The Abkhazian Letter was an 87-page document signed by 60 important representatives of the Abkhaz

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the in ...

. The letter was completed on 17 June 1988 and sent to

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

. The authors of the letter defended the distinctness of Abkhaz people, i.e. their non-Kartvelian status, and listed Abkhaz grievances against the Tbilisi rule, incl. Georgianization.''Transcaucasian Boundaries'' by John F. R. Wright, Suzanne Goldenberg, Richard Schofield. London, UCL Press, 1996. p. 202

References

History of Abkhazia 1988 documents 1988 in the Soviet Union {{Abkhazia-stub