Anthems and issues of national identity in East-Central Europe and Georgia

Abstract

In the current presentation, we aim to analyze the national revival and national identity formation process in broad East-Central Europe and Georgia (as part f such a "broad" region) from the perspective of the National Anthem, a formation process based on a comparative approach. "National anthem" as a phenomenon of symbol of collective national legitimation and perception of "nation as a community of equal brothers (in the sense of Benedict Anderson) played a significant role in the process of imagination of "nation." "National Anthems" became one of the bases of emotional inspirations of national self-understanding, dignity, and pride, which became the main way of expressing national symbols textually and musically. It is possible to say that "national anthems" became symbolic godfathers of modern nations.Generally speaking, the formation of national identity in broad East-Central Europe (including Georgia) was under the condition of their membership in big Empires that gave them emancipatory character from the beginning. The idea of justification of such "emancipation" had been expressed in their best ways in national anthems, which is why the creation of such "Anthems" became a moral and practical norm of national movements (probably because of the influence of the French Revolution and republicanism) As a result, solidarity among such nations in the process of crafting the symbols of national imagination had been very vivid. Most tried to borrow such "novelties" from others and reorganize them according to their needs and requirements (for example, the Polish anthem's influence over Ukrainian ones). That is why studying such a process is possible only from the comparative approach to understand the process better.In this sense, Georgia, in many cases, duplicates the experience of broad East-Central Europe but also has its specific character. Unlike of Baltics or Visegrad nations, the first national anthem came to Georgia into being in 1918 under the Kaiser German influence; unlike East-Central European Countries created the first versions of anthems mainly in the 19th century and, in some cases even earlier (for example,, Poland in 18 century). Generally speaking, the formation of national identity in the modern sense is a relatively late product in East-Central Europe compared to its Western counterpart, and therefore, national anthems had been the late products as well. Despite Georgia's ancient history, forming a modern Nation and national identity is an even later product than in many East-European countries. The creation of the National anthem is a vivid example that entered Georgia's public life not in the 19th century as a unifier of Georgian people but only after the declaration of Independence nation-state in 1918.The presentation is mostly based on Miroslav Hroch's theoretical approach to the national questions in Eastern Europe, which gives us the possibility to understand the nation formation issues in our interesting region, where the intellectual and societal levels played a decisive roles in the process of national formation and imagination, unlike of Western Europe, where the Political institutions and centralized State played the decisive role in nation formation over the socio-cultural aspects. Therefore, it is possible to say the same words on the national anthems-creating process, which probably had been the most relevant example of the expression of such big historical change such as the formation of modernity expressed in the formation of the Nation-state and national identity. Georgia was along with East-Central Europe in many respects and relatively further from its Western counterparts, but sometimes further and different from the East-Central part as well. The creation of National anthems is good proof of it.