Gamsakhurdia, Konstantin Simonovich

Born May 3 ( May 15 ), 1891 in the village of Abasha in the West Georgian region of Megrelia in the family of petty nobleman Simon Katsievich Gamsakhurdia and his wife Elizaveta ^[1] , nee Topuridze.

The future writer received secondary education at the Kutaisi Gymnasium, and then continued his education at St. Petersburg University , where he attended lectures and seminars by orientalist N. Ya. Marr , familiarizing himself with his “yaphetic theory” in philology. Soon, Gamsakhurdia from ardent supporters of Marr turned into his opponent, left the university and moved to Germany, where he continued his studies in Koenigsberg, Leipzig, Munich and Berlin. Gamsakhurdia also attended lectures at the Sorbonne, universities in Switzerland. As a result, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Berlin (1918).

In Germany in the 1910s, Gamsakhurdia began to publish his first poems and short stories. In the early works of the writer, the influence of German expressionism and French symbolism is clearly visible. Gamsakhurdia joined the circle of famous German writers, was on friendly terms with T. Mann .

After the outbreak of the First World War of 1914-1918, Gamsakhurdia, as a subject of the Russian Empire, was interned and was in the Traunstein camp in Bavaria , from where he was released, thanks to the efforts of German writers. After the revolution of 1917 in Russia and the declaration of independence of Georgia in 1918, Gamsakhurdia appealed to the newly created Georgian embassy in Berlin with a demand to fight for the release of captured and interned Georgians and their return to their homeland.

In 1921, Gamsakhurdia returned to Georgia. At first, he perceived the capture of Georgia by the Bolsheviks neutrally. He was involved in editing various magazines in Tbilisi. However, the real practice of Bolshevik sovietization, the increase in repression and oppression of freedoms in Georgia led to the open anti-Bolshevik action of Gamsakhurdia and his associates in 1922 on the anniversary of the Bolshevik occupation. In 1923-1924, Gamsakhurdia and his followers created the "Academic Group", which put forward the slogan "Art outside politics and does not depend on social relations."

The first novel by Gamsakhurdia, “The Smile of Dionysus ” (1925), which fully reflects the philosophical and aesthetic views of the writer’s early period, was published in Tbilisi. The novel was written for six years. The protagonist of the novel is a Georgian intellectual in Paris, who broke away from his native society, but remained a stranger in the city of his ideal. Soviet criticism met the novel with hostility, accusing the author of decadence.

After the defeat of the August anti-Soviet uprising of 1924 in Georgia, Gamsakhurdia was expelled from Tbilisi University , where he taught German literature. On March 1, 1926, he was arrested and taken to Moscow. On June 28, 1926, the OGPU board sentenced the writer to 10 years in prison for participating in an anti-Soviet uprising. Gamsakhurdia was serving a term in the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp on the White Sea. He was released on parole on December 21, 1927 on the basis of a resolution of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR of November 23, 1927.

Gamsakhurdia remained silent about this period of his life. According to his relatives, he was saved from suicide by working on the translation of Dante ’s Divine Comedy and Goethe’s Young Werther ’s Suffering . At the same time, Gamsakhurdia wrote a biographical novel about Goethe “Goethe's Pages of Life ” (1930), which laid the foundation for the development of the theme of the artist’s fate in a totalitarian society.

In the early 1930s, Gamsakhurdia received the support of the first secretary of the Central Committee of the CP (b) of Georgia, Beria , in exchange for a promise to write a “socialist” novel. The novel “ The Abduction of the Moon ” (1935-1936) takes place against the backdrop of collectivization in Abkhazia, but author's pessimism about the fate of the protagonists provoked criticism of the government, and Beria was not satisfied with this work. In 1937, Gamsakhurdia was arrested on charges of connection with the director of the State Publishing House of Georgia Lida Gasviani, who was convicted of Trotskyism . Thanks to the intervention of Beria, Gamsakhurdia was released.

Despite dissatisfaction with the policies of Stalin and Beria in Georgia, which destroyed the country's best intellectual and cultural forces, Gamsakhurdia was forced not only to remain silent, but also to join the chorus of glorifications addressed to the “great leader”. In 1938, the publication of the novel The Leader about the childhood of Stalin began. The expressionism of the writer in the image of Stalin caused discontent among government circles, and publication was discontinued.

