Baratashvili Nikoloz

Nikoloz Baratashvili (b. December 4, 1817, Tbilisi — d. October 21, 1845, Ganja, buried in the Mtatsminda Pantheon of Tbilisi) was a poet.

Baratashvili was born into an impoverished aristocratic family. After graduating from Tbilisi Noble School and Classical Gymnasium (1835), he dreamed of going to Russia for higher education. This plan failed due to lack of funds of his once distinguished family. The poet's intention to serve in the military remained unfulfilled due to lameness. Despite the deep spiritual depression that was observed in the life of Georgian society after the collapse of the Georgian Plot of 1832 against Tsarist regime, Baratashvili and other young writers were still engaged in cultural and social life.

All of Baratashvili's plans were hindered by the danger of the complete impoverishment of his father's family along with the ineptitude and hardships of living in the province. Baratashvili was forced to assume the position of an employee at the chancellery. Personal drama (unrequited love for Ekaterine Chavchavadze) intensified his emotional state. All of this left a deep mark on Baratashvili. In his personal letters, which are brilliant examples of the epistolary heritage, his experience of “harsh fate” and the unbearable spiritual drama were expressed with profound emotions.

From 1835, Baratashvili worked as a clerk in the Expedition Chancellery of Law and Judgment. In 1844, he was appointed deputy governor of Nakhichevan. And in June 1845 — in the same position in Ganja, where he died four months later of malaria at the age of 27. Baratashvili's reburial from Ganja to Tbilisi (Didube Pantheon) in 1893 took the form of a national manifestation. Since 1938, the poet has been laid to rest in the Mtatsminda Pantheon of Tbilisi.

Baratashvili's poetry is the peak of Georgian romanticism. According to I. Chavchavadze, Baratashvili's poetry would lead to the Europeanism in Georgian literature.

As a thinker and artist, Baratashvili paved the way for the entire 19^th century literature in Georgia. Baratashvili's worldview is very diverse, and the biggest cause of his spiritual pain is related to the national reality. The poem Bedi Kartlisa (The Fate of Georgia) (1839) is based on a real historical event — Agha Mohammad Khan ravaging Tbilisi in 1795, which in fact determined the future fate of Georgia along with the Treaty of Georgievsk with Russia (1783); But Bedi Kartlisa, as a romantic poem, is far from the solid principles of historicism. It seemed as if the dialogue between Erekle II and Solomon Lionidze regarding the annexation of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti by Russia foresaw the consequences of the rebellion of 1804 and the plot of 1832. The events depicted in the poem also contain a symbolic dimension.

Nikoloz Baratashvili wrote Bedi Kartlisa when he was only 22 years old. In a sense, this poem is a prelude to Baratashvili's philosophical lyrics, which aimed to establish new humanistic ideals and guiding principles of national behavior.

Baratashvili's creative biography covers a relatively short period of time (1833–1845), but he went through an important ideological and artistic evolution. According to the words of D. Uznadze, Baratashvili's “literary work is only an “odyssey” of his soul striving for self-determination”. It was also the most difficult way of forming and establishing a new aesthetic belief, a new poetic manner.

Baratashvili’s first artistically complete poem is Twilight Over Mtatsminda (1833–1836). The main theme is the romantic elevation, freeing oneself from earthly burdens and attempting to connect with the mysterious, eternal forces of the universe. Sadness due to the “pointlessness” of the world and the feeling of eternal unsatisfaction of human spiritual needs are expressed in the philosophical poem Meditations By The River Mtkvari (1837). The face of “inexhaustible vessel” as a symbol of philosophical essence sheds its own light on the entire poetry of Baratashvili. The soul of a person, immaterial, incorruptible, “beauty bestowed from heaven”, is immeasurably superior to earthly beauty, which is only a fleeting talent of “incarnation” according to Baratashvili's belief. Love is a tragic emotion here; Ekaterine Chavchavadze, the subject of the poet's romantic passion, is also the direct addressee of some of his poems )”To the daughter of Prince Chavchavadze, Ek...ne”, 1839; “Earring”, 1839; “...the player of the piano”, 1839).

