220px, Evgeni Mikeladze Evgeni Mikeladze ( ka, ევგენი მიქელაძე) (July 27, 1903 – 1937) was a leading Georgian

orchestra conductor Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duties ...

of the 1930s, executed during the

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

Great Purges The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...

. Born in Baku,

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

, then part of Imperial Russia, he moved, with his family, to

Tbilisi, Georgia Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Kura River with a population of approximately 1.5 million peo ...

in a few years. He attended musical classes at the Cadet Corps, Tbilisi Real School and finally entered the Tbilisi National Conservatory. Since his childhood, he played various

wind instrument A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitc ...

s, chiefly the

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

and the

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

, and decided to become a conductor in the mid-1920s. He then took courses at the Leningrad State Conservatory under the guidance of eminent

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 ...

conductors,

Nikolai Malko Nicolai Andreyevich Malko (russian: Никола́й Андре́евич Малько́, ua, Микола Андрійович Малько; 4 May 188323 June 1961) was a Russian-born American symphonic conductor. Biography Malko was born in ...

and

Aleksandr Gauk Alexander Vassilievich Gauk (russian: Алекса́ндр Васи́льевич Га́ук; 30 March 1963) was a Russian/Soviet conductor and composer. Biography Alexander Gauk was born in Odessa in 1893. He recalled his first experience as h ...

. Back to Tbilisi in 1931, he quickly gained notability as a talented conductor and a promoter of classical music, and earned appraisal from several Soviet and foreign musicians. He organized and led, in 1933, the National Symphony Orchestra of Georgia. A year later, he became a chief conductor at the Tbilisi Opera House. At the age of 33, he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the

Georgian SSR The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (Georgian SSR; ka, საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა, tr; russian: Грузинская Советская Соц� ...

(1936). Mikeladze’s productive career was soon to be abruptly terminated, however. He was married to the daughter of Mamia Orakhelashvili, an Old Bolshevik who was purged under Stalin in 1937. Mikeladze was also arrested in November 1937 and subjected to forty-eight days of interrogation and torture, being allegedly questioned and beaten also by

Lavrentiy Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (; rus, Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Lavréntiy Pávlovich Bériya, p=ˈbʲerʲiə; ka, ლავრენტი ბერია, tr, ; – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolsheviks ...

. Eventually, Mikeladze was sentenced to be shot by the

NKVD troika NKVD troika or Special troika (russian: особая тройка, osobaya troyka), in Soviet history, were the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD which would later be the beginning of the KGB) made up of three officials who issued ...

. In a newly independent

post-Soviet The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...

Georgia, his name has been given to the National Symphony Orchestra founded and led by Mikeladze. His son, Vakhtang Mikeladze, is a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

maker currently working for the Channel One.Микеладзе, Вахтанг Евгеньевич

Notes

References

*Amy W. Knight, ''Beria: Stalin's First Lieutenant'', Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1993,
Евгений Микеладзе
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mikeladze, Evgeni 1903 births 1937 deaths Musicians from Georgia (country) People from Baku Governorate Musicians from Baku Great Purge victims from Georgia (country) People from Georgia (country) executed by the Soviet Union Soviet musicians