Lecture about Napoleon at GZAAT

GZAAT virtually hosted an engaging and informative lecture conducted by Alexander Mikaberidze about Napoleon and his era. Mr. Mikaberidze is a Georgian writer and historian specialized in Napoleonic research, professor of History and Social Sciences at Louisiana State University.

The speaker started the lecture by introducing the attendees to Napoleon. The introduction of Napoleon was captivating because the speaker not only told the biography of Napoleon, but he described his character qualities and what kind of person he was, he made everyone think of him as a real person, not just a historical memory. The lecture was also engaging because most of the lecture was in the Q&A regime, allowing students to find out what they were really interested in. Then he spoke about Napoleonic wars and their influence on the era. There were many questions asked, showing that the students were very interested and motivated.

The initiative of inviting Mr. Mikaberidze as a guest speaker came from GZAAT teacher, Levan Ghambashidze. His class, Juniors, was studying the Napoleonic era, so the lecture was especially useful for them. It was interesting how the idea of the lecture was born, so we interviewed Mr. Ghambashidze:

The Interviewer: Whose initiative was it to bring the speaker to school?

Mr. Ghambashidze: While researching about the French Revolution and Napoleon, I have mentioned in the class that there is a man who is a Georgian scholar specialized in Napoleon and who recently published interesting texts about him. I suggested that it would be interesting to invite him as a speaker. but it was only an idea. Soon our junior student Natalia Gvindadze wrote in our classroom group that she had communicated with Mr. Mikaberidze and that he was glad to meet us.

The Interviewer: How many students did you think would be interested? And was it close to the actual number of participants?

Mr. Ghambashidze: The meeting was open for everyone at our school but of course, I asked the students I teach to attend. Surprisingly more students showed up than I had expected, not only juniors but also from other grade levels.

The Interviewer: How satisfied are you with the lecture?

Mr. Ghambashidze: It was a very interesting lecture. It was more a dialog. on one hand, Mr. Mikaberidze is a very passionate historian and a very good storyteller but on the other hand, students were also very motivated and this combination made the whole lecture very informative and pleasant.

The Interviewer: Are there any other lectures coming in the future?

Mr. Ghambashidze: Sure. I want to invite Mr. Irakli Khvadagiani, a member of "Soviet Past Research Laboratory" to speak about soviet Georgia, but I don't know when. But I think more guests can be invited spontaneously, following the interest of the students.

As Mr. Ghambashidze mentioned, the lecture was organized by junior student, Natalia Gvindadze, she reached out to Mr. Mikaberidze, and suggested to him the idea of conducting the lecture in GZAAT. She was interviewed to find out more about the

process of organizing the lecture.

The interviewer: Where did the idea come from?

Natalia: During one of my history classes with Levan Ghambashidze, we were discussing the French Revolution, so Napoleon’s name came up a few times. The thing was, the information given in our textbook was not enough to understand that historical figure fully, so our teacher told us about Alexander Mikaberidze, his books, and also how he had been doing research about Napoleon for a pretty long period of time; overall, he was the best option for us to contact and get more information about Napoleon.

The Interviewer: What was your motivation for organizing this lecture?

Natalia: I have frequently heard the name Napoleon throughout my school years, however, I did not really have an in-depth understanding of who he was, what he did, why he is such a prominent figure in history and politics. That is mainly why I decided to contact Alexander.

The Interviewer: How was the process of organizing and communicating with Mr. Mikaberidze?

Natalia: We were communicating via email and to be honest, I was not really expecting to get a reply from him, however after a few days, he replied, saying he would be glad to speak to us. The process of organizing the whole meeting was easier than I expected, because of the help of Simon Janashia who helped me out with the technical part, and Alexander himself who never failed to respond.

The Interviewer: Are going to organize any other lectures in the future?

Natalia: This was my first time ever organizing something for the whole school, and even though it was online I feel like I still learned a lot from it, such as what it means to be responsible in terms of organizing and communicating with people involved. So considering that, I definitely will try my best to organize more lectures throughout my remaining high school years.

The survey was conducted to find out the impressions of the students who attended. Most of the students were satisfied with the lecture and thought that it was very informative. They especially liked the format of the lecture, and are looking forward to similar ones. “The lecture was really informative and useful for me since we are studying Napoleon in our history class,” one of the students said. “Mr. Mikaberidze reanimated Napoleon as a character,” said another student.

GZAAT students appreciate Mr. Mikaberidze for this amazing opportunity and Mr. Ghambashidze and Natalia Gvindadze for organizing the lecture. We are looking forward to more lectures hosted by GZAAT in the future!

Edited by Liza Jariashvili