (he Baskska-North Caucasian (Abkhazo-Adygei and Nakhsko-Daghestan — I. M.) phonetic likenesses which are highly essential for substantiating the kinship of these languages»!
3. The Abkhazian Language
One of the most ancient languages in the world — the Abkhazian language appeared on the world map in the 4th-2nd centuries В. С as a result of the disintegration of the common of the common West-Caucasian parent-language into the independent Adygei. Ubykh (today a dead language) and enters the Abkhazo-Adygei or West-Caucasian group of North-Caucasian languages. The North-Caucasian languages today represent relics of a once extensive language community, existing, according to specialists, approximately 7.000 years ago and embracing the whole of the Caucasus and vast regions southwards. Later the Kartvel (Georgian) tribes wedged into this ethnic massif, pressing the Khatts to the south, and the Abkhazo-Adygeis to the north-west, settling down near the Kuban and Western Transcaucasia. The parent-homeland of the Kartvels was situated outside the bounds of Western Transcaucasia in the north-eastern area of Asia Minor, from where the Svans migrated at first to the region under study (either straight through the Chorokh ravine and along The seacoast to loday"s Colchis, or then, which is more logical, along the Kury ravine to the regions of Eastern Transcaucasia abjoining it and further to the west), and at the beginning of the 1st century B.C. a collapse took place of the ancestor Kartozansk community and their displacement to the north by two routes — the Karts pushed the Svans into the mountains north-east of Colchis, and the Svan tribes advanced into the Colchis ecological recess, pressing the parent-Abkhazians lo the north... There where today line Kartvel peoples live (West-Georgians, Mingrels, Lazys), relic toponyms seem to appear through the solid strata of Kartvel toponyms and can be compared with the toponyms ol Abkhazo-Adygei origin. Abkhazian elements are also traced in the languages of the Mingrels and Lazys, and in the group of geographical appellations of the maritime areas of Asia Minor and South-Western Transcaucasia of Abkhazo-Adyyi origin.
A statement by the writer Likofrou ol the Alexandrian epoch of the 3rd-2nd centuries В. С is an indicative document of the historical fact that the ethno-geographical borders of the Abazgovs with the Lazys passed along the river Fasis (today Rionf, and that the latter by origin came from Egypl. The «Colchi» — also called Lazys — are migrants from Hgypt, living close to the Abazgovs.. ...Ihey live in the same parts of Asia as the Fasis...» Thai is how the well-known commentator of the 12th century Tsets translated Likofron"s information. In turn, the Georgian scholar T. S. Kaukhchishvili comments this fact in the following way: «... The Coichi consequently were called Lazys (more exactly, in the historical aspect, the Lazys took the place of (he Colchi in the history of Western Caucasia), and the Coichi/Lazys were neighbours of the Abazgovs...»
In prehistoric times the ancient Abkhasian Language split up into numerous dialects, representing the language of related tribes. In the first centuries of the new era a comparative singleness of the ancient Abkhazian language was established, conditioned by the unification into princedoms, and later into a single feudal state, which, undoubtedly, was conducive to the formation of the ancient Abkhazian nationality, the development of a common tribal language, oral folk poetry, the appearance of official-business speech, used during solution of intertribal, inter-feudal and. later, of stale issuer and in legal proceedings. The ancient Abkhazian language, out of the languages of related tribes, became the language of the Abkhazian peoples, to whom the written language was known. This is proved by ancient primordial words of significance as: write, read, cross out, sign, book, etc. The antiquity of the above-mentioned words is confirmed by relevant words in the Abkhazian language, these speak of the fact that the given words existed in the ancient Abkhazian long beiore it was separated from the Abazin language... ... The language of Middle Age Abkhazians — «Apsuaa». «Apsutsov», «Apsarov» — correspond with the language of modern Abkhasians — Apsuaa...
«... The Abkhazian language linguistically is on one of the highest rungs of human speech and, among languages akin to it, occupies that same rung as English does among European languages», wrote Academician N. Y. Marr. «... The influence of the Abkhazian language on that of the Georgian was great and some limes not only the lexical but the actual cultural and historical significance were highly instructive: the Abkhazians conveyed their terms lo their neighbours...»
«... In some of the Abkhazians who now interest us we have grounds, like in a precious shard of a whole that has nol come down to us, for seeing a part of antiquity. The pre-Asialic cultural world is. therefore, a rare live spring. And that is why it is quite natural that the Abkhazian language begins to assisl in the analysis of the cuneiform monuments not only of this world but also of Armenia. Midia and tlama» (N. Y. Marr)!
