Dmitrii Iosifovich Gulia

Born Feb. 9 (21), 1874, in the village of Uarcha, Gumista District, in present-day Sukhumi Raion, Abkhazian ASSR; died Apr. 7, 1960, in the village of Agudzera, Abkhazian ASSR. Soviet Abkhazian writer; People’s Poet of Abkhazia (1937). Member of the CPSU from 1955. Born into a poor peasant family. Studied in a pedagogic institute in Gori; a teacher.

In 1892, Gulia and K. D. Machavariani created an alphabet for the Abkhazian language. In his first book of poems (1912) the poet expressed the Abkhazian people’s hatred of their oppressors and their dreams of a bright future. He organized and headed the first Abkhazian theatrical troupe in 1921. Gulia was editor of the first Abkhazian newspaper, Apsny (Abkhazia). Gulia’s diverse creativity reached its apex during Soviet times. He dedicated his inspired verse to the Communist Party and V. I. Lenin. His lyrics are imbued with enthusiasm for the creation of a socialist society and the friendship and unity of the Soviet peoples (the narrative poems Song of Abkhazia, 1940, and Autumn in the Village, 1946). Gulia wrote the first Abkhazian short story, “Under Foreign Skies,” in 1919. His novel Kamachich (1940) depicted the life of the oppressed Abkhazian people under tsarist rule and the melancholy lot of women.

Gulia played a major role in the development of Abkhazian culture. He published works on the language, history, and ethnology of the Abkhazians and wrote readers and textbooks as well. He was a deputy to the fourth and fifth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He was awarded the Order of Lenin. Gulia’s grave is located in the center of Sukhumi.