Soviet Past Research Laboratory has published the book – “Self-Government Reform in the Republic of Georgia – 1918”.
Presentation of the book was held at the office of Open Society Georgia Foundation, during which the researcher Irakli Khvadagiani talked about the research.
The book concerns the self-government reform of 1918-1920 and the reader has the opportunity to get acquainted with not only the specificity, geography and progression of the reform according to administrative units, but also with the discussions on self-governing issues ongoing from mid-19th century to 1918.
The study clearly shows how the citizens of Georgia wished for self-government reform and how they expected a favorable moment for decentralization of the country. Despite the fact that the Tsarist Russia was critical towards this issue, the educators of that time worked to create public opinion and prepare the population for self-government.
According to the authors of the research, as the self-governance issues are still relevant today, especially in the light of abolishment of self-governing status for seven cities, the book will be of particular interest to those interested in self-governing issues who will have the opportunity to get acquainted with experience going back an almost a century ago and vision, which was much more bold compared to nowadays.
The research of the self-government reform of the Democratic Republic of Georgia was conducted by the Soviet Past Research Laboratory in 2016-2017 with the financial support of Open Society Georgia Foundation.
Prior to that, in 2016, the organization published the book – “Congregation of Founders of Georgia – 1919”.In the years 2015-2016, the Soviet Past Research Laboratory, together with partner organizations, studied the experience of community self-organization and cooperation prior to the Soviet Occupation in Georgia, which was published in two volumes in 2016.
In the future, the organization plans to cover the period from the second half of the 19th century to the end of the 1980s, and to include all the era and specific topics that characterizes this era. In addition, it is planned to study self-governance community and to publish biographies of people involved in self-governance reform.
