Post stamp featuring national hero Maro Makashvili to mark 1921 Soviet invasion of Georgia
The post stamp featuring Makashvili will be released in the near future by the economy ministry. Image via Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia.
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The Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development will release a post stamp featuring Maro Makashvili, a national hero of the country who died during the 1921 Red Army invasion of the First Democratic Republic of Georgia.
Announced by the ministry as part of events marking the February 25, 1921 occupation of the country by the invading Soviet forces, the move honours the nurse who died while accompanying armed forces of the young republic during their defensive fighting in frantic weeks of the month 100 years ago.
A student and a Red Cross nurse, Makashvili became one of the symbolic faces of the three-year democratic state that fought for its independence from the 11th Red Army but was eventually overcome. The young nurse died on the approaches to capital Tbilisi and her obituary was run by local press on February 23.
A February 23, 1921 obituary for Maro Makashvili, a student and a Red Cross nurse who died during the Soviet invasion and was subsequently declared a National Hero of Georgia. Photo via National Archives of Georgia.
The economy ministry said it had approved the design for the postmark as an effort to "pay homage to the heroes who sacrificed themselves to their homeland in uneven fighting" that followed the February 16 invasion of the country.
Makashvili is also featured in an online exhibition of the National Archives of Georgia, launched on Thursday as part of events marking the centenary since the events.
The young and patriotic nurse died from a splinter of a shell while accompanying servicemembers fighting around the town of Kojori near Tbilisi. Her story inspired Georgian poet Titsian Tabidze to pay homage to Makashvili by comparing her to Joan of Arc.
The 1918-1921 Republic of Georgia ceased to exist as a result of the Soviet occupation and subsequent Sovietisation of the country. Makashvili was declared a national hero and her name was given to a park outside the National Parliamentary Library in Tbilisi.