Konstantine Gamsakhurdia
Encyclopedia
Konstantine Gamsakhurdia (May 3, 1893 – July 17, 1975) was a Georgian
writer and public figure, who, along with Mikheil Javakhishvili
, is considered to be one of the most influential Georgian novelists of the 20th century. Educated and first published in Germany
, he married Western Europe
an influences to purely Georgian thematic to produce his best works, such as The Right Hand of the Grand Master and David the Builder. Hostile to the Soviet rule
, he was, nevertheless, one of the fewest leading Georgian writers to have survived Stalin
-era repressions, including his exile to a White Sea
island and several arrests. His works are noted for their character portrayals of great psychological insight. Another major feature of Gamsakhurdia’s writings is a new subtlety he infused into Georgian phrasing, imitating an archaic language to create a sense of oldness.
Konstantine Gamsakhurdia's son, Zviad
, became a notable Soviet-era dissident who was subsequently elected the first President of Georgia
in 1991, but died under suspicious circumstances in the civil war
in 1993.
in western Georgian province of Mingrelia, then under the Imperial Russian rule, Gamsakhurdia received early education at the Kutaisi
gymnasium and then studied in St. Petersburg, where he quarreled with Nicholas Marr. He spent most of the World War I
years in Germany
, France
, and Switzerland
, taking his doctorate
at the Berlin University in 1918. As a Russian subject, he was briefly interned at Traunstein
in Bavaria
where Thomas Mann
sent him chocolate. Gamsakhurdia published his first poems, and short stories early in the 1910s, influenced by German Expressionism
and French Post-Symbolist
literature. While in Germany, he regularly wrote for German press on Georgia and the Caucasus
, and was involved in organizing a Georgian Liberation Committee. After Georgia’s declaration of independence in 1918, he became an attaché on Georgia
’s embassy in Berlin, responsible for repatriation of Georgian World War I prisoners and placing Georgian students in German universities.
Gamsakhurdia met the 1921 Bolshevik takeover of Georgia
with hostility. He edited the Tbilisi
-based literary journals and for a short time led an “academic group” of writers which placed artistic values above political correctness
. Gamsakhurdia published his writings in defiance to the growing ideological pressure and he went ahead to lead a peaceful protest rally on the anniversary of Georgia’s forcible Sovietization
in 1922. In 1925, Gamsakhurdia published his first and one of the most impressive novels The Smile of Dionysus (დიონისოს ღიმილი), which took him eight years to write. It is a story of a young Georgian intellectual in Paris
who is detached from his native society and remains a complete stranger in the city of his ideals. This novel, like his earlier works, was partially "Decadent
", and did not please the Soviet ideologists, who suspected him of fostering discontent.
where he taught German literature
. Soon was arrested and deported to the Solovetsky Islands
in the White Sea
where he was to spend a few years. On his release, Gamsakhurdia was forced to keep silence. On the verge of suicide, the writer fought his depression by translating Dante
. Early in the 1930s, he obtained Lavrentiy Beria
's protection and was able to resume writing, with an attempt at "socialist
" novel Stealing the Moon (მთვარის მოტაცება, 1935-6), a story of love and collectivization in Abkhazia
. Next came the psychological novella Khogais Mindia (ხოგაის მინდია, 1937), yet another appeal in classical Georgian literature to this Khevsur myth. Beria was critical of these works, though. Soon Gamsakhurdia was arrested for an affair with Lida Gasviani, a young charming Trotskyite director of the State Publishing House, but interrogated and released by Beria who told him ironically that sexual relations with enemies of the people were permitted.
Gamsakhurdia survived the Joseph Stalin
-Lavrentiy Beria
purges
, which destroyed a large part of Georgian literary society, but resolutely refused to denounce others. He had to pay a tribute to the Stalinist dogma, conceiving a novel on Stalin’s childhood in 1939. However, as the first published part of this work was not approved by the authorities, it was promptly discontinued and withdrawn from public libraries.
