ნიკოლოზ ბარათაშვილის ლიტერატურული მემკვიდრის საკითხი. THE ISSUE OF NIKOLOZ BARATASHVILI’S LITERARY SUCCESSOR

Abstract

From the very beginning, a special interest was shown in the study of Nikoloz Baratashvili’s personality and poetry. Accumulated vast scientific literature. The issue of Nikoloz Baratashvili’s literary successor is very important in the problems arising on the way of studying the works of the genius poet. This issue was fi rst raised by Akaki Tsereteli. In Georgian poetry since the Renaissance, he considered Nikoloz Baratashvili to be the only poet who thought about the future of the country. Ilia Chavchavadze was recognized as the only successor of Nikoloz Baratashvili. Akaki Tsereteli was inspired by the demands of the epoch and in accordance with these demands he considered Ilia Chavchavadze as the successor of Nikoloz Baratashvili, to develop his thoughts. Ilia Chavchavadze addressed the issue of Nikoloz Baratashvili’s poetic successor in the 90s of the nineteenth century. Ilia considers Nikoloz Baratashvili next to Goethe, Byron, Lermontov, next to them, which clearly indicates that, according to Ilia, Nikoloz Baratashvili is a genius creator, and geniuses rarely leave heirs. They are either left without an heir, or rarely leave a successor. In a word, Ilia is not talking about an ideological successor, but about Nikoloz Baratashvili’s type, his soulmate. Ilia was also very careful in pointing out that recently a young man appeared who showed several examples of wanting to follow in the footsteps of Nikoloz Baratashvili, although this is still not a suffi cient condition to declare him Baratashvili’s successor. Ilia did not quite consciously name this young man. Despite Ilia Chavchavadze’s caution, his reference became the basis for the remarkable poet and writer Titian Tabidze to say that Ilia Chavchavadze meant Vazha-Pshavela in the young poet. For some authors, Titian’s opinion was acceptable. Discussions about this problem continued into the twentieth century. Interesting opinions, observations, more or less credible parallels were presented by Pavle Ingorokva, Simon Chikovani, Akaki Topuria and others. In terms of characterizing Nikoloz Baratashvili’s true poetic heir, great credit goes to the outstanding Georgian scholar Grigol Kiknadze. In his fundamental book “Issues of Speech Style” (1957) it is scientifically substantiated that Galaktion Tabidze is the true spiritual heir of Nikoloz Baratashvili. Grigol Kiknadze especially points out the main features that make these two geniuses related to each other.