Mikheil Javakhishvili ( ka, მიხეილ ჯავახიშვილი; birth surname: Adamashvili ადამაშვილი) (20 November 1880 – 30 September 1937) was a Georgian and Soviet novelist who is regarded as one of the top twentieth-century Georgian writers. His first story appeared in 1903, but then the writer lapsed into a long pause before returning to writing in the early 1920s. His recalcitrance to the Soviet ideological pressure cost him life: he was executed 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 ...
and his writings were banned for nearly twenty years. In the words of the modern British scholar of Russian and 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 ...
, "his vivid story-telling, straight in medias res, his buoyant humour, subtle irony, and moral courage merit comparison with those of
Stendhal
Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, , ), was a French writer. Best known for the novels ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' ('' The Red and the Black'', 1830) and ''La Chartreuse de Parme'' ('' T ...
,
Guy de Maupassant
Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, celebrated as a master of the short story, as well as a representative of the naturalist school, depicting human lives, destinies and s ...
, and
Émile Zola
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, ; ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of Naturalism (literature), naturalism, and an important contributor to ...
. In modern Georgian prose only
Konstantine Gamsakhurdia
Konstantine Gamsakhurdia ( ka, კონსტანტინე გამსახურდია, tr) (May 3, 1893 – July 17, 1975) was a Georgians, Georgian writer and public figure. Educated and first published in Germany, he married West ...
could aspire to the same international level."
Early life and career

He was born as Mikheil Adamashvili in the village of Tserakvi in what is now the
Kvemo Kartli
Kvemo Kartli ( ka, ქვემო ქართლი ) or "Lower Kartli", is a historic province and current administrative region (mkhare) in southeastern Georgia. The city of Rustavi is the regional capital.
Location
Kvemo Kartli is a region ...
region, Georgia (then part of
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 ...
). The mishmash with his real family name was later explained by writer himself. According to him, his grandparent, born as
Javakhishvili
The House of Javakhishvili ( ka, ჯავახიშვილი) is a Russian noble family of Georgian origin, which was a branch of the Toreli (თორელი), known from the 10th century.
History
The surname Javakhishvili, literally " ...
(noble family from the province
Kartli
Kartli ( ka, ქართლი ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial rol ...
) killed a man, therefore had to flee to
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 ...
where he took a new name Toklikishvili. Mikheil's grandfather Adam returned in
Kartli
Kartli ( ka, ქართლი ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial rol ...
. His son Saba was registered as Adamashvili. Mikheil was also wearing this name in his youth but later he returned the family name of ancestors-Javakhishvili. He enrolled into the
Yalta
Yalta (: ) is a resort town, resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Crime ...
College of Horticulture and Viticulture, but a family tragedy forced him to abandon his studies: robbers killed his mother and sister, and his father died shortly thereafter. Returning to Georgia in 1901, he worked at a copper smeltery in
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 ...
. His first story was published in 1903 under the penname of Javakhishvili, followed by a series of journalistic articles critical of the Russian authorities.In 1906, the
Tsarist
Tsarist autocracy (), also called Tsarism, was an autocracy, a form of absolute monarchy in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire. In it, the Tsar possessed in principle authority and ...
political repressions forced him to retire to France, where he studied art and political economy at the
University of Paris
The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...
. After the extensive travels to Switzerland, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, the United States, Germany and
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
from 1908 to 1909, he clandestinely returned to his homeland only to be arrested and exiled from Georgia in 1910.
He returned in 1917 and, after almost fifteen years of pause, resumed writing. In 1921, he joined the National Democratic Party of Georgia and was in opposition to the Soviet government established in Georgia the same year. In 1923, during the Bolshevik crackdown on the party, Javakhishvili was arrested and sentenced to death, but was exonerated through the mediation of the Georgian Union of Writers and released after six months of imprisonment. Javakhishvili's reconciliation with the Soviet regime was only superficial and his relations with the new authorities remained uneasy.
