Episode 1 - The State of Soviet History in Georgia

In this episode we explore how Soviet History and its legacies in Georgia are generally understood and approached today in academia, politics, the NGO sector and society at large.

In Part I we interview Timothy Blauvelt - professor of History at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, Georgia. Teaching in Georgia for almost 19 years he has produced a range of varied scholarship relating to both Soviet history and in particular Georgia and the South Caucasus on patronage networks in Abkhazia, the 1956 protests in Tbilisi against de-Stalinization, attitudes in Georgia towards the Russian language, and has an upcoming book entitled Clientalism and Nationality in an Early Soviet Fiefdom: The Trials of Nestor Lakoba to be released this year.

We discuss with Timothy the roles and relationship between university research and NGO research on the Soviet past in Georgia as well as Timothy’s own research on Soviet Georgia and Abkhazia as well as the socio-political and academic environments in which this research is received.

In Part II we interview Beka Natsvlishvili, professor and former MP in Georgia to discuss the use of anti-Soviet memory politics in Georgia and the implications this has on political development and debate in the country. Beka shares his own experiences in both the university setting and as a politician in Georgia to shed light on the real uses and misuses of Georgia's Soviet experience and why a reconsideration of Georgia's Soviet past is important for developing a coherent left wing politics today.