On the steps of Tbilisi’s main university building, thousands listen to student leaders relaying messages from Moscow in June.
Tragedy overlooked
Soviet Georgians remember those who died
TBILISI, U.S.SJL -- On
April 5th, they started gath
ering.
Thousands of Geor
gians filled the main
square on Rustaveli Street
in downtown Tbilisi, sup
porting a movement for Georgian inde
pendence.
Two men filmed the demonstration,
keeping an account of 21 deaths and the
Soviet military’s use of violence against
unarmed Georgian protestors. The video
tapes of the assault told a story not printed
in newspapers around the world.
This is their account.
For four days, the Georgians kept their
vigil. They sang songs and offered comfort
to a group of hunger strikers who were
protesting Soviet control. Speakers stood
before the crowd often, telling the people
about the problems of Soviet rule in their
country.
Some were quiet, talking about the need
for Georgians to band together. Others
yelled into the microphones, furious at the
government occupying their country.
Georgian flags of independence waved
above the crowd, anchored to statues that
symbolized independence. The statues, on
either end of Lenin Square, were of a man
and woman with fists raised in defiance
Someone raised an American flag. The
people roared their approval.
On the fourth day of the hunger strike,
the leader of the Georgian Orthodox
Church stood before the people. They
turned toward him, and silence replaced
cheers and song.
Go home, he told them in Georgian. Go
home. Georgians should have their inde
pendence, but he said he feared for his
people. The government will not tolerate
this movement, he said. Go home.
The people stayed, compelled by their
nationalism and their fear for the hunger
strikers. They continued their speeches and
songs for Georgian independence.
Shortly after 4 a m., April 9, the Soviet
government made good on its promise to
end the demonstrations.
Tanks rolled down Rustaveli Street.
A slim boy, about 9 years old, stepped in
the path of the advancing tanks. The boy
was a Georgian, with the characteristic dark
features of nis people. He lay face down on
the concrete in front of the tanks, defying
the wheels that could crush his body, but
not his spirit.
The tanks stopped.
Soldiers stepped in front of them, and a
man grabbed the boy by his arm, dragging
him away from certain death.
At first the Georgians did not run.
The soldiers formed a line across the
street, walking toward the heart of the
demonstration, firing what demonstrators
claimed were smoke bombs and carbons of
noxious gas into the crowd.
Chaos broke out in the crowd. People
A young girl holds Georgia’s black, red
and white flag during a June meeting
in Tbilisi. Crowds of 3,000 to 6,000
men, women and children attended
the nightly meetings while the Soviet
Congress was in session.
reached out for each other, trying to make
sure no one was left behind. Men grabbed
their neighbors, women screa medior their
children. An elderly woman fell in the rush,
and several people made a circle around
her, protecting her from demonstrators who
might trample her in their hurry. Others
formed a ring around the weakened hunger
strikers, some of whom were unable to
stand.
Georgian militia moved quickly to help
the demonstrators, arresting the leaders of
the movement and taking them away from
the scene, to keep them from being killed
by the soldiers. They protected the demon
strators, showing their support for Georgia
over their support for the Soviet military.
Most of the Georgians who were not
arrested fled.
corners were noi so roriunaie.
Twenty-one Georgians were killed by
the gas or Soviet soldiers, who broke
through the rings of people, clubbing their
way to the hunger strikers with spades.
The next day, the statues of the man and
woman with raised fists were taken down.
Bushes and flowers which had lined Rus
taveli Street were dead or dying, killed by
the noxious gas.
Georgians again gathered at the sauare.
They Drought fresh cut flowers and tears
to mourn the dead. The flowers filled the
block-long area on Rustaveli Street where
the demonstration had taken place.
Where bodies were found, flowers were
piled higher.
Two months later, signs of the tragedy
still could be found on Rustaveli Street.
Outside a store in old Tbilisi, a glass case
held the history of the day when Russian
soldiers stormed the Independence demon
stration. Pictures of the dead, their faces
bloody, their bodies battered, were posted
in the case, and people stopped frequently
to remind themselves of the horror of that
April 9 morning.
One image in particular provoked the
Georgians.
The photograph showed a pregnant
woman, lying on her back, her head
crushed by a soldier’s spade.
Blood splattered her clothes.
The Georgians, faces stony and fists
clenched, pointed out the differences be
tween the Russian and Georgian newspa
per accounts of the event to those who had
not witnessed the demonstration.
Tbilisi University’s student press ran sto
ries of people being gassed and beaten, and
was closed down by Soviet authorities.
Pravda, the government-controlled paper,
called the Georgians radical dissidents.
Those gathered on Rustaveli Street did
not cry.
A Georgian leader explained this as
common for the people there.
“They will cry inside, but they will never
show you their tears,” she said.
Twenty one people are dead, but the
Georgians have not surrendered their fight
for secession. The Soviet assault April 9 aid
not stop the demonstrations, or convince
the Georgians to give up their struggle.
If anything, the attack united most Geor
gians, bringing together different factions of
a common movement with a clear goal --
complete political and economic independ
C1IIC.
In June, more than 3,000 people gathered
nightly in front of Tbilisi University. They
listened intently, shouting comments, as
secession leaders spoke about the Soviet
Congress and the progression of the inde
pendence movement.
A man from the village Kuareli stepped to
the microphone and the crowd grew quiet,
waiting for him to speak. The man had just
been released from the hospital, where he
was under care for injuries he received in
the April 9 demonstration. He told the
crowd he had just received a telephone call
from Georgian representatives in Moscow.
The representatives said the Russian sol
diers were not harsh enough with dissent
ers, he yelled into the microphone.
People raised their fists, demanding the
name of the Soviet general who ordered the
soldiers into Tbilisi.
He offered a name, Rodionov, and the
crowd roared. But it does not matter who
gave the order, he told them, the Soviet
government is behind everything.
The crowd quieted, and people lit
candles in memory of those who died April
9. They waved their flags of independence,
and waited for news from Moscow.
- Amy Edwards
