A Heritage Remembered: A History of the Georgian Diaspora in the US

Impact on Georgian Diaspora

The Voice of America (VOA) Georgian Service, established on May 26, 1951, marked a significant milestone in broadcasting for the Georgian-speaking community. Its impact extended beyond broadcasting – it fostered cultural, linguistic, and social ties among early Georgian immigrants in the U.S. During the Cold War, VOA Georgia provided an essential counterweight to Soviet propaganda and misinformation, contributing to Georgia’s resilience against Soviet influence. U.S. Ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly (2015 – 2018) acknowledged this role, stating: “During the Cold War, it [VOA] played a critical role in helping Georgians understand the world beyond the Iron Curtain."^[1] VOA Georgia not only strengthened ties between the U.S. and Georgia but also bolstered Georgians' trust in the United States as a defender of small nations and their sovereign rights. 

But what was the primary role of VOA Georgia? Was it an instrument of US foreign policy or a window into American life? Senator Jim Risch in 2021 summarized its significance: “VOA Georgia has a critical role in ensuring that Georgian people have access to free, transparent, and evidence-based news… We thank you for your work in delivering trustworthy information in the closed and autocratic Soviet Union, and all you continue to do today to resist the influence of Russia in support of democratic values."^[2]

Funded by Congress, VOA Georgia provided important employment opportunities for the small group of Georgian émigrés working in the U.S. It allowed them to work in their native language while promoting information about American life in Soviet Georgia. Erekle Orbeliani, the VOA Georgia service’s first director, was a catalyst for Georgian community events in the 1950s. These gatherings allowed new immigrants to network with established Georgian communities, gaining access to employment and scholarship opportunities. The most famous of these gatherings was the Allaverdy Ball, organized to provide “help for the jobless” and to “aid members of the Russian-Georgian colony residing here” with the support of “former nobility."^[3]

In addition to its informational role, VOA Georgia played a crucial part in promoting Georgian culture in the US. During the 1950s and 1960s, its small team of journalists, news anchors, and language experts were the primary representatives of Georgian culture in Washington, D.C. They popularized Georgian identity, culture, and the idea of Georgian national sovereignty. As Anna Kalandadze noted in her history of VOA Georgia,^[4] the Georgian journalists at VOA played a small but significant role in the eventual collapse of the Soviet regime. 

The Soviet regime recognized the potential impact of VOA and sought to suppress its influence. In 1968, the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs noted that during the invasion of Czechoslovakia, the U.S.S.R. had implemented “systemic jamming” of Voice of America broadcasts in Georgian, Ukrainian, and Armenian languages ….^[5] By transmitting American culture and values in Georgian, VOA offered an alternative perspective that helped Georgians understand of the West – a narrative the Soviet regime deemed a direct threat to its dominance over Georgia: Soviet Ambassador to the USA from 1962 – 1986 “[Anatoly Fyodorovich] Dobrynin argued in familiar rebuttal that the USSR has a sovereign right to protect itself against hostile propaganda.”^[6]

VOA Georgia also shaped cultural integration for Georgian émigrés. It commemorated the lives and legacies of Georgian-American figures such as Erekle Orbeliani and George Papashvily in their broadcasts, and promoted the face of the Georgian Diaspora in the USA. It covered visits and performances by Georgian cultural groups in the U.S. These efforts fostered an appreciation of Georgian heritage among Americans while educating audiences on the contributions of the Georgian Diaspora to modern US history.