Robakidze, Grigol
Grigol Robakidze[1] was born on October 28, 1880 in the village Sviri,
Imereti in western Georgia (at that time Kutaisi Guberniya of Russian Empire).
In 1890 he entered the
Kutaisi theological school, and in 1895 continued his studies in theological seminary,
graduating with the diploma of first degree (the equivalent of a Bachelor’s).
He opted not to continue with a clerical career, and without the consent of his
family continued his studies in Law at Tartu University (Estonia) in 1901. In
December of the same year he was expelled from the University due to his
inability to pay for tuition. After dropping out of law school he was, like
many exceptionally talented men of his day, supported by various influential
Georgian writers and public figures such as Akaki Tsereteli, Kita Abashidze,
Niko Nikoladze and George Zhdanevich. In 1902, thanks to his network of
supporters, Grigol Robakidze continued his studies abroad, this time at the
department of philosophy at Leipzig University, Germany. He graduated in 1906,
but stayed in Europe for two more years to attend courses that captured his
interest at French and German universities.
In 1908, Grigol Robakidze returned to Tbilisi, Georgia and began his literary career as a poet, playwright and critic. He lectured on issues of philosophy, Georgian and world literature with great success in both German and Russian language in Tbilisi, Georgia and Petersburg, Russia.
In 1910, Robakidze, already famous, returned to the faculty of Law at Tartu University. Although he completed his courses, he received his diploma in law at the University of Kazan, Russia much later.
In 1915, Robakidze founded and led the Blue Horns (“tsisperqantselebi”), a new group of symbolist poets and writers.
According to Robakidze’s nephew, Rostom Lominashvili, “During the First World War, Grigol Robakidze was in Iran... where my uncle met his first wife, Nino Domenskaya. He wed and they bore two children.” [1] Despite his adamant disapproval, Robakidze’s wife took their children to Baku where her parents lived. At the time, the influenza epidemic (which started in Western Europe in the latter months of the war, killed millions in Europe and then spread around the world) was at its peak. Both children became infected and died. After the death of the children, Robakidze divorced Nino Domenskaya.
In 1917, Grigol Robakidze was one of the founders of the Union of Georgian Writers. In 1918-1921 Robakidze was a member of the Editorial Board of the Georgian newspaper "Sakartvelo" ("Georgia"). In 1919 he participated in the Paris Conference as a member and secretary of the Delegation of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
In 1919-1920 Grigol Robakidze lectured a special course on “German Romanticism” at the University of Baku (Azerbaijan). In 1922, he married a second time to a Russian woman named Elena Fialkina.
In 1926, the novel The Snake's Skin was published for the first time in Georgian, the language in which it was originally written. In 1928 Grigol Robakidze translated it himself into German, and left for Germany thereafter for its German publication [2]
That same year, 1928, Grigol Robakidze returned to his motherland, though emigration was to eventually be his fate. On March 6, 1931, he, his second wife and her niece, Alya Pogorelova, crossed the border for good and became émigrés. They arrived in Berlin, Germany, where they remained until 1945.
Grigol Robakidze’s stay in Germany (1931-1945) was very productive. His publications during this period include “Megi – A Georgian Woman” (“Megi – Ein georgisches Mädchen”), “The Extinguished Soul” (“Die gemordete Seele”), “The Cry of the Goddess” (“Der Ruf der Göttin”), “Guardians of the Grail” (“Die Hüter des Grals”), “Demon and Myth” (“Dämon und Mythos”), “Adolf Hitler”, and “Mussolini”. He also wrote poems and numerous essays. He lectured, appeared on radio, and participated in the German literary salons. He was a writer of great popularity, enjoying especially rapt crowds in the literary salons.
In the early years of working in Germany, Grigol Robakidze was acknowledged as a genius writer. In 1933, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature, and although he did not receive it, his nomination is testimony to the love his German audience had for him and his inspirational works.
It was not until the end of World War II that attitudes toward Grigol Robakidze began to shift, as his books on Mussolini and Hitler were believed to favor Nazism. Robakidze himself rejected these claims. To him, the duty of a writer was to reflect upon historic personalities and their nature, regardless of their political worldviews. So he wrote about Lenin and Stalin on the one hand, and Hitler and Mussolini on the other. His interest was not in their worldviews but in the personalities themselves, whose globally important roles, whether positive or negative, imprinted the history of mankind.
Grigol Robakidze did not regard himself as a politician, and believed politics to be a harmful engagement for a writer. But his contemporary readers could not imagine the names Hitler and Mussolini beyond their political limits, and Robakidze had to deal with the consequences. After World War II he was regarded with distrust in Europe. Regardless of where he turned, the doors of the great publishing houses were closed for him. Even his essay “Explanation”, in which he clarified his reasons for writing on such topics, could not convince publishers, and was never published. Robakidze was never able to reestablish his fame in the west, while in the USSR all his books were extinguished and his name hardly mentioned.
