April 14, 1978, demonstrations in Tbilisi, capital of the Georgian SSR (Georgia), took place in response to an attempt by Communist party officials to change the constitutional status of the indigenous Georgian language. After a new Soviet Constitution was adopted in October 1977, the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR considered a draft constitution in which, in contrast to the Constitution of 1936, Georgian was no longer declared to be the State language. A series of indoor and outdoor actions of protest ensued and implied with the near-certainty of a clash between several thousands of demonstrators and the Soviet government, but the Georgian Communist Party chief Eduard Shevardnadze negotiated with the central authorities in Moscow and managed to obtain permission to retain the previous status of the Georgian language. April 14 is the 104th day of the year (105 in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 261 days remaining. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... Coordinates:  - Governing Mayor Giorgi Gigi Ugulava Area    - City 372 km²  (143. ... State motto: პროლეტარ ყველა ქვეყნისა, შეერთდით! Official language Georgian since 1978 Capital Tbilisi Chairman of the Supreme Council Zviad Gamsakhurdia (at independence) Established In the USSR:  - Since  - Until February 25, 1921 December 30, 1922 April 9, 1991 Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 10th in former Soviet Union 69,700 km² -- Population  - Total (1989)  - Density Ranked... The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Russian: Коммунисти́ческая Па́ртия Сове́тского Сою́за = КПСС) was the name used by the successors of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party from 1952 to 1991, but the wording Communist Party was present in the partys name since 1918 when the Bolsheviks became the Russian... Georgian (, kartuli ena) is the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus. ... At the Seventh (Special) Session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Ninth Convocation on October 7, 1977, the fourth and last Soviet Constitution, also known as the Brezhnev Constitution, was unanimously adopted. ... The Supreme Soviet (Russian: , Verhovniy Sovet, literally the Supreme Council) comprised the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union in the interim of the sessions of the Congress of Soviets, and the only one with the power to pass constitutional amendments. ... An official language is a language that is given a privileged legal status in a state, or other legally-defined territory. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Location Position of Moscow in Europe Government Country District Subdivision Russia Central Federal District Federal City Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov Geographical characteristics Area  - City 1,081 km² Population  - City (2007)    - Density 10,469,000   9684. ...

This highly unusual concession to an open expression of opposition to state policy of the Soviet Union defused popular anger in Tbilisi, but triggered tensions in the Abkhaz ASSR (Abkhazia), an autonomous republic in northwest Georgia, where Abkhaz Communist élite protested against what they saw was a capitulation to Georgian nationalism and demanded that their autonomy be transferred from Georgia to the Russian SFSR. The request was rejected but a number of political, cultural and economical concessions were made. Since 1990, April 14 has been celebrated in Georgia as the Day of the Georgian Language. ... National anthem Aiaaira Official languages Abkhaz, with Russian having co-official status and widespread use by government and other institutions Political status De facto independent Capital Sukhumi Capitals coordinates President Sergei Bagapsh Prime Minister Alexander Ankvab Independence  â€“ Declared  â€“ Recognition From Georgia  23 July 1992  none Currency Russian ruble Official... A significant number of autonomous republics can be found within the successor states of the Soviet Union, but the majority are located within Russia. ... The Abkhazians or Abkhaz (Abkhaz: , Georgian: აფხაზები, Turkish: Abhazlar) are a Caucasian ethnic group, mainly living in Abkhazia, de jure an autonomous republic of Georgia. ... State motto: Russian: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! Translation: Workers of the world, unite! Capital Moscow Official language Russian Established In the USSR:  - Since  - Until November 7, 1917 November 7, 1917 December 12, 1991 (dissolution) Area  - Total  - Water (%) Ranked 1st in the USSR 17,075,200 km² 13% Population  - Total   - Density Ranked 1st in the...

