Gerzel Baazov ( ka, გერცელ ბააზოვი) (October 28, 1904 – September 12, 1938) was a Georgian Jewish poet and playwright who fell victim to

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

Great Purges 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 by Leonid Nikolaev ...

. He was born in

Oni, Georgia Oni ( ka, ონი, tr ) is a town in Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti region (''mkhare''), Georgia. Historically and ethnographically, it is part of Racha, a historic highland province in western Georgia. The town also serves as an administra ...

(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 ...

) into the family of the leading Georgian

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

David Baazov. At the age of 14, he published his first poems under the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

of Ger-Bi (1918). In the 1920s, he systematically published poems, historical stories and journalistic essays in Georgian-Jewish press and garnered acclaim with his Georgian translation of

Song of Songs The Song of Songs (), also called the Canticle of Canticles or the Song of Solomon, is a Biblical poetry, biblical poem, one of the five ("scrolls") in the ('writings'), the last section of the Tanakh. Unlike other books in the Hebrew Bible, i ...

in 1924. In 1925, he organized a Tbilisi-based Georgian-Jewish dramatic troupe "Kadima" and began writing plays depicting the life of the Georgian Jews. In 1927, he graduated from the Faculty of Law,

Tbilisi State University Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University ( ka, ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტი, tr; often shorten ...

, and briefly served as a lawyer. Through his 1928 play ''Dilleamari'' (დილლეამარი), Baazov established himself as a leading writer in Georgian on Jewish themes. He was the first Jewish writer to introduce the subject matter of the life-style, character, and routine life of Georgian Jews into Georgian literature. In an amazingly brief period, Baazov wrote ten plays (notably ''The Mutes Began to Speak'' ��უნჯები ალაპარაკდნენ, 1931 ''Without Respect of Persons'' ��ანურჩევლად პიროვნებისა, 1933 '' Itska Rizhinashvili'' ��ცკა რიჟინაშვილი, 1936 etc.), most of which became standard items in Georgian repertory in the 1930s. Early in the 1930s, he conceived a trilogy on the Georgian Jews, the first part of which – ''Petkhaini'' – appeared in Georgian (ფეთხაინი, 1934) and Russian (Петхайн, 1936). His prolific work was terminated by the

Soviet political repressions Throughout the history of the Soviet Union, tens of millions of people suffered political repression, which was an instrument of the state since the October Revolution. It culminated during the Stalin era, then declined, but it continued to exist ...

under Stalin. In 1937, he was arrested in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

and extradited to Tbilisi where he was either shot or tortured to death during the interrogation. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1955. A street in his native Oni has been named after Gerzel Baazov.

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