Connections/Georgia

My name is Mariam Otkhmezuri. I'm a volunteer at the Met, and my topic is Georgia. We Georgians call ourselves different names, it's an English name.

Many people associate the name with Georgia O'Keeffe. Other people think about

the state Georgia. When I start learning English, at the time it was still Soviet Union, Gorbachev's policies became a little bit looser. That's when

we start finding out more about the United States and the song "Georgia on My Mind" by Ray Charles. We loved it. I thought he was singing about us.

What people know about Georgia is that Stalin was Georgian. There are ambivalent feelings about Joseph Stalin in Georgia. Many consider that he was a great leader who transformed Soviet Union from a backward country into a superpower

but hardly anyone denies that it was a tyrannical regime where people suffered. There was still a monument of Stalin in his birthplace and I've recently heard that they've taken it down. That was the only monument that existed.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia emerged as an independent country in 1991.

Since then, looking for national identity has been an important issue.

These are Byzantine medallions that once were part of a frame of an icon.

In the western part of Georgia, it was a spiritual center for centuries and

it enjoyed patronage from local princes and nobility. My ancestors are from that region.

So I'd like to think that my ancestors had an opportunity to see the icon in its full splendor.

As an independent nation there is intense thinking and rethinking of Georgia's place in the world. Scholars and historians need to be very careful when they use archaeological findings.

It cannot be used to promote national politics. You cannot really assign to any ethnic group who really made this. We have an opportunity to see it and we need to try to understand what was going on in Near East at that time.

The Tula table was ordered by Catherine the Great at the time when our kingdom

really asked for protection against the Persians.

The armory not only made furniture and beautiful objects, but it also made cannons and rifles.

One thing we need to remember is that Georgia depended

on other nations for its security, so it would find allies among potential enemies.

Daggers are indispensable accessory of male traditional clothing. It reminds me of resistance that ethnic groups of North Caucasus showed to Russians and current resistance happening in Dagestan and Chechnya.

Georgia had very interesting and long relation with Iran historically. Shah cAbbas was the king when Iran's expansion reached its highest point and Georgia became part of Persia.

Persian culture affected Georgian architecture, literature.

Also Georgian motifs became popular in Persia so there was this vigorous cultural exchange.

When I look at this picture I think of Russian radical intelligentsia that made its commitment to serving people. Many Georgian intellectuals were educated in northern universities of Russia, and when they returned home, they

directed their energies to creating beautiful literature, and journalism, and founding schools. Although it's very Georgian and it's very unique, at the same time definitely has Russian influence.

Georgian language is original, it doesn't belong to any other linguistic groups and its alphabet is unique. For Georgians, to communicate in the language became self-preservation. It was the language that really kept us

as Georgians.