Background

The late 1970s witnessed the reemergence of Georgian national movement which called for the revival of Georgian national culture and, in its most radical form, saw no compromise to Georgia's ultimate independence from the Soviet Union, a rare instance of pro-independence dissident movement in the Union at the time. Although Georgian opposition intelligentsia preached avoidance of conflict with non-Georgian minorities, as such conflict would hamper the road to independence, and forged ties with the Russian dissidents of the time, including Andrei Sakharov, the movement had a strong anti-Russian emphasis and alarmed some minorities, especially in Abkhazia, where there was a lingering ethnic discord between Georgian and Abkhaz communities. In early 1977, the Soviet Committee for State Security (KGB) managed to suppress most Russian dissident groups and moved to Georgia, with the irreconcilable Georgian opposition leaders, Merab Kostava and Zviad Gamsakhurdia being arrested in April. Such measures failed to curb the movement, however. New influential young dissidents such as Tamar Chkheidze, Avtandil Imnadze, later Giorgi Chanturia, and Irakli Tsereteli, emerged in support of the jailed leaders; and several underground publications (Samizdat) were founded.^[1] During this period Georgia acquired the position of the republic with the highest level of per capita higher education in the Soviet Union, and the increasing number of students, especially the rural youth with higher education and with little connection to the Communist Party and Nomenklatura, formed a ground for anti-Soviet sentiments.^[2] A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively opposes an established opinion, policy, or structure. ... The notion of an intellectual elite as a distinguished social stratum can be traced far back in history. ... Andrei Sakharov, 1943 For the historian, see Andrey Nikolayevich Sakharov. ... Note: This article is about the KGB of the USSR. KGB is also the official title of the Belarusian intelligence services. ... Merab Kostava (May 26, 1939–October 13, 1989) was a Georgian dissident, musician and poet; one of the leaders of the National-Liberation movement in Georgia. ... Zviad Konstantines dze Gamsakhurdia[1] (Georgian: ზვიად კონსტანტინეს ძე გამსახურდია, IPA: ) (March 31, 1939 — December 31, 1993) was a dissident, scientist and writer, who became the first democratically elected President of the Republic of Georgia in the post-Soviet era. ... Giorgi Chanturia (1959-1994) was a prominent Georgian politician and the National Democratic Party leader who was murdered in Tbilisi, Georgia in December 1994. ... Samizdat, book published by Pathfinder Press containing a collection of forbidden Trotskyist Samizdat texts. ... The nomenklatura were a small, élite subset of the general population in the Soviet Union who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of the Soviet Union: in government, industry, agriculture, education, etc. ...

The status of language

Along with the two other Transcaucasian republics – Armenian SSR and Azerbaijan SSR – Georgia was the only Union republic where the language of a "titular nationality", in this case Georgian, enjoyed the status of state language.^[3] When in early 1978, the issue of adopting new constitutions in the republics, based on the 1977 Soviet Constitution, came up, an attempt was made by the Soviet authorities to remove the anomaly of the three Transcaucasian republics, replacing it with a clause giving an equally official status to the Russian language.^[2] The move was highly unpopular, but in Georgia the question of language was particularly sensitive and a negative outcry was quite predictable since a suggestion to hold certain courses in institutions of higher education in Russian two years earlier, in April 1976, had provoked a public outrage.^[1] While the situation in Armenia and Azerbaijan remained calm, the events proceeded in an unexpectedly dramatic manner in Georgia. Transcaucasia is the name given to a region south of the Caucasus Mountains that covers Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. ... State motto: ÕŠÖ€Õ¸Õ¬Õ¥Õ¿Õ¡Ö€Õ¶Õ¥Ö€ Õ¢Õ¸Õ¬Õ¸Ö€ Õ¥Ö€Õ¯Ö€Õ¶Õ¥Ö€Õ«, միացեք! (Workers of the world, unite!) Official language None. ... State motto: Бүтүн өлкәләрин пролетарлары, бирләшин! Workers of the world, unite! Official language None. ... In its final decades of its existence, the Soviet Union consisted of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics (SSR), often called simply Soviet republics. ... Russian ( , transliteration: russkiy yazyk, ) is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia and the most widespread of the Slavic languages. ...

Protests

Demonstrations broke out throughout Georgia, reaching their climax in Tbilisi on April 14, 1978, the day when the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR convened to ratify the new legislation. An estimated 20,000,^[4] mainly university students, took to the streets. Several intellectuals, including the venerated 80-years old linguist Akaki Shanidze, campaigned against reforming the Article 75, addressing the official status of Georgian, and leaflets calling for a nation-wide resistance appeared in the streets. The demonstrators marched to the House of the Government in downtown Tbilisi. The Soviet police (militsiya) officers managed to partially block the march, but around 5,000 people still managed to reach the government building which was quickly surrounded by Soviet army. The rest of the protesters gathered in and around Tbilisi State University. As the situation looked like turning dangerous and rumours were coming of the Soviet troops preparing for the action, Eduard Shevardnadze, the First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party Central Committee, addressed the demonstrators and reminded them about the March 9 1956 student demonstrations shot by the Soviet army in Tbilisi. Although he was booed when he first tried to speak to the crowd, Shevardnadze was quick to react. He immediately contacted Moscow and asked for the permission to leave the Article 75 unchanged. While the shocked Kremlin was contemplating the issue, Shevardnadze came out and spoke to the demonstrators, explaining the situation and pledging his sympathies to their cause. Finally, the government decided to reject any changes to the disputed clause, hence giving in to popular pressure. The demonstrators began gradually to withdraw only after Shevardnadze announced the final decision and read out the article affirming the status of Georgian as the state language of the Georgian SSR.^[5] Akaki Shanidze (Georgian: ) (1887-1987) was a Georgian linguist and philologist and one of the founding fathers of the Tbilisi State University (1918). ... A member of a Russian special purpose police team (OMSN), equipped with a 9A91 submachine gun. ... Image:TSU2. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The article refers to a bloody crackdown of peaceful demonstration by the Soviet troops in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR on March 9, 1956. ... Moscow Kremlin in the 19th century. ...

