The Washington Post: “Remembering the Soviet massacre in Georgia, 30 years ago today”

The Washington Post has published a letter of Georgia’s ambassador to the United States David Bakradze in its opinion section, where Bakradze tells the story of April 9, a day when Moscow-directed Soviet tanks dispersed a peaceful demonstration demanding independence for Georgia.

“Thirty years ago today, the dying Soviet empire lashed out at the people of Georgia. April 9, 1989, launched our country on its path to independence, freedom and democracy”, wrote Bakradze.

He shared his personal experience of the events that took place in Tbilisi on April 9.

I was a teenager attending Public School No. 1, on the central avenue in my hometown of Tbilisi. The school stood just a short distance from the spot from where, on that fateful spring day, Soviet troops assaulted my countrymen in an attempt to crush our thirst for freedom. Thousands of people — some of them on hunger strikes — gathered spontaneously to demand independence from Russian rule. Moscow dispatched Soviet troops under the command of Russian general Igor Rodionov to stop it”, he wrote.

Bakradze described how Russian soldiers bludgeoned unarmed citizens with military entrenching tools.

They gave no quarter, attacking even some of those who were fleeing. They fired tear gas and CS gas — a chemical weapon — at the crowds of peaceful protesters, paralyzing some, killing others. In the end, 21 Georgians lay dead, including 17 women and three that were no more than 16 years old, battered with trenching tools and suffocated by gas from the Soviet army”, Bakradze wrote.

Two years to the day after Russian soldiers murdered Georgian citizens on the streets of one of Tbilisi, Georgia declared its independence.

Read the full story here.