03 August 2020, 14:06
Historians explain special attitude to Stalin in Georgia
Many residents of Georgia are unaware of the scale of Stalin's repression and are proud of Joseph Stalin as their fellow countryman who held the highest post in the Soviet Union, historians said.
Those residents of Georgia, who are far from the history of the issue, treat the repressions of the 1930s as more Beria's ones rather than Stalin's ones, David Djishkariani, a historian and the founder of the Laboratory for Studying the Soviet Past (known as "Sovlab"), told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
He has noted that in Georgia, there is a special attitude to Stalin. "This has to do with Stalin's ethnic origin and the imperial attitude – the colonial nation is always proud that the main colonizer was a Georgian," Mr Djishkariani has explained.
Stalin is still popular in Georgia; and for a part of the population he is a respected historical figure, says Amiran Urushadze, a researcher at the Southern Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). "'Here, the Georgian Stalin ruled the whole of Russia' – such moods can be formulated like this," he has explained.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 2, 2020 at 07:40 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Author: Oleg Krasnov, Beslan Kmuzov Source: CK correspondents
