My grandmother had joined a peace group and invited me to join the group on their first visit to their "sister town" a couple of hours up in the Caucasus Mountains. This was in the late '80s when it was still the USSR and Gorbachev was president. At the time things were looking up since Gorbachev had instituted more progressive policies and everyone we met were pleased to meet Americans.
We met with other peace groups who were truly dedicated to peace after they had experienced the horrors of WWII fought on their own land. There were plaques and statues dedicated to peace and those they had lost. There were even museums in the schools so that the children could learn about the lessons from that war.
And we were scheduled to visit Kiev as well, but Chernobyl happened, so we visited Tbilisi, the capital of then-Soviet occupied Georgia, instead. There was no love lost between the Georgians and the Russians - I was confused because there were numerous statues of Stalin in Tbilisi, so I asked. And I was told that Stalin was Georgian, not Russian, and was held in high esteem in Georgia since "he killed so many Russians." *sigh* 
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