Today, the Soviet Past Research Laboratory (Sovlab) held ceremony to mark memory of the Stalin terror victims at Ingorokva 22, the former Soviet secret Police (Cheka) HQ in Tbilisi. Photographs of imprisoned and executed political and public figures were displayed during the ceremony. Sovlab members and members of the public read out names of victims of Stalin terror of 1937-1938.
“It has been fourth year since Sovlab has been trying to establish July 30 as the day of remembrance of Soviet totalitarianism victims. It is key for more citizens to be involved in this process in Tbilisi as well as regions. Today, against the background of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, we see that the totalitarian monster has not gone anywhere. The key driver of both this war as well as the Russian aggression towards Georgia is the weaponised memory of the Soviet totalitarianism. It is for this reason we ought to have a full understanding of what we are up against and what we are there to defend. We defend the idea of democratic Georgia and remember individuals who perished for it,” Sovlab board chairman Irakli Khvadagiani said at the ceremony.
Diego Colas, Ambassador of France to Georgia attended the ceremony and also read out the victims’ names.
“It is very important for us to remember the crimes that were committed in the 20th century in the Bolshevik and communist periods. Today, Russia’s big revisionist and imperialist plan exists and Russia is attacking Ukraine. We see a continuity between the past and today’s crimes,” Ambassador Colas told Georgian media.
On July 30, 1937 the Soviet People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, the infamous NKVD issued decree No 004447, unleashing one of the bloodiest waves of Stalin’s terror campaign. This cycle of mass killings carried out by the soviet totalitarian regime claimed lives of millions across the soviet empire and tens of thousands in Georgia. Although prior waves of persecutions and killings had already scarred the Georgia, the bloodbath of 1937-1938 impacted the Georgian society and its social fabric in a monumental way.
In recent years, more than 10 new statues of Joseph Stalin have been erected in Georgia, mirroring success of the Russian disinformation effort. According to a recent survey by the USAID’s Information Integrity Program, 66% of Georgians wholly or partially agree that Georgians should be proud of Stalin due to his Georgian origins.
The Soviet Past Research Laboratory was established in 2010. Its main mission is to research and raise awareness on the soviet totalitarian past, as well as countering Russian disinformation, particularly weaponisation of the soviet history.
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