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The April 9 Tragedy (or the Tbilisi Massacre of 9 April 1989) refers to the bloody events in Tbilisi, Georgia on April 9, 1989, when peaceful anti-Soviet and pro-independence demonstrations were brutally dispersed by the Soviet army using entrenching spades and toxic gas. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... View of Tiflis from the Grounds of Saint David Church, ca. ... April 9 is the 99th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (100th in leap years). ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Soviet redirects here. ... Soviet redirects here. ...

Prelude to the Tragedy

The anti-Soviet national liberation movement got more active in Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1988. Several strikes and meetings were organized by “informal movements”, i.e. anti-Soviet political organizations in Tbilisi. The conflict between the Soviet government and Georgian nationalism deepened after the so-called Lykhny Assembly on March 18, 1989, when several thousand Abkhaz demanded the secession from Georgia and restoration of the Union republic status of 1921 - 1931. In response, the “informal movements” organized the series of unsanctioned meetings across the republic, claiming, that the Soviet government was trying to oppose the national movement with the help of separatism. Soviet redirects here. ... State motto: პროლეტარ ყველა ქვეყნისა, შეერთდით! Official language Georgian since 1978 (Georgia was the only Soviet republic to have an official language) Capital Tbilisi Chairman of the Supreme Council Zviad Gamsakhurdia (at independence) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 10th in former Soviet Union 69,700 km2 -- Population  - Total (1989)  - Density Ranked... 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Soviet redirects here. ... View of Tiflis from the Grounds of Saint David Church, ca. ... Soviet redirects here. ... March 18 is the 77th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (78th in leap years). ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Abkhaz is an agglutinative Georgia (in the autonomous republic of Abkhazia) and Turkey. ... 1921 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1931 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Soviet redirects here. ...

The protests reached the peak on April 4, 1989, when ten thousands of [[|Georgian_people|Georgians]] gathered before the House of Government on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi. The protesters led by the Independence Committee (Merab Kostava, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Giorgi Chanturia, Irakli Bathiashvili, Irakli Tsereteli and others) organized a peaceful demonstration and hunger strikes demanding the punishment of Abkhaz secessionists and restoration of Georgian independence. Local communist authorities lost control over the situation in the capital and the protests became irrepressible. April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... View of Tiflis from the Grounds of Saint David Church, ca. ... ... Zviad Gamsakhurdia Zviad Konstantines dze Gamsakhurdia (Georgian: ზვიად კონსტანტინეს ძე გამსახურდია) (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. ... Abkhaz is an agglutinative Georgia (in the autonomous republic of Abkhazia) and Turkey. ... Communism - Wikipedia /**/ @import /w/skins-1. ...

The Bloody Sunday

In the evening of April 8, 1989, Colonel General Igor Rodionov, Commander of Transcaucasian Military District, ordered the troops to mobilize. Local militsiya (police) units were disarmed just before the operation. On April 9, 3.45 a.m., Soviet tanks and troops under General Aleksandr Lebed surrounded the demonstration area. The demonstrators met them dancing and singing national songs. Soldiers began massacring with entrenching tools and toxic gas. Twenty people, mostly girls and older women, were killed, over 4,000 injured and poisoned. Disarmed militsyia officers were trying to evacuate panicked people. The soldiers did not allow emergency doctors to help injured people. A film and photograph of a young man beating a stick over a Soviet tank became a symbol of anti-Soviet movement in Georgia. April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (99th in leap years). ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Igor Nilolaevich Rodionov (born 1936) is a Russian general andDuma deputy. ... April 9 is the 99th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (100th in leap years). ... Soviet redirects here. ... Aleksandr Ivanovich Lebed (Алексáндр Ивáнович Лéбедь) (April 20, 1950–April 28, 2002) was a Russian general and politician. ... Soviet redirects here. ... Soviet redirects here. ...

Aftermath

On April 10, in protest of the crackdown, Tbilisi and the whole Georgia went out on strike and a 40-day period of mourning was declared. The people brought massive collections of flowers to the place of the massacre. Demonstrations were held repeatedly despite a state of emergency was declared. April 10 is the 100th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (101st in leap years). ... View of Tiflis from the Grounds of Saint David Church, ca. ...

The government of Soviet Georgia resigned as a result of the event. Moscow claimed the demonstrators attacked first and the soldiers had to repel them. At the first Congress of the USSR People's Deputies (May-June 1989) Gorbachev disclaimed all responsibility, shifting it on the army. The revelations in the liberal Soviet media, as well as the findings of the "pro-Perestroika" Deputy Anatoli Sobchak's commission of enquiry into the Tbilisi events, made known at the second Congress in December 1989, resulted in a massive "loss of face" by the Soviet hardliners and army leadership implicated in the event. Saint Basils Cathedral and Spasskaya Tower of Moscow Kremlin at Red Square. ... This article is about the month of May. ... June is the sixth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four with the length of 30 days. ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Russian: ; Pronunciation: mih-kha-ILL ser-GHE-ye-vich gor-bah-CHOFF) (born March 2, 1931), was leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. ... Soviet redirects here. ... Perestroika   listen? (Перестро́йка) is the Russian word (which passed into English) for the economic reforms introduced in June 1987 by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. ... View of Tiflis from the Grounds of Saint David Church, ca. ... December is the twelfth and last month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Soviet redirects here. ...

Legacy

The April 9 Tragedy radicalised Georgian opposition to the Soviet power. A few months later, a session of the Supreme Council of Georgian SSR, held on November 17-November 18, 1989, officially condemned occupation and annexation of Georgia by Soviet Russia in 1921. On April 9, 1991, the two-year anniversary of the massacre, Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia, proclaimed the Georgian sovereignty and independence from the Soviet Union according the March 31, 1991 referendum results. A memorial to the victims of the tragedy was opened at the place of the crackdown on Rustaveli Avenue on November 23, 2004. Soviet redirects here. ... State motto: პროლეტარ ყველა ქვეყნისა, შეერთდით! Official language Georgian since 1978 (Georgia was the only Soviet republic to have an official language) 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... November 17 is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece. ... November 18 is the 322nd day of the year (323rd in leap years), with 43 remaining. ... 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Soviet Russia is sometimes used as a somewhat sloppy synonym to the Soviet Union — although the term Soviet Russia sometimes refers to Bolshevist Russia from the October Revolution in 1917 to 1922 (Although Russian communists officially formed RSFSR in 1918). ... 1921 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... April 9 is the 99th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (100th in leap years). ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia was the first National Parliament of the Republic of Georgia in the post-Soviet era (in 1990 - 1992). ... March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (91st in Leap years), with 275 days remaining, as the final day of March. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 23 is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 38 days remaining. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• History of Georgia
• History of the Soviet Union

The recorded history of Georgia dates back more than 4,000 years and the Georgian language is one of the oldest living languages in the world. ... The Russian Revolution Main article: Russian Revolution During World War I, Tsarist Russia experienced famine and economic collapse. ...

External links

• Resolution of the Baltic Assembly on the Events in Georgia on April 9, 1989 http://www.letton.ch/lvx_tall6.htm
• Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) report http://www.phrusa.org/research/health_effects/humsov.html
• The 9 April 1989 Tragedy and the Abkhazian Question