Best works
Javakhishvili skillfully incorporated folk phraseology into the normalized narrative language. In his best writings, the novelist combines the devastating realism and characteristic humorous touches with underlying pessimism and anarchy to contrast country and city life, tsarist and Soviet times. His plots, sometimes overtly rebellious, violent, and sexually passionate, intersect traditional taboos and belie any reconciliation with the new world and have a common ground: the rise of the Georgian
kulak
Kulak ( ; rus, кула́к, r=kulák, p=kʊˈɫak, a=Ru-кулак.ogg; plural: кулаки́, ''kulakí'', 'fist' or 'tight-fisted'), also kurkul () or golchomag (, plural: ), was the term which was used to describe peasants who owned over ...
, the life of the Georgian aristocratic intellectual and dilettante, and the impact on them both of the
revolutionary upheaval of 1917 and 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, ...
takeover of 1921.
In his most typical and influential novella, ''
Jaqo's Dispossessed
Mikheil Javakhishvili ( ka, მიხეილ ჯავახიშვილი; birth surname: Adamashvili ადამაშვილი) (20 November 1880 – 30 September 1937) was a Georgian and Soviet novelist who is regarded as one of the ...
'' (ჯაყოს ხიზნები; ''Jakos Khiznebi''), first published in 1924, Javakhishvili contrasts the swashbuckling, grasping, and swindler Jaqo with his victim, Prince Teimuraz Khevistavi, the amiable intellectual and ineffectual philanthropist whom his trustee, Jaqo, robs of his fortune, his beautiful and beloved wife Margo, and even of his sanity. In the person of Teimuraz, we follow the decline and fall of the old nobility, the disillusionment in the revolution and demoralization following the fall of a short-lived
independent Georgia. Another major work, the satirical ''
Kvachi Kvachantiradze'' (კვაჭი კვაჭანტირაძე; 1924), was dramatized in 1927 for
Sandro Akhmeteli
Alexandre Vasilis dze Akhmeteli ( ka, სანდრო ახმეტელი) (April 13, 1886 – June 27, 1937), known professionally as Sandro Akhmeteli, was a Georgia (country), Georgian theater director whose innovative conceptions and sk ...
's
Rustaveli Theatre
Rustaveli National Theatre ( ka, რუსთაველის ეროვნული თეატრი) is the largest and one of the oldest theaters of Georgia, located in its capital Tbilisi on Rustaveli Avenue. Housed in an ornate Rococo-st ...
, but the project was aborted when the leading pro-Bolshevik critics denounced it as pornography (the play has since been lost). In his 1926 novel ''
The White Collar'' (თეთრი საყელო), Javakhishvili describes the fate of the freedom-loving and stoical Georgian mountaineers –
Khevsurs – in the new Soviet reality. The
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 ( ...
an Elizbar, irritated to despise by his highly sexed, but stupid cosmopolitan wife, Tsutskia, withdraws into the Khevsuretian highlands and while prospecting for copper falls in love and marries a strongly traditional but loving and vivacious Khevsur clanswoman Khatuna. Although welcomed and befriended by the local mountainous community, Elizbar, longing to return to the city's life (symbolized in the story by
The White Collar), brings Khatuna to Tbilisi and abandons his highlander friends and in-laws in the face of a forthcoming disaster preceded by the Khevsur armed resistance to the Soviets.
The crowning merit of Javakhishvili's work – the novel ''
Arsena of Marabda'' (არსენა მარაბდელი) – was composed between 1933 and 1936. The writer spent years on research and rewriting a Russian as well as a Georgian version of the novel. The plot is based on the life of a real historical figure, the brigand
Arsena Odzelashvili Arsena Odzelashvili ( ka, არსენა ოძელაშვილი) commonly known as Arsena of Marabda (არსენა მარაბდელი; ''Arsena Marabdeli'') (c. 1797 – 1842) was a Georgian outlaw said to have robbed the ...
