On September 16, 2000, many initially reacted with disbelief to reports that Georgy Gongadze had been abducted in broad daylight in central Kyiv. At first, not everyone saw it as an obvious political reprisal. Over time, however, it became clear that he had indeed altered the course of events in the country.
Relatives and friends called him Gia. The author says Gongadze himself would probably have mocked any overly solemn words about him. By the age of thirty, he had already achieved a great deal in journalism: he hosted Vikna-Plus and Vikna-Novyny, founded the Center for Journalistic Investigations, and in 1999, ahead of the presidential election, presented the daily author program First Round with Georgy Gongadze on the opposition radio station Kontinent.
He also worked with socialist-leaning parties and was often invited onto televised political talk shows, where his temperament and gift for debate stood out. According to the author, by the late 1990s such broadcasts had become increasingly dramatic and heated, and Gongadze was fully in his element there.
Outside media circles, less was known about him. Georgy Gongadze was born in Tbilisi, the son of a documentary filmmaker and one of the leaders of Georgia’s national-democratic movement. After compulsory service in the Soviet army, including in Afghanistan, and after the bloody suppression of mass protests in April 1989, he joined the opposition and headed the information department of the Popular Front of Georgia.
By the autumn of 1989, fleeing repression, he and his mother, a native of Lviv, had moved to Ukraine. But he never severed his ties with Georgia. In 1991 he returned to his homeland to defend his father’s honor after he had been labeled an “enemy of the people.” His father had joined the anti-Zviadist rebels opposed to President Zviad Gamsakhurdia.
Before leaving, Georgy told his mother he would not take up arms against fellow Georgians on either side of the civil conflict, but would serve as a medic and document events. He was wounded, yet avoided discussing that tragic period in detail. What he wanted to say remained in his first documentary film, The Pain of My Land, which he finished editing in Lviv. Gongadze spoke flawless Ukrainian and used it naturally, including in everyday life.