"Unanimity of Human Rights" promises to collect one million signatures in a few weeks. Maybe it will manage to do this. But there have been many such "signature campaigns" carried out in Georgia in the last 20 years. By itself, the NGO’s initiative (this is one of several hundred active NGOs in the country) would not have attracted much attention or interest if there had not been any signatures of legends of the Soviet era. The document was signed by poet Dzhansug Charkviani, writer Chabua Amirejibi, film directors Rezo Chkheidze and Giga Lordkipanidze, who are quite well-known in Russia. The novel by Chabua Amirejibi called "Data Tutashkhia", translated by him into Russian, telling the story of a lonely righteous abrek, at one time interested the Russian reader, as well as the movie "Beaches", which was directed by Giga Lortkipanidze and based on this novel. Rezo Chkheidze is known as the author of the film "Father of a Soldier," about a father looking for his son at the front. Poet Dzhansug Charkviani is less known in Russia, but in Georgia, he (and his colleagues) was very influential. These, above all, are the merits of the four artists, who signed the document on the resignation of the president: they represent the phenomenon of the Georgian intelligentsia of the Soviet era, which has played a key role in the country's recent history.
The Bolsheviks called this social group "glue." It appeared in all the Soviet republics, but in Georgia it attained the greatest weight and influence. The political instinct of Eduard Shevardnadze played a role here; in 1970 he realized that the "glue of thinkers" is a force for legitimisation of power, including the Communist Party, not to mention the post-Soviet period, when Shevardnadze was already in the rank of president of an independent state. But even in modern times his relationship with the "intelligentsia" has not changed. Since the time of Shevardnadze, the term "elitist intellectuals" has been established. This narrow circle contained only a few dozen people, and no one denies their contribution to creativity and science, but they have always been famous for their inalienable ambition to influence the political process.
Why is the former elite so implacable to Saakashvili? Why is there no "intellectual elite" supporting the president and his team? This fact is a sure sign that we are dealing with a deep social phenomenon and not a subjective attitude of some artists to a specific power. Otherwise, there would be other famous creators collecting signatures in support of Saakashvili.
The reason is that in the post-Soviet period the community of "elite intellectuals" has lost its former status as the community which legitimises the authorities or the main social support of the power, that is, “the court”, This role is being performed by influential non-governmental organizations, independent media and other institutions of civil society that have emerged in the reform process. They have become the "dominant influences" and the creators of the social and political processes. And the writers, directors, artists, actors, scientists - even brilliant and famous all over the world - take the place of their counterparts in normal countries where there are celebrities whose opinion is more or less important, but there is no corporation of "elitist intellectuals" or the voice of a united and indivisible society.
