Ethnic Identity in Abkhazia and the Paradigms of Its Institutionalization

The article focuses on the aspects of nation-building and the main paradigms of the institutionalization of ethnicity in Abkhazia during the Soviet era and assesses the impact of Soviet practices of ordering ethnic categories on the modern ethnocultural and ethnopolitical landscape of the country. I examine the history of formation of the ethnic mosaic of Abkhazia, analyze the particular Abkhazian ways of solving general issues of the early Soviet nation-building, and discuss the influence of Soviet nation-building on the modern identity of various groups of Abkhazia's population. The article further assesses the impact of ethnic mixing on the shaping of identity of Abkhazia's population and explores the questions of civil nation-building and multilevel identity

Aesthetics · Development economics · Ethnic group · Identity (music · Institutionalisation · Political economy · Political science · Population · Sociology · Demography · Gender Studies · Law · Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics · Russia and Soviet political economy · Soviet and Russian History