At the height of the Stalinist terror, Gamsakhurdia turned to the more favored genre of historical and patriotic prose, embarking on his magnum opus
, the novel The Right Hand of the Grand Master (დიდოსტატის მარჯვენა, 1939), set in the 1110s/20s around the legend of the building of the Cathedral of Living Pillar
against a broad panorama of 11th-century Georgia. It deals with the tragic fate of the devoted architect Konstantine Arsakidze, from whom King Giorgi I
commissions a cathedral, but Arsakidze becomes the king’s rival in love for the beautiful Shorena, a daughter of the rebellious nobleman. The clash of powerful human passions, between illicit love and duty, culminates in the mutilation and execution of Arsakidze at Giorgi’s behest. The story conveys a subtle allegorical message, and the harassed artists of Stalin’s era can be recognized in Arsakidze.
Gamsakhurdia’s major post-World War II
works are The Flowering of the Vine (ვაზის ყვავილობა, 1955), which deals with a Georgian village shortly before the war; and the monumental novel David the Builder (დავით აღმაშენებელი, 1942–62), which is a tetralogy about the venerated king David the Builder who ruled Georgia from 1189 to 1125. This work won for the author a prestigious Shota Rustaveli State Prize
in 1962. Gamsakhurdia also wrote a biographical novel about Goethe, and literary criticism of Georgian and foreign authors. Publication of his memoirs, Flirting with Ghosts (ლანდებთან ლაციცი, 1963) and of his testament (1959) was aborted at that time. He died in 1975 and was interred at his mansion which he called a "Colchian
Tower", refusing to be buried in the Mtatsminda Pantheon
because he detested that Jesus
and Judas
were buried side by side there, referring to the proximity of the graves of the national writer Ilia Chavchavadze and his outspoken critic and political foe, the Bolshevik Filipp Makharadze
.
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 and public figure, who, along with Mikheil Javakhishvili
Mikheil Javakhishvili
Mikheil Javakhishvili was a Georgian novelist who is regarded as one of the top twentieth-century Georgian writers. His first story appeared in 1903, but then the writer lapsed into a long pause before returning to writing in the early 1920s...
, is considered to be one of the most influential Georgian novelists of the 20th century. Educated and first published in 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...
, he married Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
an influences to purely Georgian thematic to produce his best works, such as The Right Hand of the Grand Master and David the Builder. Hostile to the Soviet rule
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....
, he was, nevertheless, one of the fewest leading Georgian writers to have survived 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...
-era repressions, including his exile to a White Sea
White Sea
The White Sea is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast. The whole of the White Sea is under Russian sovereignty and considered to be part of...
island and several arrests. His works are noted for their character portrayals of great psychological insight. Another major feature of Gamsakhurdia’s writings is a new subtlety he infused into Georgian phrasing, imitating an archaic language to create a sense of oldness.
Konstantine Gamsakhurdia's son, Zviad
Zviad Gamsakhurdia
Zviad Gamsakhurdia was a dissident, scientist and writer, who became the first democratically elected President of the Republic of Georgia in the post-Soviet era...
, became a notable Soviet-era dissident who was subsequently elected the first President of Georgia
President of Georgia
The President of Georgia is the head of state, supreme commander-in-chief and holder of the highest office within the Government of Georgia. Executive power is split between the President and the Prime Minister, who is the head of government...
in 1991, but died under suspicious circumstances in the civil war
Georgian Civil War
The Georgian Civil War consisted of inter-ethnic and intranational conflicts in the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia , as well as the violent military coup d'etat of December 21, 1991 - January 6, 1992 against the first democratically elected President of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia and his...
in 1993.
Early life and career
Born into a petite noble family in AbashaAbasha (town)
Abasha is a town in western Georgia with a population of 6,400 . It is situated between the rivers of Abasha and Noghela, at 23m above sea level and is located some to the west of Tbilisi. The settlement of Abasha acquired the status of a town in 1964 and currently functions as an administrative...
in western Georgian province of Mingrelia, then under the Imperial Russian rule, Gamsakhurdia received early education at the 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:...
gymnasium and then studied in St. Petersburg, where he quarreled with Nicholas Marr. He spent most of the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
years in 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...
