Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Shalva Papuashvili has released a letter on social media to mark the Day of Victory over Fascism.
“May 9 is the day of the great Victory. For more than eight decades, we have observed this day and remembered our fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers—the generation that defended their country and saved the Motherland from destruction. The Georgian contribution to the world’s largest war was immense. Of the hundreds of thousands of Georgians who went to the front, half did not return home. There is no family in Georgia that has not lost someone in this war.
The Great Patriotic War (the term used for the Eastern Front of WWII) has remained in our memory, reflected in art, literature, and films that bring to life the era, the spirit, and the sacrifices of this terrible war. This memory has become an integral part of our national identity.
This is precisely why this date has become a target of attacks. Those who attempt to change the nation’s identity call on us to ‘critically rethink’ our past, condemn its Soviet character, equate it with fascism, and renounce everything that was created, built, and developed during that time.
The Soviet past is our shared past. It cannot be changed. It was what it was—with the bad and the good, the sacrifices and the joy, the repressions and the rise of national consciousness.
The study of this past is a matter for history and historians. However, we will not accept calls and campaigns aimed at changing our memory, identity, and historical consciousness, or at rewriting history.
This is what lies at the heart of the calls to celebrate May 9 on May 8; the claims that May 9 is ‘Russian’ while May 8 is ‘European’; as if Georgia is required to view the world exclusively in ‘Russian’ or ‘European’ colors and choose only one of the two.
This choice is false, and such a worldview is inadequate and destructive. A nation must be distinctive, independent, thoughtful, and stand firmly on its own feet. A people cannot live by the hysteria or terror of traumatized outsiders who have been stripped of their own identity.
That is why May 9 will remain May 9. Because this day is ours. We fought, we shed blood, we were on the side of history’s victors, and we are proud of who we were, where we stood, and what we did,” Papuashvili wrote.
May 9 marked the 81st anniversary of the Day of Victory over Fascism in World War II
