In this episode we explore how Soviet History and its legacies in Georgia are generally understood and approached today in academia, politics, the NGO sector and society at large.

In Part I we interview Timothy Blauvelt - professor of History at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, Georgia. Teaching in Georgia for almost 19 years he has produced a range of varied scholarship relating to both Soviet history and in particular Georgia and the South Caucasus on patronage networks in Abkhazia, the 1956 protests in Tbilisi against de-Stalinization, attitudes in Georgia towards the Russian language, and has an upcoming book entitled Clientalism and Nationality in an Early Soviet Fiefdom: The Trials of Nestor Lakoba to be released this year.

In Part II we interview Beka Natsvlishvili, professor and former MP in Georgia to discuss the use of anti-Soviet memory politics in Georgia and the implications this has on political development and debate in the country. Beka shares his own experiences in both the university setting and as a politician in Georgia to shed light on the real uses and misuses of Georgia's Soviet experience and why a reconsideration of Georgia's Soviet past is important for developing a coherent left wing politics today.