Ilia the Righteous
Encyclopedia
Ilia Chavchavadze was a Georgian
writer
, poet
, journalist
and lawyer
who spearheaded the revival of the Georgian national movement in the second half of the 19th century, during the Russia
n rule of Georgia. Today he is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern Georgia. In 1987 he was canonized
as Saint Ilia the Righteous (წმინდა ილია მართალი) by the Georgian Orthodox Church. Today, Georgians revere Chavchavadze as Pater Patriae
(Father of the Fatherland) of Georgia.
Inspired by the contemporary liberal
movements in Europe
, as a writer and a public figure, Ilia Chavchavadze directed much of his efforts toward awakening national ideals in Georgians and to the creation of a stable society in his homeland.
His most important literary works were: The Hermit, The Ghost, Otaraant Widow, Kako The Robber and Is a man a human?!. He was editor-in-chief of the Georgian periodicals Sakartvelos Moambe (1863–1877) and Iveria (1877–1905), and authored numerous articles for journals. Most of his work dealt with Georgia and Georgians. He was a devoted protector of the Georgian language
and culture from Russification
.
Chavchavadze was fatally wounded by a gang of assassins, led by Gigla Berbichashvili, in Tsitsamuri
, outside Mtskheta
. His legacy earned him the broad admiration of the Georgian people.
, a village located in the Alazani
Valley, in the Kakheti
province of Georgia, which was part of the Russian Empire at that time. Ilia was a tavadi, the Georgian title of prince
. It is thought that the noble Chavchavadze
family came from the Pshav-Khevsureti region of Georgia, and, in 1726, King Constantine II
granted the Chavchavadze family the rank of Prince in recognition of their knighthood and valor to the nation. This resulted in the family moving and settling in the Alazani Gorge in Kakheti. According to King Erekle II
's order, Ilia's great grandfather, Bespaz Chavchavadze was knighted when he defeated twenty thousand Persian invaders in Kvareli
in 1755.
Ilia was the third son of Grigol Chavchavadze and Mariam Beburishvili. Grigol, like his father and his famous ancestors, had a military background. He, along with the local militiamen protected the village from numerous Dagestan
i invasions. This can be seen in the architecture of the Ilia Chavchavadze museum house in Kvareli
, incorporating a Medieval castle
style in the two-storey castle in the yard, which was designed to protect the house during invasions.
Ilia's mother, Mariam, died on May 4, 1848, when Ilia was ten years old, and his father asked his sister, Makrine, to help bring up the children. Aunt Makrine had a significant impact on Ilia's life, because, after 1852, when Ilia's father Grigol died, she was the only remaining caretaker of the family.
Ch'avch'avadze was educated at the elementary level by the deacon
of the village before he moved to Tbilisi where he attended the prestigious Academy for Nobility in 1848. However, from an early age, Ilia was influenced by his parents who were highly educated in classical literature, Georgian history
and poetry
. From his parents, Ilia learned the inspiring stories of Georgian heroism in classical historical novels. In his autobiography, Ilia refers to his mother, Princess Mariam Chavchavadze, who knew most Georgian novels and poems by heart and encouraged her children to study them. Ilia also described the influence of the deacon's storytelling, which gave him an artistic inspiration, later applied in his novel writing.
In 1848, after the death of Princess Chavchavadze, Ilia was sent to Tbilisi by his father to begin his secondary education. Ilia attended a private school for three years before he entered the 1st Academy of Tbilisi in 1851. Soon after, Ilia's father died and Aunt Makrine looked after the family. His secondary school years were very stressful, due to his father's death. However, the Chavchavadze family suffered another devastating blow when Ilia’s brother, Constantine, was killed during the Dagestan
i raid on Kakheti
. Ilia expressed his anguish and grief in one of his first short-poems called Sorrow of a Poor Man. In addition to his personal problems, the political situation in Georgia worsened under the harsh authority of the Russian Empire, which played a destructive role to the nation and its culture.
