Grigol Robakidze
Encyclopedia
Grigol Robakidze (October 28, 1882 – ) was a Georgian
writer, publicist, and public figure
primarily known for his exotic prose and anti-Soviet émigré activities.
He was born on October 28, 1882, in the village of Sviri, Imereti
(west Georgia), then Kutaisi
Guberniya
of the Russian Empire
. After the graduation from Kutaisi Gymnasium, he took courses at the University of Tartu
(Estonia
) and the University of Leipzig
(Germany
). Robakidze returned from Germany in 1908, and gradually became a leading person among the young Georgian symbolists. In 1915, he founded and led the Blue Horns, a new group of symbolist poets and writers which would later play an important role, particularly during the next two decades. Heavily influenced by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, his prose centered "on the search of mythological archetypes and there realisation in the life of a nation, and although its intrigue is always artificial and displays much of pose, he was highly respected both by his compatriots and a number of important Europe
an literary figures, such as Stefan Zweig
and Nikos Kazantzakis
." In 1917, he played a role in founding of the Union of Georgian Writers. Involved in national-liberation movement of that time, he got a diplomatic post in 1919, when he took part in Paris Peace Conference
as a secretary of the delegation of the Democratic Republic of Georgia
.
After Soviet Russian forces took control of Georgia in 1921, he remained in the country, but was known for his anti-Soviet sentiments. His famous play Lamara was staged by the leading Georgian director Sandro Akhmeteli in 1930, a performance which became a prize-winner at the 1930 Moscow
Drama Olympiad.
The success was so notable indeed that even after Grigol Robakidze defected to Germany the same year, it continued to be staged to prove the achievements of Soviet
theatrical art, although without the name of the playwright on the announces. His defection, along with Vladimir Mayakovsky
’s suicide silenced most of his fellow poets for a long while. As an émigré, Robakidze had rather unhappy life.
During the World War II
, he participated in the right-wing patriotic émigré organizations such as the Committee of Independence of Georgia (1941), the Union of Georgian Traditionalists
(1942) and Tetri Giorgi
. After the war, his two books on Benito Mussolini
and Adolf Hitler
were believed to favour Nazism
. Robakidze himself rejected this claim, but was never able to reestablish his fame in the west, while in the USSR all his books were extinguished and even his name hardly mentioned at all, if not as an ideological scapegoat.
He died as broken man in Geneva
on November 19, 1962. He was later reburied to the Cemetery of Leuville-sur-Orge
, France
, a burial ground of the Georgian emigration to Europe.
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
writer, publicist, and public figure
Public figure
Public figure is a legal term applied in the context of defamation actions as well as invasion of privacy. A public figure cannot base a lawsuit on incorrect harmful statements unless there is proof that the writer or publisher acted with actual malice...
primarily known for his exotic prose and anti-Soviet émigré activities.
He was born on October 28, 1882, in the village of Sviri, Imereti
Imereti
Imereti is a province in Georgia situated along the middle and upper reaches of the Rioni river. It consists of the following Georgian administrative-territorial units:#Kutaisi #Baghdati region#Vani region#Zestafoni region...
(west Georgia), then Kutaisi
Kutaisi
Kutaisi is Georgia's second largest city and the capital of the western region of Imereti. It is 221 km to the west of Tbilisi.-Geography:...
Guberniya
Guberniya
A guberniya was a major administrative subdivision of the Russian Empire usually translated as government, governorate, or province. Such administrative division was preserved for sometime upon the collapse of the empire in 1917. A guberniya was ruled by a governor , a word borrowed from Latin ,...
of the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. After the graduation from Kutaisi Gymnasium, he took courses at the University of Tartu
University of Tartu
The University of Tartu is a classical university in the city of Tartu, Estonia. University of Tartu is the national university of Estonia; it is the biggest and highest-ranked university in Estonia...
(Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
) and the University of Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
(Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
). Robakidze returned from Germany in 1908, and gradually became a leading person among the young Georgian symbolists. In 1915, he founded and led the Blue Horns, a new group of symbolist poets and writers which would later play an important role, particularly during the next two decades. Heavily influenced by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, his prose centered "on the search of mythological archetypes and there realisation in the life of a nation, and although its intrigue is always artificial and displays much of pose, he was highly respected both by his compatriots and a number of important Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an literary figures, such as Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most famous writers in the world.- Biography :...
and Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis
Nikos Kazantzakis was a Greek writer and philosopher, celebrated for his novel Zorba the Greek, considered his magnum opus...
