Georgia

The topic “Migration - Restarting Life From Scratch” triggered students in Georgia to start exploring their local or family past in the Georgian History Competition of 2019/20. In the end, 55 pupils, aged thirteen to eighteen years, took advantage of the opportunity and handed in the results of their research projects. 31 students worked on their project individually, the remaining nine contributions were group works. Contributions included essays, videos, photo exhibitions and posters.

The team of organisers of the National History Competition in Georgia, SovLab and GAHE, were able to gain an additional partner for their current competition that is organised in cooperation with DVV International and Körber-Stiftung and funded by the German Foreign Office. Because this year's competition focuses on migration, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) office in Georgia supported the current competition.

The overarching topic of migration inspired pupils to research very different aspects: One of the winners wrote about the life of the women deported during the Stalin era, their lives during deportation and upon returning. Another one researched the history of a Jewish photographer who lived in western Georgia and refused to migrate to Israel. A third entry was about the history of deported Meskhetians and a fourth one about the local history of the city of Kutaisi, focussing on the mass deportation from the Soviet Union in 1951.

The selection of the winning contributions took place in a two step procedure: First, the competition organisers selected 27 out of the 40 entries for a long list that was passed to the competition’s jury. The eight jury members, among them one representative from IOM Georgia, discussed the selection, identified four winning entries and decided that the third place will be shared between two entries. Moreover, IOM awarded a special prize. On various occations, jury members stressed the high quality of entries and the difficulty to select the prize winning contributions among such high quality works. Evaluation criteria for the entries were how well they fit the competition topic, originality, consecutive writing, the use of different sources and critical reflection of sources, research methodology, historical context (knowledge of the facts and logical development) and the form and aesthetics of the work.

On 11 October 2020, a hybrid award ceremony took place at the atrium of the National Museum in Tbilisi combining several guests online and in person. A number of special guests conveyed their congratulations and best wishes for the participants and their tutors who supported the students’ research projects. Among them were German Ambassador in Georgia, Hubert Knirsch, Regional Director of DVV International Maja Avramovska, Nana Tsikhistavi (GAHE) and Davit Jishkariani (SovLab). Katja Fausser, Programme Director of EUSTORY, extended a warm greeting from Körber-Stiftung in a video message.

The Georgian Award Ceremony was moderated by Lika Katsitadze, DVV International project manager of the history competition in Georgia, was streamed live and can be seen in a video on facebook.

Visit the website of the Georgian EUSTORY History Competition to find out more about the competion.