4. The Abkhazian Nation
Abkhazians as a nationality («Azhvlar») — the Abkhazian feudal nationality formed from the basic unit of the Apsil, Abasgov, Sanygov, Misimian tribes, and at the start of the 8th century created a mighty national Middle Age Abkhazian State (Kingdom — «Apsua Akhra») in Transcaucasia which consequently (in the Ilth-I2th centuries) united the whole of feudal Georgia. In that ancient Georgian source — «Martyrdom uf Abo Tbileli» {8th century) the «country of Abkhazia» is openly talked about, and in ancient 7th-century Armenian sources the name of Abkhazia — «Apsny» is mentioned in the Abkhazian language (i,e., «a country populated by Abkhazians — Apsuaa»), indicative of the iormalion and establishment among the early Middle Age Abkhazian tribes of such a concept already (historical category) as Apsuara — i.e., «Abkhazstvo»— «all that with which the Abkhazians lived was raised in the Moral Code of the Abkhazian people» (effectively acting on every Abkhazian, on the people, even to this day'.). Along the direct genetic line of the АЬаь-govs and Apsilovs, named in ancient sources irom the 3rd-2nd centuries В. С. and further, with the Abkhazian nation, indicate that the preserved ethnonyms «Apsua» to this day (self-named by the Abkhazians) and «Abaza» (self-named by the kindred Abazins), go back to one root!..
The name of the Apstlov tribe has been preserved to this day by the self-named Abkhazian people — Aps-ya and the Abkhazian's name for their country — Apsny. The names of the Abasgs, Abasgia lay at the foundation for the name «Abkhaz», «Abkhazia;». These words were maintained also by the self-named Abazins, closely related to the Abkhazian people — the Abaza; the Adygeis and Turks call this same tribe — Abaza—as Abkhazovs and Abasins. Ancient Russian sources called the Abkhazians Obezams. The modern names of «Abkhaz», «Abkhazia» in sound appeared comparatively later, in the Middle Ages- They were first met with in information of anciem Georgian and ancient Armenian authors, and later of Persian and Arab authors. Modification of the ancient appellation of «Abasg», «Abasgia» to «Abkhaz» «Abkhazia» took place, as Academician N. Y. Marr presumed, during the Wesl-Kartvel (Mengrel) language base (root). The name of the people «Abasgi» and the country «Abasgia» in connection with the specifics of the Mengrel speech were changed into «Abkhaz», «Abkhazia» (similar rearrangements of sounds was an ordinary phenomenon for the Mengrel language). It was namely in this aspect that (he indicated terms penetrated the Georgian language and, through it — into other world languages...
In other words, «... (he Abkhazian people are one of the most ancient inhabitants of the Caucasus, a member of the North-Caucasian family of peoples, who are united by a common origin, kinship of language, closeness of traditional material cultures, lengthy and diverse interactions in a common Caucasian homeland. At the same time, Abkhazians, like any other nation, are the product of a lengthy path of independent historical development...» The appearance and development of the Abkhazian nation as an ethnos passed through an independent path on the vast territory of the Caucasian Black Sea area, including the territory of Abkhazia. This is proved, first of all, by the originality and individuality of monuments of material and spiritual culture...
From time immemorial the culture of one ethnic massif sprand up and developed, in the main, on the territory of the Abkhazian Black Sea area, whose descendants are forebears of the modern Abkhazians. Ignoring this undoubted fact brings, in turn, to the ignoring of the source base and, probably, would lead to a coarse distortion of the centuries-old history of the Abkhazian people...
5. The Soviet Encyclopaedia
Even during Beria's time the autochthony (aboriginal) of the Abkhazian people on the territory of Abkhazia was never disputed! Thus, in the Big Soviet Encyclopaedia of 1949 the Abkhazians (p. 58) and Abkhazia, the mighl of the Abkhazian Kingdom (State) of the 8th-1Oth centuries (pp. 47—48), the Abkhazian language (pp. 57—58), the historical essay on Abkhazia (pp. 47—54) were devoled to pages (45—58) where it speaks of «the Abkhazians (self-named —Apsuaa) as a people comprising the basic population of the Abkhazian ASSR. The language — Abkhazian. The forebears of the Abkhazians were ancient inhabitants of this part of the Caucasian Black Sea coast area, known to the ancient Greeks as Abasgovs...»
