Kaladze, Karlo Razhdenovich

Born Mar. 16 (29), 1904, in Kutaisi. Soviet Georgian poet and playwright; member of the CPSU since 1939.

Kaladze’s first book of poems was published in 1926. He created poetic panoramas of the new Georgia (“Challenge of the East,” 1926; “Dar’ial,” 1926; and “Song of the Horseman,” 1927). Cycles of poems such as Dawns in Khertvis reflect the construction of socialism in the 1930’s. The narrative poem Uchardioni (1933) is dedicated to the collectivization of Georgian agriculture. Heroic themes of the Great Patriotic War (1941–45) are the basis of the cycle of poems Meetings on the Battlefield (1942).

A prominent theme in Kaladze’s poetry is the friendship of peoples (“The Muscovites,” “Songs on the Shores of the Dnieper,” and “We Want Peace”). He is the author of the plays The Way It Was (1929), The House on the Bank of the Kura (1931), Khatidzhe (1933), and One Night’s Comedy (produced in 1945), which have played a significant role in the growth of Georgian drama and theater. Kaladze has been awarded three orders, as well as medals.