Hello, my name is Nikoloz Gvasalia, I am a 23-year-old student at the Faculty of Humanities of TSU, majoring in history. I have been in the United States of America for 7 months now, and I plan to continue my studies here.

I work in the local non-governmental organization Fermata Arts Foundation non-profit organization inc. (FAF). I joined the Fermata Foundation team on December 15, 2022, and with their support, I soon had the opportunity to represent our country through presentations and events in multiple locations, states, libraries, and other public spaces. On the initiative of FAF, presentational events about Georgian culture and history were organized in almost all public libraries of the New England region (in Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts).

Recently I decided to start writing a blog. I am very eager to make my blog public, and I would be extremely happy if your editors agree to host my blogs on your platform. Thank you very much in advance.

Sincerely,

Nikoloz Gvasalia

After the “ethnological and geopolitical studies”, the master of the Kremlin begins to discuss toponymy, declaring that Ukraine is “Little Russia” (Malorossia): “Since 1686, the city of Kyiv and the lands on the left bank of the Dnieper, including the regions of Poltava, Chernihiv, and Zaporizhia, became part of Russia. Their inhabitants united with a large part of the Russian Orthodox. Thus arose the region called ‘Little Russia’ (Malorosia).”

In fact, “Little Russia” as a concept will be introduced by the Patriarchate of Constantinople two centuries earlier: in 1458, the highest Greek church authorities, at the request of the Lithuanian princes, will create an independent church province for their subordinate Orthodoxy as a counterweight to the united church around the Moscow principality. This independent ecclesiastical province is called by the Byzantines “Mikra Russia” (Little Russia) as distinct from “Megale Russia” (Great Russia).

Finally, Putin concludes that “modern Ukraine is entirely a creation of the Soviet era.” In this way, he repeats almost verbatim the words from Vyacheslav Molotov’s October 31, 1939 speech, in which Stalin’s right-hand man refers to Poland as “a monstrous creature of the Treaty of Versailles, which existed at the expense of the oppression of national minorities” … just like today, according to Putin, “Nazi” Ukraine Lives at the expense of Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Putin’s logic is simple: if Ukraine (like Poland 80 years ago) is an artificial entity, then its destruction is justified…

Putin’s “history” contradicts all historical facts, and to destroy these facts, it is necessary to uproot the Ukrainian nation, which is a product of history. This is how Putin sees the way to the “lost paradise”, which has all the hallmarks of hell…

In countries where socialism lasted almost 70 years, in the early 90s, individualism and the free market were struck at once like a tsunami, a small part of society met this event and learned to swim in this huge tsunami, and the vast majority of society failed to come to terms with the foreign rule of life and sank into poverty, In the end, instead of 3 social layers (as in all normal old capitalist countries), 2 social layers emerged. One was a layer on the brink of poverty that fought for survival every day, and the other was the rich.
The ”New Rich” used unusual skills for collectivization and, when introducing the right to privatization, they amassed property, initiated individual, state-independent businesses, started finding international partners and cooperating with them, as well as privatizing various fossil deposits and exporting them.
Looking at the statistical data of the 90s, we will see that between 94% and 97% of the country’s population of all ex-socialist countries, were unable to obtain a living wage and save their family. This period can be called the peak of wild capitalism.
Well, At the same time, countries with western “traditional capitalist economies” disappeared all kinds of trade obstacles, and the largest market opened, with the greatest opportunities and resources, it was the same for them as a huge supermarket, where lots of quality goods can be bought, very, very cheaply. Big Western companies began to move offices and enterprises to the East because the workforce was doing the same thing at a minimum price. This is a golden period for the Western economy in recent history. With the onset of the new century, the economic stabilization of Eastern European countries began, former Communist countries slowly began to follow the rhythm, the geographical location played a huge role, the Baltic countries were lucky in this case, they soon joined European trade and economic organizations, and their economy became stronger relatively soon, Approximately the same fate was made by Poland, although at the same time, a dire situation persisted in the Caucasus region and Ukraine, where separatist or other artificially created conflicts did not allow the regions to develop stable, and from the second half of the 2000s, the communication between Russia and NATO began, which naturally led to an increase in Russia’s interests towards its neighboring countries, All this aggravated the situation and began to actively armed complainants, in many ethnic-separatist regions.
Against the background of all this, the Caucasus region edged further from stabilization, the national currency came under the influence of the Russian economy, which become unsustainable.
In such a strange environment, we had to grow up with my generation and generation, instead of the usual childish carefree years, we always had to hear stories about the political crisis, we saw active war, and bombs, from the age of 9, all peers knew what NATO and the European Union were.
When I grew up always thought that social instability in the country was only about countries with a new economy, and I believed that in countries with a solid economy, everything was much better distributed, but I was disappointed, The disadvantage of the social economy was a locked economy and isolation from the outside world, In the 5 months after I arrived in America, I slowly saw the Great Wall dividing society into different layers, of course, this is not as acute a problem as in Eastern Europe of the 90s but in the big cities of America where everything is visible this problem is nowhere to be hidden. Thanks to American free speech, we often raise social differentiation problems on public Internet platforms, and fortunately, there are active organizations and parts of society trying to awaken an honest feeling in people, a longitude that stands higher than all material values.
What makes our society and how different we are from a herd, political views despite always being remembered that during the period of none of political ideology, the right of a homeless person has been protected in a way that a high official cannot fulfill the idea of justice, we simply need to know individually that we do not perceive human social status as a subject of difference.

