Echoes of Change: Oral Histories From Georgia’s Path to Independence (1985–1995)

Join us for an event presenting the outcomes of the research project Past as a Source of Democratic Growth in the Present (The Politics of History in Georgia)—funded by the U.S. Embassy Democracy Commission Small Grant and conducted by Ilia State University’s Memory Studies Center in the Caucasus, in collaboration with the Soviet Past Laboratory (SovLab) and the Program on Georgian Studies at Harvard University’s Davis Center.

At the core of the initiative is the creation of the Georgian Oral History Archive, a new digital resource hosted at Harvard Library. The archive collects and shares life stories and oral histories from the 1980s and 1990s, covering the late Soviet national movement and the early years of Georgia’s independence. It will be accessible to scholars, students, educators, and the public. Through interviews with key figures and ordinary citizens alike, the archive offers a deeper understanding of this transformative period and supports civic education and public scholarship in Georgia and beyond.

The event will be followed by a reception with Georgian wine and the display of stories from the Diaspora project, "A Heritage Remembered: Georgian Diaspora in America,” another initiative by the Program on Georgian Studies in collaboration with the Georgian Association in the United States.