Situations in Ukraine and Georgia, throughout the recent war in Ukraine, the view of Georgian student, Nikoloz Gvasalia.
Hello, my name is Nikoloz Gvasalia, I am a student from Georgia. I was born and raised in a small post-Soviet country, Georgia, I finished school in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and then I entered Tbilisi State University, Faculty of Humanities. I have loved humanities since childhood, especially history. My grandfather, Avtandil Menteshashvili, was an academician, the head of the Department of Russian History at Tbilisi University, he is the author of several interesting cognitive books, which mainly deal with the history of the origin of conflicts in the Caucasus and other former Soviet regions, my grandfather was one of the first Soviet professors who came to the United States of America on a business trip And he conducted research on the First Republic of Georgia at Harvard University in Massachusetts. Based on his research, in 1991, Georgia declared the Act of Independence and established the Second Republic. Unfortunately, my grandfather died in the same year I was born, that’s why I know these stories from my childhood, it always saddened me that I couldn’t meet him, because of his tragic death, my grandfather couldn’t finish a few of his papers, maybe that’s why I chose history for my future career because I always I had a feeling that I should continue to finish it.
I believe that getting an education in America is the best way to achieve my academic goals. I have been here for more than 6 months. Fortunately, Fermata Art Foundation, a non-profit organization, the founder of the organization, Nikolai Synkov, and the executive director, Tatyana Ishutkina, have generously allowed me to live temporarily, At the Fermata Art Foundation building in Avon, Connecticut, have been providing reimbursement for my living expenses until now. With the help of the organization, I was able to hold several presentations about the history and traditions of Georgia and the Caucasus region in libraries.
My every morning starts with a workout, thanks to the donation of F45 gyms, I can exercise for free, and after an hour of exercise, I have breakfast, my diet consists mainly of home-cooked meals, which the members of the organization prepare with their personal funds, after breakfast I start academic activities, mainly writing, I try every day I update my blog, on my site, and at the end of the day I make changes to my activity log by day. I have a 2003 Honda Civic car, and the car needs standard fuel, due to financial instability, I often fill it with fuel through a donation or simply with the fuel bought by a friend.
My greatest desire is to be allowed to pursue a formal academic education so that in the future I can be closer to my goal of conducting research on post-Soviet, new, and recent history and completing my grandfather’s unfinished business. Of course, all this is unfortunately impossible without basic financial support.
In my opinion, researching military conflicts and problems of recent history with historical documents will allow us to prevent future military crises in Eastern European countries. The obtained and confirmed facts will allow us to conduct a constructive dialogue between the conflicting parties based on historical reality.
Everything started when the sun darkened in the Georgian sky and the moon rose in its place.
According to the legend, in the 4th century, the king of Georgia-Iberia, Mirian III, went hunting with his followers, on the way the sun darkened in the sky, and the moon rose in its place, the frightened riders and horses dismounted, and began to pray the idolatrous religion of that time, the prayers did not help them. That’s why King Mirian decided to try to pray for a new religion, Christianity, the prayer paid off and soon the sun rose again in the sky of Georgia, after that he never deviated from the Christian path of Georgia.
Of course, Georgian cultural history is much older, and that’s why everyone who comes to Georgia soon falls in love with this small country.
The history of Georgia is full of many negative events, this small country of the Caucasus has always been a victim of people with imperialist ambitions, and nothing has changed until today, Georgia, like 1000 years ago, is still fighting to preserve its history and culture in the world.
The battle is the same, but the rules have changed, now physical destruction is no longer relevant, and today’s main weapon is erasing the nation’s history and culture.
Society is rich and promising if it remembers its past, what will happen to us if we forget Shota Rustaveli’s ” The Panthers Skin”? Or Saba Orbelian’s fables? We will go back to where we came from, the first age of development, where everything is primitive and monotonous.
Along with the Georgian culture, the Georgian mentality is rich with its positive aspects, since ancient times we have been distinguished by hospitality and most importantly, Georgians have always been tolerant towards women, religions, and nations, these qualities have made us an oasis in Eastern Europe throughout history.
