Abstract

The author investigates Tiflis Messages’ political role in early nineteenth‑century Georgia, arguing that the newspaper functioned both as a Russian imperial instrument and a contested public sphere. Using archival and textual evidence, the research reconstructs its founding, editorial shifts under Solomon Dodashvili, and the Literary Section’s coded dissent. Dodashvili’s emphasis on Georgian language, literature, and education is shown to counter imperial narratives, cultivate national consciousness, and help lay the intellectual groundwork for the 1832 conspirators. The study highlights print’s dual function – propaganda and cultural mobilisation – and situates the paper within broader imperial–local dynamics in the Caucasus.