“I sometimes agree with what Putin says, but Stalin is treated terribly. We all knew about Stalin that he was an enemy of the people and shot people - All this is not true. [During the exile] everyone told us to sit down and write statements in the name of Stalin before we leave. All these people in wagons sat and wrote letters wherever we stopped, wherever the post office was, my father gave me letters and I sent them, but Stalin had Khrushchev and Beria by his side. I considered Beria a great builder of Tbilisi, but then he became an enemy of Stalin. Still the biggest enemy was Khrushchev. It is believed that we were deported by Stalin, but I don't think so. They brought lists to him, and in the end, there were three or four times more of us in those lists, Because they wrote on a list and sent into exile everyone they hated.”
“Aunt Maro woke me up in the morning, told me that I would be late for school. I put the parcels on the bike. While I was going to this long barrack, I heard screams, we thought someone close to us had died. I arrived and found out that Stalin was dead. We were surprised, because despite everything, everyone at school was Stalinist, and the Kazakhs thought that no one lived better than them. It was their world and we lived there too. They loved Georgians very much, there were Greeks and Belarusians too, but they were crazy about us. I ran out on my bike to tell my family members, but they didn't know anything, they were still sleeping. Classes were not held, a rally was held and that's how we mourned Stalin's death. He [my father] didn't say anything. He knew that he could not talk about it. I have never heard his word about Stalin.”
“I have described how we lived in a huge Pullman carriage. There were two types of wagons, in one of them we were 60 people and in the other, smaller wagons there were 40 people. There was no toilet. We left from here on December 25 or 26, and the New Year was approaching. The family of Sesilia Takaishvili's brother, Sasha, was also there. Sasha had fled to France, but Sesilia brought him back because the communists told such people they could return. Nevertheless, they were still arrested and ended up with us. Very few of those people are alive now, Sasha's son is one of them. At that time, Sasha's son was an infant. New Year was coming, the men had to sit down to feast, but there was no toilet and we had to do something about it. It was forbidden to damage a wagon, but everyone got hammers, tools, we also took part, and they cut out a thick 10-15 cm floor, then covered it with a curtain. It was much joyful than the New year itself, we had a party. After that, we went on for 14 days"
It was 1951; the year became watershed in our life. I was sleeping with grandmother in a separate room. Mom entered and woke me up saying that father was being arrested. We put on clothes; grandmother was old and got hysterics. There was a Russian man from KGB and several Georgians, he was kind man, treated us with respect. He said “Aleksander Mikhailovich you are exiled together with family” It was impossible to stop grandmother, she kept screaming, my mom realized that we will be together and managed to stay calm, she was strong person. “You are given two hours to take necessary belongings”, Mother instantly started to pack things, I tried to calm grandmother.
Who ordered to exile us? For sure Stalin does not know about it. This is Beria. Everybody though this way. I don’t remember the names, Rukhadze was chief of KGB, his assistant was Goglidze. While we were discussing this people gathered around, the whole Tbilisi knew that they started to exile people. There were screams, shouts they did not let others to approach or pass something to the convicted, soldiers were everywhere around Navtlugi bazaar, all the hills near the place were full of people
There was no toilet in the train cab, we were 40 people, and what could we do? People discussed and decided to cut the hole in the Pullman’s compartment floor. All brought the instruments they had. Each cab had two armed soldiers guarding, so people decided to cut while train was moving. They marked central part; I remember how we were cutting the floor. I don’t know what happened in another cabs, probably they did the same. The floor was quite thick about 30-40 centimeters. It was such a joy when we finished the work, people even forgot where we were going and why. At least we solved this problem, people brought wine and vodka and even started to drink and celebrate
Baram Baramidze was born on October 29, 1936, in Tbilisi. The Soviet government did not forgive his father for being captured in World War II and made him a prisoner in his own country. At first, Baram Baramidze‘s father served his sentence in the Autonomous Republic of Kemi, but then, due to illness, he was transferred to Georgia. The family thought that the hard times were over, but in 1951 they were all deported to Kazakhstan. The family spent 14 days in cargo wagons with hundreds of other refugees, before they reached the final destination.
Soon after his return, Baram continued to attend a music school. In 1957, he entered Tbilisi State Conservatoire, where he studied until 1961 and made many friends. After that, he became the director of a music school (1971-1977), where after a successful career, he was transferred to the director of a choreographic school (1977-1991). In 1991-1993 he became the director of Tbilisi Concert Hall. At that time there was a difficult situation in the country due to the coup d‘état and the economic crisis. Despite this, he was able to restore the work of the hall.
Nowadays, he is busy writing his memoirs. He cooperated with other repressed and society “Memorial” for years. It is interesting that despite his difficult past, he looks at the figure of Stalin in a positive light.
Born in Tbilisi in 1936, His grandfather Mikhako Baramidze was a confectioner, father agronomist-zoo technician and mother was a teacher. Father went to the World War II right from the first days, he was fighting at Kerch, Crimea where he was wounded and taken captive; For several years the family had no news about him. Baram was 11, when he met his father first. After liberation first he was paying penalty in the Komi Autonomic Republic, later after homecoming to Tbilisi, every Thursday he visited commandant‘s office to sign, nobody knew whether he would return from the office or not. In 1951 the while family was exiled to Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Chimkent region at Kyzil Kum, the family traveled several days by cargo train cabs. Living conditions at the place - village Chardara were terrible. After coming back to Georgia, Baram graduated from Ivane Javakhishvili State Conservatory, he was as a deputy Minister of the Education, worked as a director of # 1 Musical schoolHe worked also as a Director of Tbilisi choreographic instituteWhile 1991-1993 has been working as a Director of Tbilisi Music hallThe last job was in 1993-2011 as Director of Tbilisi State choreographic institute
