Conference in DC Marks 100 Years Since Georgia’s 1924 Anti-Soviet Uprising

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On September 27, a conference commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 1924 anti-Soviet national uprising in Georgia was held at the Victims of Communism Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. The event was organized by the Georgian Association in the U.S. in collaboration with the Soviet Past Research Laboratory (Sovlab) and Harvard University’s Georgia Studies Program.

Speakers included Sovlab members Irakli Khvadagiani and Giorgi Kandelaki, Harvard University professor Stephen Jones, and head of the Memory Research Center of Ilia State University and Harvard University Fulbright researcher Malkhaz Toria, who discussed the uprising’s historical context, the Soviet occupation’s impact on Georgia, and lessons relevant to current global politics. The conference also examined how Russia uses Soviet-era history in disinformation campaigns and the challenges of memory politics today.

Sovlab’s project manager Giorgi Kandelaki stated: “For years, the Russian Federation and its allies in Georgia have pushed a strategic objective of cultivating an anti-western, ethno-religious, kind of folklore strait of nationalism or nativism in which the western civilization is a threat and the so-called Russian world is a salvation. In this long-term and, one has to admit, a rather successful project, the memory of the Soviet Union and that of Joseph Stalin is kind of a strategic axis.”

“At the same time, that effort, which aims to confuse the Georgian public bets heavily on the fact that the memory on events such as the 1924 anti-soviet national uprising are either fragmented or completely erased from collective memory by decades of Soviet totalitarianism,” Kandelaki commented, noting that “while western counter disinformation efforts have focused on debunking Russian lies, reconstruction of memory of the Soviet Union must be made a key focus of that agenda simply because it is an issue of existential significance for the Kremlin. It must have been done long ago, but it is better late than never.”

Speaking about the project Irakli Khvadagiani, SovLab’s researcher said: “When political memory is dismembered and distorted the society is disoriented. Today, we can already reconstruct accurately what was happening after the Soviet Russian occupation of Georgia, how did the society fight and what was the scale of resistance before loosing freedom.”

An exhibition was held in parallel, honoring 12 members of Georgia’s first democratically-elected Parliament, executed by the Soviet regime during the uprising. Attendees included representatives from the U.S. State Department, the Georgian-American community, and notable figures such as CNN journalist Jill Dougherty, historian David Satter, and former US Ambassador to Georgia Kelly Degnan.

The event concluded with a musical tribute to the fall of Sokhumi and the war in Ukraine, with part of the proceeds going to the Veterans Charitable Foundation.

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