Tbilisi Circus

Tbilisi Circus
Tbilisi Circus
	Tbilisi Circus overlooking Heroes' Square in 2008
General information
Type	Rotunda
Architectural style	Stalinist architecture
Location	Tbilisi, Georgia
Coordinates	41°42′51″N44°47′6″E / 41.71417°N 44.78500°E
Construction started	1939
Completed	1940
Design and construction
Architect	Nikolay Neprintsev, Vladimer Urushadze, Stepan Satunts

Last updated February 26, 2019

The Tbilisi Circus (Georgian :თბილისის ცირკი) is the main circus in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. It is housed in a Soviet-era Neoclassical rotunda building built in 1939 on a hilltop overlooking Heroes' Square.

Georgian is a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians. It is the official language of Georgia.

Tbilisi, in some countries also still known by its pre-1936 international designation Tiflis, is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million people. Founded in the 5th century AD by Vakhtang I of Iberia, since then Tbilisi served as the capital of various Georgian kingdoms and republics. Between 1801 and 1917, then part of the Russian Empire, Tbilisi was the seat of the Imperial Viceroy, governing both Southern and Northern Caucasus.

Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi. Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres (26,911 sq mi), and its 2017 population is about 3.718 million. Georgia is a unitary semi-presidential republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy.

History

Early history

The history of the Tbilisi circus began in 1888, when the city was part of the Russian Empire. Its original big top building was destroyed in a fire in 1911 and the circus was moved to a former wine factory, before settling down, in 1939, in its present Neoclassical, Joseph Stalin-era building designed by Nikolay Neprintsev, Vladimer Urushadze, and Stepan Satunts. The building sit on a hill on the right bank of the Kura river, near what had been the end of the Georgian Military Road at the entrance of the city in the imperial era. The hill had also been known for a cast iron cross, named the Vera Cross after the historical neighborhood, erected in 1847 to commemorate the survival of the emperor Nicholas I in a road accident during his visit to the Caucasus in 1837. The cross was demolished and the area around it was organized into Heroes' Square under the rule of Lavrenti Beria in the 1930s.^[1] With its 2,000-seat capacity, the Tbilisi Circus was ranked among the largest circuses in the Soviet Union, alongside those of Moscow, Kiev, and Baku.^[2]

The Russian Empire, also known as Imperial Russia or simply Russia, was an empire that existed across Eurasia and North America from 1721, following the end of the Great Northern War, until the Republic was proclaimed by the Provisional Government that took power after the February Revolution of 1917.

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet politician. He led the Soviet Union from the mid–1920s until 1953 as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–1952) and Premier (1941–1953). While initially presiding over a collective leadership as first among equals, he ultimately consolidated enough power to become the country's de facto dictator by the 1930s. A communist ideologically committed to the Leninist interpretation of Marxism, Stalin helped to formalise these ideas as Marxism–Leninism, while his own policies became known as Stalinism.

The Kura is an east-flowing river south of the Greater Caucasus Mountains which drains the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus east into the Caspian Sea. It also drains the north side of the Lesser Caucasus while its main tributary, the Aras drains the south side of those mountains. Starting in northeastern Turkey, it flows through Turkey to Georgia, then to Azerbaijan, where it receives the Aras as a right tributary, and enters the Caspian Sea at Neftçala. The total length of the river is 1,515 kilometres (941 mi).

Renovation

A civil unrest and economic collapse in post-Soviet Georgia terminated the circus's heyday in the 1990s. The building fell into disrepair and its territory became notorious for "after-hours" street prostitution.^[3] In 2003, the Georgian tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili bought the circus and began an extensive reconstruction, but his involvement in the 2007 political crisis and death shortly thereafter stalled the renovations. His sister, Mzia Tortladze, was able to reopen the circus only in 2011. Since then, the circus has been playing to sellout crowds, bringing together troupes and performers from various parts of the world.^[2]

Badri Patarkatsishvili Badri Patarkatsishvili

Arkady Shalvovich "Badri" Patarkatsishvili was a Jewish-Georgian businessman who also became extensively involved in politics. He contested the 2008 Georgian presidential election and came third with 7.1% of the votes. Although his first name was Arkady, he was best known by the nickname "Badri". From the early 1980s, until the time of his death, he was a flamboyant figure in business and was behind some of the most successful companies in today's Russia. From humble origins, he became the wealthiest citizen in Georgia with an estimated wealth of $12bn. He was also one of the country's largest philanthropists.

In 2007, a series of anti-government protests took place across Georgia. The demonstrations peaked on 2 November 2007, when 50,000–100,000 rallied in downtown Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. People protested against the allegedly corrupt government of president Mikheil Saakashvili. Protests triggered by detention of Georgian politician Irakli Okruashvili on charges of extortion, money laundering, and abuse of office during his tenure as defense minister of the country were organized by the National Council, an ad-hoc coalition of ten opposition parties, and financed by the media tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili. Demonstrations occurred both in September and November 2007 and were initially largely peaceful. The protests went downhill by 6 November 2007, but turned violent the next day when the police, using heavy-handed tactics, including tear gas and water cannon, unblocked Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi's main boulevard, dislodged the protesters from the territory adjoining to the House of Parliament, and prevented the demonstrators from resuming the protests. The government accused the Russian secret services of being involved in an attempted coup d'état and declared a nationwide state of emergency later that day which lasted until late 16 November 2007.

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References

↑ Rukhadze, Ushangi (April 15, 2013). "რომელ ცნობილ მოვლენას მიუძღვნეს ვერაზე ჯვრის დადგმა და რომელ ხიდს ამშვენებდნენ თამამშევის ქარვასლიდან წამოღებული გრიფონები". Tbiliselebi (in Georgian). Retrieved January 11, 2015.
1 2 Rimple, Paul; Mielnikiewicz, Justyna (February 8, 2013). "Georgia: The Tbilisi Circus Comes with Conflict Resolution, Plus Clowns". EurasiaNet.org. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
↑ Meyer, William; Costenbader, Elizabeth C.; Zule, William A.; Otiashvili, David; Kirtadze, Irma (2010). "'We are ordinary men': MSM identity categories in Tbilisi, Georgia". Culture, Health & Sexuality. 12 (8): 955–971. doi:10.1080/13691058.2010.516370. PMID 20936552.

External links

Tbilisi Circus website
Media related to Tbilisi Circus at Wikimedia Commons

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[1] Rukhadze, Ushangi (April 15, 2013). "რომელ ცნობილ მოვლენას მიუძღვნეს ვერაზე ჯვრის დადგმა და რომელ ხიდს ამშვენებდნენ თამამშევის ქარვასლიდან წამოღებული გრიფონები". Tbiliselebi (in Georgian). Retrieved January 11, 2015.

[eu-2] 1 2 Rimple, Paul; Mielnikiewicz, Justyna (February 8, 2013). "Georgia: The Tbilisi Circus Comes with Conflict Resolution, Plus Clowns". EurasiaNet.org. Retrieved January 11, 2015.

[3] Meyer, William; Costenbader, Elizabeth C.; Zule, William A.; Otiashvili, David; Kirtadze, Irma (2010). "'We are ordinary men': MSM identity categories in Tbilisi, Georgia". Culture, Health & Sexuality. 12 (8): 955–971. doi:10.1080/13691058.2010.516370. PMID 20936552.