Sandro Shanshiashvili ( ka, სანდრო შანშიაშვილი, 1888-1979) was a Georgian poet and playwright. Shanshiashvili was born in the small village Jugaani near Sighnaghi (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 ...

). In the 1900s, he was noted for his dramas in verse and prose. At the same time, he engaged in revolutionary movement against the Tsarist rule and was put in prison in 1908. He then began writing long poems based on

Greek legends Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories concern the ancient ...

Colchis In classical antiquity and Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (; ) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( ka, ეგრისი) located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia. Its population, the ...

and composed his conventionally titled book of lyrics, ''The Garden of Sadness'' (სევდის ბაღი, 1909) influenced by the 18th-century Georgian poet

Besiki Besarion Zakarias dze Gabashvili ( ka, ბესარიონ ზაქარიას ძე გაბაშვილი), commonly known by his pen name Besiki ( ka, ბესიკი) (1750 – 25 January 1791), was a Georgian poet, politici ...

and his contemporary

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

Symbolist

Paul Verlaine Paul-Marie Verlaine ( ; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolism (movement), Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the ''fin de siècle'' ...

. Around 1910, he was praised by critics as the most promising and the most

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

anized Georgian poet. Study at

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, and

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(1911-1914) brought more pronounced influence of Symbolist narrative poetry. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, he joined the Georgian National Democratic Party advocating the independence from Russia and edited the newspaper '' Sakartvelo'' and the magazine ''Merani''. In 1925, Shanshiashvili gathered twenty years of his lyrics into ''The High Road I Have Travelled'' (გავლილი გზა), followed by a series of heroic poems. At last, in 1930, he achieved fame throughout the Soviet Union with ''Anzor'', an adapted translation into a

Caucasian Caucasian may refer to: Common meanings *Anything from the Caucasus region or related to it ** Ethnic groups in the Caucasus ** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus re ...

setting of

Vsevolod Ivanov Vsevolod Vyacheslavovich Ivanov (, ; – 15 August 1963) was a Soviet and Russian writer, dramatist, journalist and war correspondent. Biography Ivanov was born on in Lebyazhye, Semipalatinsk Oblast, Governor-Generalship of the Steppes, Rus ...

’s civil-war play '' Armoured Train 14-69''.

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 ...

, director of the

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 ...

, transformed the play into a

Wagnerian Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most ...

spectacle. The "left" Soviet critics immediately attacked ''Anzor'' for trivializing the revolution. In the 1930s, endangered by the Stalinist

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 ...

due to his ties with the purged Georgian intellectuals, he made half-hearted attempts to praise

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 ...

and

Lavrentiy 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 ...

. His later dramas draw factually on the misfortunes of the 18th-century Georgia and the civil war catastrophes. He was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1949.

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'': 2nd edition, pp. 245–6. Routledge, . {{DEFAULTSORT:Shanshiashvili, Sandro 1888 births 1979 deaths Male poets from Georgia (country) Dramatists and playwrights from Georgia (country) 20th-century poets from Georgia (country) 20th-century dramatists and playwrights from Georgia (country) 20th-century writers from Georgia (country)