Elisabed Zardiasvili
PhD in Philology
TSU Shota Rustaveli Institute of Literature
Research Fellow
Tbilisi, Georgia
ORCID:
Elisabed Zardiasvili
PhD in Philology
TSU Shota Rustaveli Institute of Literature
Research Fellow
Tbilisi, Georgia
ORCID:
On the History of the Relationship Between Alexander Kazbegi
and Rapiel Eristavi
The history of literature has kept for us fascinating facts reflecting the relationship between two great creators – Alexander Kazbegi and Rapiel Eristavi.
Their first public and literary interaction in public occurred in the 1880s, when Sergey Meskhi published Kazbegi's letter "Mokhevs and their life". Rapiel Eristavi was employed as a censor at that time. He seemed to find the work so interesting that he translated it into Russian right away and submitted it to the "Notes of the Caucasian Department of the Imperial Geographical Society of Russia" for publication. By making this gesture, R. Eristavi encouraged and inspired the writer to continue his effort.
In 1881, the newspaper "Iveria" (N131-147) published A. Kazbegi's letter, which was an extensive review of Gustav Radde's book "Khevsureti and the Khevsurians". Upon noticing numerous errors in this work, Kazbegi decided to explain, particularly because Radde cites Eristavi's ethnographic studies on Khevsureti as one of his sources. A. Kazbegi's letter was a kind of fair support to R. Eristavi's writings, because the inaccuracies committed by Radde were not fixed in them. R. Eristavi got acquainted with Kazbegi's letter, agreed with his comments and himself published an extensive review of Radde's work.
As censor, R. Eristavi did a fantastic job on A. Kazbegi's four-volume 1891-1892 edition. He also constantly offered the writer support, encouragement, and assistance in various activities.
A.Kazbegi and R. Eristavi were related through their families as well. Kazbegi's sister Daria was married to R. Eristavi's brother – Sosiko. The writer often visited his sister in Kistauri. The memoirs describe how the writer spent time in Kistauri, in the family of Eristavis.
Apart from Kistauri, Alexander Kazbegi often visited Telavi, where he had friendly families. The writer was warmly welcomed by the Telavi society. These relationships occasionally developed into literary evenings and poetry celebrations, which benefited all sides in a mutually beneficial way. A. Kazbegi visited public schools and workshops when he was in Kakheti, offering assistance and guidance.
The support of the great writer inspired and instilled enthusiasm in teachers, students and the general public. Meetings with people also served as a sort of tribune for the sharing of thoughts that one would be afraid to voice in the newspaper for fear of being censored.
Thus, memoirs or other written documents provide a lot of material for two great writers – Al. Kazbegi and R. Eristavi for the history of relations between the people, as well as for enriching their biographies with unknown features.
Keywords: public and literary interaction, review, edition, censorship, written documents.