“The main legend of Georgia is that Georgians are warriors because they are subject to constant invasion,” said Anna Lagidze, an educational psychologist in Tbilisi. A legend going back a thousand years, she explained, is that the men went into battle with grapevines tied around their waists so that if they died, new grapes would spring up where they fell.

Irregulars and volunteers fighting in Abkhazia in the early 1990s only added to the modern myth. “Many of them now think it is the last chance to defend their homeland,” Ms. Lagidze said. “It comes from the knowledge that the army is not enough and every man is valuable.”

In Georgia, a Code of Honor Lures Young Men to the Fighting, With No Military Training