The fact that «the forebears of today's Abkhazians (Abazgi) were a strong tribe who occupied not only the present-day Abkhazian Republic but also Jigetia (from Gagra to Sochi), and even part of the present Kuban region...» was noted by scientists before also — in the Big Soviet Encyclopaedia of 1926. In it we find that «the Abkhazians, Abazy, Abasgis, were people of the Abkhazo-Adygei group, living in Western Transcaucasia, in the Abkhazian SSR. The Abkhazians comprised one of the branches of a communal people, inhabiting the whole of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. The Genniokhs or the inniokhs were considered to be the ancestors of the Abkhazians, living many centuries prior to the Christian era on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, mentioned already by Aristotle...»!
More modern Soviet encyclopaedias of different years prove the indisputable historical fact of the autochlhony of the Abkhazians on their historical Homeland — Apsny (Abkhazia). Thus, in the Demographic Encyclopaedic Dictionary of 1985 it is noted that the «forebears of the Abkhazians, mentioned in Assyrian sources (in inscriptions of the Assyrian tsar Tiglat Palasara I — I. M.) two thousand years before our era by the name of Abeshla, and by ancient authors of the 1st—2nd centuries under the name of Abasgovs and Apsilovs, belong lo the ancient inhabitants of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. The Abkhazian (feudal — l.M.) nation, in the main, was formed by the 8th century, with the founding of the Abkhazian Kingdom...» The fact that «the Abkhazians» (self-named — Apsuaa) as a nation, were the main population ot the Abkhazian ASSR ... the language «Abkhazian» is marked in the Soviet Encyclopaedic Dictionary of 1979. It also says there that «towards the end of the 1st century A. D.» «the early-feudal princedom of Abazgovs, Apsilovs and others» was iormed, while «towards the 8th century the Abkhazian (feudal — l.M.) nation took shape». «The Abkhazian Kingdom sprang up in the 8th century»...
The more recent historico-ethnographic reierence book «People of the World» of 1988 also notes: «The forebears of the Abkhazians belonged lo the native population of Western Caucasia. This was already mentioned in Assyrian inscriptions under the appellation Abeshla, later in ancient sources the tribal unifications of Abazgovs in the north, Apsilovs in the south, and others were singled out. In the period of the Abkhazian Kingdom (8th— 10th centuries) the unification of the ancient Abkhazian tribes into the Abkhazian (feudal — I.M.) nation was completed...»
The two-volume Big Encyclopaedic Dictionary of 1991 indicates that the «Abkhazians (seli-named — Apsuaa), as a nation» are pointed oui «as the indigenous population of the Abkhazian ASSR (Abkhazia), whose «language is Abkhazian». The conclusion arrived at by all scholars of Soviet science is confirmed in it that «tovards the end of the 1st century of our era» «the early-feudal princedoms of Abazgovs, Apsilovs and others» were formed, that «by the 8th century the Abkhazian nation took shape» and then that the «Abkhazian Kingdom sprang up» — «early-feudal state in the 8th — 10th centuries in Transcaucasia with the capital (at first in Anakop, and then in...— I. M.) Kutatisi (Kutaisi)». According to the census of 1989 — the number of Abkhazians in the former USSR was 105000, «besides those (Abkhazians) living in Turkey and Arab countries» — the number came up to no less than 500,000 people...
6. The Middle Age Period
... In the 3rd—2nd centuries B.C. the ethno-geogra-phical borders of the Abkhazian (ribes (partly Abazgovs) as aborigines took shape on the left bank of the Rion river. And in «the first century of our era they occupied the eastern coast of the Black Sea from the Inguri to the river Malaya Khazaria. Several political units were situated on this territory: Apsilia, Abazgia, Sanigia and Zikhia that were dependent on the Roman Empire. They are mentioned in written sources up to the 6th century. Their consolidation began from the 7th century and ended in the 8th century». According to the ancient Armenian source «Ashkhartsuits» (Armenian geography of the 7th century). the modern Abkhazia, i.e., the Apsil appellation of Abkhazia — Apsn was current already in the early Middle Ages! «During the whole length of the first millennium of our era a gradual strengthening of the Abazgov (Abkhazian — I. M.) Kingdom was observed, mentioned by Arrian. Besides, its development climbed along an ascending line: at first kindred Abkhazian tribes united around Abazgia, then the Egrisi (Lazikaf joined, and later—Eastern Georgia, and thus a mighty kingdom (the Abkhazian State — I. M.) was created». «Abkhazians exerted influence even on the fate of Armenia»!
