Gerzel Baazov ( ka, გერცელ ბააზოვი) (October 28, 1904 – September 12, 1938) was a Georgian Jewish poet and playwright who fell victim to

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

’s Great Purges. He was born in

Oni, Georgia Oni ( ka, ონი, tr) is a town in Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti region (''mkhare''), Georgia. Historically and ethnographically, it is part of Racha, a historic highland province in western Georgia. The town also serves as an administrativ ...

(then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

) into the family of the leading Georgian

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

David Baazov. At the age of 14, he published his first poems under the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

of Ger-Bi (1918). In the 1920s, he systematically published poems, historical stories and journalistic essays in Georgian-Jewish press and garnered acclaim with his Georgian translation of Song of Songs in 1924. In 1925, he organized a Tbilisi-based Georgian-Jewish dramatic troupe "Kadima" and began writing plays depicting the life of the Georgian Jews. In 1927, he graduated from the Faculty of Law,

Tbilisi State University Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University ( ka, ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტი ''Ivane Javaxishvi ...

, and briefly served as a lawyer. Through his 1928 play ''Dilleamari'' (დილლეამარი), Baazov established himself as a leading writer in Georgian on Jewish themes. He was the first Jewish writer to introduce the subject matter of the life-style, character, and routine life of Georgian Jews into Georgian literature. In an amazingly brief period, Baazov wrote ten plays (notably ''The Mutes Began to Speak'' ��უნჯები ალაპარაკდნენ, 1931 ''Without Respect of Persons'' ��ანურჩევლად პიროვნებისა, 1933 '' Itska Rizhinashvili'' ��ცკა რიჟინაშვილი, 1936 etc.), most of which became standard items in Georgian repertory in the 1930s. Early in the 1930s, he conceived a trilogy on the Georgian Jews, the first part of which – ''Pethaim'' – appeared in Georgian (ფეთხაინი, 1934) and Russian (Петхайн, 1936). His prolific work was terminated by the

Soviet political repressions Throughout the history of the Soviet Union, tens of millions of people suffered political repression, which was an instrument of the state since the October Revolution. It culminated during the Stalin era, then declined, but it continued to exist ...

under Stalin. In 1937, he was arrested in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

and extradited to Tbilisi where he was either shot or tortured to death during the interrogation. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1955. A street in his native Oni has been named after Gerzel Baazov.

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