It is always useful to talk about the past, but it is important not to forget the current situation in the world, especially with the beginning of the computer nation, world events are changing very quickly, and the industrial revolution has introduced a completely new way of life in the world, political priorities have changed, new rules of the game have appeared, which if you do not obey, you will be lost in the infinity of the past.
What is the new in the new century?
The evil intentions of the empires have not changed even in the new century, the expansionist missions are still active in foreign countries, and the new democracies emerging from the Soviet ruins in Eastern Europe are in reality the sources of disguised corruption that work with a full load, enriching the rich and impoverishing the poor even more. Eastern European governments, delighted with the idea of capitalist order and freedom, greedily devour the funds sent from the West.
”Thanks” to the activity of Putin’s regime, in almost all the republics of the former Soviet Union, frozen, ethnic conflicts have been renewed, and active wars and destabilization of regions have started, the situation in these regions is complicated by acute social problems, the only thing left for young people is to leave their country because there is no future perspective for them.
Putin’s open, military aggression, my country first felt in 2008, when we sat in our houses with bloodshot eyes and waited for tanks, then no one thought of escaping, we just sat and waited. The tragedy of the war lasted for almost two weeks, Putin won, then no one stood up for Russia, and the politicians got incredibly rich, those who came into politics with no money, are now oligarchs, and those who defended the country unfortunately still exist, the houses are still destroyed and the displaced people still live in huts.
what’s happening today There is still a war today, but now in Ukraine, the scale is much bigger, so the victims and the money are more.
It has been done by Putin for 20 years, putting the population of his country to sleep, by destroying education as much as possible in the country, it is much easier for a dictator to keep the reins of management, by destroying education, the Russian king Putin is trying to simply destroy civilization, this is a direct murder for Russia and other post-Soviet countries. The establishment of the Stalinist cult of one person began with the transformation of man into a herd, the population must live, but nothing else must reduce them to a primitive level so that they can be turned into animals, and the police regime can easily handle the herd of people.
What do we do in the background of all this, despite the active cooperation of the Western institutions, the war started in February 2022 with the government of Ukraine, and the population received hard- times in the first days of the war. The priority of the members of the Ukrainian government should have been the evacuation of the population from hot spots of war and their safe transportation to peaceful regions, however, due to corrupt high-ranking officials, women, children, and the elderly were left in the face of bombs and rockets, and no one is responsible for this. Against the backdrop of humanitarian inactivity, members of the corrupt government are actively asking for financial assistance from the West, of course, because there is no financial benefit from evacuating the population, who will spend money to save the common people when you can use this money to build a luxurious palace in some prestigious resort, the war will be over and everyone will forget, and a member of the corrupt prince, will go to the resort and relax.
Due to the war, there are many humanitarian problems in Europe, and millions of Ukrainian refugees are trying to escape the misery of the war in the West. It seems that the European structures were not prepared for the crisis of refugees, which is why in the advanced countries of Europe, Ukrainians are simply left to their own devices, for various meaningless reasons, they are unable to find employment, residential apartments are either in poor condition or simply do not exist, the situation is so severe that Ukrainians Some of them chose to go back to Ukraine from Europe and continued to live there.
Unfortunately, the main pillars of Western democratic values – the personal freedom of a person – are under threat today. If it is not possible to successfully fulfill this humanitarian mission, Putin will win, he will win because his ideological principle is that there is no man, there is society, and numerous victims in society are mere statistics.
It is vitally necessary that the advanced countries of Western democracy realize that their actions should be developed with the right priority line, first of all, it is necessary to develop a well-organized, humanitarian mission, with the perspective of all kinds of development, safe evacuation of people and subsequent rescue, solving social problems.
Talking about the need for military aid should be replaced by the need for public aid. Military-industrial facilities are working at maximum capacity today to be able to produce deadly weapons as soon as possible, having military paraphernalia is necessary for every country that defends itself, the origin of the history of weapons was by people from prehistoric times so they could protect their families from the enemy, the situation in this area is not very It has changed and the weapon remains a faithful friend of man during the war, but here too we must think about what we want a weapon for, today’s weapon is not a sword, today’s weapon is massive and dangerous, even in the case of professional use, injury or murder of a civilian, and the death of the population is a loss of the war. Equally, this is exactly Putin’s policy and game. That is why it is most important to recognize the mobilization of military paraphernalia as a secondary problem and the initiative to organize humanitarian missions as the main priority.
