The initiative Unknown Stories of the Soviet Gori by the Cooperation for Peace and Progress (CPP) https://www.facebook.com/cppgeorgia/timeline has emerged from the project Lectures in Gori: the “Unknown” Soviet Past, which ran from January until June. The Lectures project, which was supported by the Heinrich Boell Foundation (HBS) www.facebook.com/hbf.caucasus, enabled 30 young men and women living and studying in Gori (the hometown of Soviet dictator Stalin) to a attend series of lectures and workshops on issues reflecting social, cultural, economic and political life of the Soviet Past.
As a follow-up to this project, the CPP in cooperation with the HBS SC initiated the Unknown Stories of the Soviet Gori. This project offers its local young partners experience in oral history methodology and the collection of memories of Soviet Gori. As a result of this initiative 12 selected participants of the project will be trained to conduct research and interviews among elder generation of Gori dwellers and to collect stories that reflect realities of the past that are still hidden in the “patriotic” myths around Stalin’s cult. In the end of the project series of presentations and discussions will be held at the Gori State University and some of the public schools thus ensuring engagement of broader audiences in debating over Stalin’s cult of personality and consequences of its institutionalization in public life.
