CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Chumburidze, Tornike |
|---|---|
| Title | Emancipation, Modernization, Riot: Tbilisi's Amkrebi and Russian Imperial Rule (1801-67) |
| Summary | This thesis explores the history of Tbilisi’s Amkrebi in the first sixty-odd years of the nineteenth century. Amkrebi, craftsmen and trader organizations comparable to European guilds, had dominated production and distribution within Tbilisi throughout the Middle Ages and up until the end of the eighteenth century. With the introduction of Russian rule in the city in 1801, the organizations gradually lost their influence over the next few decades. This has lead scholars of labor history of Tbilisi to envision Amkrebi history of this period as one of linear, steadfast, and inevitable decline and the organizations themselves as pitiful remnants of the past acting as roadblocks on the city’s way to modernization and capitalist economy. The principal aim of this thesis is to emancipate Amkrebi and their history from these reductionist and deterministic narratives. With an attempt to bridge the New Imperial History of Russia and New Labor History paradigms, I emphasize the intricate ties between Amkrebi and history of empire and modernization in Tbilisi. The thesis focuses on the daring and influential modernization project pursued by the viceroy MikhailSemyonovich Vorontsov in Tbilisi between 1844-1853. In light of Christian G. Devito’s concept of Labor Flexibility, I argue that the labor force and social services provided by Amkrebi where an integral and indispensable part of this project. Finally, I revisit the issue of the reasons behind Amkrebi decline. Through analyzing a crucial event in the organizations’ history, the Amkari Riot of 1865, I show that Amkrebi still enjoyed tremendous influence in Tbilisi in this period. Crucially, they lost their power not simply due to changing economic realities in the city, but as a result of a prolonged political struggle with Tbilisi’s municipal and imperial administrations. |
| Supervisor | Hennings, Jan; Zimmermann, Susan Carin |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/chumburidze_tornike.pdf |
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