A Public Lecture “Ilia and Georgian Europeanism” Was Held at GTU

In the framework of the week dedicated to the 187th birthday of Ilia Chavchavadze at the Georgian Technical University, GTU associate professor Mamuka Chanturia held a public lecture “Ilia and Georgian Europeanism”.

The event was opened by the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Economics, Media Technologies, and Social Sciences. As Professor Ivane Jagodnishvili said, the Ilia week at the university started on November 8th.

“The faculty continues the cognitive tour in the Literary-Memorial Museum with a public lecture.

We must once again explain to the youth that Ilia Chavchavadze created a new national self-awareness, a unified national thinking space, and an environment of national belonging.

As Great Ilya used to say: “History and success belong to the right, strong, and hardworking fighter. At the same time, he can turn out to be European”. Georgian culture, writing, philosophical and philological thinking are of the kind that would later be called European.

It stands at the beginnings of European culture and always resonates with the fact that it participates in defining the great content of Europeanism. Due to the cataclysms of Georgian history, Georgian culture was violently separated from European culture time and time again, but the feeling of genetic unity kept bringing it back to Europe.

Even now, Georgian culture represents the manifestation of the great content of the cultural area of Europeanism. Currently, in the era of unprecedented opportunities in terms of rapprochement with Europe and integration into European culture, Georgian cultural awareness, and elements of its value system – philology, art, writing, and humanitarian thinking can contribute to overcoming the current crisis of European culture.

In the second half of the 19th century, the European technology of the Georgian public opinion manifestation – journalism – a form of expression of current public problems, appeared as one of the most relevant manifestations of Europeanism. The language of journalism has become the best form of bringing politics, economy, and science to the mass audience.

The popularity of journalism in the second half of the 19th century is demonstrated by the fact that a whole generation of talented publicists appeared in the public arena, among whom two great figures stood out – Ilia Chavchavadze and Akaki Tsereteli. Very soon, the third big name of Georgian journalism – Niko Nikoladze – appeared on their side. It was with the language of journalism that Ilia Chavchavadze created the Georgian 19th century, defined (and most importantly, made people aware of) the country’s development path and the political philosophy of being a Georgian,” noted the dean.

At the end of the public lecture, Associate Professor Mamuka Chanturia answered the students’ questions.