On February 18, 1991, a rally was held near the administrative building of the Georgian Technical University, organized by the Student Union. The participants dedicated this gathering to the events of February 18, 1989, when a student rally at the same university had been dispersed. That earlier rally addressed the tense situation between Georgians and Abkhazians and debated the existence of the Sukhumi branch of the Polytechnic Institute. The 1989 rally had been broken up by the militia, and according to newspaper reports, “Komsomol activists encouraged by the institute’s administration” also participated in the dispersal.

Two years later, students at the February 18, 1991 rally noted that those responsible for dispersing the previous rally “had not been held accountable. The April 9 Commission, which also examined the February 18 events, assessed what had happened and imposed conditional penalties on the participants who had been beaten and dispersed. However, instead of facing punishment, the so-called ‘heroes’ of that action—from Komsomol activists to the rector—still remain free and untroubled. Many of these former Komsomol activists are now even responsible for educating students.”

For this reason, the students issued three demands:

1. The powers of the University’s Grand Council should be terminated.
   
2. The rector of the Technical University, Gocha Chogovadze, should resign.
   
3. An electoral commission should be established to democratically form the university’s Grand Council.
   

The students decided to present these demands to the Ministry of Education and the relevant commission of the Supreme Council.

During the rally, university docent Raul Kuprava stated that at four o’clock the previous morning, Soviet army soldiers had attacked the building where Georgian rescue workers were stationed, resulting in injured and detained individuals. Irakli Kadagishvili, a member of the Georgian National Congress who also spoke at the rally, linked this incident to ethnoconflicts intensifying in other regions of Georgia and implied responsibility on the part of the republic’s leadership. His statement enraged the crowd to the point that the rally nearly collapsed. However, the organizers managed to calm the participants and continue the event.

At the end of the rally, the crowd was again stirred when the Student Union president, Mamuka Kachitadze, announced that someone—who identified themselves as “Vine Me Chmaladze,” chairman of the Student Committee—had reported to the Georgian government that the Student Committee members had participated in the rally to support the rector and demand the resignation of Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Chairman of the Supreme Council. The students were outraged once more, formed a column, and marched toward the government building to protest this misinformation.