You have been to the NationalMuseum, checked out thegracefully crumbling architectureon the side streets, and walked pastthe ancient wall on Pushkin Street. Isthere anything else to do along RustaveliAvenue?In a word, yes. The 1930s was not ahappy time in Georgia’s history: Tbilisi(and other towns and villa<strong>ge</strong>s) werehit hard by the pur<strong>ge</strong>s, like most of theformer Soviet Union. While it may notbe a period many people enjoy discussing,there is a rich history to be exploredthrough the iconic buildings built duringo the decade, and through the homes offamous Georgians who suffered at thehands of the Soviet government. Formore information on Tbilisi during the1930s, and a map for a walking touraround neighborhoods with special tiesto the period, check out www.sovlab.<strong>ge</strong>.When workers started tearing downthe interior of the former Instituteof Marxism-Leninism to prepare thebuilding for its new life as a hotel, theystumbled upon a gruesome discovery:cemetery gravestones had been used tobuild the Institute’s interior walls andcolumns.Historians believe the gravestoneswere taken as construction material afterthe Soviet government destroyed threecemeteries in Tbilisi in the 1920s and1930s. But that was not the only secretthe former institute held. Deep underground in the courtyard, workers foundtunnels and cells that appeared tohavebeen used during the pur<strong>ge</strong>s in the 1930sas jails and holding rooms for politicalprisoners. The Institute, a branch ofMoscow’s Institute of Marxism andLeninism, was a pet project for LavrentiBeria, the first secretary of the SovietCommunist Party’s Regional Committee
of the Transcaucasus, and, later, the headof the NKVD, the Soviet secret police.Work began in 1934 was completed in1938, a timeline that coincides with theGreat Pur<strong>ge</strong>.The building at 17 Rustaveli Avenuewas once the home of Georgian directorAleksandre (Sandro) Akhmeteli.Akhmeteli, who is credited as oneof the founders of modern Georgiantheatre, was arrested on November 19,1936, and char<strong>ge</strong>d with espiona<strong>ge</strong>. Hewas sentenced to death on June 28, 1937and his property was seized. Along withAkhmeteli, other actors and theatre personalwere killed, including Platon Korisheli,Elguja Lordkipanidze, Ia Kantariaand Ivane Laghidze. One month later,three more theater employees - TamarTsulukidze-Akhmeteli, Buzhuzha Shavishviliand Nino Ghviniashvili - weresentenced to ten years in jail.Georgian poet Titsian Tabidze livedin this building until his arrest and executionin 1937. Tabidze was one of thefounders of Tsisperi Khantsebi (BlueHorns), a famous Georgian literary groupand magazine, and one of the leadersof the Georgian symbolist movement.His friend, the novelist Boris Pasternak,translated his poetry into Russian. In1936 his work fell into disfavor with theauthorities and, in 1937, he was arrestedon a fabricated char<strong>ge</strong> of treason. He wassentenced to death on December 15 buthis execution was not announced andmany hoped he was still alive. In 1940,Pasternak reportedly helped Tabidze’swife petition Beria to release the poet.His death was officially recognized in the1950s, two decades after his execution.A museum dedicated to his life andwork is located in the building.If walls could talk, the Tbilisi Marriottwould be able to retell the tale ofGeorgia’s history for the past century,from the dying days of the Russian Empireto the bloody 1921 war with theSoviet Red Army, and the 1991-1992civil war. The Majestic Hotel was thefirst European hotel built in Tbilisi. Itopened in 1915 and housed the firstcinema in Georgia. After briefly servingas a military hospital in 1917, it becamethe headquarters for the Soviet LaborCommittee in Georgia in 1921. TheSoviets turned it back into a hotel in1939, however, renaming it Hotel Tbilisi-- which became famous as one of theSoviet Union’s top ten hotels.The former (and likely future) Georgianparliament was built as a complexof government buildings on the groundsof the Alexander Nevsky Military Cathedral,which was destroyed in 1930. Alsodestroyed was the cathedral’s yard -- theburial ground for the military schoolcadets who died fighting against theSoviet Red Army in 1921. The Sovietsstarted construction on the site in 1938;the complex was completed in 1953, andwas partially built by German prisonersof war who had remained in the country.It was while living in this house thatGeorgian bacteriologist, Giorgi Eliavahelped create the Tbilisi BacteriologicalInstitute of People’s Commissariatof Healthcare (later renamed the EliavaInstitute) and developed an alternative toantibiotics. Eliava was a pioneer in pha<strong>ge</strong>therapy, a form of treatment that usesbacteriopha<strong>ge</strong>, a type of virus, to fightinfections. Pha<strong>ge</strong> therapy was researchedand used extensively in the Soviet Union.Eliava was arrested on January23, 1937 and char<strong>ge</strong>d with espiona<strong>ge</strong>,although it is widely believed that itwas his reputation as a playboy, not hispolitics, that led to his death: reportedlyhe fell in love with the same woman asBeria, and was subsequently punished.He was sentenced to death on July 9,1937, and executed the next day.Elisabed (Liziko) Kavtaradze was aGeorgian dissident who spent more than28 years in exile. A member of an undergroundMarxist organization as a younggirl, she was first arrested in 1928 anddeported to a villa<strong>ge</strong> outside of Tomsk,Russia. She returned to Georgia in 1936but was exiled again just six years later,this time to Kazakhstan -- to Alzhir, aRussian acronym for the Akmola Campfor the Wives of Traitors to the Motherland.Twenty years later, she was backin Tbilisi, and rehabilitated. She diedin 1988.Built in the 19th century, the buildingat 22 Ingorokva has had a violent history.It was original the home of the Selikovfamily and became a school for boysfrom noble families in 1892. In 1906,however, police stormed the buildingin retaliation for a terrorist attack that
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