The Georgian government is playing into Putin's hands by suppressing art and culture

With media coverage still dominated by the Ukraine War, one might assume that Vladimir Putin's machinations in Eastern Europe are focused exclusively on Ukraine. And perhaps you're right. After all, why should Russia's president must become involved in states where domestic politicians seem greater than willing to do his job for him?

This is the situation that’s currently developing in Georgia. The country's ruling political coalition, Kartuli Otsneba (Georgian Dream), pursues a policy of spiritual nationalism and social conservatism that aligns Georgia with the social policies of Putin and the top of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.

More secular Georgians and those that favor closer ties with the EU and NATO fear a creeping Russification of society. These fears crystallized when the Govt tried to pass The so-called “foreign agents” law sparked widespread protests on the streets of the state capital Tbilisi in March 2023.

The proposed laws was Modeled on a Russian law The aim is to limit the quantity of funding that NGOs and other externally funded organizations can accept. Opposition to this measure was fueled by fears that its adoption would allow the Georgian government to ban cultural and social projects deemed incompatible with “Georgian values.” This would potentially result in increased harassment of everyone from the LGBTQ+ community to single parents Vegans and vegetarians.

It was also widely assumed that other elements of Russian laws would follow if this primary law was enacted. The bill was struck by the strength of public opinion withdrawn in May 2023. But the suspicion that Russia is influencing the actions of some Georgian politicians stays.

Cultural approach

The crackdown on culture began when Thea Tsukuliani died called Tsukuliani was Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth in March 2021. Tsukuliani was previously justice minister and showed no apparent interest in Georgian history and culture.

On her appointment, Tsukuliani announced that she would settle in a set on the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi as an alternative of the same old ministry office. She reportedly had her eye on a wing of the museum that had recently reopened as a natural history gallery.

Since this collection has not been open to the general public for several years, the curatorial team resisted the suggestion that it needs to be closed again soon. Instead, Tsukuliani moved into the identical suite on a distinct floor, dispossessing the National Geographic team that had signed a contract for the space.

In this fashion, I used to be made aware of the situation in Georgia long before it gained wider attention. I received a message from a colleague informing me that a project I used to be doing with the Georgian National Museum could now not hold educational events for college children since the room we had just renovated had change into an emergency office for workers became National Geographic.

Then, on May 24, 2022, the cultural cleansing began 22 employees were fired. The 22 had one thing in common: that they had it expressed unrest concerning the apparent politicization of Georgia's cultural heritage and argued that archeology and related disciplines mustn’t be controlled by the Georgian Dream.

Punishment of dissenting opinions

Those fired were followed by waves of their colleagues – administrators and accountants were targeted, as were researchers, archaeologists and curators. More than until September 2022 70 employees on the Georgian National Museum had lost their positions. Anyone who dared to specific solidarity was informed that they were failing of their work duties dismissed with immediate effect.

This quickly had an impact on international research partners. For example, when archaeologists got here to Georgia, they found that they existed no permits for the excavation, because the staff of the issuing body had also been “reorganized”. Within a couple of months, the threat had spread to other cultural staff, resembling theater and theater staff Movie Industry sectors.

The laid-off museum staff unionized and attracted national media attention. In August 2022, when the primary cases of wrongful dismissal got here to court, it was the Ministry of Culture as viewed Illegally dismissing employees of the Georgian National Museum and other galleries and museums.

Good news, you may think – but you'd be unsuitable. So far, the state has been asked to pay the worker several months' wages as compensation. However, the Ministry of Culture was not obliged to reinstate the employee in his previous role, meaning generations of institutional and skilled knowledge were lost.

Many octogenarians stayed long after their retirement to bridge the gap between the “lost generations.” fled post-communist Georgia for the USA or Europe. They had worked for lower than £50 a month to pass on their knowledge to a brand new generation: the “born free” who had never experienced communism.

Over the past decade, the older group had begun to consider they may entrust their work to this recent generation. But it was apparently the oldest and youngest who were particularly affected by this purge.

Election hopes and fears

Georgians will go to the polls again in November 2024 to elect a brand new government. Georgian Dream, which has led a governing coalition since 2012, is looking for an extension of its mandate.

My colleagues, still sitting within the Georgian National Museum, are torn between hope that their ordeal will soon be over and despair that Georgian Dream appears to be heading in the right direction to stay in power . If it wins again, Georgia will feel like nothing can stop the crawl Russification of Georgian society that this facilitates cultural censorship.

For now, Georgian academics, writers, museum staff and filmmakers appear to agree that their best hope lies in a Ukrainian victory that weakens Russia – and thereby weakens its stranglehold on Georgia's ruling class.