, who is also a favorite hero of Georgian folklore. Javakhishvili focuses on the tragic necessity that makes the chivalrous peasant Arsena to degenerate into the typical 19th-century bandit. Although the story of an outlaw fighting against the gentry was considered "ideologically correct", the "left" critics were suspicious of Javakhishvili's recognizable parallels between Imperial Russia and the Soviet state. Javakhishvili put many of his thoughts into Arsena's mouth. One example is his famous phrase: "Russia is galloping after Europe and the bleeding body it is dragging after it on a rope is Georgia". The work won great popularity from the common reader and bitter attacks from the Communist critics and proletarian writers who accused him of corruption, misrepresentation, slander, and subversion; even the fact that his nephew worked as a tram conductor in Greece was used against him.
Political views and last years

Because of his patriotic views Javakhishvili was arrested and exiled several times even during the era of
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 ...
. After the crash of The First
Georgian Democratic Republic and
annexing of the country by the
Russian
Bolshevik Regime, he always was under special surveillance because of his views and former membership of
National-Democratic Party. In 1924 he had been suspected of participating in the patriotic rebellion and was imprisoned and after series of interrogations and tortures proscribed to death. He survived only because of the "kind mood" of
Sergo Ordzhonikidze
Sergo Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze, ; (born Grigol Konstantines dze Orjonikidze; 18 February 1937) was an Old Bolshevik and a Soviet statesman.
Born and raised in Georgia, in the Russian Empire, Ordzhonikidze joined the Bolsheviks at an e ...
, who was personally asked by Javakhishvili's close friends historian
Pavle Ingorokva
Pavle Ingorokva ( ka, პავლე ინგოროყვა; January 1, 1893 in Poti – November 20, 1983 in Tbilisi) was a Georgian historian, philologist, and public benefactor.
He graduated from the University of St. Petersburg ...
and physician
Nikoloz Kipshidze
Nikoloz ( ka, ნიკოლოზ) is a Georgia (country), Georgian masculine given name. Diminutives of Nikoloz include Nika and Niko. It is a cognate of the name Nicholas. Notable people with the name include:
*Nikoloz Baratashvili, Nikoloz "Ta ...
. Although relations between writer and governing regime were always tense, in 1930, Javakhishvili clashed with
Malakia Toroshelidze, president of the Union of Writers and
People's Commissar
Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English language, English transliteration of the Russian language, Russian (''komissar''), which means 'commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the pol ...
for Education, suspected to be
Trotskyist
Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...
, after the latter's ban on the classics of Georgian literature. Upon
Lavrenty Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria ka, ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია} ''Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria'' ( – 23 December 1953) was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph ...
's coming to power, the ban was revoked, and Javakhishvili for a short time gained favor. His ''
Arsena of Marabda'' was republished, and both dramatized and filmed. However, he was not able to escape bitter criticism from the Bolsheviks even after he published, in 1936, the moderate ''
A Woman's Burden'' (ქალის ტვირთი), an attempt at a
Socialist realist novel. That was a story of a revolutionary but
bourgeoisie
The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...
woman, Ketevan, whose lover, a
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, ...
underground worker Zurab, persuades her to marry a Tsarist
gendarme
A gendarmerie () is a paramilitary or military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to "men-at-arms" (). In France and som ...
officer, Avsharov, whom she is to kill.

The Soviet ideologist
Vladimir Ermilov condemned the novel, claiming that it illustrated Bolsheviks as pure terrorists and made gendarmes too chivalrous. Soon, Beria resented Javakhishvili's refusal to seek his advice over the representation of Bolshevik activities in pre-revolutionary Georgia. Furthermore, Javakhishvili was suspected of warning the writer
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 ...
of impending arrest and assisting him in defecting to Germany back in 1930. The matters went to a head when, in 1936, he was accused of praising the French author
André Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French writer and author whose writings spanned a wide variety of styles and topics. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide's career ranged from his begi ...
whose ''Retour de l'URSS'' and the book's praise of Georgian writers reclassified both Gide and Javakhishvili into enemies. On 22 July 1937, when the poet
Paolo Iashvili shot himself in the Union of Writers building, and the Union's session went on to pass a resolution denouncing the poet's move as an
anti-Soviet
Anti-Sovietism or anti-Soviet sentiment are activities that were actually or allegedly aimed against the Soviet Union or government power within the Soviet Union.