«During the first formative years of the independent Abkhazian Kingdom its borders appeared at the Malaya Khazaria river on the north, and the Main Caucasian Range on the north-east, the Likh (today Suramsky — I. M.) Ridge on the south-east, the river Chorokh on the south, and the Black Sea on the west. These borders changed often later, in connectioin with the expansionist policy of the Abkhazian tsars». «... At this time the Abkhazians and the Cherkess made up one state unit; their proprietorship, at different limes, stretched on the north from the river Terek to the rivers Volga and Don, and on the west to both sides of the Azov Sea and reached up to the Crimean steppes. Abkhazian tribes lived in the west, along the shore of the Black Sea, up to Anapa: Abazins, Abadzekhys, Shapsugsks. Ubykhs, Jigets, etc., whose traces remain even up to our times in the geographic appellations and various types of monuments». In «Kartlis Tskhov-reba» («Zhitie Kartli», «History of Georgia» — I. M.) it says that «at this time Abkhazia was the only area of Caucasia which, through its own security and fruitful soil, was conducive to the physical and moral strengthening of its tsars».
The political aspirations of the Abkhazian tsars were turned, in the main, to the East, where they annexed practically the whole territory of Western Georgia, at the same time spreading their activities to the East-Georgran lands. The dynastic marriage of the heiress to the Abkhazian throne Tsarevna Gurandykhut to a representative of the Bagration family in the 11th century united, in essence, the whole of Georgia, but with this placed Abkhazia into the orbit of the general political life of Georgia up the 13th century...
Bagrat III (978—1014) compiled a genetical table — «the Divan of Abkhazian Tsars»— in order to slress his ties with this dynasty namely, with whom as a matter of fact, the formation began of a single Georgian united Kingdom (State), which was still called «Abkhazian» several centuries back guided by the power of that same Abkhazian Kingdom (State) in the main. «Among the titles of the Georgian tsars the title «Tsar of Abkhazia» remained in first place; in the Arabic and Persian sources of the pre-Mongolian period the Bagratids are mentioned only as «tsars of Abkhazia»; the same significance can be seen in the terms «arkhont Abazgias» of the Byzantine author Kedrin. About the year 1325 the Bagratids yielded, as an enfeoff (Abkhazia — I. M.), the house of Sherva-shidze ( — to the influential Abkhazian family in Abkhazia of the Chachbas — I. M.). In 1462, during Bagrat 11, a representative of the house of Shervashidze (Cha-chba— I.M.) was affirmed Prince (eristav) of Abkhazia. At this time the Abkhazians could raise 30,000 soldiers and actually were independent of Georgia both politically and by church standards...» The tsars of united Georgia continued to wage a long stubborn battle for the preservation of this unification and only in the 11th — 12th centuries was the term «Sakartvelo» first mentioned (i.e., the concept of a single Georgia) and in the 12th — 13th centuries the formation of a Georgian feudal peoples took place...
The appellations «Georgia», «Georgian land» appeared in Russian sources in the 15th century. It originates from the Arab-Syrian «Gurz» — «Gurj», which, in turn, is derived from the Arab-Iranian appellation «Gurjistan» — «country of wolves» (from the Persian «gorg»— wolf), connected with the ancient Persian «Vrkan», «Kartveli», the modern self-name of the Georgians, and their country «Sakartvelo» spring up from the appellation «Kartli». In the Abkhazian language today, too, instead of the name Tbilisi the toponym «Kart» is used, reflecting true ethno-political nomenclature»...
7. «The History of the Abkhazians Is the Beginning of the History of Georgian»
Academician N. Y. Marr, not being acquainted with Abkhazia, said already in 1912: «In Abkhazia, in the wide concept of this term, a new Georgian Kingdom was born». And in another place, later, he said frankly: «The history of the Abkhazians is the beginning of the history of Georgia», or. using the words of Ashkhatav «the history of ancient Abkhazia ... is at the same time the beginning of the history of a new Georgia». The same was said in 1921 by Sargis Kakabadze in his article «The Abkhazian Question»: «Since ancient times the Abkhazian people and Abkhazia took a most active part in the gradual creation of Georgian culture and statehood and, in general, in all that determined during many centuries the national image of the Georgian people...» the role of the Abkhazians in this constructive work lasting centuries was a most honourable and responsible one...»
