SovLab

The SovLab Soviet Past Research Laboratory
საბჭოთა წარსულის კვლევის ლაბორატორია
AbbreviationSovLab
Legal statusNonprofit organization
Purposestudying the country’s Soviet totalitarian past and highlighting its political, legal and moral significance
HeadquartersTbilisi, Georgia
Official language
Georgian, English
Websitesovlab.ge/ka

The SovLab Soviet Past Research Laboratory (Georgian: საბჭოთა წარსულის კვლევის ლაბორატორია) – SOVLAB – is a Georgian organization dedicated to studying the country's Soviet totalitarian past and highlighting its political, legal and moral significance.[1][2]

Among other things, it has contributed to developing the Museum of Repressed Writers, at the Writer's House of Georgia.[3] The organization was founded in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2010 by historians, writers and some descendants of victims to contribute to public debate about the history of Georgia in the Soviet Union.[4] It regularly organizes events and exhibition, and has also published various books on Georgia's Soviet past.[5] SovLab marks July 30 as a day for commemoration for the victims of Soviet repression.[6]

Next to its focus on the Soviet past, SovLab has also worked to document Georgia's first democratic republic.[2] In other projects, it has tried to trace mass graves from Soviet-era executions.[7]

  1. ^ Vincent, Faustine (19 December 2021). "En Géorgie, " le pire musée du monde " à la gloire de Staline, trente ans après la chute de l'URSS". Le Monde. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  2. ^ a b Gente, Régis (23 August 2018). "Georgia's new generation of historians: seeking democracy's past". Civil.GE. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  3. ^ Gutbrod, Hans (21 July 2023). "Paolo Iashvili and the Writer's House of Georgia – Museum of Repressed Writers opens in Sololaki". Investor.GE. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  4. ^ Veser, Reinhard (5 March 2023). "Das Gespenst des großen Führers". FAZ. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  5. ^ "SOVLAB – Soviet Past Research Laboratory". Soviet Past Research Laboratory - The Sigrid Rausing Trust. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  6. ^ "In Photos: Remembering Victims of Soviet Terror". CivilGE. 30 July 2021. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  7. ^ Junge, Marc; Bonwetsch, Bernd (2015). Bolschewistische Ordnung in Georgien: der Große Terror in einer kleinen kaukasischen Republik. Berlin Boston: De Gruyter Oldenbourg. p. 20. doi:10.1515/9783110410396. ISBN 978-3110410396. Retrieved 21 July 2023.