To see the scale of the problem more clearly, it is necessary to name the numbers. Since the start of the Ukrainian refugee crisis, 8 million people have left Ukraine, more than 90% of whom are women and children, a quarter of the total population of Ukraine. Men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave the country.
7.2 million Ukrainians are taking refuge in European countries, the vast majority of them are women and children, unable to find employment due to the language barrier, and receiving only minimal government assistance. According to data, 225,000 Ukrainian refugees are in the United States of America today, despite minimal financial assistance, unfortunately, there is no specific program that would help integrate the population into society.
We must not forget the millions of Ukrainian citizens who are still in Ukraine and are still waiting for evacuation and saving their lives.
Of course, we should not forget Georgia, when it was the victim of Putin’s first active, expansive actions in 2008, hundreds of thousands of people became refugees in this small country, but unfortunately, the history of refugees in Georgia begins in the early 90s, as a result of the separatist conflict that began in the Abkhazia region of Georgia, up to 300,000 people It has been displaced, the displaced Georgian population has been waiting for decent living conditions for 30 years. Unfortunately, despite the allocation of numerous financial grants, the monthly pension for refugees is $20.
Due to the mercantile policies of the governments, the Eastern European countries are suffering doubly as a result of Putin’s aggression, the only way to get rid of this is the reform in our minds, the reform that there is not a single mechanical weapon in the world that is more important than human life and freedom.
February 14. 2023
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Hello, my name is Nikoloz Gvasalia, I am a student from Georgia. I was born and raised in a small post-Soviet country, Georgia, I finished school in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and then I entered Tbilisi State University, Faculty of Humanities. I have loved humanities since childhood, especially history. My grandfather, Avtandil Menteshashvili, was an academician, the head of the Department of Russian History at Tbilisi University, he is the author of several interesting cognitive books, which mainly deal with the history of the origin of conflicts in the Caucasus and other former Soviet regions, my grandfather was one of the first Soviet professors who came to the United States of America on a business trip And he conducted research on the First Republic of Georgia at Harvard University in Massachusetts. Based on his research, in 1991, Georgia declared the Act of Independence and established the Second Republic. Unfortunately, my grandfather died in the same year I was born, that’s why I know these stories from my childhood, it always saddened me that I couldn’t meet him, because of his tragic death, my grandfather couldn’t finish a few of his papers, maybe that’s why I chose history for my future career because I always I had a feeling that I should continue to finish it.
I believe that getting an education in America is the best way to achieve my academic goals. I have been here for more than 6 months. Fortunately, Fermata Art Foundation, a non-profit organization, the founder of the organization, Nikolai Synkov, and the executive director, Tatyana Ishutkina, have generously allowed me to live temporarily, At the Fermata Art Foundation building in Avon, Connecticut, have been providing reimbursement for my living expenses until now. With the help of the organization, I was able to hold several presentations about the history and traditions of Georgia and the Caucasus region in libraries.
My every morning starts with a workout, thanks to the donation of F45 gyms, I can exercise for free, and after an hour of exercise, I have breakfast, my diet consists mainly of home-cooked meals, which the members of the organization prepare with their personal funds, after breakfast I start academic activities, mainly writing, I try every day I update my blog, on my site, and at the end of the day I make changes to my activity log by day. I have a 2003 Honda Civic car, and the car needs standard fuel, due to financial instability, I often fill it with fuel through a donation or simply with the fuel bought by a friend.
My greatest desire is to be allowed to pursue a formal academic education so that in the future I can be closer to my goal of conducting research on post-Soviet, new, and recent history and completing my grandfather’s unfinished business. Of course, all this is unfortunately impossible without basic financial support.
In my opinion, researching military conflicts and problems of recent history with historical documents will allow us to prevent future military crises in Eastern European countries. The obtained and confirmed facts will allow us to conduct a constructive dialogue between the conflicting parties based on historical reality.