Sympathies of Georgians to Stalin caused by poor awareness about repressions

Many Georgians are still treating positively the person of Joseph Stalin, since they are poorly informed about the events of the period of repressions, Georgian experts believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in June 2010, the authorities dismantled a monument to Stalin in the city of Gori. Later, residents of the city organized collection of signatures for the restoration of the monument and held protests against demanding thereof.

On May 6, Gori again hosted an action demanding to restore the monument to Stalin. The country still has a lot of people who feel sympathy for Stalin's personality; therefore, the actions of Stalinists before May 9 seem logical, said the experts, questioned by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. However, in their opinion, for the modern Georgian public, the Victory Day is a secondary holiday.

In Soviet times, May 9 was one of the major holidays; but after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Georgian public opinion has centred on other historical dates, said historian David Djishkariani from the group "Sovlab", who is engaged in the researching the Stalinist era.

"Not least, this is due to the fact that the territory of Georgia was not under occupation, unlike a great part of Russia; thus, the local population experienced no direct impact of German occupation forces. While for Russian the victory in World War II is a nation-forming, Georgia, as a nation, was formed based on other events," said Djishkariani.

Emil Adelkhanov, a Georgian rights defender, agrees that in Georgia the WW II has not become a most significant event in the history, agreed and the.

Under Saakashvili's rule, there were attempts to condemn Stalinism, noted the rights defender. The current government "shows complete indifference to this issue."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.