A delegation from the Institute of National Remembrance visited Georgia, 22-29 November 2019
On 22-29 November 2019, a group of representatives of the IPN’s Historical Research Office headed by its Director, Prof. Włodzimierz Suleja along with scholars from various research centers in Poland visited Georgia.
The delegation took part in the 4th Conference of the Polish-Georgian Historian’s Commission (22-25 November), a conference devoted to Communist Repression against the Church and Clergy in Bakurciche (25-26 November) and in lectures given at the National Defence Academy in Gori (23 November ) for the members of the Polish Cultural and Educational Union in Georgia (28-29 November). Lessons at the St. Queen Jadwiga Polish School in Tbilisi were also conducted.
During the stay in Georgia, two exhibitions prepared by the Institute of National Remembrance devoted to the service of Georgian officers in the Polish Army were also presented (Gori, November 23) and Saint. Grigol Peraga (Tbilisi, November 22 and Bakurciche, November 25-26), along with the IPN’s publications.
The IPN’s Deputy President Mateusz Szpytma Ph.D., and representatives of the Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance, with its Director Marzena Kruk, are visiting Tbilisi to promote the release of the Georgian language edition of the joint publication of the IPN and the Archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia entitled "Great Terror in Soviet Georgia 1937-1938. Repressions against Poles”. The book previously appeared in Polish and was promoted in Warsaw and Gdańsk on the 19 and 21 April 2017. The publication -"Polonelta Represiebi Sabchota Sakartveloshi Didi Teroris Dros (1937-1938)” , prepared in the Georgian, is the fruit of the work of the Polish-Georgian working group, functioning within the IPN Archive.
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International Conference in Georgia
Representatives of the Institute of National Remembrance took part a co-organized an international conference Communist Repressions in Georgia and in Poland 1918 – 1989/1991 Tbilisi (Georgia), 7-8 May 2019 Ilia State University Tbilisi, Ilia Chavchavadze Avenue 32. The Conference was organized by the Soviet Past Research Laboratory, the Ilia State University, and the IPN with the support of the Polish Embassy in Georgia and of the Polish Institute in Tbilisi.
Delegation of the Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia - Warsaw, 10 July 2018
On 10 July 2018, the Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance hosted a delegation from Georgia, headed by Omar Tushurashvili and Giorgi Metskhovrishvili from the Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia. The guests took part in a working meeting. The delegation also visited the archive building and got acquainted with the work of archivists in the Division for Conservation and Preservation of Archival Holdings and the Division for Digitalisation.
On 10 July, 2018 Professor Krzysztof Szwagrzyk, Deputy President of the IPN received Omar Tushurashvili, Director of the Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Georgia and Giorgi Metskhovrishvili, Head of the First Office of the Archive. During the visit, the cooperation of the Office of Search and Identification of the Institute of National Remembrance with the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Georgia was discussed within the search for secret burial places of victims of Soviet repression in Georgia. The Director of the Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Georgia handed over to Professor Krzysztof Szwagrzyk maps and photographs, found in a comprehensive query conducted in resources of the Archive of the Ministry as well as in Georgian peer institutions. The materials could be helpful in further phases of the project. The continuation of the exploratory work in Georgia is planned for the spring of 2019.
The Avenue of Friendship in Georgia – the IPN delegation planted the first tree
The President of the IPN, together with a delegation from the Institute of National Remembrance were invited to plant the first tree on the Avenue of Friendship at the Police Academy in Tbilisi. The Rector chose this form as a way of commemorating Polish-Georgian friendship and expressing his gratitude to Lech Kaczyński's country and nation. The cooperation of Polish and Georgian historians has already resulted in the release of sources related to the Great Terror of 1937-1938, during which Poles also suffered in Georgia. The Georgians were further able to locate documents which contain key information about the so-called Polish NKVD operation of 1937, where the goal of the Soviet regime was the extermination of our nation in the communist empire.
This source publication was prepared by the staff of the Institute of National Remembrance and the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs. It touches upon the topic of the forgotten genocide of Poles in the USSR - Soviet repression of 1937-1938. The documents published include, among others, NKVD order no. 00447, concerning the kulak operation, order no. 00485 regarding the Polish Operation, 137 protocols of hearings conducted by three – member, and 6 protocols of hearings administered by two-member NKVD committees, resulting in death sentences against Poles living in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic at that time. The new book, published on the basis of materials found in the Georgian archives, is not only a "catalogue of crimes " or a record of repressions against more than 100 Poles - said the IPN President. He recalled that during the so-called Polish Operation our fellow countrymen were murdered, for example, merely because they went to church or said that Soviet Russia was restricting their freedom. According to historians, the total number of Polish victims of this operation was at least 111,000. Hence the joint publication, the first of the planned volumes, is an important step in the process of reliable documentation of the genocide forgotten even in our country.
The IPN Archive hosted a delegation of members of the Georgian-Polish Committee of Historians
The IPN Archive hosted a delegation of members of the Georgian-Polish Committee of Historians on Wednesday 29 March 2017. The visitors had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the work of particular divisions of the Institute, which was especially important for them in the context of settlements with the communist past in Poland and in Georgia. As scientists, they were also interested in the ways of obtaining documents from the IPN resources, especially those concerning fragments of Polish-Georgian history.Moreover, the Georgian guests visited the military documents warehouse and participated in a presentation on the activities of the Center for Information on the Victims of World War II. President Szarek stressed how close the Polish and Georgian nations really are. "There is a strong connection and we have a lot in common, especially our love of freedom and honor," he said. Jarosław Szarek assured that the Institute would do everything in its power to make future Polish-Georgian cooperation fruitful.
The signing of the agreement was accompanied by the handing over of the first batch of 1,6 thousand copies of digital documents. These were materials from the Archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs concerning the Polish citizens repressed in the USSR during the period of Great Terror. A part of these documents had previously been presented in Tibilisi, during an exhibition organized by the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs along with the Embassy of the Republic of Poland, on 12 February 2013.
