Mirtskhulava, Alio

(pseudonym, A. Mashashvili). Born Apr. 15(28), 1903, in the village of Khorga, presentday Khobi Raion, Georgian SSR; died Oct. 16, 1971, in Tbilisi. Georgian Soviet poet. Member of the CPSU (1936).

Mirtskhulava was the son of a peasant. From 1923 to 1927 he studied at the V. la. Briusov Literary Institute in Moscow. His work was first published in 1921, and his first verse collection was published in 1924.

The founder of Georgian Komsomol poetry, Mirtskhulava wrote verse that reflected the destruction of the old world, the new revolutionary reality, and Soviet patriotism (“Our Song,” “To Lenin,” and “Hymn to the Homeland”). In the 1930’s his verses “March of the Shock Brigades” and “The Komsomol Youth From Laituri” and the narrative poem Enguri (1937), depicting construction on a national scale, were popular.

During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45), Mirtskhulava created models of patriotic lyrics, such as “Song of Victory,” “Brothers,” and “Kazbek.” He expressed his feeling of responsibility to his contemporaries in his verse of the 1950’s and 1960’s and in his long dramatic poem Rustavi Symphony (1959; Russian translation, 1964). Mirtskhulava’s poetry has been translated into the languages of the peoples of the USSR.

Mirtskhulava was secretary of the Writers’ Union of Georgia from 1937 to 1939. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, three other orders, and a number of medals.