On June 7-9, 2023, the conference "Ambivalences of the Soviet" was held as part of the cooperation between the Germany/Austria-based research network "Ambivalences of the Soviet: Diaspora Nationalities between Collective Experiences of Discrimination and Individual Normalization, 1953-2023" and Ilia State University.

On July 8, as part of the panel "Soviet Memories and the Instrumentalization of the Past," Anton Vacharadze, the head of the Memory and Disinformation Research Department at the Freedom of Information Development Institute (IDFI), presented a report titled "Remembrance of the Victims of Soviet Terror in Georgia."

He focused on the theme of the tombs of repressed people discovered in Batumi and the state's policy towards the victims, emphasizing the characteristics of Soviet nostalgia and the perspectives on work in this regard.

The discussion also touched on the efforts and activism of IDFI and other organizations in researching and reevaluating the past.

The event addressed critical approaches to memories of the socialist past and its transformations, as well as migration, spatial change, and belonging to minorities. Additionally, attention was given to the decolonization of knowledge from the perspective of the "peripheries."