Delta Winds: A Magazine of Student Essays

A Publication of San Joaquin Delta College 1998

Georgia Before and After the War of 1992
By Liliana Tikhonova

Many people have a few memorable places that they keep in mind. These places may be special because of their ability to remind people of some pleasant events connected with these places. Becoming older, people usually do not forget the places that remind them of their lighthearted and happy childhood. They seem to feel a special tenderness and thrill about such places. When somebody takes liberties to destroy these places, people feel the disruption between their present life and past experience. It seems that a piece of something valuable and important is destroyed.

Five years have passed since I left Suhumy, one of the best towns of the former Soviet Union republic of Georgia. I spent the last five years of my childhood in that town. In the summer of 1992, the war between the Abhasians and Georgians began. I had to leave Georgia to escape from hunger or possibly death. Two years later, I returned to see what happened to the places which I loved and people with whom I was acquainted The Georgia which I saw in 1994 was nothing similar to the Georgia of 1992. The environment changed, the buildings were destroyed, and the people changed. [full text ...]