Mandelstam Osip

Mandelstam Osip (1891–1938), Russian poet. Born in Warsaw. He studied at the universities in Petersburg, Germany and France. He took an interest in Georgia in Petersburg, where he had struck acquaintance with the representatives of Georgian community, especially, with such eminent ladies as Tinatin Jorjadze and Salome Andronikashvili. Visiting the country of Golden Fleece became the dream of his life. For the first time he arrived in Batumi in September of 1920 together with his brother; then he spent a fortnight in Tbilisi. He became good friends with the representatives of Tsisperkanthelebi (the poetic trend of ‘Blue Drinking Horn’) – Paolo Iashvili, Titsian Tabidze, Giorgi Leonidze. At that time, he wrote his first poem ‘Again I Dream of Tbilisi”. He used to hold poetic evenings at the Conservatoire at Khodotov’s Theater Studio and literary club ‘Guild of Poets’. For the second time, O. Mandelstam arrived in Tbilisi together with his wife and spent 6 months there. First, he lived in the Vere Quarter on the corner of Temper Street (present-day Barnov Street) and Brick Street (later – Belinsky Street; currently – Chovelidze Street). Then he moved to the Sololaki Quarter to lodge at the ‘House of Arts’ (later the building became the head office of the Writers’ Union). Paolo Iashvili and Titsian Tabidze with their families lived on the first floor of the house. It was the most prolific period in O. Mandelstam’s creative life. It was the time, when he wrote the poem “I Washed Face in the yard”, which was viewed by his contemporaries as a manifestation of his new outlook. O. Mandelstam tried his hand in translations and rendered into Russian the poems of P. Iashvili, T. Tabidze, G. Leonidze and the long poem Gogotur and Apshina by Vazha-Pshavela. He became so closely engaged in the literary life of Tbilisi that Georgian poets viewed him as ‘one of their fraternity through and through’.

In 1930, O. Mandelstam visited Georgia for the third time. He stayed in Sokhumi for a month and a half. Later he lived in Tbilisi, prior to his departure to Armenia and again, he made a stopover in Tbilisi on his way back to Russia.

In 1938 O. Mandelstam was arrested and exiled to the Far East. On December 27, 1938, he died of typhus in the labor camp. Whereabouts of his burial place is unknown.