Research of the 90s period is of great challenge for scholars. Historians name significant obstacles that make their job hard:
- Closed archive system and disorganized materials;
- High fees for taking the materials out of the archives and preparing copies; lack of state’s interest in studying history.
Giorgi Arkania, one of the founders of the research organization Recent History Centre, thinks that 30 years is not enough to comprehend recent history. However, it is enough to study, research, provide facts to the public, and for young researchers to make bold assessments on specific topics.
The Centre has published four books on recent history. Mr. Arkania explains that one of the main obstacles to the research process is working in the archives. They have to go through a lot of bureaucracy before getting the needed material. If they are lucky and get the documents, some might be redacted to protect personal information. “The archives in Georgia are arranged in a manner that in all respects prevents researchers from working,” Mr. Arkania shared his experience.
Irakli Iremadze, who was researching the elections and the activities of the legislative body during the period, also talked about archive-related problems. He says most of the documents from the 90s and 2000s are not even sorted in the archives yet.
“By law, a state institution must submit documents to the National Archives within 15 years. This rule was breached for some time, and the materials from the 90s are being submitted only now. As far as we know, part of the materials was lost. We were told that part of it was lost due to fire, and no one knows which part. I had to work on several cases from the 90s. The archives simply do not have those materials, and unfortunately, neither does the state institution, the primary source of information. Their response to the request for information was that they were looking for it themselves”, Iremadze told us.
The management of the National Archives refused to discuss these topics with us.
Lasha Chantladze is a Ph.D. student. He studies how the domestic processes in the 90s’ Russia affected the Abkhaz conflict. He believes that the main problem is restricted access to the archive. “In the west, the countries strive to analyze the recent past properly and conveniently allow researchers to use these materials. Here, we have the opposite. We do not even have free access to those materials that survived the 1990s.”
The archives’ business hours are also a hindrance for Lasha Chantladze. Ph.D. students in Georgia do not have the luxury to dedicate all of their time to research. Chantladze works at the school from 9 to 15:00, and it is hard for him to work in the archive during the remaining 2 hours. Therefore, he wishes the libraries to work at flexible working hours.
The last 30 years are special for history scholars because there is also a video archive. The public broadcaster has a vast archive of video files.
A historian Davit Jishkariani says that access to video archives is a problem, and it isn’t cheap either. “Private TV stations appeared in this period, and viewing their archives is a big problem. This issue needs to be regulated as well. If the files are their property, it means they are able not to share it with anyone else.”
Gvantsa Modebadze, a Ph.D. student, studied the Russian hybrid war in the last three decades. Considering the topic, she has to work on various sources, sometimes in the archives, more often in the public library. During her work, she also had to use the public broadcaster’s television archive and buy e-books.
She says that research is an expensive task, and if a Ph.D. student has no job, they have limited financial resources. If working concurrently, the process is delayed in time. She says that existing grants are minimal.
“Finances are crucial, as, without them, I would not have had access to many books. I had to buy many books for my research, and some of them cost as much as $100. I work two jobs, then comes the university and research. Time is the biggest problem. If we compare the state of affairs in Georgia to that of Europe and the States, there is a completely different situation. Ph.D. students do not have to work as there are grants funding, and they have the luxury of focusing on research,” said Modebadze.
All scholars point out that making copies of the documents is especially expensive in the National Archives. One page costs one Georgian Lari. Students pay half of the price, but, still, it’s not a significant discount.
“Can you imagine the volume of materials a researcher needs to achieve their goals? The cost of one photo in the archives is about 10 Georgian Laris. In contrast, western countries are focused on making it easier for researchers to work by creating electronic resources databases providing access to the researchers at home. They say, “All doors are open for you. All you have to do is just research our past.” Giorgi Arkania told us.
According to Irakli Iremadze, compared to others, the prices of the National Archives are the cheapest because the price of 1 page in the MIA is 3 Georgian Laris. “When writing an article, often the most of the royalties are spent on archiving services,” he told us.
Another problem with the archives is the slow digitization. Gvantsa Modebadze told us that during the pandemic, access to the files became especially difficult: “It is often the case that either the files cannot be taken out of the library or a copy cannot be made. With the pandemic, things got even harder, as everything stopped completely. I understand that it is impossible to digitize everything, but it creates many problems. We had to be contempt with the use of Internet resources.”
What has (not) been done so far, and why?
A historian Beka Kobakhidze says that researchers avoid studying the 90s, and there are many reasons for this.
“Generally in Georgia, fundamental research of history is avoided. It is a much unappreciated and unprofitable job. Therefore, little research is done, and the new generation lacks interest also. Secondly, there is a lack of resources in this area, and it is hard to write much. Thirdly, it is a sensitive topic, where there is always a chance to get scolded because you have to write about living people,” Kobakhidze explains.
Davit Jishjariani notes that the political environment affecting this period is more problematic and important than limited sources of information. In his opinion, this period is too recent as many who participated in these processes are still politically active today. Therefore, they try to make their version of history dominant.
“We called the main event, the civil war, the Tbilisi war, but this war went far beyond the borders of Tbilisi, moved to Abkhazia and back. Well, somehow, it is hard for us to name it properly. Sometimes the issue is a lack of professionalism and sometimes the boldness of researchers. We can say that the new generation of researchers is very interested in this period,” said Jishkariani.
According to him, the development of institutions, the army, and the police has not been studied, how we moved from the old to the new economic model.
“… most importantly, where is the crime study?! The criminals ruled everything and took the wealth left of the Soviet economy. How did these factories end up in the hands of 2-3 people?!
Irakli Iremadze also notes that researchers often avoid writing about mistakes fearing public outrage.
“Unfortunately, our historians think that their job is not to describe the facts and analyze a specific theory but to protect the dignity and interests of the nation. It pushes you towards self-censorship. It is a headache,” Iremadze told us.
We asked all the historians we spoke to about existing studies and papers on the 90s. They mentioned two books: “Georgia: Political History after Independence” by Stephen Jones and “The Recent History of Georgia” by Dimitri Shvelidze.
The publication is prepared within the project “In-Depth Online Journalism,” funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The views expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BMZ.