After graduating from the academy, Ilia decided to continue his education at the University of St. Petersburg, Russia
. Before leaving for St. Petersburg, Ilia composed one of his most remarkable poems, To the Mountains of Kvareli in the village of Kardanakhi
on April 15 of 1857, where he expressed his lifelong admiration for the Greater Caucasus Mountains and his sorrow at leaving his homeland.
That same year, Ilia was admitted to the University of St. Petersburg. During his student years, numerous revolutions sprang up in Europe
which Ilia observed with great interest. Ilia's attention focused on the events in Italy
and the struggle of Giuseppe Garibaldi
, whom he admired for many years. While in St.Petersburg, Ilia met Princess Catherine Chavchavadze, from whom he learned about the poetry and lyrics of the Georgian romantic Prince Nik'oloz Baratashvili
. Due to the harsh climate in St Petersburg, Ilia became very ill and returned to Georgia for several months in 1859.
Ilia finally returned to Georgia after the completion of his studies in 1861. During his journey back, Ilia wrote one of his greatest masterpieces, The Travelers' Diaries, where he outlines the importance of nation-building
and provides an allegorical comparison of Mt. Kazbegi and the Tergi River in the Khevi
region of Georgia.
Ilia’s main political and social goals were based on Georgian patriotism. He radically advocated the revival of the use of the Georgian language, the cultivation of Georgian literature, the revival of autocephalous status for the Georgian national church, and, finally, the revival of Georgian statehood, which had ended when the country became part of the Russian Empire. As the number of supporters for his ideas grew, so did opposition among the leading Social Democrats and Bolsheviks like Noe Zhordania
; their main aims were focused on battling the Tsarist autocracy
and implementing Marxist
ideology throughout the Russian empire. This did not include the revival of a Georgian state or of a Georgian self-identity. Ilia was viewed as bourgeois and as an old aristocrat who failed to realize the importance of the revolutionary tide.
In addition to his works described above, he was also the founder and chairman of many public, cultural and educational organizations (Society for the Spreading of Literacy Among Georgians
, "The Bank of the Nobility", "The Dramatic Society", "The Historical-Ethnographical Society of Georgia", etc.). He was also a translator of British
literature. His main literary works were translated and published in French
, English
, German
, Polish
, Ukrainian
, Belarusian
, Russian
and other languages. Between 1906 and 1907, he was a member of the State Council (Gosudarstvennaya Duma
) in Russia. His eclectic interests also led him to be a member of, among others, the Caucasian Committee of the Geographical Society of Russia, the Society of Ethnography and Anthropology of Moscow University, the Society of Orientalists of Russia and the Anglo-Russian Literary Society (London).
Prince Chavchavadze briefly acted as a literary mentor
to a young Joseph Stalin
, who was then an Orthodox seminarian in Tbilisi. According to historian Simon Sebag Montefiore
,
After serving as a member of the Upper House in the first Russian Duma, Ilia decided to return to Georgia in 1907. On August 28, 1907 Ilia Chavchavadze was murdered by a gang of six assassins who ambushed him and his wife Olga while traveling from Tbilisi to Saguramo, near Mtskheta
. The assassination of Ilia Chavchavadze remains controversial today. Based on recent discoveries in archives, the plot to assassinate Ilia is believed to have been a joint operation by the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks both wings of Social Democrats, due to Ilia's condemnation of their violent terrorist ways, his socially conservative vision for Georgian nationalism, and his tremendous popularity among the public.
Author and historian Simon Sebag Montefiore
suspects that a young Joseph Stalin
may have been involved in planning the Prince's murder. According to Montefiore,
During World War II
, an old man confessed to having been hired by the Tsarist Okhrana to assassinate Ilia. During the Soviet period, an investigation was launched by the Soviet authorities which later concluded that the Tsarist secret police and administration had been involved in the assassination.
