A cross for all lithuanians burried in Georgia was sanctified in Tbilisi
On the 9th of November a cross for all lithuanians burried in Georgia was sanctified in the St. Peter and Paul Cemetry in Tbilisi. It was build by the initiative of the Embassy of Lithuania to Georgia.
H.E. Jonas Paslauskas, Ambassador of Lithuania to Georgia, congratulated the members of Lithuanian community in Georgia. He expressed his hope that this place would eventually bring together lithuanians during All Souls’ Day and other memorable occasions. One will be able to light candles for those burried in Georgia and for the memory of relatives.
Participants of the event remembered famous lithuanians, who lived in Georgia in the end of 19th century, and were later burried here. For example, Mr. Josef Khodzka (Juozapas Chodzka, (1800-1881), a graduate from Vilnius University and a talented geographer, as well as Mr. Ignas Bitaitis (1875-1900), poet, who was was convicted of book-smuggling after the czarist police (it was illegal to keep books in Lithuanian language at that time), and was deported to the Caucasus where he died at the age of 25.
First bigger Lithuanian communities in Georgia were created after the Third division of Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth.
After the uprising of 1831 tsarist government exiled to the Caucasus about 500 people from Poland and Lithuania. Later various specialists, such as engineers, were sent to Georgia for the railway construction works. Couple thousand of lithuanians fought in the Turkish front during Word War I. After this war they stayd in the Caucasus.
Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to Georgia