A tragic duality can be observed in Baratashvili's personality. If Sky-Blue (1841) symbolizes the eternal ecstatic ascent of the innocent soul, O Evil Spirit (1843) is a manifestation of an intense inner crisis. This is the tragedy of an “unbelieving intellect”, which could only fulfill a mission of rejection at that time. The sense of the tragic disorder of the world fills the poet's soul with disquiet and alarm (Merani, 1842). The basis of Merani's optimistic outlook is the awareness that selfless fight to achieve high humanistic ideals is people’s calling. National problems are solved in Baratashvili's work with a broad philosophical aspect. The main idea of Merani — the life or death, uncompromising struggle of the creative spirit and free will of a human against the hostile forces of blind necessity — as the true meaning and justification of the history of mankind, is an exhaustive answer to the questions that the poet asked in Bedi Kartlisa.

Baratashvili's poems were distributed in manuscript form. Several autograph collections of Baratashvili's writings are preserved in the K. Kekelidze Georgian National Centre of Manuscripts. Baratashvili's poetry, well known to his contemporaries, was almost forgotten at that time. His poems were published for the first time in 1852 and 1858 in the magazine “Tsiskari”. In 1858, I. Chavchavadze, who was in Russia, got fully acquainted with Baratashvili's poetry through the collection of manuscripts belonging to E. Chavchavadze.

UNESCO included Nikoloz Baratashvili’s 200^th anniversary of birth in the list of international cultural events in 2017. On the same date, a five-language book (Georgian, Russian, English, German and French) was published with the support of the Ministry of Culture; Nikoloz Baratashvili's jubilee collection works were published in Germany (translation by R. Kirsch).

Literature: აბაშიძე კ., ეტიუდები XIX საუკუნის ქართული ლიტერატურის შესახებ, თბ., 1970; ასათიანი გ., „მერანი“ და მისი ავტორი, თბ., 1969; ახალი ქართული ლიტერატურის ისტორია, ტ. 1, დ. გამეზარდაშვილის რედ., თბ., 1972; გაწერელია ა., ნიკოლოზ ბარათაშვილი, თბ., 1947; ზანდუკელი მ., თხზულებანი, ტ. 1, თბ., 1972; თუშაბრამიშვილი თ., ნიკოლოზ ბარათაშვილის ფსიქობიოგრაფია ეპისტოლური მემკვიდრეობის მიხედვით, თბ., 2020.ინგოროყვა პ., ნიკოლოზ ბარათაშვილი, თბ., 1969; მისივე, ახალი ქართული ლიტერატურის ფუძემდებელნი. ნიკოლოზ ბარათაშვილი. ი. ჭავჭავაძე, ა. წერეთელი, თბ., 1983; კოტეტიშვილი ვ., ქართული ლიტერატურის ისტორია (XIX ს.), თბ., 1959; ლოლაშვილი ი., ნიკოლოზ ბარათაშვილის ლიტერატურული მემკვიდრეობა, თბ., 1968; მეუნარგია ი., ცხოვრება და პოეზია ნიკოლოზ ბარათაშვილისა, თბ., 1968; ქართული ლიტერატურის ისტორია, ტ. 3, თბ., 1969; ნადირაძე გ., ნიკოლოზ ბარათაშვილის ცხოვრება და ესთეტიკური სამყარო, თბ., 1961, 2010; სურგულაძე ა., ნიკოლოზ ბარათაშვილის ეპოქა, თბ., 1968; ნიკოლოზ ბარათაშვილი, 100 ამბავი, თბ., 2020; შარაბიძე თ., ნიკოლოზ ბარათაშვილი (12 ბიოგრაფია), თბ., 2020.

G. Asatiani