Either way, the Prince's murder was seen as a national tragedy which was mourned by all strata of Georgian society. Prince Ak'ak'i Tsereteli, who was suffering from serious health problems at the time, spoke at the funeral and dedicated an outstanding oration to Ilia: “Ilia's inestimable contribution to the revival of the Georgian nation is an example for future generations”.
, as "Saint Ilia the Righteous."
As a result of Ilia's death, the Bolshevik terror grew, and the Georgian Social Democrats started to gain significant power and support among the population. Eventually, realizing their differences with the Bolsheviks, the Social Democrats of Georgia decided to revive Georgian statehood and proclaimed independence
on May 26, 1918. After the Bolshevik occupation of Georgia and integration into the Soviet Union, Ilia became the national symbol of Georgian freedom and national liberation. In 1989, during the anti-Soviet protests in Tbilisi, the poems, novels and political life of Ilia Chavchavadze became a driving force behind the Georgian struggle for independence. The idea of National revival
, which Ilia preached and advocated in various Georgian societies throughout his life, gained in momentum in 1990. In 2002, Mikheil Saakashvili
, a young Georgian politician who was educated in the United States
, created a movement which was to revive the old party of Ilia Chavchavadze, known as the United National Movement. Mikheil Saakashvili’s National Movement party played a major role in the peaceful Rose Revolution
of 2003 which ousted President Eduard Shevardnadze
.
Georgians
The Georgians are an ethnic group that have originated in Georgia, where they constitute a majority of the population. Large Georgian communities are also present throughout Russia, European Union, United States, and South America....
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
who spearheaded the revival of the Georgian national movement in the second half of the 19th century, during the Russia
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...
n rule of Georgia. Today he is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern Georgia. In 1987 he was canonized
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
as Saint Ilia the Righteous (წმინდა ილია მართალი) by the Georgian Orthodox Church. Today, Georgians revere Chavchavadze as Pater Patriae
Pater Patriae
Pater Patriae , also seen as Parens Patriae, is a Latin honorific meaning "Father of the Country," or more literally, "Father of the Fatherland".- Roman history :...
(Father of the Fatherland) of Georgia.
Inspired by the contemporary liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
movements in 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...
, as a writer and a public figure, Ilia Chavchavadze directed much of his efforts toward awakening national ideals in Georgians and to the creation of a stable society in his homeland.
His most important literary works were: The Hermit, The Ghost, Otaraant Widow, Kako The Robber and Is a man a human?!. He was editor-in-chief of the Georgian periodicals Sakartvelos Moambe (1863–1877) and Iveria (1877–1905), and authored numerous articles for journals. Most of his work dealt with Georgia and Georgians. He was a devoted protector of the Georgian language
Georgian language
Georgian is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.Georgian is the primary language of about 4 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad...
and culture from Russification
Russification
Russification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attributes by non-Russian communities...
.
Chavchavadze was fatally wounded by a gang of assassins, led by Gigla Berbichashvili, in Tsitsamuri
Tsitsamuri
Tsitsamuri is a small village outside Mtskheta, Georgia. It is known as the place where the nation's famous writer and poet, Ilia Chavchavadze, was assassinated in 1907....
, outside Mtskheta
Mtskheta
Mtskheta , one of the oldest cities of the country of Georgia , is located approximately 20 kilometers north of Tbilisi at the confluence of the Aragvi and Kura rivers. The city is now the administrative centre of the Mtskheta-Mtianeti region...
. His legacy earned him the broad admiration of the Georgian people.
Ancestry and early life
Ilia Chavchavadze was born in KvareliKvareli
Qvareli is a town in northeastern in Kakheti Province, Georgia. Located in the Alazani Valley, near the foothills of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, it was the birthplace of Georgian author Ilia Chavchavadze, whose fortified house is preserved as a local museum.The area is in the center of the...
, a village located in the Alazani
Alazani
The Alazani is a river that flows through the Caucasus.It is the main tributary of the Kura in eastern Georgia, and flows for 351 km...
