Creeping Authoritarianism in Higher Education and research in georgia: What A Difference A War Makes?

Abstract

In September 2023, one of the buildings belonging to the National Historical Archives of Georgia caught fire, destroying many valuable cinematographic and audio materials from Soviet times. The authorities downplayed the incident, claiming that most of these materials had already been digitized, with copies kept in a separate building. But the incendiary event has fuelled accusations against the Georgian Dream party for having a careless attitude towards Georgia’s historical legacy. Moreover, these accusations come at a time when the ruling party’s authoritarian and pro-Russian tendencies – increasingly difficult to explain away since the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022 – are felt with growing impact in various spheres of activity ranging from the political to the cultural. Yet, Georgia still ranks relatively high on the academic freedom index, and considerable scholarly exchange continues between Georgia and the rest of the world. Therefore, the question arises as to whether any authoritarian tendencies are detectable in the academic sphere and if Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine has had any measurable effect on the nature and conduct of higher education and research in Georgia. After providing the relevant historical background and context for current events, this piece argues that the creeping authoritarianism manifest today in the political, civic, media-information and arts-cultural spheres under Georgian Dream is also taking place in the academic sphere, albeit ‘under the radar’. This subtle shift is part of a general regression – which intensified after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late-February 2022 – back to the dysfunctional patterns inherited from the Soviet Union.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Soviet Past Research Laboratory, Facebook, 9 September 2023, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=682771773888014&set=a.471293571702503.

2 See the Academic Freedom Index Update 2023, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Institute of Political Science & V-Dem Institute, https://academic-freedom-index.net/.

3 Hierman, Russia and Eurasia 2017–2018, 241; Parks, ‘98% of Georgians Vote to Declare Republic Independent’.

4 Jones, ‘Georgia: Nationalism from under the Rubble’, 257; ‘Georgia Buries a President’; Chapple, ‘The Tbilisi War: Then and Now’; Mchedlishvili, et al., ‘Tbilisi’s 1991–1992 War’; ‘Georgian Leader Appeals to West’.

5 Interview with Stephen Jones, 14 November 2023; Baramidze and Bolkvadze, ‘The Presidential Institute in Georgia’; Devdariani, ‘Georgia’. Anecdotally, Stephen Jones recalls that one day he went to the national archives but a floor had collapsed so he could not go in that day.

6 Batiashvili, ‘Anxiety of Treason’. See also, Manning, ‘The City of Balconies’.

7 Correspondence with Vazha Kiknadze, 15 November 2023; Devdariani, ‘Georgia’.

8 Quote from Manning; Gamsakhurdia, ‘Conflict in Georgia’, 4. The Soviets did similar things to establish power in the North Caucasus during the Russian Revolution and Civil War, which I have written about in my doctoral thesis, ‘A Framework for Regional Developments in the Caucasus, 1917–1921’.

9 ‘Report on the Situation of Local and Regional Democracy in Georgia’; Billingsley, ‘Interviews with Tengiz Sigua and Jaba Ioseliani. ‘Shevardnadze, Eduard Amvrosievich 1928- 2014’ Wilson Center Digital Archive; ‘Eduard Shevardnadze Fast Facts’, CNN. Shevardnadze had served as a Komsomol instructor, Georgian Supreme Soviet member, minister for the maintenance of public order and minister of internal affairs (when he made a name for himself as an anti-corruption hardliner), First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party (when he imprisoned many dissidents), Soviet Communist Party Central Committee member, Soviet Politburo candidate and Gorbachev’s foreign minister (1985–1990 and 19 November 1991–1925 December 1991, when he resigned alongside Gorbachev).

10 ‘Georgia, Parliamentary Chamber’.

11 Zucher, The Post-Soviet Wars, 129; ‘Republic of Georgia Presidential Election, 9 April 2000’, 24; ‘Georgians Party’.

12 Kandelaki, ‘Georgia’s Rose Revolution’, 1–3. See also Interview with David Darchiashvili, 4 November 2011. Compare with Devdariani, 96.

13 Discussion with Mark Mullen, 5 December 2023; Discussion with Timothy Blauvelt, 5 December 2023; ‘Interview with US Ambassador Miles’, ADST, 13 November 2015; Lomsadze, ‘Amid Controversy’; compare Devdariani, 106–7.

14 Darchiashvili.

15 Correspondence with Ghia Nodia, 11 November 2023; Baramidze and Bolkvadze, 4.4.

16 Darchiashvili; Jones.

17 Rostiashvili, ‘Corruption in the Higher Education System of Georgia’, 14; Jones.

18 Jones.

19 Rostiashvili, ‘Corruption in the Higher Education System of Georgia’, 14, 23, 25, 29; ‘Freedom in the World 2004 – Georgia’; Nodia; Shoshiashvili, ‘Georgian Academy of Sciences Head Promises Membership to PM in Prank Call’.