, 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...
, and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, taking his doctorate
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
at the Berlin University in 1918. As a Russian subject, he was briefly interned at Traunstein
Traunstein
Traunstein is a town in the south-eastern part of Bavaria, Germany, and is the administrative center of a district by the same name. It is situated at the heart of a region called Chiemgau, approximately 11 km east of Lake Chiemsee between Munich and Salzburg, 15 km north of the Alps, and...
in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
where Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
sent him chocolate. Gamsakhurdia published his first poems, and short stories early in the 1910s, influenced by German Expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
and French Post-Symbolist
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
literature. While in Germany, he regularly wrote for German press on Georgia and the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
, and was involved in organizing a Georgian Liberation Committee. After Georgia’s declaration of independence in 1918, he became an attaché on 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...
’s embassy in Berlin, responsible for repatriation of Georgian World War I prisoners and placing Georgian students in German universities.
Gamsakhurdia met the 1921 Bolshevik takeover of Georgia
Red Army invasion of Georgia
The Red Army invasion of Georgia also known as the Soviet–Georgian War or the Soviet invasion of Georgia was a military campaign by the Soviet Russian Red Army against the Democratic Republic of Georgia aimed at overthrowing the Social-Democratic government and installing the Bolshevik regime...
with hostility. He edited the 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...
-based literary journals and for a short time led an “academic group” of writers which placed artistic values above political correctness
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
. Gamsakhurdia published his writings in defiance to the growing ideological pressure and he went ahead to lead a peaceful protest rally on the anniversary of Georgia’s forcible Sovietization
Sovietization
Sovietization is term that may be used with two distinct meanings:*the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets .*the adoption of a way of life and mentality modelled after the Soviet Union....
in 1922. In 1925, Gamsakhurdia published his first and one of the most impressive novels The Smile of Dionysus (დიონისოს ღიმილი), which took him eight years to write. It is a story of a young Georgian intellectual 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...
who is detached from his native society and remains a complete stranger in the city of his ideals. This novel, like his earlier works, was partially "Decadent
Decadent movement
The Decadent movement was a late 19th century artistic and literary movement of Western Europe. It flourished in France, but also had devotees in England and throughout Europe, as well as in the United States.-Overview:...
", and did not please the Soviet ideologists, who suspected him of fostering discontent.
Later life and works
After the suppression of the 1924 anti-Soviet uprising in Georgia, Gamsakhurdia was excluded from the Tbilisi State UniversityTbilisi State University
Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University , better known as Tbilisi State University , is a university established on 8 February 1918 in Tbilisi, Georgia. TSU is the oldest university in the whole Caucasus region...
where he taught German literature
German literature
German literature comprises those literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German part of Switzerland, and to a lesser extent works of the German diaspora. German literature of the modern period is mostly in Standard German, but there...
. Soon was arrested and deported to the Solovetsky Islands
Solovetsky Islands
The Solovetsky Islands , or Solovki , are an archipelago located in the Onega Bay of the White Sea, Russia. The islands are served by the Solovki Airport. Area: ....
in the White Sea
White Sea
The White Sea is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast. The whole of the White Sea is under Russian sovereignty and considered to be part of...
where he was to spend a few years. On his release, Gamsakhurdia was forced to keep silence. On the verge of suicide, the writer fought his depression by translating Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
. Early in the 1930s, he obtained 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 protection and was able to resume writing, with an attempt at "socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
" novel Stealing the Moon (მთვარის მოტაცება, 1935-6), a story of love and collectivization in Abkhazia
Abkhazia
Abkhazia is a disputed political entity on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny...
