March 9, 1956 in the Modern Georgian History Textbooks

Abstract

The article discusses how the events of March 3-9, 1956 are presented in the history textbooks of Georgia. Protests rallies against the critique of the cult of Stalin’s personality were suppressed by the Soviet authorities with bloody revenge. The incident had a great impact on the political thinking of the Georgian society. The method of content analysis is used in the research and two textbooks of Georgian history published in the Soviet period and 10 textbooks published in the post-Soviet period are discussed.

 The Soviet history textbooks did not say anything about the events of March 3-9, 1956. The tragic events were “disappeared” from official Soviet historical memory, despite the fact that the Soviet government had given an official “assessment” to what happened - that it was “anti-Soviet, nationalist, counter-revolutionary protest.”

      The post-Soviet history textbooks of Georgia (three generations of textbooks are distinguished: before 2003, 2003-2012 and after 2012) cover the events of March 3-9, 1956, however, there is a significant difference in the scope of the issue presentation, the factual material presented, and the evaluative accents.

         There is a significant difference in the number of casualties in factual materials submitted. This can be explained by the fact that the issue has not yet been properly studied and in the future it will be possible to name the exact number of dead and injured in the textbooks.

       The authors of the textbooks first try to explain the reasons for the March 3-9 protest rallies, which were held under the slogan of defending Stalin, demanding an end to his criticism. In explaining the reasons for the rallies, the authors of the textbooks name the reasons that are close to each other, but still different: A/ the critique of Stalin’s personality was perceived by Nikita Khrushchev as a national insult in Georgia; B/ the critique of Stalin’s personality became anti-Georgian and turned into cursing and humiliation of the Georgian people; C/ As a result of the propaganda of the cult of Stalin, the love of Stalin and the homeland was intertwined with each other in Georgia. As we can see, according to the authors of Georgian history textbooks, the people who came out with the slogan of defending Stalin were actually trying to protect their national interests.

        That is why a number of textbooks describe the contradictory nature of the movement of March 3-9: on the one hand, it was directed against the “revisionist” Khrushchev and seemed to serve to preserve the Soviet empire created by Lenin and Stalin. On the other hand, these rallies formed a real basis for the revival of the national liberation movement.

    The authors of Georgian history textbooks, in some cases, try to evaluate the events of March 3-9. The assessment given in the textbooks can be summarized as follows: It was an anti-government protest with a national flavor.

      The textbooks pay great attention to showing the results of the protest rallies of March 3-9, 1956 and the bloody revenge related to it for Georgia. What happened was the beginning of the liberation of the political thought of the society from the Soviet and Stalinist forms and rhetoric. The events of March 3-9 conditioned the beginning of a new phase of the national movement.

    Illegal groups whose calls Stalin no longer figured in and were of a purely national character; among them “Gorgasliani” (created by Zviad Gamsakhurdia and Merab Kostava), “Sighnaghi Young Guard”, “Union of Fighters for Freedom and Independence of the Homeland” ... herein the following circumstance is also noteworthy - some of the authors of the textbook link the March events not only to the national organizations established in Georgia, but also note that the events of March 1956 relatively revived the emigrant movement.

     It is also important that the authors of the textbooks try to explain the reason why the protesters were beaten and punished with such cruelty - they believe that it was exemplary punishment for Georgia by the government. This should have been taken into account by other republics, where Stalin also had numerous defenders. The authors also highlight the role and interests of the Georgian authorities in concealing the tragedy of March 9 - their only interest was in maintaining power and obeying Moscow’s instructions without resisting; According to the authors of a number of textbooks, it was their inaction and unscrupulousness that led to the conceal of the March 9 tragedy.