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Kakha KvashilavaSokhumi State UniveristyTHE PROBLEM OF SAMURZAKANIANS “ETHINC BELONGING” IN RUSSIANHISTORIOGRAPHY AND IAKOB GOGEBASHVILI’S SIGHTSSince 1 st half of 19 th Century Russian historiography has been trying to prove of“Abkhazian” origination of Samurzakano and to create an ideological basis for alienationthis Georgian historical and ethnological province from Georgia and for denationalizationof Samurzakanian Georgians. This imperialistic and chauvinistic direction was immediatelyopposed by the Georgian intellingetsia which based on an object research reasonabledisproved these “conclusions” of Russian scientists. In the years when using of word“Georgia” was prohibited by the Tsarism, Iakob Gogebashvili, the founder of Georgianpedagogics and one of the leaders of the Georgian national liberation struggle, propagatedthe idea of the unity of Georgian lands and the Georgians in which he also meantSamurzakanians.160