Nikoloz — Center for Contemporary History; Giorgi — Caucasus University / Center for Contemporary History
Nikoloz — Head; Giorgi — Assistant Professor / Researcher
PhD Candidates in History
Tbilisi, Georgia
nikasarajishvili99@gmail.com
Restoring the Nation’s Memory: How May 26 Returned to Georgian Public Life (1987–1991)
Abstract
The present study examines the return of May 26—Georgia’s Independence Day—to the nation’s collective memory and the process of its ideological and political rehabilitation. This historical transformation took place during the final years of the Soviet Union, against the background of perestroika and glasnost, and coincided with the rise of the national liberation movement and the restoration of Georgia’s state independence.
Following the Soviet occupation of Georgia in 1921, the communist regime actively sought to discredit May 26 ideologically and to replace it with February 25—the date on which the Red Army captured Tbilisi. With the support of Soviet Georgian historiography, this campaign succeeded for a long period in marginalizing Independence Day or presenting it exclusively in a negative context. A notable exception was historian Ushangi Sidamonidze’s 1970 study, which evaluated the Act of Independence of 1918 as a progressive event. This interpretation resulted in severe Soviet ideological sanctions against the scholar, including the revocation of his academic degree.
The situation changed radically in the second half of the 1980s, when perestroika made it possible to discuss previously taboo subjects in public. The study analyzes in detail the events organized by the national liberation movement between 1988 and 1990 to commemorate May 26, as well as the role of the contemporary press in shaping public opinion. From 1989 onward, the process became irreversible, and the date was acknowledged even by official Soviet institutions.
Following the victory of the national forces in Georgia’s first multiparty elections in 1990 and the rise of Zviad Gamsakhurdia to power, May 26 was officially granted the status of a state holiday. The new government directly grounded the country’s political legitimacy in the legal continuity of the Act of Independence of May 26, 1918. Within the framework of the declared transitional period, the Soviet ideological calendar was completely abolished, while the state symbols of the First Republic—the flag, coat of arms, and the anthem Dideba—were restored.
The final part of the study focuses on the triumphant celebration of May 26, 1991. The date acquired multiple layers of symbolic significance, as it coincided with Georgia’s first presidential election, the first military parade of the National Guard, sporting festivals, and nationwide public celebrations.
Ultimately, the study confirms the hypothesis that the rehabilitation of May 26 was not merely the restoration of a single historical date. Rather, it represented a fundamental legal and ideological transformation that contributed to the deconstruction of the Soviet totalitarian narrative and laid the foundation for the restoration of independent Georgian statehood.