20 Blauvelt (discussion 5 December 2023); Rostiashvili, ‘Corruption in the Higher Education System of Georgia’, 25.

21 Interview with Beka Kobakhidze, 6 November 2023; compare Rostiashvili, ‘Corruption in the Higher Education System of Georgia’, 27–9.

22 Compare with Devdariani, 97.

23 Welt, ‘Georgia's Rose Revolution’, 155–88, 170–1, 180–1; Duda, ‘When “It’s Time”,’ 85–6, 191–3, 197, 216–8, 225–6.

24 Darchiashvili.

25 Jones.

26 Interview with Anton Vatcharadze (IDFI), 13 November 2023.

27 Correspondence with Timothy Blauvelt (Ilia State), 10–11 November 2023; Blauvelt (discussion 5 December 2023).

28 Interview with Irakli Khvadagiani (SovLab), 16 November 2023; Vatcharadze.

29 Vatcharadze.

30 Nodia; Vatcharadze; Kiknadze; Jones; Khvadagiani.

31 Kiknadze; Conversations with Vazha Kiknadze 2009–11.

32 Vatcharadze; Khvadagiani; Kldiashvili, ‘Lustration in Georgia’.

33 ‘History on Fire’.

34 Hotchkiss, ‘Georgian President Details Nation’s Transformation’.

35 Jones; Interview with Giorgi Meladze, 9 November 2023; Corso, ‘Georgia’.

36 Kobakhidze.

37 ‘Fighting Corruption in Public Services’, 77; Temple, ‘Universities without Corruption’, 19; Law of Georgian on higher education (2004), available at https://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/sites/default/files/ressources/georgia_law_of_georgia_on_he.pdf.

38 ‘Fighting Corruption in Public Services’, 79; Corso, ‘Education Reform Rocks Georgia’; Kobakhidze.

39 Kobakhidze.

40 Modebadze, ‘Education Reform Underway’; Correspondence with Ghia Nodia, 11 November 2023; Kobakhidze.

41 Kobakhidze.

42 Corso, ‘Education Reform Rocks Georgia’; Nodia; Rostiashvili, ‘Corruption in the Higher Education System of Georgia’, 26.

43 ‘Tuskia v. Georgia’.

44 MacWilliams, ‘Georgian Students’; ‘Would-be Medical Students Go on Hunger Strike’; Corso, ‘Education Reform Rocks Georgia’.

45 Jones; Vatcharadze; Khvadagiani; Blauvelt.

46 ‘Georgia – 70.99%’; ‘Regime Archives in Georgia’; Text of the law, https://matsne.gov.ge/en/document/view/22420?publication=20.

47 Vatcharadze; See also, ‘Georgian Archives and Libraries’.

48 Khvadagiani.

49 Khvadagiani; Blauvelt (including additional correspondence from 4 December 2023); ‘Georgian Archives and Libraries’; Khvadagiani, ‘Georgia’, 27–32; Kldiashvili, ‘Archives and Soviet Studies in Georgia’.

50 Khvadagiani; Kldiashvili, ‘Archives and Soviet Studies in Georgia’.

51 Khvadagiani.

52 Blauvelt; Khvadagiani, Jones; Kldiashvili, ‘Archives and Soviet Studies in Georgia’; Law of Georgia, ‘On Personal Data Protection’ of 28 December 2011, https://matsne.gov.ge/en/document/view/1561437?publication=23; Kldiashvili, ‘Lustration in Georgia’.

53 Blauvelt; Khvadagiani, ‘Georgia’; ‘Regime Archives in Georgia’.

54 Kobakhidze, regarding the part about unreformed institutions.

55 See also Shatirishvili, ‘“Old” Intelligentsia and “New” Intellectuals’.

56 Kiknadze.

57 ‘Controversial Decision Against Agrarian University’.

58 ‘University Changes Owner’.

59 ‘Controversial Decision’; ‘200 million Worth of Property’.

60 ‘IBSU's New Owners’; Guthrie, ‘No New Students’; ‘The State versus the International Black Sea University’; ‘Georgia Trying to Shut Down Private University’; ‘The IBSU Conundrum’. I worked at the first school which was shut down, Nikoloz Tsereteli International School, the year before it was closed. While I was in no position to know anything beyond my classroom teaching duties, I can attest to the fact that this was a pleasant little school providing an important service to the local Turkish-speaking community. I also found the director at that time, Saffet Bayraktutan, to be a very kind and respectable person. He later became rector of IBSU, and as a result of the recent change of ownership there, he has become vice-rector. It is hard for me to imagine any wrongdoing associated with that school or the Chaglar network.

