Western Education and Georgia
Until 1918, the Russian authorities refused to open universities in Georgia and the Caucasus, which had been part of the Russian Empire since 1801, so Georgian students went to Russia for higher education, while the more promising ones went to Europe.
As a result, during the years of Georgia’s independence in 1918-1921, the country’s parliament had 77 deputies with higher education, including 26 with education received in Europe. There were also women deputies. For example, MP Minadora Orjonikidze graduated from the University of Geneva; the First Lady of Georgia, Ina Koreneva, was a graduate of the Sorbonne; and Kato Mikeladze, editor-in-chief of the first feminist magazine published in 1917, graduated from the University of Brussels.
Freed from Russia, the Georgian elites, understanding the importance of education, founded Tbilisi State University in 1918. Between 1918 and 1921, the budget allocation for education was second only to expenditure on strengthening defense capabilities (30-50%) in an effort to protect the country from Russian aggression. For three years, a number of talented young people were sent to European universities to study. After graduation, they were required to return home and serve their country . The first Georgian recipients of scholarships went to Europe in 1919: Giorgi Nikoladze, Vladimer Emkhvari, Giorgi Nioradze, Nikoloz Koiava, Ivane Nikuradze, Razhden Khutsishvili, Mose Gogiberidze, Mikheil Khundadze, Svimon Kaukhchishvili, and others, equipped with open cards from Tbilisi University, left for Germany.
The professors of Tbilisi State University and the ambassadors of European countries in Tbilisi led the way in sending students to study abroad. In those years, the professor of Tbilisi State University was Robert Blake, who, after the occupation of Georgia by Bolshevik Russia, became a professor at Harward University. In 1919, he wrote a letter to Harward, Columbia, California, Pennsylvania and Yale universities asking them to provide scholarships for 45 Georgian students to study in America. Representatives of the British and Italian diplomatic corps in Tbilisi wrote similar letters to their respective countries. After the Soviet occupation, this process was suspended for 70 years. The current Bologna process, Erasmus, Chevening, Fullbright and other programs offering Western education to thousands of Georgian students, is a return to this forgotten path.
