A Notice by French Scholar about the Religious Situation in Soviet Georgia

Abstract

The contribution of the famous French orientalist Maurice Brière to the development of Kartological sciences is more or less known to scientists interested in these issues. In 1936, the mentioned person was in Georgia and wrote a report full of very interesting impressions. The mentioned text was translated from French into Georgian and brought into scientific circulation by the famous Georgian translator, doctor of philology, professor Tsisana Bibleishvili, when it was published in the pages of the second issue of "Kldekari" magazine in 1996, the famous Georgian scientist Tamaz Natroshvili had an interesting response to the mentioned publication.

If we do not take into account the mentioned review of Tamaz Natroshvili, the extremely interesting material described by Maurice Brière is not paid attention to in Georgian scientific reality as far as we know, but it provides very interesting information.

In this paper, we critically examine the information provided by Maurice Brière about the religious situation in Georgia against the background of the Soviet atheist policy, especially since he was particularly interested in these issues as a clergyman and attended religious celebrations.

Our paper also clarified some issues from Maurice Brière's biography. The impressions written by the mentioned author provide interesting information for studying the daily history of Soviet Georgia, therefore, it should be considered as an important source.