GEORGIA. Tbilissi.
The "Grande Dame" of the Georgian National Ballet Nino Ramishvili. In the forties, she met Stalin during a reception in the Kremlin and he told her with a menacing smile : "Ramishvili is a very menshevik surname". Later he asked her husband Iliko Sukhishvili, impressed by his dance, what present he would like. Iliko asked for a signed portrait of Stalin. When later on Beria, who was in love with Nino, sent the KGB to arrest them, the portrait saved them.