The Václav Havel Library and the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes invite you to a discussion with Revaz Cincadze from Georgia, one of the “nameless” Soviet citizens who protested against the invasion of Czechoslovakia by allied forces in August 1968.
Revaz Cincadze’s case is interesting in that he was not a member of any dissident group and had not been connected to any particular organisations, associations or groups in existence in Georgia in the Soviet period. He carried out his protest in an unusual manner, writing two letters to Alexei Kosygin, chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, sharing his views about the entire construction of the country. He began the second letter, dated 14 March 1970, with the words “I express my emphatic and irate protest in connection with the sudden, obscene and completely unjustified invasion of the territory of Czechoslovakia by Soviet soldiers. The entire world has stood up against us and against this treachery.” For writing this letter, Revaz Cincadze was arrested and underwent psychiatric examination. He was interned at a psychiatric clinic in Kazan for alleged schizophrenia and was released after almost two years.
The event is being held in conjunction with the Georgian Embassy.