Valley, in the Kakheti
Kakheti
Kakheti is a historical province in Eastern Georgia inhabited by Kakhetians who speak a local dialect of Georgian. It is bordered by the small mountainous province of Tusheti and the Greater Caucasus mountain range to the north, Russian Federation to the Northeast, Azerbaijan to the Southeast, and...
province of Georgia, which was part of the Russian Empire at that time. Ilia was a tavadi, the Georgian title of prince
Prince
Prince is a general term for a ruler, monarch or member of a monarch's or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess...
. It is thought that the noble Chavchavadze
Chavchavadze
Chavchavadze is a Georgian noble family, formerly a princely one .The family is first attested in the 15th century, during the reign of Alexander I of Georgia. By the time of Leon of Kakheti they appear in the province of Kakheti , where they produced two lines: one in Telavi and Tsinandali;...
family came from the Pshav-Khevsureti region of Georgia, and, in 1726, King Constantine II
Constantine II of Kakheti
Constantine II also known as Mahmād Qulī Khān , of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a king of Kakheti in eastern Georgia from 1722 to 1732....
granted the Chavchavadze family the rank of Prince in recognition of their knighthood and valor to the nation. This resulted in the family moving and settling in the Alazani Gorge in Kakheti. According to King Erekle II
Erekle II
Erekle II was a Georgian monarch of the Bagrationi Dynasty, reigning as the king of Kakheti from 1744 to 1762, and of Kartli and Kakheti from 1762 until 1798. In the contemporary Persian sources he is referred to as Erekli Khan, while Russians knew him as Irakli...
's order, Ilia's great grandfather, Bespaz Chavchavadze was knighted when he defeated twenty thousand Persian invaders in Kvareli
Kvareli
Qvareli is a town in northeastern in Kakheti Province, Georgia. Located in the Alazani Valley, near the foothills of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, it was the birthplace of Georgian author Ilia Chavchavadze, whose fortified house is preserved as a local museum.The area is in the center of the...
in 1755.
Ilia was the third son of Grigol Chavchavadze and Mariam Beburishvili. Grigol, like his father and his famous ancestors, had a military background. He, along with the local militiamen protected the village from numerous Dagestan
Dagestan
The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...
i invasions. This can be seen in the architecture of the Ilia Chavchavadze museum house in Kvareli
Kvareli
Qvareli is a town in northeastern in Kakheti Province, Georgia. Located in the Alazani Valley, near the foothills of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, it was the birthplace of Georgian author Ilia Chavchavadze, whose fortified house is preserved as a local museum.The area is in the center of the...
, incorporating a Medieval castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
style in the two-storey castle in the yard, which was designed to protect the house during invasions.
Ilia's mother, Mariam, died on May 4, 1848, when Ilia was ten years old, and his father asked his sister, Makrine, to help bring up the children. Aunt Makrine had a significant impact on Ilia's life, because, after 1852, when Ilia's father Grigol died, she was the only remaining caretaker of the family.
Deacon
Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
of the village before he moved to Tbilisi where he attended the prestigious Academy for Nobility in 1848. However, from an early age, Ilia was influenced by his parents who were highly educated in classical literature, Georgian history
History of Georgia (country)
The nation of Georgia was first unified as a kingdom under the Bagrationi dynasty in the 9th to 10th century, arising from a number of predecessor states of ancient Colchis and Iberia...
and poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
. From his parents, Ilia learned the inspiring stories of Georgian heroism in classical historical novels. In his autobiography, Ilia refers to his mother, Princess Mariam Chavchavadze, who knew most Georgian novels and poems by heart and encouraged her children to study them. Ilia also described the influence of the deacon's storytelling, which gave him an artistic inspiration, later applied in his novel writing.
