Alexander Chavchavadze | |
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| Native name | ალექსანდრე ჭავჭავაძე |
| Born | 1786 |
| Died | 6 November 1846(1846-11-06) (aged 59–60) |
| Allegiance | Russian Empire |
| Branch | Imperial Russian Army |
| Service years | 1811–1846 |
| Rank | Lieutenant general |
| Conflicts | |
| Awards | Order of St. Anna,Order of St. Vladimir,Légion d'honneur |
PrinceAlexander Chavchavadze (Georgian:ალექსანდრე ჭავჭავაძე,Russian:Александр Гарсеванович Чавчавадзе,romanized: Aleksandr Garsevanovich Chavchavadze; 1786 – 6 November 1846) was a Georgian poet, public benefactor and military figure. Regarded as the "father of Georgianromanticism", he was a pre-eminent Georgian aristocrat and a talented general in the Imperial Russian service.
Alexander Chavchavadze was a member of thenoble family elevated to the princely rank by the Georgian kingConstantine II ofKakhetia in 1726. The family was ofKhevsur origin but had intermarried with other Georgian military and noble families.
He was born in 1786, inSt Petersburg, Russia, where his father, PrinceGarsevan Chavchavadze, served as an ambassador ofHeraclius II,king of Kartli and Kakheti ineastern Georgia.TsarinaCatherine II of Russia was a godmother at the baptism of infant Alexander, showing her benevolence to the Georgian diplomat.[1]
Alexander's early education was Russian. He first saw his native Georgia at the age of 13, when the family moved back toTiflis after the Russian annexation of eastern Georgia (1801). At the age of 18, Alexander Chavchavadze joined PrinceParnaoz, a member of the dispossessedroyal family, in the1804 rebellion in the mountainous Georgian province ofMtiuleti against Russian rule. Following the suppression of the uprising, he was briefly put in prison where he composed his first literary works, including a radical poem written in Georgian,Woe to This World and Its Tenants (ვაჰ, სოფელსა ამას და მისთა მდგმურთა). The poem quickly gained popularity, and brought early fame to its young author. His manuscripts were widely circulated with his lyrics of love or protest, written in the spirit of the 18th-century Georgian poetBesiki or of theFrench Enlightenment philosopherJean-Jacques Rousseau, sung in Tiflis and elsewhere in Georgia. Following a year's exile inTambov, Chavchavadze reconciled with the new regime and entered a hussar regiment. Ironically, he fought in the Russian ranks underMarquis Paulucci when the next anti-Russian rebellion broke out in 1812 in Kakheti and was wounded in the fighting. In the same year, he married a Georgian princess Salome Orbeliani, a prominent noble family with familial ties to the Bagrationi royal line.
During theWar of the Sixth Coalition (1813-4) againstNapoleon I of France, he served as anaide-de-camp to the Russian commanderBarclay de Tolly and was wounded in his leg at theBattle of Paris on 31 March 1814. As an officer in the Russian expeditionary forces, he stayed in Paris for two years and therestoredBourbon dynasty awarded him for his service with aLégion d'honneur. Open to new ideas, in particular to the early French Romanticism, he was impressed byLamartine andVictor Hugo, as well asRacine andCorneille, whose writing entered Georgian literature through Chavchavadze.
In 1817, Prince Chavchavadze became a colonel of the Russian army. Promoted toMajor General in 1826, his military career advanced remarkably during the Russian wars against thePersian andOttoman empires in the late 1820s. He was instrumental in the conquest ofIravan from Persia in 1827[2] and was appointed, in 1828, a military governor of the Armenian Military District. During the1828-9 Russo-Turkish war, with a small detachment, he organised a successful defence of the Yerevan province against the maraudingKurds and his forces surged intoAnatolia, taking control of the wholepashate ofBajazet from the Turkish forces from 25 August to 9 September 1828.[3] In 1829, he was dispatched as an administrator of the military board of Kakheti, where his patrimonial estates were located.
Back in Georgia, Alexander enjoyed overwhelming popularity among the Georgian nobility and people. He was highly respected by his fellow Russian and Georgian officers. At the same time, he was regarded as Georgia's most refined, educated and wealthy 19th-century aristocrat, fluent in several European andAsiatic languages and with extensive and friendly ties with the cream of Georgian and Russian society who frequented his famous salon in Tiflis. The prominent Russian diplomat and playwrightAlexander Griboyedov married his 16-year-old daughterNino, whom the famous Russian poet had tutored in music during his brief stay in Tiflis. Another daughter,Catherine, marriedDavid Dadiani, prince ofMingrelia, and inspired inNicholas Baratashvili the hopeless love that made him the greatest poet of Georgian Romanticism.
