Georgia - Gori - გორი

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Gori (Georgian: გორი)





Wikipedia: Gori is a city in eastern Georgia, which serves as the regional capital of Shida Kartli and the centre of the eponymous administrative district. The name is from Georgian gora, that is, "heap", or "hill". The city has a population today of approximately 49,500.


Gori Cathedral.


Churches and cathedrals, like fortresses were used for protective reasons and during difficult times they served as shelters for the population. That’s why churches, cathedrals and fortresses were constructed in barren places, difficult to reach and often near the rivers.


Gori Citadel/fortress.


Gori was an important military stronghold in the Middle Ages and maintains a strategic importance due to its location on the principal highway connecting eastern and western parts of Georgia. In the course of its history, Gori has been invaded by the armies of regional powers several times. The city was occupied by Russian troops during the 2008 South Ossetian War.





Gori is the administrative and cultural centre of a large agricultural region, an industrial town with population of more than 60,000. It has a railway station. Among its enterprises are a large textile mill, an instrument-marketing factory, a cannery, an institute of research into the automation of industrial processes and a fruit-and-vegetable selection station. Its cultural amenities include a theatre, the Museum of Martial Glory and the Stalin Museum.


Important Jewish area.



Gori train station.


Gori is one of the most ancient towns in Georgia. According to some historical records Gori was founded by King of Georgia David the Builder at the beginning of the 12th century. Nevertheless, archeological excavations discovered a township settlement dated from the end of ancient and down of new epochs. In 1946 the landslip of mountain slope revealed the cultural layer of the antique period. Ruins of clay-walls, thin-walled jugs, plane and gutter-shaped tiles painted in red, pieces of clay utensils burnt to red and glittering black appeared before the archaeologists' eyes.


Rebuilding after Russian war.

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Gori is also known as the birthplace of the Soviet leader Iosef Besarionis dze Jughashvili who went by the moniker Joseph Stalin in public life. Gori is home to the Stalin birthplace and the Stalin museum.


The "cult of personality."



Stalin museum.



Stalin at museum entrance.



Stalin's steel train.



Interior of Stalin's train.



Stalin's home, covered from the elements.


Regardless of his attempts to rewrite war history, Stalin was a coward. Only once did he really visit the front and then only for a few minutes in a safe area. Lots of photos were taken from different angles during that visit so that it would appear that he had made many different visits. The same man who angrily ordered that Red Army soldiers who attempted to retreat be shot on the spot, didn't last more than an hour during his photo shoot at the front.

Stalin had a special train built which was steel plated. The very first air conditioning unit in the Soviet Union was custom made and shipped to Russia for his train so that while his people slept in war ravaged homes or in the forest and starved, he rode in air conditioned comfort.

Deathly afraid of airplanes he rode this train to the Pottsdam conference.

Much like Hitler, he exerted an iron grip on his people and demanded of them great sacrifices. Yet also like Hitler, personal sacrifice was not in his vocabulary nor understanding.

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At the market.



I'll catch the next bus.