In 1848, after the death of Princess Chavchavadze, Ilia was sent to Tbilisi by his father to begin his secondary education. Ilia attended a private school for three years before he entered the 1st Academy of Tbilisi in 1851. Soon after, Ilia's father died and Aunt Makrine looked after the family. His secondary school years were very stressful, due to his father's death. However, the Chavchavadze family suffered another devastating blow when Ilia’s brother, Constantine, was killed during the Dagestan
Dagestan
The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...
i raid on Kakheti
Kakheti
Kakheti is a historical province in Eastern Georgia inhabited by Kakhetians who speak a local dialect of Georgian. It is bordered by the small mountainous province of Tusheti and the Greater Caucasus mountain range to the north, Russian Federation to the Northeast, Azerbaijan to the Southeast, and...
. Ilia expressed his anguish and grief in one of his first short-poems called Sorrow of a Poor Man. In addition to his personal problems, the political situation in Georgia worsened under the harsh authority of the Russian Empire, which played a destructive role to the nation and its culture.
Student years
Saint Petersburg State University
Saint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest and largest universities in Russia....
. Before leaving for St. Petersburg, Ilia composed one of his most remarkable poems, To the Mountains of Kvareli in the village of Kardanakhi
Kardanakhi
-External links:*...
on April 15 of 1857, where he expressed his lifelong admiration for the Greater Caucasus Mountains and his sorrow at leaving his homeland.
That same year, Ilia was admitted to the University of St. Petersburg. During his student years, numerous revolutions sprang up in 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...
which Ilia observed with great interest. Ilia's attention focused on the events in Italy
Expedition of the Thousand
The Expedition of the Thousand was a military campaign led by the revolutionary general Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860. A force of volunteers defeated the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, leading to its dissolution and annexation by the Kingdom of Sardinia, an important step in the creation of a newly...
and the struggle of Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...
, whom he admired for many years. While in St.Petersburg, Ilia met Princess Catherine Chavchavadze, from whom he learned about the poetry and lyrics of the Georgian romantic Prince Nik'oloz Baratashvili
Nikoloz Baratashvili
Nik'oloz Baratashvili was a Georgian poet, one of the first Georgians to marry a modern nationalism with European Romanticism and to introduce "Europeanism" into Georgian literature...
. Due to the harsh climate in St Petersburg, Ilia became very ill and returned to Georgia for several months in 1859.
Ilia finally returned to Georgia after the completion of his studies in 1861. During his journey back, Ilia wrote one of his greatest masterpieces, The Travelers' Diaries, where he outlines the importance of nation-building
Nation-building
For nation-building in the sense of enhancing the capacity of state institutions, building state-society relations, and also external interventions see State-building....
and provides an allegorical comparison of Mt. Kazbegi and the Tergi River in the Khevi
Khevi
Khevi is a small historical-geographic area in northeastern Georgia. It is included in the modern-day Kazbegi district, Mtskheta-Mtianeti region...
region of Georgia.
Political life
Noe Zhordania
Noe Zhordania was a Georgian journalist and Menshevik politician. He played an eminent role in the Social Democratic revolutionary movement in Imperial Russia, and later chaired the government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia from July 24, 1918 until March 18, 1921, when the Bolshevik Soviet...
; their main aims were focused on battling the Tsarist autocracy
Tsarist autocracy
The Tsarist autocracy |transcr.]] tsarskoye samoderzhaviye) refers to a form of autocracy specific to the Grand Duchy of Muscovy . In a tsarist autocracy, all power and wealth is controlled by the tsar...
and implementing Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
ideology throughout the Russian empire. This did not include the revival of a Georgian state or of a Georgian self-identity. Ilia was viewed as bourgeois and as an old aristocrat who failed to realize the importance of the revolutionary tide.
In addition to his works described above, he was also the founder and chairman of many public, cultural and educational organizations (Society for the Spreading of Literacy Among Georgians
Society for the Spreading of Literacy Among Georgians
The Society for the Spreading of Literacy Among Georgians was a charity founded by a group of leading Georgian intellectuals in May 1879 in order to promote a cultural renaissance among the peasantry of Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire...
, "The Bank of the Nobility", "The Dramatic Society", "The Historical-Ethnographical Society of Georgia", etc.). He was also a translator of British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
literature. His main literary works were translated and published in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
, Belarusian
Belarusian language
The Belarusian language , sometimes referred to as White Russian or White Ruthenian, is the language of the Belarusian people...
, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and other languages. Between 1906 and 1907, he was a member of the State Council (Gosudarstvennaya Duma
Duma
A Duma is any of various representative assemblies in modern Russia and Russian history. The State Duma in the Russian Empire and Russian Federation corresponds to the lower house of the parliament. Simply it is a form of Russian governmental institution, that was formed during the reign of the...
) in Russia. His eclectic interests also led him to be a member of, among others, the Caucasian Committee of the Geographical Society of Russia, the Society of Ethnography and Anthropology of Moscow University, the Society of Orientalists of Russia and the Anglo-Russian Literary Society (London).
Prince Chavchavadze briefly acted as a literary mentor
Mentor
In Greek mythology, Mentor was the son of Alcimus or Anchialus. In his old age Mentor was a friend of Odysseus who placed Mentor and Odysseus' foster-brother Eumaeus in charge of his son Telemachus, and of Odysseus' palace, when Odysseus left for the Trojan War.When Athena visited Telemachus she...
to a young Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
, who was then an Orthodox seminarian in Tbilisi. According to historian Simon Sebag Montefiore
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Simon Jonathan Sebag Montefiore is a British historian and writer.-Family history:Simon's father, a doctor, is descended from a famous line of wealthy Sephardic Jews who became diplomats and bankers all over Europe...
,
"The Prince was sufficiently impressed to show the teenagers work to his editors. He admired Stalin's verse, choosing five poems to publish -- quite an achievement. Prince Chavchavadze called Stalin the, 'young man with the burning eyes.'"
Death
Mtskheta
Mtskheta , one of the oldest cities of the country of Georgia , is located approximately 20 kilometers north of Tbilisi at the confluence of the Aragvi and Kura rivers. The city is now the administrative centre of the Mtskheta-Mtianeti region...
. The assassination of Ilia Chavchavadze remains controversial today. Based on recent discoveries in archives, the plot to assassinate Ilia is believed to have been a joint operation by the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks both wings of Social Democrats, due to Ilia's condemnation of their violent terrorist ways, his socially conservative vision for Georgian nationalism, and his tremendous popularity among the public.
Author and historian Simon Sebag Montefiore
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Simon Jonathan Sebag Montefiore is a British historian and writer.-Family history:Simon's father, a doctor, is descended from a famous line of wealthy Sephardic Jews who became diplomats and bankers all over Europe...
suspects that a young Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
may have been involved in planning the Prince's murder. According to Montefiore,
"The Bolshevik position in Georgia was undermined by the assassination of the hugely popular Prince Ilya Chavchavadze.. in August 1907. The Bolsheviks had attacked his patriarchal vision of Georgian culture and, it was widely believed, had decided to kill him; there is some evidence that Stalin's friend Sergo Ordzhonikidze organized or took part in the assassination. It may be that the SDs took no part in the murder at all. Stalin always praised Chavchavandze's poetry in his old age and there is no evidence that he ordered the hit, but he was very close to Sergo and he was certainly more than capable of separating literary merit from cruel necessity: politics always came first."
During 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...
, an old man confessed to having been hired by the Tsarist Okhrana to assassinate Ilia. During the Soviet period, an investigation was launched by the Soviet authorities which later concluded that the Tsarist secret police and administration had been involved in the assassination.
Either way, the Prince's murder was seen as a national tragedy which was mourned by all strata of Georgian society. Prince Ak'ak'i Tsereteli, who was suffering from serious health problems at the time, spoke at the funeral and dedicated an outstanding oration to Ilia: “Ilia's inestimable contribution to the revival of the Georgian nation is an example for future generations”.
Legacy
In 1987, Prince Chavchavadze was formally canonized by the Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic ChurchGeorgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church
The Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church is an autocephalous part of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Since the 4th century AD, Georgian Orthodoxy has been the state religion of Georgia, and it remains the country's largest religious institution....
