ABSTRACT
This chapter consists of two parts: one dealing with late nineteenth and early twentieth century nationalism and another examining the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries; these two periods can be seen as turning points in the history of Georgian nation-building, and they deserve to be compared. First, it used existing quantitative surveys: the World Values Survey (2008), the Caucasus Barometer, and the European Values Study (2008). Second, the chapter research was based on a study of the Georgian press for the years 1999 and 2008-2010. In the nineteenth century Georgia was part of the Russian Empire. To achieve a well-developed society, it was believed that education and work were necessary, being the key to improved living conditions, success and happiness. The first wave of Georgian national ideology, which was initiated in the second half of the nineteenth century, paved the way for modern nation and statehood, which might have been fully realized, but was interrupted by the Soviet takeover.
