Turn a word into action : behaviour as a determinant of Georgian national identity in the 19th century

The article deals with the problem of analysis of Georgian social movements of an independent character formed in the 19th century through the prism of semiotics of behaviour. As Yuri Lotman and Boris Uspensky wrote, cultural changes are accompanied by an increase in the semioticness of the behaviour of members of a given culture. In my article I try to determine how the loss of independence by Georgia in 1812 changed the behaviour of Georgians, who, through specific models of conduct, manifested their separateness from Russian culture. It should also be taken into account that Georgia was the destination of many Polish independence activists and Russian decembrists sent to the Caucasus to serve their sentences. For this reason, the influence of Polish exiles and Russian decembrists on the formation of Georgian national movements of an independent character is also important in my deliberations