Tabidze, Titsian Iustinovich

Born Mar. 21 (Apr. 2), 1895; died 1937. Soviet Georgian poet.

Tabidze was born in the village of Shuamta, now in Vani Raion, Georgian SSR. He began publishing in 1912. In 1917 he graduated from the department of philology of Moscow State University. In Moscow, he became closely acquainted with the Russian symbolists. He subsequently helped found the Georgian symbolist group the Blue Horns in 1915 and edited the group’s journal, Barrikady (Barricades). After the establishment of Soviet power in Georgia (1921), Tabidze’s poetry, imbued with enthusiasm for socialist construction, resounded with exultation over Russia’s renewal.

Tabidze traveled a great deal; outstanding among his works devoted to internationalism were the poem “To A. Pushkin” (1937) and the cycle of poems In Armenia. A chronicle of Soviet Georgia was presented in the narrative poems The Year 1918, On the Fronts, and The Port of Rion (1928). Tabidze was a gifted lyricist, who continually sought new expressive means, and a champion of patriotism and internationalism. He strongly influenced the development of Soviet Georgian poetry.