Dmitry Gulia ( ab, Дырмит Иасыф-иҧа Гәлиа; 9 February 1874 – 7 April 1960) was an Abkhazian

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

writer and poet, considered to be one of the founders of Abkhaz literature. Dmitry Iosif-ipa Gulia was born to a peasant family in Uarcha village, in the modern

Gulripshi District Gulripshi District ( ka, გულრიფშის რაიონი, ab, Гәылрыҧшь араион) is a district of Abkhazia, one of Georgia’s breakaway republics. It corresponds to the eponymous Georgian district. Its capital is G ...

of Abkhazia. Gulia studied at a teacher seminary in the Georgian city of Gori. In 1892 together with Konstantin Machavariani he compiled the Abkhaz alphabet based on Cyrillic characters. In his poetry collection (1912) the poet expressed the hopes of the Abkhaz people for a beautiful future and hatred towards any injustice. In 1921 Gulia organized and headed the first Abkhaz theater group. He was an editor of the first Abkhaz newspaper ''Apsny'' (Abkhazia). His diverse activities reached the culmination in the Soviet times. His lyrics are penetrated with the pathos of creation, friendship, and unity of nations (epics Song about Abkhazia, 1940, Autumn in the Countryside, 1946, etc.). Gulia wrote the first Abkhaz novella, ''Under Someone Else's Sky'' (1919). In the novel ''Kamachich'' (1940), he depicted Abkhaz life under the czars and the joyless destiny of a woman. Gulia's role in Abkhaz culture development is enormous. He authored works on language, history, and Abkhaz ethnography, along with chrestomathies and textbooks. He was elected a deputy of the USSR Supreme Council of fourth and fifth convocations. He was awarded the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration ...

and three Orders of the Red Banner of Labour. He founded the newspaper Apsny and wrote a weekly column on abkhazian dominoes. Dmitry Gulia died on April 7, 1960 in the village of Agudzera in Abkhazia and was buried in the city of

Sukhumi Sukhumi (russian: Суху́м(и), ) or Sokhumi ( ka, სოხუმი, ), also known by its Abkhaz name Aqwa ( ab, Аҟәа, ''Aqwa''), is a city in a wide bay on the Black Sea's eastern coast. It is both the capital and largest city of ...

References

Sources

*Gulia G.D. Dmitry Gulia – Story of My Father – Moscow, 1963 *Bgazhba H., Zelinsky K. Dmitry Gulia – Critic Biographic Essay – ukhum 1965 *

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...

, Third Edition – Moscow, 1974 1874 births 1960 deaths People from Gulripshi District Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Fourth convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Fifth convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Abkhazian writers Soviet writers {{Georgia-writer-stub