Aftermath

Following this unprecedented concession to public opinion, the Soviet authorities, alarmed by the mass actions in Georgia, abandoned similar amendments in the constitutions of Armenia and Azerbaijan and declared Armenian and Azerbaijani state languages at the republican level, without waiting for similar manifestations in either republic.^[6]

The language issue in the Transcaucasian republics revealed the sensitivity of the national problem in the region. The upsurge of national movement in Georgia proper, led to tensions within the minorities as well, in particular with the Abkhaz, who interpreted the concession by the Soviet authorities as a retreat in the face of Georgian nationalism and saw this as an opportunity to secede from Georgia. In May 1978, several thousands of Abkhaz nationalists assembled in the village of Lykhny to support 130 Abkhaz Communists, who had signed the letter to Moscow, demanding that the Abkhaz ASSR be allowed to be transferred from Georgia to the Russian SFSR. The Kremlin dispatched I.V. Kapitonov, secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee, to Sukhumi and installed a new party leader, Boris Adleiba, in Abkhazia. Kapitonov declared that secession was impermissible, but the government acknowledged the seriousness of Abkhaz problem by decreeing a costly plan "for the development of the economy and culture of the Abkhaz ASSR".^[5] An extra 500 millions rubles were appropriated over seven years for economic investments such as a road-building program for infrastructure-poor Abkhazia, and cultural benefits such as the creation of an Abkhaz State University (with Abkhaz, Georgian, and Russian sectors), a State Folk Dance Ensemble in Sukhumi, and Abkhaz-language television broadcasting. Besides, ethnic quotas were established for certain bureaucratic posts, giving the Abkhaz a degree of political power that was disproportionate to their minority status in the autonomous republic.^[7] Lykhny is a village in the Gudauta District of Abkhazia, an autonomous republic in northwestern Georgia. ... The Secretariat of the CPSU Central Committee was a key body within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and was responsible for the central administration of the party as opposed to drafting government policy which was usually handled by the Politburo. ... The ruble or rouble is a unit of currency. ... Abkhaz is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken in Georgia and Turkey. ...

Both the Georgian language and Abkhaz questions were on high agenda throughout the following years. Georgians living in Abkhazia protested about discrimination against them at the hands of the Abkhaz Communist Party élite and demanded the equal access to the autonomous structures. Several Georgian intellectuals petitioned Shevardnadze and the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev to address the situation. During 1981, at least five mass demonstrations took place in Georgia at which Abkhaz question was raised once again alongside broader issues connected with the defense of the Georgian language, history, and culture. The protesters also demanded the release of Avtandil Imnadze, the only person who was arrested in connection with April 14 1978 events for having filmed the student demonstrations in Tbilisi.^[8] Although Shevardnadze managed to comply with popular opinion without being punished or reprimanded by the center, probably due to the success of his economic policy in Georgia,^[2] he still sought to neutralize the dissident movement in order to retain his fame of a successful and loyal Communist leader. Under the increasing pressure from the authorities, the national movement suffered a setback in April 1979, when the prominent Georgian dissident, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was pardoned after having repented his views, admitting his "errors of judgment" on nationwide television. As Gamsakhurdia's close associate, Merab Kostava, refused to surrender, he remained an untainted leader of Georgian dissident movement until his release in 1987 and his mysterious death in a car crash in 1989.^[1] The anti-nationalist measures also included the dismissal of Akaki Bakradze, a popular professor who taught a course on Georgian literature at Tbilisi University and was known for his anti-Soviet feelings. In March 1981, over 1,000 students protested and achieved the restoration of Bakradze to his position. Later that month, large groups of students and intellectuals demonstrated in defense of Georgian national rights and submitted to the Georgian party leadership a document entitled "The Demands of the Georgian People". The petition included proposals to protect the status of the Georgian language, improve the teaching of Georgian history and preservation of Georgian historical monuments, and protect the Georgians in Abkhazia. Other Georgian protests took place in the town of Mtskheta in October 1981, when 2,000 people demonstrated in defense of their native language. Unrest continued, and, in 1982, intellectuals protested against the arrest of dissenters on trumped-up charges.^[3] Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev Russian: ; January 1, 1907 [O.S. December 19, 1906] – November 10, 1982) was the effective ruler of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, at first in partnership with others. ... Georgia has one of the world’s richest and oldest history, stretching back to the prehistoric times. ... Mtskheta is one of oldest cities of the republic of Georgia (in Kartli province of Eastern Georgia), near Tbilisi. ...

Legacy

The 1978 demonstrations are considered by many as the starting point of a new phase of Georgia’s national movement, which eventually led the country into a widespread resistance to the Soviet rule in the late 1980s and the declaration of Georgia’s independence on April 9, 1991. Since 1990, April 14 has been celebrated as the Day of the Georgian Language. Although it is not an official holiday, it is a date for commemorating the 1978 events and summarizing what has been done during the year in the functioning of Georgian within the areas of teaching and research.^[9] April 9 is the 99th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (100th in leap years). ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

References