Three common uses of the term include the following:
* Anti-Sovietism in inter ...
provocation, Javakhishvili was the sole person present to praise the poet's courage. Four days later, on 26 July, the presidium of the Union voted: "Mikheil Javakhishvili, as an enemy of the people, a spy and diversant, is to be expelled from the Union of Writers and physically annihilated." His friends and colleagues, including those already in prison, were forced to incriminate Javakhishvili as a counter-revolutionary terrorist. Only the critic
Geronti Kikodze left the Union's session in protest rather than give his consent to the resolution. The novelist was arrested on 14 August 1937 and tortured in the presence of Beria until he signed a "confession". He was shot on 30 September 1937. His property was confiscated, and his archives destroyed, his brother shot, and his widow sent into exile. Javakhisvhili remained censored until the late 1950s when he was
rehabilitated and republished. Some episodes from his biography like those from
Dimitri Shevardnadze
Dimitri Shevardnadze ( ka, დიმიტრი შევარდნაძე) (December 1, 1885 – 1937) was a Georgian painter, art collector and intellectual purged during Joseph Stalin's repressions.
Life
Born in Bakhvi, a small village i ...
were further used by
Tengiz Abuladze
Tengiz Evgenis dze Abuladze, romanized: (31 January 19246 March 1994) was a Georgian film director, screenwriter, theatre teacher and People's Artist of the USSR. He is regarded as one of the best Soviet directors.
Biography
Abuladze studie ...
in his film ''
Repentance
Repentance is reviewing one's actions and feeling contrition or regret for past or present wrongdoings, which is accompanied by commitment to and actual actions that show and prove a change for the better.
In modern times, it is generally seen ...
'' ().
A small part of his legacy is preserved in the Mikhail Javakhishvili house museum in central Tbilisi, where the writer used to live, in an apartment that is also inhabited by descendants of the family.
Bibliography
Novels
* (1924) კვაჭი კვაჭანტირაძე; English translation:
Kvachi Kvachantiradze (2015)
* (1925) ჯაყოს ხიზნები; English translation:
Jaqo's Dispossessed
Mikheil Javakhishvili ( ka, მიხეილ ჯავახიშვილი; birth surname: Adamashvili ადამაშვილი) (20 November 1880 – 30 September 1937) was a Georgian and Soviet novelist who is regarded as one of the ...
* (1926) თეთრი საყელო; English translation:
The White Collar
* (1928) გივი შადური; English translation:
Givi Shaduri
* (1932) არსენა მარაბდელი; English translation:
Arsena of Marabda
* (1936) ქალის ტვირთი; English translation:
A Woman's Burden
Novellas
* (1923) ტყის კაცი; English translation:
Man of the Forest
* (1925) ლამბალო და ყაშა; English translation:
Lambalo and Qasha
* (1927) კურდღელი; English translation:
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...
* (1928) დამპატიჟე; English translation:
Invite Me
* (1928) მიწის ყივილი; English translation:
Call from Motherland
* (1929) ფინჯანი; English translation: A Cup
* პატარა დედაკაცი; English translation:
A small woman
Short stories
*
Chanchura (1903)
* Shoemaker Gabo (1904)
* The Kurka's wedding
*
A Stone of Devil
* Eka
* Night of the Autumn
* Melted chain
* People's Law
* Metal sieve
* Teties
* Golden Teeth
* Ownerless
* Velvet dress
* Award
* Mususi
*
Qbacha has been late
*
Thruthful Abdulah
*
Two Verdicts(1925)
* Grandfather Dimo (1926)
* Two suns (1927)
* Five stories
* Nine Virgos (1935)
* Follower
* Two teeth
* An Avenger
* The Third
References
External links
Anthology of Georgian Literature: Mikheil Javakhishvili National Parliamentary Library of Georgia.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Javakhishvili, Mikheil
1880 births
1937 deaths
People from Marneuli
Great Purge victims from Georgia (country)
Historical novelists from Georgia (country)
Male writers from Georgia (country)
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Satirists from Georgia (country)
Satirical novelists from Georgia (country)
Soviet rehabilitations
20th-century writers from Georgia (country)