At hisItalianate summer mansion inTsinandali, Kakheti, he frequently entertained foreign guests with music, wit, and – most especially – the fine vintages made at his estatewinery (marani). Chavchavadze built Georgia's oldest and largest winery where he combined European and centuries-long Georgian wine-making traditions. The highly regarded dry whiteTsinandali is still produced there.[4] According to his acquaintance,Juan Van Halen, Chavchavadze, "a Georgian prince, educated in Europe,... though serving in our regiment with the rank of colonel, had succeeded, without neglecting his military duties, in improving his valuable inheritance in such a manner that few Georgian nobles can compare with him in wealth."[5]
Despite his loyal service to the Russian crown, Chavchavadze's nostalgia for Georgia's lost independence, monarchy, and theGeorgian Orthodox Church once again pushed him into rebellion, joining the1832 conspiracy aimed at organising a large-scale uprising against the Russian hegemony. The failed coup plot turned into a disaster for the Georgian literature: most of his poetry written between 1820 and 1832, inspired by Romanticism and egalitarianism, was burned by the author as possible evidence against him. He was sentenced to the five-year exile to Tambov, but thetsar, who needed his military talents given the ongoingCaucasian War, forgave him. Chavchavadze joined the expedition against the rebelliousmountain people of theNorth Caucasus. Like his many fellow Georgian nobles, he found a good opportunity to take revenge for thenumerous past raids on the Georgian marches organised byNorth Caucasus tribes.
He was promoted tolieutenant general in 1841, and continued his service in theCaucasus, briefly as head of the civil administration of the region from 1842 to 1843. In 1843, he fought in his last war, commanding a successfulpunitive expedition against the rebelliousDagestani tribes. Later, he was appointed a member of the Council of the Chief Administration ofTranscaucasus.
In 1846, Alexander Chavchavadze fell victim to an accident,[1] under somewhat mysterious circumstances: while returning to his palace in Tsinandali at night, somebody from the nearby woods approached him and splashed hot water while he was galloping on his horse. He lost the control of the horse and crashed into the ditch nearby. He died from the resultant severe head injuries. Although the tragedy was most likely an accident, it was rumoured that he was killed by Russian assassins. He was buried at theShuamta Monastery in Kakheti, Georgia.
Chavchavadze was survived by a son, David, who was also alieutenant general in the Russian service during the Caucasus Wars, and three daughters, Nino, Catherine, and Sophia.
Chavchavadze's influence over Georgian literature was immense. He moved the Georgian poetic language closer to the vernacular, combining the elements of the formal wealth and somewhat artificial antiquated "high" style inherited from the 18th-century GeorgianRenaissance literature, melody of Persian lyrical poetry, particularlyHafiz andSaadi,bohemian language of the streets of Tiflis and the moods and themes of European Romanticism. The subject of his works varied from purelyanacreontic in his early period to deeply philosophic in his maturity.
Chavchavadze's contradictory career – his participation in the struggle against the Russian control of Georgia, on one hand, and the loyal service to the tsar, including the suppression of Georgian peasant revolts, on the other hand – found a noticeable reflection in his writings. The year 1832, when the Georgian plot collapsed, divides his work into two principal periods. Prior to that event, his poetry was mostly impregnated with laments for the former grandeur of Georgia, the loss of national independence and his personal grievances connected with it; his native country under the Russian empire seemed to him a prison, and he pictured its present state in extremely gloomy colors. The death of his beloved friend and son-in-law, Griboyedov, also contributed to the depressive character of his writings of that time.
In hisRomantic poems, Chavchavadze dreamed of Georgia's glorious past, when "the breeze of life past" would "breathe sweetness" into his "dry soul." In poemsWoe, time, time (ვაჰ, დრონი, დრონი),Listen, listener (ისმინეთ მსმენნო), andCaucasia (კავკასია), the "Golden Age" of medieval Georgia was contrasted with its unremarkable present.[6] As a social activist, however, he remained mostly a "cultural nationalist," defender of the native language, and an advocate of the interest of Georgian aristocratic and intellectual elites.In his letters, Alexander heavily criticized Russian treatment of Georgian national culture and even compared it with the pillaging by Ottomans and Persians who had invaded Georgia in the past.[3] In one of the letters he states:The damage which Russia has inflicted on our nation is disastrous. Even Persians and Turks could not abolish our Monarchy and deprive us of our statehood. We have exchanged one serpent for another.[2]
After 1832, his perception of the national problems became different. The poet unambiguously pointed out those positive results which had been brought about by the Russian annexation, though the liberation of his native land remained to be his most cherished dream.[7] Later, his poetry became less romantic, even sentimental, but he never abandoned his optimistic streak that makes his writings so different from those of his predecessors. Some of the most original of his late poems are,Oh, my dream, why have you appealed to me again (ეჰა, ჩემო ოცნებავ, კვლავ რად წარმომედგინე), andThe Ploughman (გუთნის დედა) written in the 1840s. The former, a rather sad poem, surprisingly ends with hope for the future in contemplation of the poet. The latter combines Chavchavadze's elegy for his past years of youth with calm humorous farewell to lost sex-life and potency.[8] ComposerTamara Antonovna Shaverzashvili used Chavchavadze's text for her song “My Sadness.”[9]
Chavchavadze also composed a historic work, "The Short sketches of the history of Georgia from 1801 to 1831."
kahetia 1812.
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