Because of these fatal works, the Georgian writer moved to Geneva, Switzerland at the end of the World War II, where he spent the final years of his life (1945-1962). During this period he published 32 very important essays in the Georgian scientific and literary magazine “Bedi Kartlisa” that was published in Georgian and later in French under the name of "Le destin de la Georgie" (“Fate of Kartli”) and that was edited in Paris, France, where he was a member of the Editorial Board.
The writer spent 17 years in Switzerland. From 1945-50 he wrote the books “Israel, as the Mystery and the Fate” and “Friedrich Nietzsche”, along with essays such as “Near the spring of Isis”, “Vincent Van Gogh”, “The Unborn Word as the Source for Poetry”, “Atom Split”, “Techne and Mythos”, and “Doktor Faustus by Thomas Mann”. As Akaki Bakradze states “Sadly we have not been acquainted with many of the works so far. They may be a part of the archive that is unavailable to us”.[3]
Starting in 1950, Robakidze spent seven years devotedly taking care of his wife, who was suffering from apoplexy. In 1957 Elena Fialkina passed away in Geneva. The couple had no children.
Two years before his death, almost 80 years old, Robakidze and the painter-countess Gita von Schtrachwitz, 48 years younger, fell in love with each other. They planned a marriage and the writer even met the father of his beloved to ask for consent. On November 17, 1962 Grigol wrote to Gita that soon the day they would be united would come, but on November 19, completely alone, he passed away. Only eight people attended his funeral. He was buried in Geneva, but on November 22, 1976 he was relocated to the Cemetery of Leuville-sur-Orge, France, a burial ground for Georgian immigrants to Europe.
Since his death, the estate of Grigol Robakidze, especially his archive, has been an issue of much controversy between Georgian and Swiss parties. Finally, the Georgian party succeeded in obtaining only the Georgian part of Robakidze’s works, while the Swiss party obtained the much more substantial non-Georgian section of the archive, due mainly to the work and financing of an honored Swiss writer – Doctor Arnold Sigrist. According to Georgian philologist Rusudan Sharadze, Arnold Sigrist confessed: “Dr. Korti and I did everything to obtain Swiss domain over (Robakidze’s) literary legacy. For that reason I twice financed trips to Geneva and spent hundreds of working hours in order to search for his literary heritage and the documents linked to it”.[4]
During 1999-2000, journalist and philologist George Sharadze tried to trace the non-Georgian part of the writer’s archive in vain. Apparently Dr. Sigrist has hidden it so carefully that Georgians still have yet to uncover any trace of it.
Main Works:
In 1908, Grigol Robakidze returned to Tbilisi, Georgia and began his literary career as a poet, playwright and critic. He lectured on issues of philosophy, Georgian and world literature with great success in both German and Russian language in Tbilisi, Georgia and Petersburg, Russia.
In 1910, Robakidze, already famous, returned to the faculty of Law at Tartu University. Although he completed his courses, he received his diploma in law at the University of Kazan, Russia much later.
In 1915, Robakidze founded and led the Blue Horns (“tsisperqantselebi”), a new group of symbolist poets and writers.
According to Robakidze’s nephew, Rostom Lominashvili, “During the First World War, Grigol Robakidze was in Iran... where my uncle met his first wife, Nino Domenskaya. He wed and they bore two children.” [1] Despite his adamant disapproval, Robakidze’s wife took their children to Baku where her parents lived. At the time, the influenza epidemic (which started in Western Europe in the latter months of the war, killed millions in Europe and then spread around the world) was at its peak. Both children became infected and died. After the death of the children, Robakidze divorced Nino Domenskaya.
In 1917, Grigol Robakidze was one of the founders of the Union of Georgian Writers. In 1918-1921 Robakidze was a member of the Editorial Board of the Georgian newspaper "Sakartvelo" ("Georgia"). In 1919 he participated in the Paris Conference as a member and secretary of the Delegation of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia.
In 1919-1920 Grigol Robakidze lectured a special course on “German Romanticism” at the University of Baku (Azerbaijan). In 1922, he married a second time to a Russian woman named Elena Fialkina.
In 1926, the novel The Snake's Skin was published for the first time in Georgian, the language in which it was originally written. In 1928 Grigol Robakidze translated it himself into German, and left for Germany thereafter for its German publication [2]
That same year, 1928, Grigol Robakidze returned to his motherland, though emigration was to eventually be his fate. On March 6, 1931, he, his second wife and her niece, Alya Pogorelova, crossed the border for good and became émigrés. They arrived in Berlin, Germany, where they remained until 1945.
Grigol Robakidze’s stay in Germany (1931-1945) was very productive. His publications during this period include “Megi – A Georgian Woman” (“Megi – Ein georgisches Mädchen”), “The Extinguished Soul” (“Die gemordete Seele”), “The Cry of the Goddess” (“Der Ruf der Göttin”), “Guardians of the Grail” (“Die Hüter des Grals”), “Demon and Myth” (“Dämon und Mythos”), “Adolf Hitler”, and “Mussolini”. He also wrote poems and numerous essays. He lectured, appeared on radio, and participated in the German literary salons. He was a writer of great popularity, enjoying especially rapt crowds in the literary salons.
