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.