Journalism, like other relatively old professions, changes over time and adapts to modern standards.
The initial mechanism for creating mass media was created in the German city of Mainz in 1450. The author of this revolutionary invention was Johann Gutenberg, who went down in history as the first printer.
This invention by a German scientist laid the foundation for the creation of print media. However, initially printed media, we can say that it was relevant in the circles of higher society, based on the fact that writing was not common in lower-class societies. Everything changed at the end of the 19th century, with the industrial revolution, the quality of life in society began to improve, and the level of erudition increased in Western countries. Against the background of social progress, in Western countries, the demand for printed products increased, people were no longer deprived of literary works, and society demanded daily news to satisfy the natural sense of interest given by evolution, that’s exactly how the first journalists appeared.
The main principle of old, i.e. classical journalism was to create a bridge that would connect the reader with the information, in this case, the journalist as a subject was out of the game and the reader remained face-to-face with the existing information, in this case, the interested person had the opportunity to conduct a short analysis according to his views and draw a personal conclusion. Soon the news delivery methods improved and journalists, to a certain extent, took on the role of analysts themselves in reporting, the journalist turned from a distributor of news into a creator of the public mood, however, at the same time, the ethics of classical journalism provided for unbiased reporting of news.
Today’s mass media is radically different from the old one, first of all, the means of information dissemination have increased.
Thanks to the technological leap of the 20th century, the most current news is now distributed in the shortest possible time, and all over the world.
However, unfortunately, in the background of technological progress, we see a regression of journalistic ethics, all over the world. Owners of large media no longer believe that quality will sell, and therefore, as a daily product, we get cheap products, because editors try to raise the rating at the expense of yellow information or completely immoral scandals. The concept of objective media has disappeared in the world, even the largest Western media do not hide their biased editorial political course and actively campaign even for the benefit of private political parties, and the world cultural war has shown us that liberal and relatively conservative mass media are fighting each other not because of ideological beliefs, but because of finances and influence. They confront each other.
The situation is doubly difficult in Georgia, where in 2007, at the peak of the total control policy of the previous government, the powerful structures destroyed the independent media outlet “Imedi” and then turned it into a state television. Georgian people, full of hope, believed that with the change of government, independent media outlets would start functioning in the country, however, instead, we got party televisions, which violate the ethical norms of journalism almost every day and cannot even hide direct aggression towards opponents, yes, unfortunately, Georgian media today has fallen to the point that Journalists appear to us as representatives and political party, media shamelessly obey oligarchs and rich businessmen in power, perhaps that is why it is not surprising that journalistic institutions are named as one of the most unpopular institutions in society today.
I want to believe that the journalists of my generation will succeed and return to the old, glorious name of Georgian journalism and will be real professionals in their work. I deeply believe that this is just a temporary, shameful episode in the history of our country.

