Kutaisi
Kutaisi (, ka, ქუთაისი ) is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and the third-most populous city in Georgia, traditionally, second in importance, after the capital city of Tbilisi. Situated west of Tbilis ...
– 21 September 1937,
Tbilisi
Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...
) was a
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
philosopher and political activist who was a deputy of the National Council of Georgia and the Constituent Assembly of Georgia (1919-1921). He was executed during
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 Purge
The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...
.
Biography
In 1898, he graduated from
Tbilisi Theological Seminary
Tbilisi Theological Seminary ( ka, თბილისის სასულიერო სემინარია; russian: Тбили́сская духо́вная семина́рия) is a spiritual training institution, which operated from ...
. He subsequently studied in
Tartu
Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...
,
Kharkov
Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine.
and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
Zakaria Chichinadze
Zakaria Chichinadze ( ka, ზაქარია ჭიჭინაძე; 1854 – 27 December 1931) was a self-educated Georgia (country), Georgian literary critic, bibliophile, historian, and a book publisher.
Early years
Zakaria Chichinadze was ...
and copied them by hand in the evening. They did the same with Marx's
Capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
. They hid these books and their handwritten transcriptions whenever visited by the monk Dmitrii, the seminary's inspector.
Devdariani brought the future leader of the USSR, who considered Devdariani his first teacher for a long time, to the Social-Democratic Union '' Mesame Dasi'' ("Third Group"). In 1906-1907, he personally saved Stalin from arrest and gave him refuge in his ancestral home in
Imereti
Imereti (Georgian: იმერეთი) is a region of Georgia situated in the central-western part of the republic along the middle and upper reaches of the Rioni River. Imereti is the most populous region in Georgia. It consists of 11 municip ...
.
In 1900, Devdariani joined the
Menshevik Party
The Mensheviks (russian: меньшевики́, from меньшинство 'minority') were one of the three dominant factions in the Russian socialist movement, the others being the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries.
The factions em ...
. He was actively involved in the social-democratic press, wrote philosophical and political articles. During the Russian Revolution of 1917, he led the Mensheviks in
Kharkiv
Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.
After the fall of the Georgian republic, Devdariani became involved in the anti-Soviet opposition. Between 1921 and 1924 he was Chairman of the underground Central Committee of the Georgian Social-Democratic party, in 1922-1924 a member of the underground Committee of Independence of Georgia. After that he devoted himself entirely to philosophy and history.
In 1937, he was arrested in
Tbilisi
Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...
and executed by the Soviet government.
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 Josep ...
(2004), ''Stalin and His Hangmen: An Authoritative Portrait of a Tyrant and Those Who Served Him'', p. 49.
Viking Press
Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim and then acquire ...
,
Devdariani was the author of several works on philosophy, including a three-volume history of Georgian thought which was lost after his execution. Only one chapter, that on the 18th-century Catholicos Anton I, survived to be published in 1989.Rayfield, Donald (2000), '' The Literature of Georgia: A History'', p. 297.
Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...
, .
Literature
* Levan Urushadze. Devdariani Seit. In: Encyclopedia "Sakartvelo", Vol. 2, Tbilisi, 2012, p. 356 (In Georgian).