«The centuries-old Abkhazian culture, perception and conversion into the later Georgian history, seems to have swallowed this history, many facts of Abkhazian history receive a biased enlightenment», and after the collapse of the Abkhazian State and the springing up of the Georgian state, «new Georgian historians», already in the 17th century, wishing to compile Georgian history from written sources and other relics of the Abkhazian State, using at the same time the property of the new Georgian history, imparted a one-sided enlightenment to these monuments», at times striving «to sort of wipe out traces of the Abkhazian nation from this history», and with this lent «the historical material of this (Abkhazian) epoch» «a new—Geogrian tune». It should be added here that the present well-known ancient Georgian alphabet (ancient Abkhazian) was the alphabet of the ancient Abkhazian State until its collapse (16th — 17th centuries —- I. M.)», and
After the Abkhazian Stale (at the end of the 15th century) «collapsed and split up» «into three kingdoms»: Kakhetin, Kartalin and the Imeretin, and into Five princedoms: Samtsekhe-Satabago, Guria, Mingrelia, Svanetia and Abkhazia, «during this sharp ordeal of national awareness, the idea of uniting the Kartsky (Kartvelsk — I. M.) tribes under a common appellation began to take shape in the minds of advanced men, but already not the Abkhazian, but the Georgian state». «Tsar Vakhtang VI (1703— 1724) stood out for his special concern and activity in [his; he founded the first printshop, codified laws (see «Vakhtang's Codification» — «Laws of Vakhtang VI»), compiled a new «Ulozhenie» («Code»), collected all the instructions and ascertainments on state and administrative legislation, added to and edited the annalistic collection (code) «Kartlis Tskhovreba» («Zhitie Kartiy» — «History of Georgia», which was cut short at the 14th century — I. M.) — from historical materials of the Abkhazian (State) Kingdom».
He «set up a special commission and gave it the task of continuing the narration on successive centuries and simultaneously to make a critical re-comprehension of everything that had been written up till then». «He convened learned men and collected all he had found in «Zhitio Kartiy» and also the deeds of the Mtshetsk, Gelatsk, and many glorious churches and collated them, and those which were miscontrued were corrected and used, just as other writings, some things were taken from Armenian and Persian life and thus described».
But the natural son of the Kartlinsky tsar Vakhtang VI — the historian Vakhushti Bagrationi, «not satisfied with this», went further, exceeded his predecessors— falsifiers of the history of Abkhazia's and Abkhazian people's ancient history: «He corrected errors made by (Vakhtang's — I. M.) commission and the ancient chroniclers, made new or added information», wrote «The History of the Georgian Kingdom».
«The aspiration of the Georgian patriots to have their own history, tree from undesired historical facts, led to the majority oE the facts in Abkhazian history receiving a biased enlightenment, as a result of which the historical image of the centuries-old Abkhazian State began changing, converting into a new Georgian history», carefully and diligently exterminating «the trace of the Abkhazian nation from this history». «That is where the beginning of that historical error we spoke about above comes from»!
«Such a one-sided attitude to historical facts could not but reflect badly also on the creation of Georgian history itself, introducing vagueness and confusion lo it, which made it particularly difficult for European scholars to correctly understand the real essence both of the Abkhazian and the Georgian histories and aroused disputes on this question». Professor of Petersburg University O. I. Sen-kovsky wrote that «Georgians give themselves out for a very ancient people and present us with unparalleled (continuous) series of acts and exploits of their tsars. We have before us a list of Georgian tsars from Farnaos up to Georgi Xlll — from the year 268 up to R. X. and from R. X. to the year 1800 — a list which has no more or less than 98 successive reigns. Only Chinese history is in a position to present anything similar»!
According to Academician N. Y. Marr «the Abkhazians played a considerable role in ancient times in the development of the culture of Caucasia, however whal they had begun was intercepted by the Georgian people and intertwined with the Georgian national Christian civilization, it received its further development outside the Abkhazian people's national environment». And more than any other nationality of Caucasia, the Abkhazians maintained their state self-government (Abkhazian Statehood — 12 centuries), their State Sovereignty, all the way up to 1864 (as an Abkhazian princedom)...
8. Russia and Abkhazia
As proof of the indomitable striving for Freedom and Independence of the Abkhazian people, of Abkhazia is evident in the tsar's manifest of February 17, 1810 — the Deed of the Russian Emperor Alexander I on recognition of the Statehood of Abkhazia and of the spread of the Russian protectorate in it! The actuality of this document lies also in that «despite affirmation of several lying historians of Georgia (and only Georgia), it once more confirms two essential facts: the first — about the existence of the State Sovereignty of Abkhazia since olden times, deciding its problems, and the second — thai Abkhazia was a valid member of the world community of nations and nationalities for 12 centuries, with whom they had political, economic and military ties...»
«... When laking the post of commander of a separate Georgian corps and the General-Governorship of Caucasia and Astrakhan Province Ermolov presented Alexander I a plan of his military and administrative activities in Caucasia», approved by the tsar and which «included effecting citizenship of the mountain peoples of North Caucasia and the completion of the formation of the Russian administrative system in Caucasia. It was namely since the time the long and stubborn Caucasian war (1817—1864) has begun — the conquest of Russian tsarism of Chechna, Gorny Daghestan and North-Western Caucasia...»
«Strange as it may seem, from 1810 to 1864 the Abkhazian princedom had much greater autonomy, being directly in the composition of the Russian Empire, than during the last six decades in the composition of the Georgian SSR (from 1931)»!
9. «The Abkhazians Must Be Conquered No Matter What!»
«... It must be stated that in the 19th century (Russian — I. M.) tsarism struck Abkhazia a brutal blow, and in the 20th century, especially during Soviet times, the government of Georgia cynically and mercilessly finished off the issue begun — dealt the final blow to the Abkhazian people, carrying out the most unbridled imperial policy under the hypocritical slogan about the «oppression» of the Georgians in Abkhazia...» The motto of the leader of the Georgian minority Nloya Zhordania — «Russian tsarism was unable to Russify the Abkhazians, but we, as Kindred tribes, must Georgianize the Abkhazians with our culture. We must conquer the Abkhazians no matter what!» is being continued to this day! «If we should call things by their true names, then it is permissible to perpetrate genuine apartheid of a Georgian type from the territory of the Georgian republic in relation to the Abkhazians! In general, the Abkhazian people have existed for over a century in conditions of genocide!..»
Since 1918 —- from the period of the armed occupation of Abkhazia by Georgia, the geopolitical claims o( the Georgian minority on Abkhazia were based on «investigations», primarily by Stalin, on the national theory of 1912. This is affirmed also by the report of Noya Zhorda-nia of 1922 to the Central Committee of the Social-Democrats of Georgia «On the necessity of cooperation in Caucasia between Georgia and England and the concluding of a union between her and the Caucasian Federation» and with the plan of the leaders of the Georgian nation under the appellation of «Chechevitsa» envisaging the Georgiani-zation of nearly the whole of the Caucasus!
It would seem that, far from politics, the purely humanitarian «scientific trend» of the «Iberian-Caucasian philosophy and mythology» was subordinate to the same aim: the historical and cultural expansion of the peoples of the Caucasus! Its structural links also include such theories of Caucasian scholars as the feudal-economic conception «Shida Kartly» (G. Melikishvili) on the question of the origin of Statehood in Abkhazia — the Janashievskaya Georgian culture of the Abkhazian Middle Ages, lngo-rokvo-Lordkipanidze «theory» of the recent appearance of the Abkhazians in Abkhazia, or then another concocted theory of Georgian historians on «the double-aboriginity of the Abkhazians and Georgians in Abkhazia», etc. Proof of the claims of Georgian lingo-historiographic imperialism not only on Abkhazia, but on the whole of the Caucasus {!) presents itself in the declaration of that mytholo-gisl Zviadi Gamsakhurdi that the Trojan War was a war between the Georgians and the Greeks!..
The «greatest» successors of the Zhordanian idea in the sphere of «minor nationalities», especially the Abkhazian and the Ossetian peoples, were Stalin and Beria! It was namely during their dictatorship that the policy of Georgianization and annexation of Abkhazia were introduced as state policy! It has been proved that this annexation was premeditated and purposeful on factual materials (government resolutions!) in a recently published book — a collection of materials «Abkhazia: Documents Testify. 1937-1953».
The «theory», «substantiation» of Georgian scholars — «Abkhazia — an integral part of Georgia», was the result of the policy of the demographic annexation of Abkhazia by the Georgians, arising in conditions of Abkhazia's colonial dependence on Georgia and during the debauch of the Beriaites in Abkhazia, is alive with a more stronger national-fascist force today, too, in Georgia!
As a result of the anti-Abkhazian colonial policy of the leadership of Georgia an ideology was introduced, inherent in colonizers, in the consciousness of part of the Georgian migrants (over 200,000 people!) of an alleged right to decide the fate of the Abkhazians and of Abkhazia! With this, a small portion of the Georgian population (Georgian diaspora) in the Abkhazian Republic were used as «a fifth column» in a common anti-Abkhazian front of the «small empire» of Georgia against Abkhazia!.. «And all this campaign against the Abkhazians by the Georgian population was no more than an atk-mpt to stifle remorse in themselves because of what they did with this people...»!
