Tsisperqantselebi ( ka, ცისფერყანწელები; The Blue
Horns
Horns or The Horns may refer to:
* Plural of Horn (anatomy)
* Plural of Horn (instrument), a group of musical instruments all with a horn-shaped bells
* The Horns (Colorado), a summit on Cheyenne Mountain
* Horns (novel), ''Horns'' (novel), a dar ...
) was a group of
Georgian Symbolist
Symbolism or symbolist may refer to:
*Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea
Arts
*Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea
** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...
poets and prose-writers which dominated the Georgian literature in the 1920s. It was founded as a coterie of young talented writers in
Kutaisi
Kutaisi ( ; ka, ქუთაისი ) is a city in the Imereti region of the Georgia (country), Republic of Georgia. One of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, it is the List o ...
in 1915 and was suppressed under the
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
rule early in the 1930s.
The group originated in Kutaisi, western Georgia (then part of
Imperial Russia
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imperial, Nebraska
* Imperial, Pennsylvania
* ...
), then a centre of Georgian avant-garde thought. Its members were the group's founder and mentor
Grigol Robakidze
Grigol Robakidze () (October 28, 1880, Sviri, Kutaisi Governorate – November 19, 1962, Geneva) was a Georgian writer, publicist, and public figure primarily known for his prose and anti-Soviet émigré activities.
Biography
He was born on Oc ...
,
Titsian Tabidze
Titsian Tabidze ( ka, ტიციან ტაბიძე, simply referred to as Titsiani; ka, ტიციანი) (16 December 1937), was a Georgian poet and one of the leaders of the Georgian symbolist movement. He fell victim to Joseph ...
,
Paolo Iashvili,
Valerian Gaprindashvili
Valerian Gaprindashvili ( ka, ვალერიან გაფრინდაშვილი) (December 21, 1888 – January 31, 1941) was a Georgian poet and translator whose early, Symbolist, poetry was of much influence on development of ...
,
Kolau Nadiradze,
Shalva Apkhaidze,
Nikolo Mitsishvili,
Razhden Gvetadze,
Levan Meunargia,
Ali Arsenishvili,
Sandro Tsirekidze,
Giorgi Leonidze
Giorgi Leonidze ( ka, გიორგი ლეონიძე) (27 December 1899 – 9 August 1966) was a Georgian poet, prose writer, and literary scholar.
Biography
Leonidze was born in the village of Patardzeuli in the eastern Georgian ...
,
Sergo Kldiashvili
Sergo Kldiashvili ( ka, სერგო კლდიაშვილი) (18 October 1893 – 1986) was a Georgia (country), Georgian and Soviet Union, Soviet prose-writer who set out to be Symbolism (arts), Symbolist but then was drawn to conformis ...
and
Shalva Karmeli (Gogiashvili). Georgia's greatest 20th-century poet,
Galaktion Tabidze was also affiliated with this group, but he soon left it. The leading Georgian painter of that time
Lado Gudiashvili
Lado Gudiashvili ( ka, ლადო გუდიაშვილი; 30 March 1896 – 20 July 1980) was a Georgian painter.
Life
Gudiashvili was born into a family of a railroad employee. He studied in the Tbilisi school of sculpture and fin ...
was also closely associated with the group and frequently illustrated their publications.
Lado Gudiashvili
Lado Gudiashvili ( ka, ლადო გუდიაშვილი; 30 March 1896 – 20 July 1980) was a Georgian painter.
Life
Gudiashvili was born into a family of a railroad employee. He studied in the Tbilisi school of sculpture and fin ...
has painted walls of
Cafe Kimerion along with other famous painters.
Cafe Kimerion was place for meetings after members of Blue Horns moved to
Tbilisi
Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...
in 1918.
The Blue Horns movement was a reaction against
Realism
Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to:
In the arts
*Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts
Arts movements related to realism include:
*American Realism
*Classical Realism
*Liter ...
and civic modes in Georgian literature. Its début took place under the fashionable banners of Symbolism and
Decadence
Decadence was a late-19th-century movement emphasizing the need for sensationalism, egocentricity, and bizarre, artificial, perverse, and exotic sensations and experiences. By extension, it may refer to a decline in art, literature, science, ...
in 1916 when the literary magazine ''tsisperi qantsebi'' ("ცისფერი ყანწები"; ''The Blue Horns'') was first published. The group quickly gained acclaim through their successful efforts to renovate and
Westernize
Westernization (or Westernisation, see spelling differences), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt what is considered to be Western culture, in areas such as industry, ...
Georgian verse. In spite of the Blue Horns’ notorious attacks on the classics of Georgian literature in the group's early years, their poetry remained nationalist, yet French-oriented. Their radical experimentation thrived in the years of
Georgia's independence between 1918 and 1921. Although the leading "Blue Horns" made half-hearted conformist gestures, the group came under a strong pressure and criticism after the establishment of Soviet regime in Georgia in 1921. They left the Union of Georgian Writers in October 1921 to form an alternative union, but the group was finally dissolved in 1931–2. Many of them reconciled with the Soviet authorities and were praised for having "liberated themselves from decadence" and for their "significant role in the evolution of Georgian Soviet literature". Yet, the fate of the leading "Blue Horns" was tragic: Shalva Karmeli died of tuberculosis at the age of 24 in 1923 and his grave at the Kutaisi Archangel Church was soon razed by the
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
s; Titsian Tabidze and Nikolo Mitsishvili were executed and Paolo Iashvili shot himself during the
Great Purge
The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...
in 1937; Sergo Kldiashvili and Kolau Nadiradze were saved only by chance: their
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
interrogator was himself arrested and the files mislaid; Grigol Robakidze had earlier defected to
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
escaping the inevitable arrest; the purge of his friends and an obligatory conformism plunged Galaktion into depression and alcoholism, leading to his suicide in 1959. The only members of the Blue Horns movement to survive the Great Purge was
Giorgi Leonidze
Giorgi Leonidze ( ka, გიორგი ლეონიძე) (27 December 1899 – 9 August 1966) was a Georgian poet, prose writer, and literary scholar.
Biography
Leonidze was born in the village of Patardzeuli in the eastern Georgian ...
and Kolau Nadiradze.
References
*
Rayfield, Donald
Patrick Donald Rayfield OBE (born 12 February 1942, Oxford) is an English academic and Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London. He is an author of books about Russian and Georgian literature, and about Jose ...
(2000), ''
The Literature of Georgia: A History''. Routledge,
*
Seymour-Smith, Martin (1985), ''The New Guide to Modern World Literature''. P. Bedrick Books, {{ISBN, 0-87226-000-3
*
Lang, David Marshall (1962), ''A Modern History of Georgia''.
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Literature of Georgia (country)
Symbolist poets