Georgia on My Mind

By Walter Kish

Last Friday, my wife and I took in a remarkable performance called “Legends of Georgia” at Kyiv’s premier entertainment venue, the giant 4,000-seat Palats Ukraina. The concert marked the culmination of the “Year of Georgia in Ukraine,” officially proclaimed last March by President Yushchenko.

The program was an inspiring and energetic collage of the finest talent the small country of some four-and-a-half million people has to offer. The male dancers were a veritable whirlwind, performing intricate, balletic and acrobatic movements at warp speed. The women were almost ethereal as they glided delicately across the stage, as if skating on air. The male chorus displayed the powerful voices one would expect of a mountain people. Set against the reverberating drone of a bass vocal baseline, the sound they produced made one’s eardrums tingle. Georgian folk tunes performed on the traditional stringed chonguri or the flute-like salamuri were enchanting. A quartet of boy drummers, none of who could have been older than ten years, performed a routine with small drums, which was positively awe inspiring. It was undoubtedly the finest spectacle of entertainment that I have seen in many years.

Georgia, of course, has come to hold a special place in the consciousness of Ukrainians over the past several years, especially as their mass political revolt was the pivotal inspiration for Ukraine’s Orange Revolution. In the Georgian Presidential election of 2003, the incumbent Eduard Shevarnadze appeared to have won in what most independent observers agreed was a heavily rigged and fraudulent election. The population, tired of the corruption and mismanagement of the leftover oligarchs from the Soviet system, took to the streets in what became known as the Rose Revolution, named after the symbolic roses the protesters carried in their mass demonstrations. The protests succeeded, Shevarnadze fled the country and, in the subsequent re-vote in January 2004, the young and dynamic Mikhail Saakashvili became President of Georgia.

Since then, Saakashvili and Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko have been virtual bosom buddies, and the two countries have become strong allies. The ties are deeper than just shared recent history, as President Saakashvili is a graduate of Kyiv’s Shevchenko University and, as he has pointed out on several occasions, some one-third of his government were educated in Ukraine.

The historical parallels are not just recent but extend back to the origins of both countries. Both have had their lands and cultures influenced by early Greek and Roman colonies. Both enjoyed “golden ages” between the 11th and 13th centuries before succumbing to the Mongol invasions from the east. Both then suffered alternating occupations and domination by neighbouring empires before succumbing and being absorbed into the Russian empire in the 19th century. Lastly, both have managed to break free from their Soviet masters and are now facing a common struggle to re-establish their sovereignty and identity as distinct nation states.

Both, unfortunately, are also facing the heavy-handed political and economic pressure of a resurgent Russia bent on reestablishing its former empire by whatever means possible. These days it comes in the form of economic blackmail and extortion. Just as Ukraine felt the heavy hand of Moscow in recent gas disputes, Georgia has recently found out that Russia is banning the import of all Georgian and Moldovan wines and spirits. The Georgian economy is still primarily agricultural, with the wine industry representing its most important sector and Russia its largest market. Georgian and Moldovan wines represent 61 per cent of Russia’s total wine imports, so the move is a serious blow to both Georgian producers as well as Russian consumers.

Russia claims that the move is in the interests of consumer product safety, but no one doubts that it is strictly a political move. Russia has been meddling in Georgia’s internal affairs since the breakup of the Soviet Union and still maintains two military bases in Georgia, despite persistent Georgian efforts and entreaties for Russia to remove these obvious symbols of former Russian imperialism.

As a relatively small country in a troubled neighbourhood, Georgia needs all the friends it can get. In Ukraine, Georgia has found both an ally and a national soul-mate. Co-operation and mutual support can only help the both of them.