Important Lessons of History

This year marks 35 years since the Night of the Sapper Blades in Tbilisi on 9th April 1989 - one of the last bloody crimes of the dying Soviet regime and the first crime of the emerging "democratic Russia". Discussion of the events in Georgia, which were presented to citizens of other union republics as a "coup", labeling the then Georgian leadership as "nationalists" and "terrorists", is still not widely accepted among so-called "good Russians" even today. Even those who supposedly unconditionally support Ukraine.

Because otherwise, acknowledging the guilt and illegitimacy of the actions of the Soviet leadership and the Yeltsin government, it becomes very easy to construct a logical chain of military crimes, where following Georgia came the Chechen Wars, then a new invasion of Georgia in 2008, and then the war in Ukraine. This sequence of events, demonstrating how the appetites of the imperial monster began to grow again, is uncomfortable, unpleasant, and shatters the myth that everything was fine with Russia and then "suddenly" Putin "went off the rails". Russian liberals now carry this myth around the world, blurring the clear picture that the Russian Federation has never been a democratic country and that the only correct solution on the path to long-term peace in Europe is the dissolution of the Russian Empire into national clusters.

Inna Kurochkina, a director, producer, and journalist of the INEWS agency (News of Ichkeria), an authorized representative of the exiled Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Akhmed Zakayev, and a member of the Coordination Council of the Free Nations of Postrussia Forum, writes and films extensively about these unlearned lessons of history on her channels and social networks. In addition, Inna herself witnessed the bloody events in Tbilisi 35 years ago - and her opinion deserves more attention and trust than the vague and evasive wordings of Russian liberal historians and journalists.

Today, as the Putin regime demonstrates extreme nervousness against the backdrop of successful use of Western weapons against Russian occupation forces in Ukraine, and in connection with the peace summit taking place in Switzerland, it is important to remember and correctly understand the tragic experience of all countries affected by Russian aggression - and to maintain firmness in delivering the final verdict on the Russian Federation.

Photo: People lay flowers and place candles at the monument to the victims of the April 9, Source: GettyImages

"For those who see the necessity and inevitability of the final stage of the collapse of the sadistic empire, it is necessary to study precisely these events, connected with how Georgia fought for independence, what it cost, what cunning schemes the Kremlin devised to prevent the collapse of the USSR, and then - when this process became inevitable - how the Kremlin 'saddled and led' this process. 

When the commission investigating the dispersal of this rally, organized by Zviad Gamsakhurdia and Merab Kostava, and brutally dispersed using chemical weapons, was led by Sakharov, he started advancing the investigation. In December of that same year, Sakharov died unexpectedly, and Sobchak took over the commission. Two excerpts from his report are enough to understand that he started the investigation off track. And General Rodionov, who commanded the punitive operation, was appointed Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation by Yeltsin in 1996. 

Sobchak's report contains shocking passages about how the victims of 9th April in Tbilisi were themselves to blame. One must be more resilient to damaging factors such as toxins and sapper shovels, Anatoly Sobchak complains. 

And don't stagger down Rustaveli at 4 a.m. when your biological rhythms aren't suitable. Especially when a bloodthirsty beast trained by “Prigozhin” with a cudgel is coming to kill you in a panic for Sakartvelo's freedom. 

'The "displacement" operation took place at night (4-5 a.m. local time). This circumstance must be specially noted, as during the night hours, according to the nature of biological rhythms, a person's reactivity and resistance to damaging factors sharply decrease.' 

Well, and besides everything else, there's no need to be so nervous and create panic out of nothing. It skews statistics, Anatoly Sobchak believes: 

'Analysing the course of illnesses in individuals seeking medical assistance for poisoning presents significant difficulty. This circumstance, as well as panic rumours, concealing the use of OW, uncertainty in diagnosis, and published calls to seek medical help - all these and some other circumstances caused a wave-like pattern in the number of medical visits over the subsequent month. Special emphasis in this series of events is given to cases of "secondary effects of poisoning" - for example, the surge in visits on 28th April, after moving flowers from the Government House to the church. The circumstances related to this event remain sufficiently unclear. The commission considers that even in cases where complaints of deteriorating health were based solely on indications by the victims themselves of contact with OW, these cases can be reasonably classified as manifestations of the "mass catastrophe reaction syndrome." 

These are passages from Anatoly Sobchak's investigation of the Night of the Sapper Blades. Some Radio Liberty Russian Service employees had the same reaction when I tried to tell them about the horrors we endured in Tbilisi. That is, the "mass catastrophe reaction syndrome". 

Breathe deeply, don't dwell on it, and don't try to uncover the truth. 

Today we are led to believe that the USSR collapsed easily and with little bloodshed. No, the USSR collapsed at an incredible cost. Much of it paid in Georgian blood and thanks to the titanic efforts of Zviad Gamsakhurdia. 

The Kremlin understood that if they couldn't stop the collapse of the USSR, they would have to take control of this process. In their plans stood a real, not "fictitious," leader of independent Georgia - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, elected by us, the citizens of Georgia, as the first president of Georgia. 

In December 1991, they carried out a new punitive operation on Rustaveli, accompanied by lies on Russian channels. And immediately after dealing with Zviad, Sobchak said on the "Without Retouching" programme in 1992: "I warned the Georgian people that if they elected Zviad Gamsakhurdia, it would not end well for the Georgian people." 

Friends, watch the hands of "good Russians" today. It is they who are playing the role of "Sobchak" today. 

It is they who will seek to lead the process of the final collapse of the Russian Empire, push out true leaders of national movements, and replace them with their own, as they did with Zviad Gamsakhurdia."