Interview by Oleg Kusov, exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
- In your opinion, how similar are the Georgian and Russian mentalities? Are there any differences that the politicians used when they broke those connections? Russians and Georgians - are they close or far away?
- I don't believe in friendship of peoples. It does not exist. This is only a political term. I don't believe in the friendship of states. They just need each other, have treaties, etc. I believe only in the friendship of individuals. And I have many remarkable examples of friendship between Russians and Georgians. Especially in the sphere of culture. You know what Boris Pasternak said when he left Tbilisi, where he visited the family of Tizian Tabidze, who was shot in 1937. He stayed with them and when he left, the widow of Tizian came to see him at the train station, he looked out of the window and said: “Nina, when you arrive back home, look under the cupboard, under the couch, under the table, I stayed with you”. There were some blood-connections between the Russian and the Georgian artists. There are many examples and I don't know where to start and to finish. It is little known, but this started in the times of Count Vorontsov, who was the imperial representative in the Caucasus. That Georgia received a drama and an opera theater and the Russian-Georgian connections in culture started to develop – this is the achievement of Vorontsov. Two interesting and revealing details. Old names in Tbilisi are already forgotten. Rustaveli Avenue was previously called Golovinsky. Agmashenebeli Avenue was Mikhaylovskaya, then Plekhanovsky and now it's Agmashenebeli. One name was preserved, although the monument was destroyed by the Bolsheviks. Vorontsov – it is a small neighborhood and where the monument to Vorontsov was standing. Interestingly, when Vorontsov died, the representatives of the Princes' families were always coming to Kerch during their visits to Russia, because his widow lived there. Georgian artists also influenced Russian culture a lot. I can name George Balanchin… There is Pasternak. There is Nikoloz Baratashvili the genius Georgian poet. But why should we talk about this for so long? We are two Orthodox countries. There are particularities in Orthodoxy, as Merab Mamardishvili has noted. To Russia, Orthodoxy came from Greece in some fixed form, I don't mean this in a bad sense, just the Greeks put that Orthodoxy in some fixed framework. To Georgia it came straight from the Middle East, Saint Nina and so on… But what happened now is unforgivable for the politicians, both Russian and Georgian. Because they divide us artificially and this is a crime. Of course we all have to be independent, there should be no oppression. The Kremlin should not command Georgia, nobody should command. We should live in friendship and good neighborly relations. Our history obliges us to do so.
The full interview with Yuri Vachnadze watch in “Video”
