On November 14, at 7 pm Tbilisi time, the biweekly research colloquium of the Institute for Social and Cultural Research, Ilia State University, will host Helena Holzberger, assistant professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, with a talk on her current research project: “The making of a seafarer’s nation? Batumi, the SSR Georgia, and the rise of the Soviet global merchant fleet.”
Abstract:
During the growing period of the Soviet ocean-going fleet, its coastal republics gained new significance. Almost each was assigned its designated ocean-going fleet in the late 1960s, as did the Soviet Republic of Georgia in 1967. Batumi became the center of the Georgian Fleet after being a Black Sea Port under Odessa’s leadership for over 40 years. Other maritime infrastructure followed as well as an all-Soviet representation of Georgia’s ships and seamen.
Having its own fleet not only gave Georgia a new meaning as a maritime republic, but also connected a significant number of Georgian seafarers to the world for the first time. Looking at the emergence of the Soviet fleet from Georgia, on the one hand, allows for a decentralised narrative of global Soviet history and challenges its perception as Russian history. On the other hand, the analysis of the Georgian merchant fleet’s routes and the conditions the sailors encountered in foreign ports around the world offers new insights into the entanglements and disentanglements of maritime space during the Cold War.
Bio:
Dr. Helena Holzberger is an “Akademische Rätin a.Z.” (Assistant Professor) at the Chair of Russian and Asian Studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Her research focuses on the late Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, particularly cultural, social, visual, and maritime history. In 2020, she defended her dissertation on Orientalism and the History of Photography in Tsarist/Soviet Central Asia, which she is currently turning into a book. Her new research topic is the emergence and global encounters of the Soviet merchant fleet, focusing on the Republic of Georgia.
The event will take place in English via Zoom. Registration is required.
To register please follow this link.
