PM pays tribute to “father of nation” Ilia Chavchavadze on 115th anniversary of assasination

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Monday paid tribute to Ilia Chavchavadze - Georgian publicist, author and a major figure of the country's 19th century national movement - on the 115th anniversary of his assasination, by saying that the country would “never forget the bright memory” of the “father of the nation”. 

In his remarks over the date, Garibashvili said it was “difficult to find a case when one person had made such an incredible personal effort” in building the future of a country.

The head of the Government noted Chavchavadze's activities in culture, politics, economy, “in all spheres of public life” had “traced the path” of the country's development, which “we are still following today”.

Today, once again, with the greatest sense of gratitude, we will pay tribute to the man whom we rightly call the father of the nation. Georgia will never forget the bright memory of Ilia Chavchavadze”, he noted.

Garibashvili also recalled that in 1987 the Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia Ilia II had canonised Chavchavadze as Saint Ilia the Righteous, thus giving a “powerful impetus” to the national liberation movement, which finally ended up with the independence of Georgia from the Soviet Union.

Born in 1837, Chavchavadze studied in St Petersburg, Russia before returning to his country - under the Tsarist Russian rule - in 1860. He led the Tergdaleulebi cultural and social movement that introduced liberal European ideas in Georgia, while also founding two of the newspapers publishing articles on the subjects.

Also known for his establishment of the Society for the Spreading of Literacy among Georgians and his role in the launch and chairmanship of the Land Bank of Tbilisi, Chavchavadze gradually became a major figure in the social, economic and cultural scenes in 19th century Georgia.

Promoting preservation and promotion of the Georgian language against ongoing processes of Russification of the local culture, he published a number of major literary works on subjects of social and cultural gaps between countryside and urban population, moral stagnation in society and more.

Chavchavadze was assassinated in 1907 while travelling in his cart outside the historical capital Mtskheta near Tbilisi, with various elements of the killing remaining unresolved by subsequent investigations.