. Next came the psychological novella Khogais Mindia (ხოგაის მინდია, 1937), yet another appeal in classical Georgian literature to this Khevsur myth. Beria was critical of these works, though. Soon Gamsakhurdia was arrested for an affair with Lida Gasviani, a young charming Trotskyite director of the State Publishing House, but interrogated and released by Beria who told him ironically that sexual relations with enemies of the people were permitted.
Gamsakhurdia survived the 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...
-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 ....
purges
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...
, which destroyed a large part of Georgian literary society, but resolutely refused to denounce others. He had to pay a tribute to the Stalinist dogma, conceiving a novel on Stalin’s childhood in 1939. However, as the first published part of this work was not approved by the authorities, it was promptly discontinued and withdrawn from public libraries.
At the height of the Stalinist terror, Gamsakhurdia turned to the more favored genre of historical and patriotic prose, embarking on his magnum opus
Masterpiece
Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....
, the novel The Right Hand of the Grand Master (დიდოსტატის მარჯვენა, 1939), set in the 1110s/20s around the legend of the building of the Cathedral of Living Pillar
Svetitskhoveli Cathedral
Svetitskhoveli Cathedral is a Georgian Orthodox cathedral located in the historical town of Mtskheta, Georgia, northwest of the nation's capital of Tbilisi....
against a broad panorama of 11th-century Georgia. It deals with the tragic fate of the devoted architect Konstantine Arsakidze, from whom King Giorgi I
George I of Georgia
Giorgi I , of the House of Bagrationi, was the king of Georgia from 1014 until his death in 1027. He spent most of his seven-year-long reign waging a bloody and fruitless territorial war with the Byzantine Empire.-Early reign:...
commissions a cathedral, but Arsakidze becomes the king’s rival in love for the beautiful Shorena, a daughter of the rebellious nobleman. The clash of powerful human passions, between illicit love and duty, culminates in the mutilation and execution of Arsakidze at Giorgi’s behest. The story conveys a subtle allegorical message, and the harassed artists of Stalin’s era can be recognized in Arsakidze.
Gamsakhurdia’s major post-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...
works are The Flowering of the Vine (ვაზის ყვავილობა, 1955), which deals with a Georgian village shortly before the war; and the monumental novel David the Builder (დავით აღმაშენებელი, 1942–62), which is a tetralogy about the venerated king David the Builder who ruled Georgia from 1189 to 1125. This work won for the author a prestigious Shota Rustaveli State Prize
Shota Rustaveli State Prize
The Shota Rustaveli State Prize is the highest prize awarded by Georgia in the fields of art and literature. The first prize-winners of this prize were Konstantine Gamsakhurdia , Irakli Abashidze and Lado Gudiashvili in 1965...
in 1962. Gamsakhurdia also wrote a biographical novel about Goethe, and literary criticism of Georgian and foreign authors. Publication of his memoirs, Flirting with Ghosts (ლანდებთან ლაციცი, 1963) and of his testament (1959) was aborted at that time. He died in 1975 and was interred at his mansion which he called a "Colchian
Colchis
In ancient geography, Colchis or Kolkhis was an ancient Georgian state kingdom and region in Western Georgia, which played an important role in the ethnic and cultural formation of the Georgian nation.The Kingdom of Colchis contributed significantly to the development of medieval Georgian...
Tower", refusing to be buried in the Mtatsminda Pantheon
Mtatsminda Pantheon
The Mtatsminda Pantheon of Writers and Public Figures is a necropolis in Tbilisi, Georgia, where some of the most prominent writers, artists, scholars, and national heroes of Georgia are buried. It is located in the churchyard around St. David’s Church "Mamadaviti" on the slope of Mount Mtatsminda...
because he detested that Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
and Judas
Judas Iscariot
Judas Iscariot was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. He is best known for his betrayal of Jesus to the hands of the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver.-Etymology:...
were buried side by side there, referring to the proximity of the graves of the national writer Ilia Chavchavadze and his outspoken critic and political foe, the Bolshevik Filipp Makharadze
Filipp Makharadze
Filipp Makaradze was a Bolshevik revolutionary and government official.-Life:...
.