In the early years of working in Germany, Grigol Robakidze was acknowledged as a genius writer. In 1933, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature, and although he did not receive it, his nomination is testimony to the love his German audience had for him and his inspirational works.
It was not until the end of World War II that attitudes toward Grigol Robakidze began to shift, as his books on Mussolini and Hitler were believed to favor Nazism. Robakidze himself rejected these claims. To him, the duty of a writer was to reflect upon historic personalities and their nature, regardless of their political worldviews. So he wrote about Lenin and Stalin on the one hand, and Hitler and Mussolini on the other. His interest was not in their worldviews but in the personalities themselves, whose globally important roles, whether positive or negative, imprinted the history of mankind.
Grigol Robakidze did not regard himself as a politician, and believed politics to be a harmful engagement for a writer. But his contemporary readers could not imagine the names Hitler and Mussolini beyond their political limits, and Robakidze had to deal with the consequences. After World War II he was regarded with distrust in Europe. Regardless of where he turned, the doors of the great publishing houses were closed for him. Even his essay “Explanation”, in which he clarified his reasons for writing on such topics, could not convince publishers, and was never published. Robakidze was never able to reestablish his fame in the west, while in the USSR all his books were extinguished and his name hardly mentioned.
Because of these fatal works, the Georgian writer moved to Geneva, Switzerland at the end of the World War II, where he spent the final years of his life (1945-1962). During this period he published 32 very important essays in the Georgian scientific and literary magazine “Bedi Kartlisa” that was published in Georgian and later in French under the name of "Le destin de la Georgie" (“Fate of Kartli”) and that was edited in Paris, France, where he was a member of the Editorial Board.
The writer spent 17 years in Switzerland. From 1945-50 he wrote the books “Israel, as the Mystery and the Fate” and “Friedrich Nietzsche”, along with essays such as “Near the spring of Isis”, “Vincent Van Gogh”, “The Unborn Word as the Source for Poetry”, “Atom Split”, “Techne and Mythos”, and “Doktor Faustus by Thomas Mann”. As Akaki Bakradze states “Sadly we have not been acquainted with many of the works so far. They may be a part of the archive that is unavailable to us”.[3]
Starting in 1950, Robakidze spent seven years devotedly taking care of his wife, who was suffering from apoplexy. In 1957 Elena Fialkina passed away in Geneva. The couple had no children.
Two years before his death, almost 80 years old, Robakidze and the painter-countess Gita von Schtrachwitz, 48 years younger, fell in love with each other. They planned a marriage and the writer even met the father of his beloved to ask for consent. On November 17, 1962 Grigol wrote to Gita that soon the day they would be united would come, but on November 19, completely alone, he passed away. Only eight people attended his funeral. He was buried in Geneva, but on November 22, 1976 he was relocated to the Cemetery of Leuville-sur-Orge, France, a burial ground for Georgian immigrants to Europe.
Since his death, the estate of Grigol Robakidze, especially his archive, has been an issue of much controversy between Georgian and Swiss parties. Finally, the Georgian party succeeded in obtaining only the Georgian part of Robakidze’s works, while the Swiss party obtained the much more substantial non-Georgian section of the archive, due mainly to the work and financing of an honored Swiss writer – Doctor Arnold Sigrist. According to Georgian philologist Rusudan Sharadze, Arnold Sigrist confessed: “Dr. Korti and I did everything to obtain Swiss domain over (Robakidze’s) literary legacy. For that reason I twice financed trips to Geneva and spent hundreds of working hours in order to search for his literary heritage and the documents linked to it”.[4]
During 1999-2000, journalist and philologist George Sharadze tried to trace the non-Georgian part of the writer’s archive in vain. Apparently Dr. Sigrist has hidden it so carefully that Georgians still have yet to uncover any trace of it.
Main Works:
- “Megi – A Georgian Woman” (“Megi – Ein georgisches Mädchen”)
- “The Extinguished Soul” (“Die gemordete Seele”)
- “The Cry of the Goddess” (“Der Ruf der Göttin”)
- “Guardians of the Grail” (“Die Hüter des Grals”)
- “Demon and Myth” (“Dämon und Mythos”)
- “Adolf Hitler”
- “Mussolini”
- The Snake's Skin (Das Schlangenhemd) (ein Roman des georgischen Volkes). Vorwort von Stefan Zweig, Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Jena: 1928
- “Israel, as the Mystery and the Fate”
- “Friedrich Nietzsche”
- essay “Near the spring of Isis”
- essay “Vincent Van Gogh”
- essay “The Unborn Word as the Source for Poetry”
- essay “Atom Split”
- essay “Techne and Mythos”
- essay “Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann”