Joseph T Barna

Jersey City, NJ

Other/Almost

In 1989 in Soviet Georgia a protest on the city hall steps of Tbilisi resulted in many deaths at the hands of the Soviet Army and KGB. In April 1990, on the anniversary, I happened to be in Tbilisi with the Yale Russian Chorus. The Georgian leaders were having a hunger strike on the steps, and we got to sit with them for an hour while they told their stories and we sang to them. (The American songs brought tears and clenched fists from the crowd.) I recorded the interview, translated by our guide. The most amazing comment was "Do not be mistaken. We all agree that the Russians must go. But once they are gone we do not agree and will be at each other's throats." (That is how things turned out.)
The next night, I went out to take pictures of neon signs, and found hundreds of people streaming down the main street. I joined them and found the crowd occupying Lenin Square for the first time in history. (This is where GW Bush had a hand grenade thrown at him, as "Independence Square.") When the leaders saw me, they had someone drive me back to the hotel to get the rest of my equipment to record and be a witness. I was the only westerner in the square. When I took my first picture (with flash, it was night) the Georgians crowded around me thinking I was KGB, but the leaders told them I was American and on their side. Of course, the KGB saw the flash and I didn't know if they would come after me. They sang revolutionary songs for me, showed me Georgian passports from their brief independence in the 1920s, and sat talking with me below Lenin's statue. I snuck out shortly before the troops moved in. On my balcony at the hotel I recorded my thoughts, that it was like being at Concord or Lexington.
No one was killed, but the leaders were arrested. The next day I spent four hours with the crowd outside KGB headquarters as the crowd waited for them to be released, one by one. They all came up to me and thanked me.

The lesson? The people, once started, cannot be stopped. But it is their country. They may not settle things peaceably, but it is their right to settle things and there is little we can do unless we wish to be dictators also.

I'm sorry that after two years of being homeless my stuff is mostly in storage so I cannot share the recordings with you. If someone from WNYC would love an oral history project, they should talk to me. Joe 732 754 9294
josephtbarna@yahoo.com

I included the lessons above. (I hadn't scrolled down to realize there was a separate box. Sorry.

I have images and sound, as I say, but they are in storage somewhere at present, so I have not uploaded anything.