Ist es unter Russen üblich, die vom Russischen Reich an den Georgiern verübten Massaker zu leugnen? Haben Sie jemals einen Russen getroffen, der das nicht leugnet?

To acknowledge this, russians need to read specifically about Georgia recent history.not many do this. Gov don’t teach such things in Russian schools.

Maybe one of them was Russian NKVD minister Lavrentiy Beria?

Russians I’ve met said Georgia was the aggressor in all wars that happened, and said the same about Ukraine. All they do is listen to Putin’s propaganda and they don’t use THEIR brains

I asked a hypothetical question in the AlternateHistory sub last week, wondering what the Caucasus region would have turned out like if Russia had never set foot there or shown any interest in the region – the whole Caucasus, not just Georgia (although disclaimer, I live in Georgia, I am dating a Georgian woman, and I have been deeply interested in and read a *lot* about Georgia and the Caucasus as a whole. My interest in the region is going on 20ish years now, and I have read everyone from Rustaveli to Vaja-Pshavela, to Chavchavadze, and beyond)

*Almost* everyone immediately jumped in to say the Turks and Persians would have scorched-earth genocided everyone there or erased all their cultures and just made everyone Muslim. There were maybe 2 exceptions among the commenters.

And when I pointed out that outside the Ottoman Genocide of the Armenians in 1914, most of the genocides, forced deportations, and mandated cultural erasures and assimilationis were perpetuated by the Tsarist Russian Empire and the Soviets, and cited documented incident after documented incident, they all went on a big fat downvoting campaign on my comments, launched into ad hominem attacks, and visibly sidestepped any talk about the numerous russian atrocities there to vaguely allude to potential cultural erasure and islamization of the region

They basically shut up only after I went down point by point to note the exact legal frameworks in place in the Ottoman and Safavid Empires and their treatment of the peoples inside their territories, and contrasted it with known Russian policies between the 1700s to current day

None of them stopped to go „Huh. I never knew there was such nuance to all this. Maybe what I learned in school in Yekaterinburg was propaganda“

One guy called me a rich dumbass who moved to a cheaper country to have better luck there 🤣

So you can kinda parse from that what the Russians think

Excluding a tiny few who lived abroad in western Europe and got a different perspective on their country’s history from the outside, most of them either are totally unaware their country committed any genocides or atrocities… Or justify them as „well, the turks/persians would have been worse“.

More or less implying all Caucasians, Kartvelians, Circassians, Turkic, and everyone in between, should shut up and be grateful to the Russians for so generously „protecting“ them

And my GF has also personally encountered Russians who think this way too, so it isn’t just me

Russians mostly deny the massacres committed by them, yes, but there are of course some who don’t, but there are also some who say they were deserved and are proud of it.

I once remember I saw a comment made by a russian which said that the Tbilisi massacre of 1989 was justified because USA invaded Iraq. It makes no sense but it perfectly displays their whataboutist mentality

So the answer is yes, it is common among russians to deny (or try to justify) massacres by the russian empire (and Soviet union) against the georgians.

To me this is a purely provocative post aimed at stirring hatred of Russians among Georgians.

Vague references to a massacre, vague excuses why it’s here and not on an AskARussian board.

I’d vote to close it, but I’m always happy to discuss a massacre of Armenians in Baku in 90s with you my friend.

Massacres where commited by Russian republic, not Russian Empire

I disagree with the attitude and opinion of the original commentator. The young ukrainians and russians that are in georgia are taking refuge from that killing field. Just the fact that they are in Georgia makes them conscientious objectors. They probably all know friends and family that have died in that horrible war.
Remember, it is not the people of the two countries that have declared war on each other. It has been the political elite, who stay far away from the war, and send the youth of their countries to die.
Lastly, I sympathize more with the Ukrainians. It is their country that has been invaded, it is their country they are defending. If the Russian political elite decided one day to cross back into Russia, the war would be over.

[I’m a Russian living in Tbilisi]

Yes it is common. in Russia we are taught that basically all russian conquests were actually other nations voluntary joining Russia and we are always a liberator and never the aggressor or occupier. Like even in the „free“ era of 00’s in Russia the education system really downplayed (almost no mention) the Stalin repressions against whole peoples and the 1939 USSR Pact with the Third Reich.

It’s similar to how it is in the US (esp. Republican-run states), and I assume it also is similar in a lot of countries. The Epstein class is pushing this „patriotism“ everywhere. Every nation has this „Greater [country]“ shit where they try to turn grievances of people away from oligarchs and towards some past ‚humiliation‘ of the country.

There were some good universities in Russia where they taught the history in a more nuanced way, but they were squashed unfortunately and now they teach the same shit everywhere. Like how they are squashed here in Georgia right now.

Right now the Russians that have different opinion are the woke left ones. The pronouns in bio types, like me, hahah, the ones who got lucky. There are also anti-imperialist movements (some left-wing, some right-wing) in Russia that focus on various regions in Russia. But yes they are also squashed.

In my circles the Russians are lefties acknowledging every Russian atrocity and more. Of course your mileage may vary

As a russian who cares enough to at least make something in his life: first of all, they do not teach about that stuff at all, I mean literally, I’ve graduated school in 2020, that wasn’t 20 years ago, and we almost skipped all modern wars and the old’s one(Chechen, Afgan, Georgian etc etc) except of course WWII where we „Solo had ultimate win a no one helped us at all“. And when we didn’t skipped them, they was explained as „Russia is ALWAYS defending and we didn’t start a SINGLE war“. I will not even comment on that, that is pure bs and we all know that.

But what more important is overall geopolitical awareness of people, who presented as „Russian“ today to people of other countries who sees them at their territory. 95% of my friends and colleagues(russians) is just running in hope of a better life, they are simple people with almost zero actual awareness of complex politic and history of places where they are living at the moment.

One of my friend literally thought, that Abkhazia is a sovereign territory(meaning that they are not related to Georgia). Was that because he was some nazbol sh? No, he just didn’t know anything about that region and moved here, because he wanted a better life for himself.

My point? I can’t agree that russians are denying massacres, but I can agree, that they are uneducated enough to don’t know anything about them, and with following, just don’t care.
When people are aware of history, politics and especially war conflicts, they can understand how terrible a man can be, and with that they will not „deny“ mass death of peoples.

I hope mods will not delete that comment, I’m not trying to be hateful in any way or form, just sharing with my pov of that situation.