Museum Museum of Soviet Occupation

Museum of Soviet Occupation

Museum
    • Mtatsminda, ave. Rustaveli,
      • +995 593 91 52 37
    • 10:00 to 18:00   tue-sn

About us

he museum was opened in 2006. It occupies the building of the Simon Janashiya Museum.
Its funds are presented by private collections, archival documents of Georgian security services and exhibits of other museums, objects provided by families of former repressed and community organizations. The General Fund is about 3,000 items, some of which are demonstrated in an area of 700 square meters. The museum tells the Georgian history on the pages of the Soviet era (1921-1991). There you can see the documents, videos and photos as well as the objects and devices which were used by repressive agencies of the USSR. The museum represents the history of the dissident movement in Georgia and living conditions of political prisoners in the camps of the NKVD/KGB. The museum regularly publishes thematic collections and conducts public lectures of the twentieth-century's history of Georgia.

The columns at the entrance of the hall are equipped by the nameplates of natives of Georgia who suffered from repression and persecution. According to the museum staff, the total number of them was about 880 000. Exhibition is also dedicated to the invasion of the Red Army in 1921, the events of April 9, 1989 and the separatist movement in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Most of the museum artifacts date from the 1920-1930 years such as the pen which was used to sign the declaration of independence of Georgia, special phone of the NKVD, the machine gun, etc. Among the exhibits of the museum you can see a fragment of a wagon, similar to the one where several Georgian rebels were executed by shooting in 1924. A special section of the museum is dedicated to Kayhosro Cholokashvili who was the head of uprising of 1922-1924 in Kakheti and Khevsureti. In particular, the museum possesses his suit.

General exposition of the museum is very politically correct. It does not contain any attacks towards Russia or the Russian people, but only against the communist ideology.