Gerontii Kikodze

Born Sept. 4 (16), 1886, in the village of Bakhvi, Georgia; died Aug. 1, 1960, in Tbilisi. Soviet critic and translator.

Kikodze graduated from the faculty of philosophy of the University of Leipzig in 1915. He was first published in 1905. He was arrested in Georgia in 1905 and 1910 for left-wing social and political activities. Among his studies and critical articles on literature, art, and aesthetics are Articles on Art (1936), A History of Georgian Literature (1947), Memoirs, Speeches, Letters (1956), and Studies and Portraits (1958). He translated the classic works of Marx, Engels, and Lenin into Georgian, as well as the works of Balzac, Stendhal, Merimée, Daudet, and Anatole France.