David Kldiashvili ( ka, დავით კლდიაშვილი, ''Davit' Kldiašvili'') (August 29, 1862 – April 24, 1931) was a Georgian prose-writer whose novels and plays are concentrated on the degeneration of the country’s gentry and the miseries of the peasantry, boldly exposing the antagonisms of Georgian society. Born to an impoverished petite noble family in the province of

Imereti Imereti ( Georgian: იმერეთი, ) is a region of Georgia situated in the central-western part of the republic along the middle and upper reaches of the Rioni River. Imereti is the most populous region in Georgia. It consists of 11 mun ...

, Georgia (then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

), he was educated at the military schools of

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and

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(1880-1882). Returning to Georgia, he joined the Russian army. While serving in

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ), historically Batum or Batoum, is the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), second-largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast ...

, he was close to the local intelligentsia and engaged in cultural activities. Deemed to be a non-reliable officer, he was forced to resign as a non-reliable officer during the

Russian Revolution of 1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...

. During

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, he was remobilized in the army and served on the Ottoman front. Following the 1917

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

, he was demobilized and, sick and tired, returned to his native village. Kldiashvili’s best works belong to the first half of his life. He is said to have forgotten his Georgian while studying in

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and to have had to relearn it. Nevertheless, he is regarded as an exemplary prose stylist with superb humor and gentler social satire. Since the 1880s, his translations and original works were regularly published in Georgian press. The first major novel, ''Solomon Morbeladze'' (სოლომონ მორბელაძე) appeared in 1894, followed by ''Samanishvili's Step-Mother'' (სამანიშვილის დედინაცვალი, 1897), ''The Misfortunes of Kamushadze'' (ქამუშაძის გაჭირვება, 1900), ''Rostom Manvelidze'' (როსტომ მანველიძე, 1910), and ''Bakula's Pigs'' (ბაკულას ღორები, 1920). His plays, especially ''Irine’s Happiness'' (ირინეს ბედნიერება, 1897) and ''The Misfortunes of Darispan'' (დარისპანის გასაჭირი, 1903) resemble the French comedies of the 1840s only set in an Imeretian village at the turn of the 20th century. They are typically tragicomic impregnated with what the author himself referred to as "tears mixed with a smile". In the 1920s, Kldiashvili returned to writing and produced his memoirs ''On the Road of My Life'' (ჩემი ცხოვრების გზაზე, 1925), as well as two new novellas published between 1924 and 1926. In 1930, he was awarded the title of

People's Artist People's Artist is an honorary title in the Soviet Union, Union republics, in some other Eastern bloc states (and communist states in general), as well as in a number of post-Soviet states, modeled after the title of the People's Artist of the U ...

of Georgia.

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'', pp. 181-182.

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

, .Mikaberidze, Alexander (ed., 2007)
Kldiashvili, David
''Dictionary of Georgian National Biography''. Accessed on August 15, 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kldiashvili, David 1862 births 1931 deaths Burials at Mtatsminda Pantheon Male writers from Georgia (country) Dramatists and playwrights from Georgia (country) People's Artists of Georgia Russian military personnel of World War I 20th-century dramatists and playwrights from Georgia (country) 19th-century dramatists and playwrights from Georgia (country) Writers from the Russian Empire

See also

References