«Slavery depraves not only the slaves but also the slaveowners. Even now there are sufficiently large numbers of political functionaries in Georgia — spiritual sons of previous generations who habitually looked at Abkhazia through the eyes of Stalin and Beria. And they consider any attempt to change our mutual relations as an encroachment on Georgian rights. The postulate «Abkhazia is the integral property of Georgia» is a manifestation of the colonial psychology which has been adopted also by the present Georgian democrats...»!
The explosive public-political situation in the Abkhazian Republic forced representatives of political and public organizations of the republic to set up, on June 2, 1992, in the city of Sukhum (Akua), a Committee for the National Salvation of Abkhazia, into which leaders (top men) of the above-mentioned organizations entered; a corresponding Resolution was adopted, which was published in the Abkhazian republic's newspapers. In this Resolution it says: in the case of non-constitutional parallel structures, as well as illegal armed formations being set up in the Republic of Abkhazia — to proclaim universal mobilization; to turn to the Parliament of the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus with the request to proclaim mobilization in the Republics of the CMPC, as was the case during well-known events in the Chechen Republic; to appeal to the United Nations, the CBCE, to other international organizations, as well as to the parliaments of the Commonwealth of Independent States with the warning of preparations of an aggression against the Republic of Abkhazia; to call on fellow countrymen living abroad to render all-round aid to their historic Homeland in this difficult hour! In case oE the impossibility of regulating the problem through political means, to demand of the Parliament of Abkhazia that they immediately adopt an Act on State Independence!
As a matter of fact, on August 25, 1990 the Supreme Soviet of Abkhazia proclaimed the «Declaration on the State Sovereignty of the Abkhazian Republic»! The present Abkhazian Parliament must not lose time to fill this Sovereignty of the Abkhazian State with real content! Of course, if there are no traitorous political and back-stage games taking place behind the backs of the Abkhazian people!..
Such political forces who are ready to decide the mutual relations between Abkhazia and Georgia must be found in Georgia, but not on the thinking level of Lavrenty Beria, Zviadi Gamsakhurdi, Eduard Shevardnadze... «Georgian mentality is so far ol an aggressive nature in relalion to us (Abkhazians — I. M.). As long as no mental transfer-, mation of public conscience in relation to Abkhazia and the Abkhazian people has taken place, we cannot solve questions on rights»!
10. Restoration and Revival of the Abkhazian State!
The Resolution adopted on July 23, 1992 by the Supreme Soviet of Abkhazia on terminating the validity of the Constitution of the Abkhazian ASSR of 1978 and the restoration of the activities of the Constitution of Abkhazia of 1925, preserving the present acting system of bodies of legislation, of executive and court rule, and also — the changing of the appellation «Abkhazian ASSR» to the «Republic of Abkhazia», the adoption of a new Coat of Arms and Flag of the Republic of Abkhazia are evidence of the genuine additions to the contents of the Sovereignty of the Abkhazian National State! Henceforth, Abkhazia has restored its status of State Sovereignty and Independence, «carrying out state rule on its territory independently and is not dependent on any other power», has entered onto a new path of its socio-political and state development! The Abkhazian Parliament adopted most important legal acts, having juridical and political consequences for the Abkhazian people, for all the peoples of the Abkhazian Republic, while July 23 will go down in the history of the nation as a vivid landmark of historical dale of the Restoration and Revival of the Abkhazian National Statehood!..
This is exactly what the imperial and fascisl forces of Georgia, who had gained (he upper hand in the political circles of the republic in 1988—1992, found so repulsive.
11. The War Between Georgia and Abkhazia...
The brochure «Aboui the Abkhazians and Abkhazia» was ready for printing when the war between Georgia and Abkhazia began!
With the knowledge and consent of the leadership of Russia, under the code appellation of «Sword». Georgia launched a perfidious military attack on the Sovereign Republic of Abkhazia (subject io international law) with the aim of occupation of Apsny, the country of the Abkhazians, of realization of genocide over the Abkhazian people and non-Georgian population of Abkhazia, of achieving the long-standing plan of the Georgians of setting up a Georgian mono-ethnic state, of barring Abkhazia from tearing away (getting out) from the composition of Georgia, the preservation of «the small Georgian empire» and confirmation of Abkhazia's colonial dependence on Georgia, the achievement of legally elected bodies of State Power of the Republic of Abkhazia, a military coup over the existing social and political and state systems of administration of the country, deprivation of freedom and the right of the Abkhazian nation to independent political self-determination...»
