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 province of

Kakheti Kakheti (; ) is a region of Georgia. Telavi is its administrative center. The region comprises eight administrative districts: Telavi, Gurjaani, Qvareli, Sagarejo, Dedoplistsqaro, Signagi, Lagodekhi and Akhmeta. Kakhetians speak the ...

. He graduated from the

Tbilisi Theological Seminary Tbilisi Theological Academy and Seminary ( ka, თბილისის სასულიერო სემინარია, tr; ) is a seminary in Tbilisi, Georgia. It operated from 1817 to 1919 under the name Tiflis Theological Seminary in ...

in 1918 and continued his studies at the

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

. His first poems appeared in Georgian press in 1911, and then, briefly collaborated with the

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 ...

group Blue Horns. In 1925, he began writing nature lyrics focused on his native Kakheti, turning further towards Romanticism. Throughout 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 ...

period, he adapted to the political whims of the government authorities by writing more historical and patriotic poetry, often using medieval imagery. He quickly established himself as one of the most popular poets of Georgia, but, when the

purges In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertaking such an ...

of the 1930s took lives of many of his fellow writers and his own brother, microbiologist Leon Leonidze, he was forced to direct his talents into panegyrics 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 ...

. Scholar of Georgian literature

Donald Rayfield 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 Jos ...

described one unfinished 1936 epic, ''Stalin: Childhood and Youth,'' as "remarkable for its simulated verve and a total of absence of biographic details, factual or invented."Rayfield, Donald (2000), '' The Literature of Georgia: A History'', p. 256.

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 ...

, . Leonidze also wrote scrupulous literary studies of earlier Georgian poets such as Besiki and Baratashvili, and produced prose based on his childhood memoirs and experiences, including ''The Tree of Desire'' (ნატვრის ხე), which Tengiz Abuladze adapted in 1976 as the second part of his famous film trilogy. In his later years, Leonidze used his wealth to benefit his native village and presided over the Institute of Georgian Literature at the Georgian Academy of Sciences from 1958 until his death in 1966. He is buried at the Mtatsminda Pantheon at Tbilisi. The Giorgi Leonidze State Museum of Literature in Tbilisi continues to carry his name.

References

*George L. Kavtaradze, Giorgi Leonidze (Biography

Accessed on November 19, 2007. *George L. Kavtaradze, Giorgi Leonidze and his Poetr

Accessed on October 6, 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Leonidze, Giorgi 1899 births 1966 deaths 20th-century writers from Georgia (country) 20th-century philologists 20th-century poets from Georgia (country) People from Tiflis Governorate Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Members of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences Tbilisi State University alumni Recipients of the Stalin Prize Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Socialist realism writers Male poets from Georgia (country) Male writers from Georgia (country) Philologists from Georgia (country) Place of death missing