12 Facts About Vazha-Pshavela

Vazha-Pshavela, simply referred to as Vazha, is the pen name of the Georgian poet and writer Luka Razikashvili.

Vazha-Pshavela was born into a family of clergymen in the little village of Chargali, situated in the mountainous Pshavi province of Eastern Georgia.

Vazha-Pshavela graduated from the Pedagogical Seminary in Gori 1882, where he associated closely with Georgian populists.

Vazha-Pshavela then entered the faculty of Law of St Petersburg University in 1883, as a non-credit student, but returned to Georgia in 1884 due to financial constraints.

Vazha-Pshavela attained prominence as a famous representative of the National-Liberation movement of Georgia.

Vazha-Pshavela idealizes the Pshavs' time-honoured rituals, their purity, and their 'non-degeneracy' comparing and contrasting these with the values of what he considers 'false civilization'.

Vazha-Pshavela argues that 'Every true patriot is cosmopolitan and every genuine cosmopolitan is a patriot'.

Vazha-Pshavela's poetic diction is saturated with all the riches of his native tongue, and yet this is an impeccably exact literary language.

Furthermore, Vazha-Pshavela's compositions have become available to representatives of other nationalities of the ex-USSR.

Vazha-Pshavela died in Tiflis on 10 July 1915 and was buried there, in the ancient capital city of his native land, being accorded the signal honour of a tomb in the prestigious Pantheon of the Mtatsminda Mountain, in recognition both of his literary achievements and his role as a representative of the National Liberation movement of Georgia.

The mountaineer poet Vazha-Pshavela is indeed, as Donald Rayfield writes, "qualitatively of a greater magnitude than any other Georgian writer".

The five epic poems of Vazha-Pshavela are composed on the principle of the Golden ratio, and thus invite comparison with the works of Ancient and Renaissance authors similarly inspired.