# Talk:Varia Kipiani

I am super impressed by the research work that has gone into this article, I know how difficult this was. Anyway, one question: According to which country's law was this illegal? Was this really illegal through her entire life (with different regimes ruling Georgia)? I'm confused by this and would like to understand it better, but the source is in Georgian, which defeats me. —Kusma (talk) 22:30, 20 November 2022 (UTC)

Thanks Kusma, it was crazy hard with all the the sources in so many different languages. Thankfully many editors, like you, helped. My take on the material (and based on other articles I have written about imperial Russia) was that ethnic identity was suppressed and only the expression of a Russian identity was allowed. Russia/USSR saw the policy as one to stem rebellion, but the groups impacted saw it as denying their rights of expression. As the enforcement of official policy is usually dated to 1863,[1] it would have been for her lifetime. Basically, it was illegal to teach the languages of the countries within the Russian/Soviet sphere, promote their culture as something separate from Russia, or disseminate information that might make the international community question the status of rights in any of the territories that made up the country. Perhaps I should add the other sources to help with the Georgian language difficulty? SusunW (talk) 23:10, 20 November 2022 (UTC)
Ah, I understand better now. Could you perhaps add this context (that this was part of a Russification/Sovietization assimilation agenda) to the article? Without some context, the statement could currently be misunderstood as something weird ("why did the Belgians censor information about Georgia?"). You do seem to have easily accessible sources for the general fact that this existed, and a slightly less accessible source mentioning that it applied to her. —Kusma (talk) 23:20, 20 November 2022 (UTC)
No problem, Kusma. I'll do it tomorrow, dinner just got here. SusunW (talk) 00:07, 21 November 2022 (UTC)
Kusma, better? SusunW (talk) 14:36, 21 November 2022 (UTC)
You might be overdoing the explanation of the general situation slightly, but it certainly is crystal clear what is going on with Varia and not talking about Georgia now. I am happy with this for now. —Kusma (talk) 15:05, 21 November 2022 (UTC)
 Feel free to trim it as you see fit, Kusma. If I can get the photos sorted headed to GA and if I convince myself maybe FA. I'd love to sort out the death date first, but that might not be possible. I've written to a couple of archivists/academics in Belgium. SusunW (talk) 15:30, 21 November 2022 (UTC)