61 Kobakhidze, ‘Irakli kobaxidzis brifingi’; ‘’saqartvelos universiteti’.

62 Interview with Sandro Sharashenidze, 13 November 2023.

63 Kevanishvili, ‘Georgian Government Pins Recent Protests On “Satanists”’.

64 Sharashenidze.

65 The club is now receiving support from ATLAS Network, Zig (Now Campaign) and EDEC-Adenauer Foundation – and not the CIA. Classes will now be held at Factory Tbilisi.

66 ‘The University of Georgia and Free University Respond to the Accusations of the Ruling Party’.

67 Sharashenidze.

68 Kobakhidze; ‘Rashi daixarja sṭudenṭebistvis gamoyofili 318 milion lari’; ‘2010 tsels namdvilad shememtxva umdzimesi avaria’; ‘Iliaunis leqṭori Rustavi 2-is’; ‘sṭudenṭebi iliaunis reqṭoris tsinaaghmdeg’.

69 ‘Iliaunis reqṭori universiṭeṭis’.

70 ‘Iliaunis reqṭori ambobs’.

71 ‘Iliaunis profesorebi’.

72 Nodia; Blauvelt.

73 SovLab, Facebook page, post from 2 October 2023, https://www.facebook.com/sovlab.

74 Kobakhidze, ‘Irakli kobaxidzis brifingi’.

75 Levan Ramishvili informed me that he has not personally been attacked, nor has Liberty Institute or Tabula (correspondence 4–5 December 2023).

76 Kobakhidze. Other members of the Franklin Club’s advisory board are: Sofia Tchkonia, Yaron Brook, Soso Berekashvili, and Ilia Murtazishvili. I have not found any public information indicating they have been under pressure. However, Tchkonia is involved in fashion. Brook is not a Georgian citizen and Berekashvili is at the University of Pittsburgh. Murtazishvili is at Caucasus University, which has miraculously avoided any attacks and whose president has recently acquired IBSU together with Gia Kavtelishvili, rector of Georgian National University SEU.

77 Correspondence with Marika Tarasashvili, 11–25 November 2023. This year the list of grants awarded by the Shota Rustaveli Foundation (funded from the government budget through the Ministry of Education and Science) in the category of ‘Georgia's strategic development and economy’ contains such projects as ‘The golden jackal (Canis aureus) in landscapes changed by humans: can we co-exist?’ ‘Georgian traditional music genres’, and ‘Georgia and Antioch’. According to Tarasashvili, projects in this category are awarded a maximum of 450,000 GEL over three years although the exact budgets are confidential. Tarasashvili also suspects Tea Tsulukiani is somehow behind this web of corruption (additional correspondence, 4 December 2023).

78 ‘Georgian Dream Rank and File’.

79 Correspondence with Giorgi Kandelaki, 3 November 2023; Blauvelt.

80 Blauvelt.

81 Shoshiashvili, ‘Georgian Academy of Sciences’.

82 Kobakhidze.

83 Kobakhidze; Meladze; Interview with Keti Gurchiani (Ilia State University), 10 November 2023.

84 Kobakhidze.

85 Kobakhidze.

86 Kobakhidze; Gurchiani; Darchiashvili.

87 Kobakhidze.

88 Vatcharadze.

89 Vatcharadze.

90 Vatcharadze.

91 Blauvelt.

92 Vatcharadze; Blauvelt; Jones.

93 Khvadagiani; Blauvelt; ‘Fire Damages Georgian National Archives’.

94 Khvadagiani; Blauvelt.

95 Khvadagiani; Blauvelt. If you Google ‘MIA Archives’, a website appears but it will not open.

96 Nodia; Darchiashvili and Gurchiani (on academic freedom). Darchiashvili says that ‘we definitely enjoy academic freedom’. Gurchiani reported that she felt no restrictions.

97 Sharashenidze, paraphrased.

98 Meladze; On Partskhaladze, see Lomsadze, ‘Georgian Government Defends Ex-Prosecutor from U.S.’.

99 Blauvelt.

100 Gurchiani.

101 Darchiasvhili; Correspondence with Naira Sahakyan, 3 November 2023.

102 Correspondence with Vitaliy Shtybin, 11 November 2023.

103 Arkhi - https://arhe.msk.ru/?fbclid=IwAR0ErR_zKFuAA2boysH8Lq0eaHXc7G-buwtRsjNvX6WNCACu2EBZeYDNlCo; Auditoria -https://www.instagram.com/auditoria_booksbar/?fbclid=IwAR1y5uTAaQtJCWwM3Xnn43_puyUs7_zCjhadEqbrkjN8aufZgHXeFtYKk3M.

104 Correspondence with Vitaliy Shtybin, 11 November 2023.

105 Shtybin.

106 Shtybin.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah Slye

Sarah Slye received her DPhil from the University of Cambridge in 2023 with a thesis ‘A Regional Framework for Historical Developments in the Caucasus, 1917–1921’.