Events

In early March 1956 thousands of people in Georgia took to the streets to protest Khrushchev’s “Secret Speech” and the beginning of “de-Stalinization”.

These were the first large-scale public protests in the USSR in nearly 30 years. On the night of March 9 the Soviet Army opened fire.

The March 1956 events in Georgia present a paradox: in a republic that suffered heavily under Stalin’s rule, citizens protested in support of Stalin. The events presaged the later uprisings in Hungary in October 1956, and became a watershed event in Georgian and Soviet history.

A discussion of the March 1956 events will take place following a viewing of the short film “9 March: Bloody Tbilisi” (20 min) produced by the Archives Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia.

Moderator: Timothy Blauvelt, Ilia State University Associate Professor

Participants:

• Lasha Bakradze, Director of the State Museumof Georgian Literature and Ilia State University Professor
• Oliver Reisner, Ilia State University Professor
• Dr. Vladimer Luarsabishvili, Archives Administration, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia

Language: English

March 9, 2017

17:00 at Ilia State University, Room A101