Chavchavadze Ilya Grigorievich is a Georgian publicist, poet, prince, fighter for sovereignty and national independence. In 1987 he was canonized by the Orthodox Church. At the same time, he was named Saint Elijah the Righteous. At the beginning of the 20th century, Chavchavadze was considered the most famous national figure in Georgia. This article will present his brief biography. So let's get started.
Ilya Chavchavadze: political activity
The hero of this article was educated as a lawyer at St. Petersburg University. But due to the "student history" of 1861, the young man had to leave the educational institution.
In early 1864, Ilya Chavchavadze received the post of assistant to the governor-general and went on a business trip to the Kutaisi province. The prince had to determine the relationship between peasants and landowners.
The next four years, Chavchavadze acted as a mediator in the Tiflis province. He also served as a judge in this county until 1874. In addition, Ilya headed the societyspread of literacy among the population of Georgia. In 1906, the poet was elected a member of the State Council from the nobility. Throughout his political activities, he fought for the autonomy of Georgia. In this regard, both members of the RSDLP and the authorities of the Russian Empire opposed the prince.
Murder
At the end of August 1907, Ilya Chavchavadze, whose work will be described below, traveled with his wife Olga. The couple rode in an open carriage from Tbilisi to Saguramo. Near Tsitsamuri they were stopped by the gang of Gigla Berbichashvili (Imeretin, Ivane Inashvili, Pavle Aptsiauri, Giorgi Khizanishvili). Each member of the gang had a weapon. Chavchavadze turned to the gang: "Don't shoot, I'm Ilya." Gigla replied: "That is why we are forced to open fire." After that, the sound of a shot rang out.
Vakhtang Giruli in his book cited the opinion of one of the greatest doctors of that time named Iashvili. The latter, although he was not a pathologist or forensic expert, criticized the data of the official autopsy report. According to Iashvili, the shot was fired not from the front, but from behind. That is, fire was opened from the second ambush, which the Berbichashvili gang did not even know about.
Sentence
Most people believed that Chavchavadze's murder was not fully solved. Members of the Berbichashvili gang justified themselves by the poor condition of their own weapons and stated in court that "it fired itself." They also denied the existence of a customer. The poet's widow asked the court to save the life of the robbers and thereby honor the memory of her husband. But,by decision of the "Stolypin Tribunal", the entire gang (except for the hiding Imeretin) was executed.
Versions
Currently, some authors who are not familiar with the Georgian language and history, consider the killers of the prince of the Bolsheviks (Russians). For example, according to Professor Anna Geifman, Ilya Chavchavadze, at the head of the nationalists, fought against the Socialist Democrats. The latter were led by the Bolshevik Filipp Makharadze. He was not satisfied with the criticism of their program by the prince. This greatly undermined the political positions of the Bolsheviks. Geifman considered the main reason for the murder of Chavchavadze to be his huge popularity as a person and writer. Anna transferred all this to the political activities of Ilya Grigorievich, believing that he led the peasants away from radical socialism.
This was actually not true. If the professor had known the history of Georgia, she would not have made such erroneous conclusions. Firstly, the supporters of Chavchavadze, but his opponent Nikoladze, were called nationalists in those days. Secondly, the Socialist-Democrats were not then divided into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks. Thirdly, the party of Ilya Grigorievich was marginal and did not win the elections.
There were other versions. For example, the Social Democrats considered the secret police to be the organizer of the murder. The motive was the anti-government position of the poet and his struggle for the abolition of the death pen alty.
Creativity
1857 - this is the year when Ilya Chavchavadze began to publish his works. The poet's poems appeared in various publications: the newspaper "Droeba", the magazine "Tsiskari", founded by him "Sakartvelos Moambe", etc. But the most famous poems of the prince: “Mother and Son”, “The Hermit”, “Dmitry the Self-Sacrifice”, “Ghost”, “An Episode from the Life of Robbers”. Chavchavadze also wrote such novels as "At the Gallows", "A Christmas Story", "A Strange Story", "Letters from a Traveler", "A Beggar's Tale", "Katsia-Adamiani" and others.
During the life of Ilya Grigorievich, several of his poems were translated into Russian. As for the poems, Russian readers could only get acquainted with The Hermit. By the way, all of Chavchavadze's lifetime poems, translated into Russian, were collected in a separate collection. Excerpts from it were published in Vestnik Evropy, Pictorial Review, etc.
Translations
Ilya Chavchavadze himself translated Goethe, Schiller, Heine, Turgenev, Lermontov and Pushkin into his native language. He also did this in collaboration with other authors. For example, together with Ivan Machabeli he translated King Lear into Georgian.
People's Defender
Ilya Chavchavadze was an internationalist. He has been defending the discriminated Armenian population of Georgia for many years. Sometimes he had to risk his own life for this. But the poet considered the Georgians to be a single proletarian nation, and the princes to be the revolutionary vanguard. Despite the fact that Chavchavadze headed the Tbilisi Land Bank, he also considered himself a proletarian, singing them in his own work. Ilya Grigorievich also fought against the Armenian, Ossetian,Russian, Turkish, etc. bourgeoisie. In 1902, his article “Screaming Stones and Armenian Scientists” appeared in Russian translation. She made a lot of noise. In this regard, not only the Armenian bourgeoisie, but also the left social democrats came out against the hero of this article.
Stalin about the poet
In 1895-1896, Ilya Chavchavadze, whose biography is presented above, headed the Iveria magazine. There he published seven poems by the poet Soso. Young Stalin wrote under this pseudonym when he studied at the seminary. Creativity Chavchavadze had a great influence on the future head of the USSR. Stalin, with certain reservations, also considered his people to be a single proletarian nation. And his thesis about the intensification of the class struggle with the advent of communism and socialism extended to everyone except Georgians. Giving an interview to film director Mikhail Chaurelia, Iosif Vissarionovich called Chavchavadze one of the most significant writers at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Memory
- In the USSR, the Batumi State Drama Theater bore the name of the hero of this article.
- The image of Ilya Grigorievich is placed on 20 lari (Georgian banknote).
- In 1958, the post office issued a stamp dedicated to Chavchavadze.
- The name of the poet was given to the University of Culture and Western European Languages.
- Memorial museums of the publicist were opened in the village of Kvareli (1937), in the estate of Ilya Grigorievich called Saguramo (1951) and in Tbilisi (1957).