, as "Saint Ilia the Righteous."
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...
on May 26, 1918. After the Bolshevik occupation of Georgia and integration into the Soviet Union, Ilia became the national symbol of Georgian freedom and national liberation. In 1989, during the anti-Soviet protests in Tbilisi, the poems, novels and political life of Ilia Chavchavadze became a driving force behind the Georgian struggle for independence. The idea of National revival
Romantic nationalism
Romantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs...
, which Ilia preached and advocated in various Georgian societies throughout his life, gained in momentum in 1990. In 2002, Mikheil Saakashvili
Mikheil Saakashvili
Mikheil Saakashvili is a Georgian politician, the third and current President of Georgia and leader of the United National Movement Party.Involved in the national politics since 1995, Saakashvili became president on 25 January 2004 after President Eduard Shevardnadze resigned in a November 2003...
, a young Georgian politician who was educated in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, created a movement which was to revive the old party of Ilia Chavchavadze, known as the United National Movement. Mikheil Saakashvili’s National Movement party played a major role in the peaceful Rose Revolution
Rose Revolution
The "Revolution of Roses" was a change of power in Georgia in November 2003, which took place after having widespread protests over the disputed parliamentary elections...
of 2003 which ousted President Eduard Shevardnadze
Eduard Shevardnadze
Eduard Shevardnadze is a former Soviet, and later, Georgian statesman from the height to the end of the Cold War. He served as President of Georgia from 1995 to 2003, and as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party , from 1972 to 1985. Shevardnadze was responsible for many top decisions on...
.
Important publications of the works of Ilia Chavchavadze
- Georgische Dichter. Translated and compiled by Arthur LeistArthur LeistArthur Leist was a German writer, journalist and translator of Georgian and Armenian literature.He was born and educated at Breslau. During the Russo-Turkish War , he got interested in the Caucasus. After his three visits to Georgia between 1884 and 1892, Leist decided to permanently settle in...
, Dresden-Leipzig, 1887 (Poems of Ilia Chavchavadze and other Georgian poets, in German) - The Hermit by Prince Ilia Chavchavadze. Translated from the Georgian by Marjory Wardrop, London, 1895
See also
- List of Georgians
- History of GeorgiaHistory of Georgia (country)The nation of Georgia was first unified as a kingdom under the Bagrationi dynasty in the 9th to 10th century, arising from a number of predecessor states of ancient Colchis and Iberia...
- Tbilisi Ilia State University
Resources
- Baron de Baie: Au nord de la chaine du Caucase souvenirs d'une mission", Paris, 1899 (in French)
- Baron de Baie: Tiflis souvenirs d'une mission, Paris, 1900 (in French)
- Companjen, Françoise J. , "Between Tradition and Modernity". Amsterdam 2004, pp. 167–171 (in English)
- Leist, Arthur: Das georgische Volk, Dresden, 1903 (in German)
- Lehman-Haupt, C.F. : Reisen und Forschungen, Berlin, 1910, pp. 106–111 (in German)
- Reisner, Oliver: The Tergdaleulebi: Founders of Georgian National Identity. In: Ladislaus Löb, István Petrovics, György E. Szonyi (eds.): Forms of Identity: Definitions and Changes. Attila Jozsef University, Szeged 1994, pp. 125–37
- Wardrop, Oliver The Kingdom of Georgia, London, 1888, pp. 150–152
External links
- Sharadze, GuramGuram SharadzeGuram Sharadze was a Georgian philologist, historian, and politician. In 1995, he founded a small nationalist movement Ena, Mamuli, Sartsmunoeba...
(ed., 1987).Ilia Chavchavadze works, translated by Marjory and Oliver Wardrops. Tbilisi: Ganatleba, 1987. Online version at NPLGNational Parliamentary Library of GeorgiaThe National Parliamentary Library of Georgia is a governmental organization under the Parliament of Georgia. It is the main book depository of Georgia, as well as the most important cultural, educational, scientific, informational and methodological centre....
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