Art and culture, an integral part of our lives, may not be engaged in active cultural activities, but the fact is that any of us are part of social culture.
Moreover, the influence of culture in everyday life is felt in countries that have centuries-old histories and rich cultural heritage.
I was born and raised in a small country located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, the identity of my country has withstood many centuries, and now, on the bricks of any building on the streets of my city, you can see the past and history. My people adopted Christianity in the fourth century, and Georgia has become one of the first countries to have a banned religion as a state religion. Many invaders have tried to abstain, destroy, and destroy the past of my nation, though the devotion and spirituality of my people have managed and maintained the tradition and customs of all ancestors. Even now, the Early Christian historical monuments in my country are proud of those who are proudly watching modern Georgia. I have to say with pride that it is an integral part of the culture of my country, tolerance, so in my capital, there is a side of Orthodox Christian monuments, the Jewish synagogue, the Muslim Mosque, the Catholic Temple, and even the temple of ancient religion, the temple of the flames, which indicates that our culture is inseparable It has been part of ancient times.

I Strongly Believe That To Be A Great Leader, You Need to Start by Leading Yourself, in my opinion, the first enemy of man is primarily itself. Any success can be achieved if we can discipline our personal qualities and suppress the desires that hinder us from making progress. Human passions and mental laziness can often be the reason for the loss of the greatest talent because only talent in my opinion is not enough for a person to succeed. After personal qualities and the mental world, man becomes unstoppable, and I think in such a situation it can have a profound effect on those around him. The existence of motivated and restless people in various work environments doubles the productivity of Teamwork. But the emotional and mental influence of our team members should not be bosses, I think leadership skills must be devoid of boss stigma, productivity, and motivation doubles when the best player works tirelessly, even if he does not. I have been an athlete since childhood, I remember we had a competition with another team, they were strong, and it was very affected by me and my teammates. I had been thinking for a long time before the competition had a sense of announcement at the competition, but after a lot of discussions, I realized that my team and I had nothing to lose, they were favorites, so there was a lot of pressure on us. I started walking more fun, encouraging my teams at each vicinity and acting as if nothing special, I remember gathering my teams in the dressing room. We will offer a much better performance to the opponent.
We were all motivated and free to do so, with these feelings as if the circumstances contributed to the circumstances.
In the end, in the competition, my team took second place, but no one would say their frustration, on the contrary, it was equivalent to winning.
That is why I believe that it is important to have one’s self-awareness at first, and after self-awareness, it is already possible to acquire the skills you need for a leader.

One death cannot be compared to another. Every life is unique. One life is not equal to another. They killed us and we killed them is the logic of the repetition of violence. Vazha-Pshavela and his character Aluda Ketelauri knew this. Aluda’s cannibalistic dream directly describes a situation where one life can be exchanged for another life. “I was eating, but it hurt my / Man’s hands and feet are bony”, says Aluda. “I was eating, but it hurt me” is exactly the mechanism we live in when we symbolically exchange one life, one crime for another, or write it off. It indeed hurts us, but still, we continue to eat man.

This metaphorical cannibalism is the condition we live in when we justify killing even by relativizing it. If Aluda Ketelauri had lived according to the logic of our Whatabout*, he should have calmly continued to kill his enemies and cut their rights. It is not difficult to justify violence. One always finds an argument for one’s violence, killing or oppressing others. The stomach was always guilty, it “damaged” the chattels, in other cases, the victim might have “cursed the mother”, might have annoyed the abuser by “wearing a short dress” and so on. The reason can be any, and the person standing above says to the person below, “Why are you pouring water on me?” As soon as we justify violence, violence, and death, we enter the space of cannibalism.

