14 Facts About Ilia Chavchavadze

Tavadi Ilia Chavchavadze was a Georgian journalist, publisher, writer and poet who spearheaded the revival of Georgian nationalism during the second half of the 19th century in the period of Tsarist rule.

Ilia Chavchavadze was a leader of contemporary youth intellectual movement named "Tergdaleulebi" which spread modern and European liberal ideals in Georgia.

Ilia Chavchavadze coined the phrase "Ena, Mamuli, Sartsmunoeba", a slogan of Georgian nationalism.

Ilia Chavchavadze was killed in Tsitsamuri, near Mtskheta, by a gang of assassins.

Ilia Chavchavadze was born in Qvareli, a village in Kvareli, located in the Alazani Valley, in the Kakheti province of Georgia, which was part of the Russian Empire at that time.

Ilia Chavchavadze prominently founded "The Bank of the Nobility" of Tbilisi, to keep Georgian land from being sold off by poor Georgian nobles to Armenian bourgeoisie.

Ilia Chavchavadze said in his newspaper Iveria they were "eating the bread baked by someone else or drinking that which is created by another's sweat", and "sly moneylenders and unscrupulous traders".

Ilia Chavchavadze created slogan "Language, Homeland, Religion", which was a motto of Georgian nationalism.

Ilia Chavchavadze knew Joseph Stalin when Stalin was an Orthodox seminarian in Tbilisi.

Prince Ilia Chavchavadze called Stalin the 'young man with the burning eyes.

On 28 August 1907, while travelling with his wife Olga from Tbilisi to Saguramo, Ilia Chavchavadze was ambushed and murdered by a crew of six assassins in the small village of Tsitsamuri, near Mtskheta.

Ilia Chavchavadze's murder was seen as a national tragedy and was mourned by all classes of Georgian society.

Prince Akaki Tsereteli, who was suffering from serious health problems at the time, said at the funeral: "Ilia Chavchavadze's inestimable contribution to the revival of the Georgian nation is an example for future generations".

Ilia Chavchavadze had publicly and very successfully undermined the growth of both Bolshevik and Menshevik factions of the Social Democratic Labour Party.