Mingrelians
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Mingrelians
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The Mingrelians[1] (Mingrelian: მარგალი, margali; Georgian: მეგრელები: megrelebi) are a subethnic group of Georgians[2][3][4][not in citation given][5][citation needed][6][7][8][citation needed][9][citation needed] that mostly live in Samegrelo (Mingrelia) region of Georgia. They also live in considerable numbers in Abkhazia and Tbilisi. In the pre-1930 Soviet census, the Mingrelians were afforded their own ethnic group (natsional'nost) category.[10][11]
The Mingrelians speak the Mingrelian, and are mostly bilingual also in Georgian. Both these languages belong to the Kartvelian (South Caucasian) language family.[12][13][14]
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History
The Mingrelians are descendants of several Colchian tribes (Such as: Manraloi, Heniochi, Machelones, Macrones, Mossynoeci, Drilae, Zydretae) and constitute one of the building blocks of the unified Georgian nation that emerged after the kingdoms of the west (Colchis) and east (Iberia) were united under Christianity in the middle of the first millennium AD.[citation needed] Early in the Middle Ages, Mingrelian aristocracy and clergy, later followed by laymen, adopted the national Georgian tongue as a language of literacy and culture.[citation needed] After the fragmentation of the Kingdom of Georgia in the 15th century, Mingrelia was an autonomous principality until being annexed by the Russian Empire in the 19th century.
In several censuses under the Russian Empire and the early Soviet Union, Mingrelians were considered a separate group, largely because at the time of the annexation Mingrelia was politically separate from eastern Georgia, the historical political and cultural centers of the Medieval Georgian Kingdoms. They were, reclassified under the broader category of Georgian in the 1930s. Currently, most Mingrelians identify themselves as a subgroup of the Georgian nation and have preserved many characteristic cultural features - including the Mingrelian language - that date back to the pre-Christian Colchian era.
The first President of an independent Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia (1939–1993), was a Mingrelian.[15] Therefore, after the violent coup d'etat of December 21, 1991 - January 6, 1992, Samegrelo became the centre of a civil war, which ended with the defeat of Gamsakhurdia's supporters.
Approximately 180,000-200,000 people of Georgian and Mingrelian provenance have been expelled from Abkhazia as a result of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict in the early 1990s and the ensuing ethnic cleansing of Georgians in this separatist region.
Notable Mingrelians
- Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, one of the most influential Georgian writers of the 20th century [16]
- Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the 1st President of Georgia [17]
- Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin's chief of secret police [18]
- Merab Kostava, National Hero of Georgia [19]
- Şevkefza Sultan, Ottoman Sultans
See also
Notes
- ^ Alternately, Megrelians, Mingrels, or Megrels
- ^ David Levinson. Ethnic Groups Worldwide: A Ready Reference Handbook, p 34: «Included in the Georgian ethnic and national group are a number of subgroups such as Ajars, Khevsur, and Mingrelians.»
- ^ Stuart J. Kaufman Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War, p 86: «Additionally, the Georgian category includes an array of politically important subgroups especially Mingrelians, Svans and Ajarians»
- ^ Stephen F. Jones. Mingrelians. World Culture Encyclopedia. Retrieved on March 29, 2008.
- ^ Kevin Tuite The Meaning of Dæl. Symbolic and Spatial Associations of the South Caucasian Goddess of Game Animals. Université de Montréal.
- ^ Tunç Aybak Politics of the Black Sea: Dynamics of Cooperation and Conflict, p 185: «...Georgians (Megrels)...»
- ^ Andropov, New Challenge to the West, by Arnold Beichman, Mikhail S. Bernstam, p 116: «Georgia consists of three ethnics tribes: Imeretians, Kartvels, and Mingrelians .»
- ^ Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict, by Svante E. Cornell, p 142
- ^ Political Construction Sites: Nation-building in Russia and the Post-Soviet World, by Pål Kolstø, p 8
- ^ R. Wixman. The Peoples of the USSR: An Ethnographic Handbook (s.134)
- ^ National population census ZSFSR 1926
- ^ Sorosoro.org
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ McCauley, Martin. Who's who in Russia since 1900. Psychology Press, 1997: pg. 1
- ^ Rayfield, Donald. Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him. Random House Digital, Inc., 2005: pg. 354
- ^ McCauley, Martin. Who's who in Russia since 1900. Psychology Press, 1997: pg. 1
- ^ McCauley, Martin. Who's who in Russia since 1900. Psychology Press, 1997: pg. 1
- ^ Hoiris,Ole. Yurukel, Sefa. Contrasts and solutions in the Caucasus. Aarhus Univ. Press, 1998: pg.187
References
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mingrelians |
- Stephen F. Jones. Mingrelians. World Culture Encyclopedia.
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