How it was №1660 12/05/2000 (2000)

The Tbilisi tragedy, 1989.

On April 4, 1989, before the government's house in Tbilisi, a ten-thousand meeting demanded Georgia's withdrawal from the USSR. Among the organizers of the rally were Such bright figures of the Georgian opposition as Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Merab Kostava, Irakli Tsereteli, George Chanturia, Irina Sarishvili.

To stop the speeches in the city were introduced troops.

The confrontation lasted 5 days.

The peak of dramatic situation reached on the night of April 9, when the troops moved to decisive action.

For many protesters, this day was the last.

To investigate the events in Tbilisi, the Joint Commission of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Military Prosecutor's Office was established.

The results of her work were not satisfied with the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR, and in May the commission under the leadership of Anatoly Sobchak started the investigation.

One of the organizers of the meeting, Irina Sarishvili, the former commander of the Transcaucasian Military District Igor Rodionov, a columnist, recalls the details of the tragedy "Literary newspaper" Yuri Rost, members of the commission AA Sobchak academician Oleg Gazenko and director Eldar Shengelaya.

The general picture is complemented by fragments of interviews with the participants of the rally: Rector of the State Theater Institute named after Sh.

Rustaveli Eteri Gugushvili, a resident Tbilisi Nunu Dzheranoshvili, Sergeant of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate Tbilisi Nikolay Lelashvili, actor of the Sh.

Rustaveli Theater Georgy Kharabadze, the Minister of Health of Georgia in 1989 Irakli Menagarishvili.

There are footage of the chronicle: Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to London, military equipment on the streets of Tbilisi, fragments of the rally, night riots on April 9, turning into fights.