Mikhail Lakerbai

Born Jan. 6 (19), 1901, in Merkheuli, now in Gul’ripsh Raion, Abkhazian ASSR; died Oct. 15, 1965, in Moscow. Soviet Abkhazian writer, playwright, and theater critic. Honored Art Worker of the Abkhazian ASSR (1961).

Lakerbai participated in the Great Patriotic War (1941–45). He graduated from the law and economics department of the Tbilisi Polytechnic Institute in 1929 and the Higher Screenwriting Courses in Moscow in 1937. Lakerbai was a pioneer of Soviet Abkhazian literature; his first works appeared in print in 1919. He was a co-editor of the first Soviet Abkhazian newspaper, Apsny kapsh (“Red Abkhazia”) during 1921–25.

Lakerbai is the author of the comedies The Scion of the Gechi (1939; staged, 1940) and In Sabydas Ravine (1940; staged, 1941); the historical drama Danakai (1946–47; staged, 1956); and librettos for operas, operettas, and musical comedies. He is best known for his short stories. Laconic, nationally vivid, and full of humor, the short stories reflect the life of the Abkhazian people before the October Revolution and in the Soviet period. The stories are imbued with the spirit of internationalism and are profoundly civic-minded.