Samizdat Update, May 1977 (45.20)

3 May 20218 August 2021

<<No 45 : 25 May 1977>> [1] M. I. Kukobaka – “Détente and the Defence of Human Rights are Inseparable” (3 April 1977, 9 pp) The author criticizes those Western politicians who consider that President Carter’s human rights policy is prejudicial to détente (‘dangerous illusions’) and maintains that the best guarantee for the observance of … Continue reading Samizdat Update, May 1977 (45.20)

The Arrest of Zviad Gamsakhurdia and Merab Kostava, 7 April 1978 (45.9)

31 March 202110 May 2021

<<No 45 : 25 May 1977>> On 23 March, the Tbilisi newspaper Dawn of the East printed an anonymous article, “Who benefits from this?” On 24 March, the article was republished in Georgian in the newspaper Komunisti. The same day Z. Gamsakhurdia was expelled from the Writers’ Union. On 25 March Zviad Gamsakhurdia issued a … Continue reading The Arrest of Zviad Gamsakhurdia and Merab Kostava, 7 April 1978 (45.9)

Repressing the Helsinki Groups: Georgia, 1977-1978 (48.4)

25 January 202129 July 2021

<<No 48 : 14 March 1978>> The Case of Gamsakhurdia, Kostava and Rtskhiladze. On 25 January 1978, Victor RTSKHILADZE was re-arrested. He had been arrested in April 1977 together with Zviad GAMSAKHURDIA and Merab KOSTAVA but was released him four days later after signing an undertaking not to leave Tbilisi (CCE 45). The KGB is … Continue reading Repressing the Helsinki Groups: Georgia, 1977-1978 (48.4)

“The freight and the groove” (2000)

8 September 20184 May 2019

Prisoners of an old regime ♣ Marjorie Farquharson ♣ (July 2000) When you see what happened to them in the 1990s, the harsh years that some people spent as prisoners in previous decades seemed to be merely a dry-run. Zviad Gamsakhurdia (1939-1993) became Georgia’s first freely-elected President after the Soviet Union collapsed, with a mandate … Continue reading “The freight and the groove” (2000)

Gamsakhurdia & Kostava on trial, 15-19 May 1978 (50.2)

18 February 20163 May 2021

<<No 50 : November 1978>> From 15 to 19 May the Tbilisi City Court heard the case of Zviad Gamsakhurdia and Merab Kostava. The two men were charged with “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda” (Article 71 of the Georgian Criminal Code [equivalent to Article 70 of the Russian Code]). The court was presided over by A. … Continue reading Gamsakhurdia & Kostava on trial, 15-19 May 1978 (50.2)