." In 1917, he played a role in founding of the Union of Georgian Writers. Involved in national-liberation movement of that time, he got a diplomatic post in 1919, when he took part in Paris Peace Conference
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
as a secretary of the delegation of the Democratic Republic of Georgia
Democratic Republic of Georgia
The Democratic Republic of Georgia , 1918–1921, was the first modern establishment of a Republic of Georgia.The DRG was created after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917...
.
After Soviet Russian forces took control of Georgia in 1921, he remained in the country, but was known for his anti-Soviet sentiments. His famous play Lamara was staged by the leading Georgian director Sandro Akhmeteli in 1930, a performance which became a prize-winner at the 1930 Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
Drama Olympiad.
The success was so notable indeed that even after Grigol Robakidze defected to Germany the same year, it continued to be staged to prove the achievements of Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
theatrical art, although without the name of the playwright on the announces. His defection, along with Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.- Early life :...
’s suicide silenced most of his fellow poets for a long while. As an émigré, Robakidze had rather unhappy life.
During the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he participated in the right-wing patriotic émigré organizations such as the Committee of Independence of Georgia (1941), the Union of Georgian Traditionalists
Union of Georgian Traditionalists
Union of Georgian Traditionalists was a national political organization of the Georgian Political Emigration in 1930s.The Union was established in 1942, in Berlin...
(1942) and Tetri Giorgi
Tetri Giorgi (organization)
Tetri Giorgi has been a name of several political and paramilitary organizations as well as non-political foundations operating in Georgia or by Georgians abroad. It is derived from the cult of Tetri Giorgi, one of the Georgian identities of St...
. After the war, his two books on Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
and Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
were believed to favour Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. Robakidze himself rejected this claim, but was never able to reestablish his fame in the west, while in the USSR all his books were extinguished and even his name hardly mentioned at all, if not as an ideological scapegoat.
He died as broken man in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
on November 19, 1962. He was later reburied to the Cemetery of Leuville-sur-Orge
Leuville-sur-Orge
Leuville-sur-Orge is a commune south of Paris, France. It is situated in the Essonne department in the Île-de-France region.Inhabitants of Leuville-sur-Orge are known as Leuvillois.-Geography:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, a burial ground of the Georgian emigration to Europe.
Main works
- "Georgian poet Vazha Pshavela".-"Russkaya Mysl", August, 1911 (in Russian)
- "Georgian Modernism".-Russian journal "ARS", Tbilisi, 1918 (in Russian)
- "Portraits", Tbilisi, 1919 (in Russian)
- "Lamara", Tbilisi, 1928 (in Georgian)
- "Das Schlangenhemd". Ed. by Stefan ZweigStefan ZweigStefan Zweig was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most famous writers in the world.- Biography :...
, Jena, 1928 (in German) - "Megi - Ein georgisches Mädchen", Tübingen, 1932 (in German)
- "Die gemordete Seele", Jena, 1933 (in German)
- "Vrazdena Duse", Prague, 1934 (in Czech)
- "Der Ruf der Göttin", Jena, 1934 (in German),
- "Die Hüter des Grals", Jena, 1937 (in German),
- "Adolf Hitler in the Eyes of an Unknown Poet", 1937-38 (in German)
- "Mussolini", 1938-39 (in German)
- "Dämon und Mythos", Jena, 1935 (in German),the article "Stalin als Ahrimanische Macht" is part of this book
- "Kaukasische Novellen", Leipzig, 1932; München, 1979 (In German)
- "La Georgie en son image du monde".- "Bedi KartlisaBedi KartlisaBedi Kartlisa. Revue de Kartvélologie was an international journal specialized in the Georgian studies and published in Paris, France, from 1948 to 1984...
"- Le destin de la Georgie", No 16, Paris, 1954 (in French) - "Vom Weltbild der Georgier".- "Atlantis", October, 1961, Zürich (in German)
- "Hymne an Orpheus" (Poem).- Collection "Grigol Robakidze", Munich, 1984 (in German).
Literature
- Dichter schreiben über sich selbst, Jena, 1940 (in German)
- Nikos KazantzakisNikos KazantzakisNikos Kazantzakis was a Greek writer and philosopher, celebrated for his novel Zorba the Greek, considered his magnum opus...
. Toda Raba, Paris, 1962 (in French) - "Grigol Robakidze" (Collection), Published by Dr. Karlo Inasaridze, Munich, 1984 (in Georgian, German and French)