Polish–Georgian Cultural and Historical Relations in 1921-1939

Abstract

Pod skrzydłami Rzeczypospolitej. Emigracja gruzińska w Polsce 1921-1939 (Under the Wings of Rzeczypospolita. Georgian Emigration in Poland in 19211939) (University of Warsaw Press, 2015), a monograph by Professor David Kolbaia, University of Warsaw, is devoted to the life and activities of Georgian military migrants to Poland following the Soviet invasion into the Democratic Republic of Georgia in 1921. Some Georgian military officers served in the Polish army on a contract basis and took part in warfare in the name of Poland. Others pursued academic goals, whether as higher education students or professors. Many found their other half in Poland, but none of them forgot their homeland. Many Georgians died in Nazi concentration camps and Soviet Gulags, or became war prisoners during the Soviet invasion of Poland, and were executed in the Katyn Forest on March 5, 1940, by the decision of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The book, with its unique photos, has attracted considerable attention from historians as well as the broader academic community. Its Georgian and English versions were published by the University of Warsaw in 2016.