Simon Ivanes dze Chikovani ( ka, სიმონ ჩიქოვანი; 27 December 1902 – 24 April 1966) was a prominent

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 ...

poet. He set out to be the leader of the Georgian

Futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abou ...

movement and ended up as a Soviet establishment figure.

Early life and career

Born near the town

Abasha Abasha ( ka, აბაშა) is a town in western Georgia with a population of 4,941. It is situated between the rivers of Abasha and Noghela, at 23m above sea level and is located some to the west of Tbilisi. The settlement of ''Abasha'' acq ...

, he was educated at the

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 ...

Realschule ''Realschule'' () is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), ...

and

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

from which he graduated in 1922. As a teenager, he was associated with the

Blue Horns Tsisperqantselebi ( ka, ცისფერყანწელები; The Blue Horns) was a group of Georgian Symbolist poets and prose-writers which dominated the Georgian literature in the 1920s. It was founded as a coterie of young talented wri ...

, a group of young Georgian Symbolists. Although he stood far from any “

proletarian The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose only possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian. Marxist philoso ...

” thematic, he joined the nascent "Left" poets and became their spokesman. In 1924, was arrested and nearly shot on a walking-tour to

Kakheti Kakheti ( ka, კახეთი ''K’akheti''; ) is a region (mkhare) formed in the 1990s in eastern Georgia from the historical province of Kakheti and the small, mountainous province of Tusheti. Telavi is its capital. The region comprises eigh ...

during the

Red Terror The Red Terror (russian: Красный террор, krasnyj terror) in Soviet Russia was a campaign of political repression and executions carried out by the Bolsheviks, chiefly through the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police. It started in lat ...

that followed the Georgian rebellion against the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

rule. Between 1924 and 1929, he produced two series of poems (ფიქრები მტკვრის პირას The Thought at the Mtkvari"">Mtkvari.html" ;"title="The Thought at the Mtkvari">The Thought at the Mtkvari" 1925; მხოლოდ ლექსები ["Only Poems"], 1930) that earned him a reputation of one of the most original Georgian poets of the 20th century. In the words of modern British scholar Donald Rayfield, "most are energetic and provocative Walt Whitman, Whitmanesque heckling and satirising of the older generation of poets: Chikovani sported Vladimir Mayakovsky, Mayakovsky’s mantle."

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 ...

(2000), '' The Literature of Georgia: A History'', pp. 265-260.

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 ...

, . Since 1924, he edited the notorious Futurist journal '' H₂SO₄'' and directed his attacks against his former associates from the Blue Horns group, chiefly

Titsian Tabidze Titsian Tabidze ( ka, ტიციან ტაბიძე, Mononymous person, simply referred to as Titsiani; ka, ტიციანი) (16 December 1937), was a Georgia (country), Georgian poet and one of the leaders of the Georgian Symbolism ...

and

Paolo Iashvili Paolo Iashvili ( ka, პაოლო იაშვილი; 29 June 1894 – 22 July 1937) was a Georgian poet and one of the leaders of Georgian symbolist movement. Under the Soviet Union, his obligatory conformism and the loss of his friends at ...

Later years and turn to politics

From 1930 onward, he distanced himself from his innovative Futurism and brought his work more in line with ideologically-sanctioned patriotic lyrics and love-poetry, suppressing all reference to his versatile early work, especially during the 1937

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 ...

, in which his brother was shot. He went on to serve as a secretary of the Georgian Union of Writers from 1930 to 1932, its president from 1944 to 1951, and finally as deputy of the

Supreme Soviet The Supreme Soviet (russian: Верховный Совет, Verkhovny Sovet, Supreme Council) was the common name for the legislative bodies (parliaments) of the Soviet socialist republics (SSR) in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) ...

from 1950 to 1954. There are streets named after Simon Chikovani 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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chikovani, Simon 1902 births 1966 deaths Burials at Mtatsminda Pantheon Male poets from Georgia (country) 20th-century poets from Georgia (country) Place of death missing People from Kutais Governorate 20th-century male writers Soviet poets

Early life and career

Later years and turn to politics

See also

References