THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF’S FOREWORD

Abstract

Dear Reader,

 We present to you the next, content-rich and diverse issue of our journal, which brings together significant scientific papers and archival documents reflecting Georgian history, source studies, regional research, and socio-economic transformations.

This year's edition, with its thematic range, once again highlights the necessity of a critical understanding of the past, the preservation of archival heritage, and the study of the layers preserved in the formation of national identity.

 A special place in this issue is occupied by unknown or less studied materials of Georgian and regional history concerning the "Catholicosate of Abkhazia," the Soviet repressive apparatus, ideological dictatorship and the bureaucratization of "godlessness," state development and regional history, and other issues.

 Traditionally, an important part of the journal comprises the complete and unique archival data of the 1923 agricultural census of the Kobuleti municipality by communities and villages, which is an invaluable foundation for researchers of regional demography and social history.

 The journal's diversity is further enhanced by its rubrics ("What Does an Old Photo Tell Us?", "Carriage Fares in Batumi," "Temples Fallen into a Deplorable State in the Hands of the Empire," "Humor During the Soviet Occupation," etc.), which revive the past of old Batumi and Georgia through lively, amusing, and cognitive details.

 We believe this issue will be interesting and useful for professional historians and archivists alike, as well as for the wider public interested in Georgia's past.