From the work of P. A. Sudoplatov “Different days of the secret war and diplomacy. 1941 ”it is known that during the emergence of the Caucasian Front, Gamsakhurdia was considered by Beria as a possible leader of the Soviet residency in Georgia, in case the Germans broke. However, the playwright Machavariani was assigned to this role instead.

At the peak of the Stalinist terror, Gamsakhurdia began work on his main work - a novel about the tragic fate of the artist in the totalitarian society “ Hand of the Great Master ” (1939, final edition 1956). The historical background of the story was the construction of the Svetitskhoveli Orthodox Church in the ancient capital of Georgia, Mtskheta, in 1010-1029. commissioned by King George I and Catholicos Melchizedek by Georgian architect Konstantin Arsakidze. In the novel, the fates of the main antagonist heroes Arsakidze and George are woven into a tragic ball - they compete because of the love of the daughter of one of the Shorena eristavs. Both are torn between love and duty (ruler or artist). The tragic conclusion of the writer is that a person cannot find happiness in a totalitarian society. Fate leads to the disappointment and death of both heroes, they both become victims of a totalitarian system, despite the fact that, on external signs, they are on different sides of the government. In the novel, the writer in allegorical form expressed the tragedy of the Stalin era.

The same themes, although in a more muffled version, are voiced in the monumental historical tetralogy " David the Builder " (1946-1958), the events of which unfold in the XII century - in the heyday of the Georgian feudal state.

In the novel Flowering Vines (1956), Gamsakhurdia depicts the collective farm peasantry of the 1930s and 1940s, which turned the badlands of Gveleti into vineyards. Gamsakhurdia is a great master of the image of public relations, ceremonies, household details. He made a significant contribution to the development of Georgian prose.

Gamsakhurdia’s memoirs “ Communication with ghosts ” (1963) and his testament (1959) were banned from publication and published only after 1991.

Gamsakhurdia was buried in the park of his Kolkhskaya tower mansion, since he had categorically refused a funeral in the national pantheon of Mtatsminda because communist figures were buried there.

He was married to Miranda (Matiko) Palavandishvili , children from this marriage: son Zviad - the first president of Georgia and daughter Tamara.

He lived in Tbilisi , on Griboedov street , 21, then - on Gali street, 15.

Novels

• The smile of Dionysus (1925)
• Goethe's Pages of Life (1930)
• The Abduction of the Moon (1935-1936)
• Leader (1938-1939, not finished)
• The hand of the great master (1939-1956)
• David the Builder (t. 1-4, 1946-1958)
• Flowering Vines (1956)

Translations (into Georgian )

• The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
• “The sufferings of young Werther ” by I. V. Goethe

Edition of works in Russian translation

• Selected works in 6 volumes. - Tbilisi, 1964.
• Collected works in 8 volumes (7 books). - Tbilisi, 1972-1981.

Screen versions of works

• “ Right hand of the great master ” (USSR, 1969, directors David Abashidze , Vakhtang Tabliashvili ).
• " The Abduction of the Moon " (USSR, 1973, director Tamaz Meliava ).

Musical Compositions

• “ Right hand of the great master ” - opera in four acts by Shalva Mshvelidze (1961).

• State Prize of the Georgian SSR named after Shota Rustaveli (1965) for the tetralogy "David the Builder"
• two orders of Lenin (including 05/04/1971)
• Order of the Red Banner of Labor (04.17.1958)
• another order
• medals

• Gamsakhurdia is named after the Sukhumi Drama Theater.
• Gamsakhurdia monument (sculptor T. Kikalishvili, architect T. Tevzadze) is installed in Tbilisi.
• May 15 is the feast of Konstantineoba
• The street in Batumi (St. Konstantin Gamsakhurdia) is named after him.

• Gamsakhurdia, Konstantin Simonovich at the Rodovod . Tree of ancestors and descendants
• History of Georgian literature. - M., 1952.

• The text of the novel “Right hand of the great master” in Russian translation
• The text of the novel "The Abduction of the Moon" in the Russian translation