FACING UNCOMFORTABLE HERITAGE

Interpreting the Totalitarian Past

By Tinatin Meparishvili

The article addresses the importance of interpreting the recent history in the countries with the totalitarian heritage. The controversy of pride and shame of those who are responsible or were part of the totalitarian regimes has digressed the process of coming in terms with the past. The topic is rarely tackled on a governmental level in post-soviet countries or southern Europe. Only on a lower scale, NGOs and research groups try to study, uncover and documents facts, and make them accessible for a larger audience, to raise awareness about the recent history. After all, this is the history that still reminds us of itself in contemporary events. Most of the European countries, who have invested both intellectually, and financially to interpret and learn to live with the past, seem to present their testimony of conciseness about the culpability and the responsibility for what had happened and this way, they make sure that the new generation would never repeat the same mistake.

Tinatin Meparishvili (PhD candidate at Roma Tre University) born in Georgia, completed her Bachelor in Architecture at the Academy of Arts in Tbilisi before moving to Germany for a Master of Arts in Heritage Conservation and Site Management at Brandenburg Technical University. Having worked in the field of Tourism, Heritage Conservation and Management, Tinatin is excited to have an opportunity to apply her knowledge and experience to fundamentally explore the challenges that Mass Tourism creates in the historic districts of Rome.