{"id":38412,"date":"2026-05-20T18:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T08:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=38412"},"modified":"2026-05-20T18:29:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T08:29:03","slug":"remembering-stalin-georgia-%f0%9f%87%ac%f0%9f%87%aa-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=38412","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Stalin, Georgia \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\uddea 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Date: 17th May 2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travelled: 160 kms from Tbilisi to Gori return in Georgia \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visited: Uplistsikhe Archeological Park and The Stalin Museum <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stayed: Holiday Inn Express, Tbilisi  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Today we have taken an optional tour on what was a free day. Our guide informs us the road closures for family day will require us to meet the bus down at the Peace Park so we start with a brisk walk. Once on the coach we escape the city relatively easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visiting the Cathedral yesterday and listening to our guide for a few days now we\u2019re starting to get a feel about Georgia and Georgians. The Georgian Orthodox Church is a significant feature in their lives as is their troubling history of domination by who our guide refers to as \u2018our big brother to the north\u2019, Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The freeway north-west is smooth and the scenery interesting, we capture some glimpses of the snow caped Caspian mountains on our right. We arrive at the Uplistiskhe Archeological Park and play follow the leader.. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Uplistsikhe<\/a> is the first settled area mentioned in manuscripts dating from the 2nd millennium BC and translates literally in English as \u201cthe fortress of God\u201d. The town was an important point on the silk trade route linking Byzantium, India and China. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays archaeological excavations uncovered several layers dating from the Early Iron Age to the late Middle Ages. Take a walk through the narrow streets carved into sandstone rock, explore the caves, visit several pagan temples and see the Agama lizards that have taken over the abandoned city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all starts with a long ascent up series of metal steps\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The site is huge and we only focus on 4-5 specific areas. Some pagan temples and the chapels and throne room from the Middle Ages. The path through can be difficult at times and it\u2019s slow going for some of our group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the crest of the hill the Church of Saint Marys. Late 18th century according to our guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Church of Saint Marys<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Looking back at the Kurt River and the bus parking<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Looking down on what remains of the medieval village of Kvakhvreli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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All safely back on the coach we backtrack 10 kms back into Gori for lunch and the Stalin Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We could not pass up a visit to the Joseph Stalin Museum<\/a>. Why would the people of Georgia have a museum dedicated to Stalin. Work on the museum started shortly after Stalin\u2019s death in 1953 when Georgia was a central state of the great Soviet. Stalin grew up here in Gori, his parents simple cottage now part of this grandiose complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when Stalin wasn\u2019t studying to become a priest, being a revolutionary, seizing power and helping forming the Soviet, purging counter-revolutionaries, forming a pact with Germany then partnering with the Allies to defeat the Germany, more purges and lastly sending 1.5 million Soviet citizens to the gulags in Siberia never too return, he was to some a hero. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is a huge fortress overlooking Gori<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The usual tat outside the museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Our guide tells the family story of his great grandfather who was classmate of Stalin at the seminary. Years later his great grandfather receives a letter personally signed by Stalin warning him to stop associating with critics, ignoring it he received a second letter a month later which he also ignores. Another month later two cars arrive and arrest him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is never heard from again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The final photos, Stalin\u2019s family home. Apparently something is being repaired so it has a 6 foot high metal fence all around so that\u2019s the best I could get. The second Stalin\u2019s personal rail carriage. Three times the weight of a similar carriage thanks to the heavy armour platting and bullet proof glass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No photos but it was interesting to walk though. Then back on the coach to Tbilisi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another long but very interesting day. We have a shower and a drink in the bar chatting to some of the red team before wandering off to old Tbilisi for dinner. We find this tiny restaurant with seating for 10-12 people. We order some 15 minutes later she walks across the laneway to a house and comes back with our dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meal was delicious less than A$40 with drinks\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Michael + Pam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Date: 17th May 2026\u00a0 Travelled: 160 kms from Tbilisi to Gori return in Georgia \u00a0 Visited: Uplistsikhe Archeological Park and The Stalin Museum Stayed: Holiday Inn Express, Tbilisi   Today we have taken an optional tour on what was a free day. Our guide informs us the road closures for family day will require us to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":38421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-georgia-","8":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38412"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38450,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38412\/revisions\/38450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}