Sandro Akhmeteli (April 13, 1886 – June 27, 1937) 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...

 theater director whose innovative conceptions and skill at mass scenes profoundly influenced the evolution 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....

 and post-Soviet Georgian theater tradition. Commonly regarded as the greatest of all Georgian theater directors, he directed, from 1926 to 1935, the Rustaveli Theater in Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...

, Georgia, and transformed it into one of the most successful troupes in the Soviet Union. During Stalin’s Great Purge

Great Purge

The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...

, he was arrested on trumped-up charges of espionage and executed.

Early career

Sandro Akhmeteli was born to the family of a priest in the mountainous village in the province of 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...

 (eastern Georgia, then part of Imperial Russia), whose landscapes and culture heavily influenced the future director’s aesthetic values. Taught at a grammar school by the writer Vasil Barnovi

Vasil Barnovi

Vasil Barnovi was a Georgian writer popular for his historical novels....

, Akhmeteli acquired a profound knowledge of Georgian and world literature. He was a perfect boxer at the same time. An unfortunate marriage forced him to leave for St. Petersburg where he enrolled into the local university to study law (until 1916). However, Akhmeteli spent most of his time in writing theater criticism. In 1915, he produced his first manifesto, condemning the Georgian theater as one that had "to be destroyed, to be made softer, more temperamental, more fiery, emotional, stentorian, bold, heroic."

In 1918, 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...

 became independent from Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, and the new government launched a program aimed at reviving the national theater. Akhemeteli returned to Georgia to lead the younger actors into a coup against the establishment. In 1922, the conspicuous Russia-based Georgian theater director Kote Marjanishvili

Kote Marjanishvili

Konstantine "Kote" Marjanishvili also known by the Russified name Konstantin Aleksandrovich Mardzhanov was a Georgian theater director regarded as an important contributor to the pre- and post-revolutionary evolution of Georgian, Russian and Soviet stages...

 also returned to Georgia, and the two men began reforming the Tbilisi Rustaveli Theater. Their collaboration was productive, yet uneasy. Restricted and somewhat conformist Marjanishvili found Akhmeteli’s autocratic rule and turbulent character too violent and left the Rustaveli Theater in 1926, leaving Akhemeteli in sole control of the company. Akhmeteli formed his own artistic corporation Duruji (after a river in his native Kakheti) and required all its members to sign a special pledge to "sacrifice their life and future to the will of the corporation and theater".

Triumph and fall

Akhemetli's relations with the recently established 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....

 government in Georgia were difficult. Although revolutionary and leftist, his experimentalism and expressionism did not particularly conform to the Bolshevist doctrines. During the anti-Soviet uprising in 1924, he was briefly arrested and questioned about his corporation which was deemed by the secret police to be a conspiracy. He had to disband Duruji under Lavrentiy Beria

Lavrentiy Beria

Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....

’s pressure in 1927, but Akhemetli’s resonant successes earned him protection in 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...

. His skills at spectacular massed casts, and choreography garnered an international acclaim. After his masterpiece, Lamara, a play be Grigol Robakidze

Grigol Robakidze

Grigol Robakidze was a Georgian writer, publicist, and public figure primarily known for his exotic prose and anti-Soviet émigré activities....

, won a prize at the 1930 Moscow Drama Olympiad, Akhemetli and his troupe were invited to tour the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, alarming the Soviet authorities. Following Robakidze’s scandalous defection to 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...

 later that year, Beria launched a new assault against Akhmeteli. Paradoxically, Lamara continued to be staged to prove the achievements of Soviet theatrical art, although without the name of the playwright on the posters. Akhemeteli produced his last major work based on Die Räuber

Die Räuber

The Robbers was the first drama by German playwright Friedrich Schiller. The play was published in 1781 and premiered on January 13, 1782 in Mannheim, Germany. It was written towards the end of the German Sturm und Drang movement and has been considered by many critics, such as Peter Brooks, to...

by Schiller in 1933, followed by the triumphant tour to Moscow.

Akhemeteli was never able to escape Beria's supervision. Accused of "anti-Soviet activities" and forbidden to tour abroad, Akhemeteli was finally removed from the scene in 1935. He took refuge among his admirers in Moscow, but, in 1937, he was extradited to Tbilisi to be imprisoned with a number of his colleagues on trumped-up charges of espionage for the 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...

 and plots to murder Beria and Stalin. Akhemeteli was subjected, in the presence of Beria, to extensive tortures until rendered mute and paralyzed. He was forced to make confessions but refused to name others and was executed on June 27, 1937. Foreign visitors to his theater were informed he had retired. Akhmeteli was first rehabilitated by the Georgian theater historian Natela Urushadze.