Tornike Sharashenidze’s blog

In August 2008 when the Russian troops invaded
Georgia the whole world learnt about Gori – a little town hitherto known only to Sovietologs and historians as a birthplace of Stalin. Shortly after the Russian recognition of South Ossetia’s independence, a group of South Ossetian activists claimed that Stalin in fact was Ossetian not Georgian. It hardly make sense to argue about Stalin’s ethnic origins; what mattered in this peculiar case was the eagerness of South Ossetian leaders to please their new masters for whom Stalin is re-emerging now as the exemplary leader.  The new Russian school textbooks depict Stalin as “the most successful Russian ruler of 20^th century.” During the occupation of Gori Stalin’s museum remained intact in the middle of ruins. The drunken Russian soldiers would take pictures with the statue of the “father of the nations” under whose rule “Georgians and Russians lived together as brothers.” The South Ossetian regime certainly did not like that Georgians despite everything still enjoyed the privilege of having Stalin; moreover, Georgians did not deserve to have Stalin since they did not like Russia. As for the Georgian leadership, after seeing the last (hopefully) of the Russians in Gori, it decided to get rid of Stalin’s museum (the remnant of Gori’s provincial pride for giving birth to one of the most famous leaders of the world) by turning it to the museum of Russian occupation.

The end of the Russian occupation was marked by the visit of Bryan Adams to Georgia. The event went unnoticed to great number of Georgians still being under a great stress after the horrors of the lost war. But it could not fail to remind about the other side of Georgian phenomena, more positive one than being a birthplace of one of the horrible men in the world history – Georgia has always been famous having for poets, wine and unique music. Under the Soviet Union Georgia not only served as a place of rest for the legendary Soviet artists but also became the first place to host the concert of legendary Soviet rock groups (such as “Akvarium,” “Mashina Vremeni”) and singers in 1979 when rock and jazz were condemned as extremities of “bourgeois decadence”. Later the Georgians produced “Repentance”, a movie that along with Solzhenitsin’s novels played a huge role in discrediting the Stalinist legacy in the eyes of ordinary Soviet citizens. Political and social environment in Georgia was always more liberal than in the rest of the Soviet Union.

The small artistic nation having given a birth to Stalin became a part of the Russian empire by the end of the 18^th century. Georgia became for Russia not only an effective bridgehead for further expansion into the South but also a peculiar complementary in a cultural and social sense. Lots of young Georgian noblemen travelled to Saint Petersburg where they received education, married and made a successful career. The extreme example of integration into Russian society was general Bagrationi, hailed as “the best Russian military commander” by no one else but Napoleon. Bagrationi hardly speaking any Georgian died after being wounded at the battle of Moscow begging the Russian commander-in-chief Kutuzov not to cede the city to Napoleon. The Russians themselves loved to visit Georgia. Despite the cultural differences between the north and the south the Russians still found much more common with their fellow orthodox Christians than with most of the other nations that dwelled within the Russian empire long before Georgians. The most famous poets Pushkin and Lermontov spent a lot of time in Georgia and they dedicated not a few f their works to “the wonder land.” This tradition was resumed in the Soviet Union too. Under the Russian empire the Russo-Georgian cultural ties symbolized by the marriage between renowned Russian writer and diplomat Alexander Griboedov and Georgian princess Nino Chavchavadze. Under the Soviet Union such symbols were numerous. The history of bilateral relations abounded with examples of friendship between Georgian and Russian poets and artists. Georgians starred in most of the Soviet movies. Sometimes they were too artistic, sometimes too self-proud, and sometimes too funny. After the collapse of the Soviet Union many Russians hardly could understand why Georgians wanted to run away from the Russian rule since they were “the most nurtured nation.”

The most nurtured and artistic nation was to play a big part in Russia’s political life too. Georgians occupied some key posts in the Russian provisional government of 1917. After the Bolshevik coup Stalin entered the scene. He made his best to persuade Lenin that the new Russian empire had to re-conquer Georgia (that became independent after the World War One) as soon as possible. Stalin understood that he hardly ever would be considered Russian without Georgia being a part of the empire. He also made sure that Georgia suffered no less than other Soviet nations in purges of 30-ies and World War Two too. Of course, for Georgians like for other brainwashed Soviet nations Stalin still was an idol. Moreover, the Georgians felt especially shocked and humiliated by Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin in 1956. Shortly after his famous anti-Stalin speech mass protest rallies began in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia (unbelievable thing for the Soviet regime). Khrushchev decided to disperse the demonstrations and his orders were diligently carried out by the Soviet army that killed numerous civilians on the streets of Tbilisi. Georgia was overrun and even more humiliated. But the Kremlin decided that the punishment was more than enough. Since then Georgians became more privileged and nurtured then ever before. They were able not only be rich, but also produce rather anti-Soviet movies, raise rock groups, talk and sing about Georgia as their motherland (instead of the mighty Soviet Union). All of these made Georgians feel superior (first of all in a cultural sense) to Russians and they were among the first that raised their voices against Russian rule and communist regime in the late 80-ies thus making Russians extremely unhappy about their fellow orthodox Christians. 

In late 80-ies Georgia was at its heyday as the cultural centre of the Soviet Union. The Soviet regime was easing its grip on daily life and now Tbilisi hosted not only famous Russian singers and rock-groups but also “western” ones. After scandalous concert of 1979 Tbilisi hosted B.B. King amd from the middle of 80-es more were to come: Billy Joel, Art Blaky (he participated in international Jazz festival held in the Georgian capital), Jan Gillan of legendary Deep Purple. He liked Tbilisi so much that even married his wife for the second time in a Georgian church. The next on the list were to be Mick Jagger, Sting and Tina Turner. The most liberal place of the Soviet Union was turning into truly European city  but…

The books on history of the Cold War abound with illustrations of Berlin Wall, Khrushchev’s speech at UN, Russian tanks in Prague (1968). In many of those books you can see the picture of Rolling Stones visiting Prague in 1990. This picture serves as one of the symbols of the end of the Cold War. Maybe Tbilisi could become another Prague but in 1991 a civil war began in Georgia. It was paralleled by the war in South Ossetia, later war in Abkhazia began. The horrors of war were to return in August 2008. The wars marked another, dark side of Georgia that unfortunately were not overcome and which overshadowed the idea of being another Prague. Does Georgia still have another chance for it?

It should. When having lost the war with Russia the Georgian government decided to get rid of Stalin’s museum, nobody protested. The reason why Georgia’s young, pro-Western government leaders tolerated the museum were rather simple: some Georgians were still sympathetic towards the “father of nations”. This was true especially about residents of Gori. For this small place the pride for having such a celebrity overweighed all the crimes committed by this horrible man. So the government never dared to shake the boat – the votes from Gori could make some difference in elections. Now Stalin is ultimately repudiated by Georgia and this symbolic moment can become a watershed in the history of tiny nation that has attracted the worldwide attention for several times. Hopefully in the future the attention will not come because of another war or another Stalin. Georgia has much more to offer to the world. Hopefully, Georgians themselves will start to realize it now.