The bandit formations, whose members are mainly criminal elements, drug addicts, professional killers, racketters. invaded the territory of the Republic of Abkhazia without declaration of war! Armed to the teeth with super-modern military techniques (tanks, armoured cars, artillery, rockets, launches, military helicopters and SU-25), transferred to them by the Chief Commander ot the Trans-Caucasian Military Region General PATRIKEEV, they attacked a peaceful population. Squalls of fire from tanks, heavy artillery, mortars, and machine-guns were used; they hurled rocket blows and bombed the dwellings of Abkhazian villagers, research institutions, centers of Abkhazian national culture, public and administrative buildings, including the building of the Supreme Soviet and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Abkha-iia!.. The Abkhazian soil overflowed with the blood of her sons and daughters... who had seen enough of incredible sufferings, tears and grief in their lives without this!..
The ideological inspirers and organizers of the military aggression SHEVARDNADZE, IOSELIANI. KIT0VANI, SIGUA and their minions, just like Adolf HITLER, in a fascist manner, hoped to carry out a blitz — a full occupation of the Abkhazian Republic within 24 hours!.. But they miscalculated! There was no triumphant march. Instead, a lengthy, bloody war began...
Georgians military aggression against the Sovereign Republic of Abkhazia is continuing, now already for the second month.
Historians will be faced with the task of expressing their verdict of the Georgian-Abkhazian war, but that is a separate theme...
ИГОР МАРЫХУБА
АҦСУА ШЬА ҔЬАШКЫИТ!
(1992 шықуса, август 14 аены ақырҭуа мпыҵахалаөцәа Аҧсны еибашьрыла рқуылара иахьӡниөлоуп).
Сталини Бериеи ирцәынхан Аҧсны, рыцҳа!
Ашьҭахьтәиқуагь ирцәынхеит Аҧсынра!
Афашист ШеварднаӠе итанкқуа,
Аҟуа изалымсызт, иҵыхутәантәхеит!
Урҭ агыгшәыгқуа Аҧсны иазаарцахьоу!
Аҧсуаа ирылырххьоу ашьа —
Иааицылан, Аҧсуа шьа рзыҕьашкын,
Қырҭуа жәларык еилагеит!
Иаҵалеит урҭ ҳ-Агунаҳа изҵымҵша,
Ҳныхакуа рымч еизыркукуа —
Рҿаҧхьа хҿыхра иақуиҭымкуан,
Идамыҕаха адунеи иазынхеит!
Аҧсны уааны ухысыр ҟалома?!
Шаҟа Аҧсны агуы ҧшқоу шәымбаӡои?!
Аҧсуа и-Ҳақ уаҕрагылар ҟалома?!
...Қырҭтәыла — џьаҳаным ҭыҧхт, шәымбаӠои?!
Жәларык р-Доуҳа Мчы — АҦСУАРА,
Зқьышықусала ишьанҵахаз Иара,
Ашьамхарсра, аҭҟуара, атәитәыхра —
Дунеи хаан изалмыршацт аӡәгьы!
Уи ус шакуу шаҳаҭра руеит: ҳ-Ныхақуа,
Нарҭаа р-Доуҳа, Сасрыҟуа, Абрыскьыл,
Саҭанеи-Гуашьа шәөы лхьырҧарцәа,
Ҳмырҭаҭратә нцәахуқуа, адамрақуа,
Цқьа иҭҵаам аҧсуа бызшәа — ижәытәӠатәу,
Еацакра зкуым аҧсуа иҭоурых,
Аҧсуа илаҕырӠ иарҵааз Амшын Еикуа,
Аҧсынра ажәытәра — абаашлых!
Аҧсуа шьхақуа уреиканыр ҟалома?!
Кавказ шьхақуа рыжәөахыр еибаркыуп!..
Аҧсуа идац-иҧашә уакьысыр ҟалома?!
Кавказ жәлар рыжьра-цәара акыуп!
Анцәа ухы азыҳәан иалыухыз аҭыҧ ҧшӡа,
Аҧсуаа иҳауҭаз — АҦСНЫ!
Уахылаҧш!! Ухьышьаргуыҵа сакухшоуп!
АҦСУАА ИАҲХЫУМБААН АҦСНЫ!
Аҧсны уааны ухысыр ҟалома?!
Шаҟа Аҧсны агуы ҧшқоу шәымбаӡои?!
Аҧсуа и-Ҳак, уаҕрагылар ҟалома?!
Аҧсуа шьа ҕьашкит, шәымбаӡои?!
1992 шықуса, август 28,
ақ Аҟуа, Аҧсны Ареспублика.
City of Akua (Sukhum) February — July,
Republic of Abkhazia September, 1992
(Печатается по изданию: И. Р. Марыхуба. Об Абхазах и Абхазии. - Сухум, 1993.)