When there is one look more than any words, a moment caught in the gaze, a moment that is often equal to eternity, because it is saturated and warmed by love, warmth, and care for each other when you see a ray of happiness in the eyes of someone standing next to you or standing directly, and it fills everything, often with a little present for happiness, but if all this is little, where is more fullness, when I become rare and we multiply, where there are yours around and you feel the heartbeat of each of them as your own, all this is great love, and love needs warning, loyalty, and constant care. When you do a good deed, you should always be prepared so that many will not understand you, some will be surprised, some will laugh at you, some will consider you stupid, and some will repay you with a slap on the back. At this point, the only right answer is to do more good and give more love! Any work a person should do with love, if human relations are not based on love, will not bring anything. And nothing suits love like loyalty and dedication.

Yesterday, March 20, the First Secretary of the People’s Republic of China, SC Jinping, paid a three-day visit to the Russian Federation, the meeting was in a pompous environment, the Russian side was trying its best to make the Chinese delegation as possible. Based on various sources, the visit will be important, in terms of Russian-Chinese military cooperation, this meeting may even be a historical meeting, and a new military block may be formed in front of us, with two authoritarian states with their greatest military potential.
We have seen the Russian military force alone cannot resist the unity of the North Atlantic Alliance, so the Kremlin is trying to see friends in Asia at the expense of everything. At the same time, Putin knows that ” Eastern Experience is a matter ” and the Chinese dragon simply does not deceive himself.
In general, it is very interesting that in history, Russia’s relationship with Asian countries, and yesterday’s dictators, reminded me of the events of April 1941, when Moscow visited Japanese Foreign Minister, Matsuoka. They would not use military force. After the official signature process, Stalin himself came to a Japanese diplomat and said – we, the Asians, have to stand together.
Russia has long refused European identity, there are probably many reasons for it.
As early as the 17th century, Peter, the First’s European choice was as if the future of this enormous state had been decided, for three centuries the Russians were trying to use European integration, what our northern neighbors did not use, starting with aristocratic blood, ending with a simple peasant, though even educated Russia For Europe, it has remained a strange body, with the Russian Empire on the map of Europe, always a wild, wild bear or an octopus that is trying to increase its spheres of influence.
The last Russian emperor Nicholas II should probably be considered the last of ‘European Russia’ ‘, after which the tragic overthrow of Russia and Europe had fallen on the red curtain.
After the establishment of the Bolshevik regime, on the ruins of the former Russian Empire, the so-called “Russian world” emerged, part of which we became part of it.
The Russian world, even before the Bolshevik Revolution, existed, though the king’s time was somewhat under European influence, which would ensure education and at some level of human rights. The Communist Russian world could not last long, though it managed to have a great influence on the cultural and mental state of the countries during the change of generations, managing to create ethnic conflict -causing mines throughout the post-Soviet space, which would allow them to maintain influence in the regions.
After the collapse of the USSR, until the mid -90s of the 10th years, Russia seems to have a complete confrontation with the West, but after 2007 Putin’s speech in Munich, it became clear that Russia was still an empire and that old ambitions were nowhere to be lost.

The Idea of freedom

In the past of any nation, some dates play an important role, not only from a historical point of view, but they have a special role in modern reality or future development. April 9 is such a day in the history of our country, the day when, in 1989, the Soviet Empire once again revealed its true face and dispersed a peaceful rally. Two years later, based on the results of the referendum held in Georgia on March 31, on April 9, Zviad Gamsakhurdia announced the restoration of Georgia’s state independence. It was on this day that modern Georgia was born. Today, 20% of the territory of our country is occupied, there are big problems that must be solved by the joint efforts of the older, middle, and younger generations, despite the difficulties, there is no alternative to independence and state development.
Freedom, and what is freedom anyway?
We have heard a lot of understandings, visions, and opinions about freedom, but at the beginning of the last century, famous Georgian writer Vazha Pshavela wrote in an excellent journalistic letter “What is freedom?” in a completely understandable way:
“What does freedom require from a person? How should a free person behave? – A free person should behave in such a way that his behavior does not harm others, especially society, but his actions should be directed to the happiness of the country. If this condition is not protected by a person, then his action will be a thug, because every thug acts freely only for personal gain. Therefore, freedom is not expressed only in what you want to speak, write, or do, – no! Everyone’s words and actions should be common, public happiness should be pursued as a guarantee, if it is not beneficial to the country, it should not be harmful or detrimental to the country.”