Prince Kita Abashidze (January 16, 1870 – December 17, 1917) was a Georgian

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...

 literary critic, journalist, and politician.

Abashidze was born into a noble family

Abashidze

Abashidze is a Georgian family and a former princely house. Appearing in the 15th century, they achieved prominence in the Kingdom of Imereti in western Georgia in the late 17th century and branched out in eastern Georgian kingdoms of Kakheti and Kartli as well as the then-Ottoman-held...

 in the province of Guria

Guria

Guria is a region in Georgia, in the western part of the country, bordered by the eastern end of the Black Sea. The region has a population of 143,357 and Ozurgeti is a regional capital.-Geography:...

. Having graduated from 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:...

 Classic Gymnasium (1889), he attended the lectures in philosophy and art theory in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and studied law at the Odessa University

Odessa University

The I. I. Mechnikov Odessa National University , located in Odessa, Ukraine, is one of the country's major universities. It was founded in 1865, by an edict of Czar Alexander II of Russia, reorganizing the Richelieu Lyceum of Odessa into the new Imperial Novorossiya University. In the Soviet...

 (1890-1895). Later in the 1890s, he worked for the Tiflis control chamber, and then as an arbitrator in Racha

Racha

Racha is a highland area in western Georgia, located in the upper Rioni river valley and hemmed in by the Greater Caucasus mountains...

 and Chiatura

Chiatura

Chiatura is a city in the Imereti region of Western Georgia. In 1989, it had a population of about 30,000. It is inland, in a mountain valley on the banks of the Kvirila River, and since 1879 has been a major centre of manganese production in the Caucasus. There is a rail link to transport...

 in western Georgia. From 1893 onward, he engaged in journalism and regularly wrote literary criticism for Georgian press. His aesthetics and views on the contemporary Georgian and world literature were shaped under the influence of the Georgian intellectuals of the 1860s and the French

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...

 critic Ferdinand Brunetière

Ferdinand Brunetière

Ferdinand Brunetière was a French writer and critic.-Early years:Brunetière was born in Toulon, Var, Provence. After school at Marseille, he studied in Paris at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. Desiring a teaching career, he entered for examination at the École Normale Supérieure, but failed, and the...

.

In the early 1900s, Abashidze was involved in the management of Chiatura manganese

Manganese

Manganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a free element in nature , and in many minerals...

 industry, and later chaired the Manganese Industry Council. He also joined the Georgian Social Federalist Party and became one of its leaders. After the fall of the Imperial Russian government in the 1917 February Revolution

February Revolution

The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...

, Abashidze was appointed a commissar for education within the Special Transcaucasian Committee

Special Transcaucasian Committee

Special Transcaucasian Committee was established on March 9, 1917, with Member of the State Duma V. A...

 ("Ozakom"), a provisional regional administration, being the only Georgian member of this body at its outset. In March 1917, he was replaced in the Ozakom with the Social-Democrat

Georgian Social Democratic (Menshevik) Party

200px|thumb|Menshevik Flag of Georgia, created by Iakob NikoladzeThe Social Democratic Labour Party of Georgia was a political party in Georgia. It was founded as the Georgian branch of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party separated itself from the Russian mother-party.The party dominated...

 Akaki Chkhenkeli

Akaki Chkhenkeli

Akaki Chkhenkeli was a Georgian Marxist politician and publicist who acted as one of the leaders of the Menshevik movement in Russia and Georgia....

.