Victims of Soviet repressions remembered, names read out loud in Tbilisi
Under the decree N00447, a troika - group of three officials – was set up, which gave rulings in each detainee’s case in two or three minutes, without fair or public trials. Photo: Agenda.ge.
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Names of the residents of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi who were killed or exiled during the 1937-38 Soviet repressions were read out loud in Tbilisi today.
The victims of the Soviet regime were remembered in relation to the date (July 30, 1937) when the Soviet Union leadership issued decree N00447 on the detention and punishment of so-called “kulaks, criminals and anti-Soviet elements.”
The entrance of the former NKVD office. Photo:Agenda.ge.
The event was organised by the Soviet Past Research Laboratory which aims to explore the Soviet past and explain the importance of remembrance of the victims and encourage the government’s involvement in studying their history.
Under the decree N00447, a troika - group of three officials – was set up, which gave rulings in each detainee’s case in an accelerated fashion, in two or three minutes, without fair or public trials.
Event organiser, researcher Irakli Khvadagiani said the repressions applied to people from different social classes and ethnicities in Tbilisi.
The event organisers affixed the printed text of the decree N00447 on the wall. Photo: Agenda.ge.
He also added the list presented today is still not complete.
82 years have passed since the 1937 Great Purge in the Soviet Union which claimed the lives of thousands of common citizens, intellectuals and independently minded artists in Georgia.
29,051 Georgians were repressed by the Soviet totalitarian regime and those in power in 1937-38.
Of these people 14,372 were sentenced to capital punishment, while 14,679 were exiled.
The bodies of over 150 people repressed in 1937-1938 during Stalin’s reign, otherwise known as the Great Terror, have been identified in Georgia’s seaside resort of Batumi.
A new illustrated book on Petre Otskheli, one of Georgia’s most notable avant-garde artists and a pioneering theatre designer, has been published in German to bring the story of the victim of political repressions to an audience outside his country.
A poignant display opening today in Tbilisi will tell the personal stories of citizens exiled and persecuted during the brutal political repressions of the Soviet regime in Georgia.
Ninety-nine years have passed since the day Georgia lost its three-year independence and was occupied by the Bolshevik Red Army. The Georgian national flag is flying at half-staff at government buildings around the country today in remembrance of the thousands of ordinary citizens and soldiers who died in the battle against Soviet forces in 1921.
The US Embassy in Tbilisi says that 99 years after the Soviet occupation of Georgia began, the US stands with Georgia in support of its hard-fought sovereignty, citing famous Georgia writer Mikheil Javakhishvili and his description of the occupation.