Tbilisi, 18th and 21st December 2018

18th and 21st December 2018, Mattia Baldoni (EVS Volunteer within the Erasmus+ Project “Youth on the bridge, European identity between Italy and Georgia”) held two meetings about Italian and Georgian comparative history.

The presentation focused on the importance of borders and frontiers’ subject in our pasts, underlining the development of our different nation-building processes between XIX/XX centuries and through the World War I. The first meeting was held at “Italiuri Kulturis Centri” (Centro culturale italiano) of Ilia University, while the second at Sokhumi State University, in exile here in Tbilisi as Abkhazian University.

The first event was organized thanks to the availability and attention of especially prof. Manana Siprashvili and prof. Nana Lomia, besides all other staff members.

After a short presentation, Mattia Baldoni assigned to the audience a short-written interview, meant as an anonymous and free brainstorming.

In this short text, different definitions of the words “border/frontier” in various languages were followed by the only question: “Write down the first 3 words you think, when you hear the word ‘border/frontier’ ”.

Obviously, the purpose of the test is to confront and to test different concepts on the topic for Italians and for Georgians, and the organizers are collecting the different answers received by the citizens of these two countries.

In fact, the most written words by Georgian audience are “occupation”, “war”, “country”, and we can easily understand their reasons.

The lecture started from the age of the Italian Unification (about 1860), analysing the birth and problems of the young Italian Kingdom, above all them linked to frontiers’ subject. From the “Irredentism” to the break out of the World War I, Mattia explained Italian interests and reasons in joining the war one year later, fighting within the group of the “Triple Entente”.

Mattia showed not only political or historical aspects, but also literary. Indeed, he mentioned Giuseppe Ungaretti, Gabriele D’Annunzio and their war poems.

Then started a second part of the conference focused on Georgian history, and specifically on the period from the annexation to Russian Empire till the battles on the Caucasian Front in 1914.

The presentation showed the central role played by Georgia in this region during the conflict, the consequences of the Russian Revolution and of the collapse of Tsarist Empire.

Then, Mattia exposed the two different Post-war transitions (both for Italy and Georgia) and their tragic epilogues. Both of them were very problematic, characterised by weak governments and institutions, instability and social clashes.

Italy felt under Fascist control for almost 20 years, while the new-Independent Republic of Georgia was invaded and annexed by Soviet Union. One more time it became a minority in a vast “Empire”.

In both cases, similar political structures and characteristic during the post-war period, led to troubled results. Italy didn’t finish its nation-building process, striving to conquer more lands in the name of Ancient Rome glory, while weak Georgia wasn’t able to guarantee its own survival and independence, not achieving a basic and modern nation-building process.

The above considerations marked the end of the conference, and the organizers congratulated Mattia for his presentation, considered very educational and clear.

The second conference, at Sokhumi State University, was held in front of 30 people, among students and professors.

The topic was the same, just with little variations required by the professor Maia Jijava. She suggested to Mattia to insert some references and slides about an argument very interesting for students of this university in exile, that is the birth of regional autonomies and minority problems in Italy and the case-study of Trentino Alto-Adige.

Mattia agreed, highlighting historical aspects and how this subject became important during the World War I. He showed how the so called “unredeemed lands” (“terre irredente”) were more than those really inhabited by Italians. Comparing Austrian Empire’s ethnic composition and “Unredeemed lands”, Mattia showed the asymmetry between what Italy claimed and the status-quo. Trentino Alto-Adige is a perfect example of that. In fact, till today, people living in the northern part of this region (Sud-Tirol) is 90-95% German mother-tongue.

This aspect, linked to the special status of “autonomous Region”, appeared to be very interesting for students and professors, most of them being from the region of Abkhazia, occupied by Russian Forces.

At the end of the presentation they asked a lot of questions about this theme. One of the questions was: how the autonomy’s concept is developed and what kind of political and administrative institutions were created to guarantee the survival of this minority?

Mattia underlined the fact that, first, Trentino Alto-Adige is not an “autonomous Republic”. Italy is not a Federal Republic, so all regions are formally equal, except those with “special status”. This legislative particularity allows them a greater autonomy in economical and administrative subjects, but they have the same rights and duties of the other Regions as member of the Italian Republic.

Unfortunately, there was few time to answer deeply all the questions, so prof. Jijava, Mattia and Gabriele Rota agreed to organize other meetings to talk about these themes. The audience and professors in the room were as well very enthusiastic about this possibility.

A very cultured professor of History [name to be retrieved] posed significant questions and was very interested in the Italian debate between Interventionists and Pacifists before the war, asking more detail about the composition of these two line-ups.

Mattia was surprised by professor’s detailed knowledge of Italian historical events and people, and they engaged an interesting discussion. On the other hand, the same professor congratulated Mattia for his clear and well-exposed presentation about Georgian history. He was impressed by the fact that an Italian scholar had a so clear and correct understanding of this complex subject of Georgian history.

At the end of both conferences, participants took pictures with the two EVS Volunteers, inviting them for future meetings.