On October 5-6, 2023, in Batumi, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), with the financial support of the Juliusz Mieroszewski Centre for Dialogue (Centrum Dialogu im. Juliusza Mieroszewskiego), held an international conference "Uncovering the Truth: Mass Graves of the Great Terror (1937-1938) in Batumi, Georgia".
The conference was about the mass graves discovered in Khelvachauri, near Batumi in 2019, which made Batumi and, in general, Adjara, the most important region in Georgia in terms of studying the issue of repressed people. In 2022, with the joint efforts of IDFI, Polish experts and the Eparchy of Batumi and Lazeti, it became possible to conduct excavations in the territory of the 6th grave and discover the remains there - archaeologists and anthropologists participating in this process presented relevant scientific reports at the conference. In Georgian society, there is still an ideological conflict between people who have a positive attitude towards the communist past and those citizens who perceive this period negatively. One of the goals of the conference was to discuss this issue, raise awareness in this regard and show the real, totalitarian face of communism and Stalinism to the public.
Among the participants of the conference were distinguished members of the academic circle and experts in the field from Georgia, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan and Germany. Among the participants was Yan Rachinsky, the chairman of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate society Internationa Memorial, who spoke about the complexity and importance of researching Soviet repressions.
In addition to the topic of mass graves, the conference focused on the politics of memory in countries with a totalitarian past and underscored the importance of archives in this context. Over two days, participants engaged in discussions about the practices, experiences, problems, and challenges related to these themes in various countries.
For more detailed information about the conference and the topics covered by the participants, IDFI publishes a collection of the brief theses submitted by the presenters.
In the collection, you will find the theses of Yan Rachinsky, Giorgi Mamulia, Maciej Wyrwa, Łukasz Szleszkowski, Igor Casu, Anton Vatcharadze and other speakers. In total, the collection includes 18 reports, which can be found in full here.
The collection was created with the financial support of the Juliusz Mieroszewski Centre for Dialogue (Centrum Dialogu im. Juliusza Mieroszewskiego), Poland.
