Realities Representing the Way of Life and National Consciousness of the Peoples of the Caucasus in Grigol Robakidze›s „Caucasian Novellas“

Abstract

The creative successes of Grigol Robakidze (1880–1962) during his emigration period turned out to be significantly bound up with his book Caucasian Novellas, published in German in Germany in 1932. One of the principal factors underlying the particular interest shown toward the novellas presented in this collection was the circumstance that they portray, with high verbal artistry, specific episodes and everyday particularities connected with the way of life and customs of the inhabitants of Georgia’s mountainous regions – Pshav-Khevsureti and the North Caucasus.
For the great majority of Europeans, this world – essentially unknown to them and sharply distinguished by exotic customs – held a particular interest, and the factor essentially determining that interest was, first and foremost, precisely these customs and traditions, marked as they were by chivalric practices essentially unknown to Europeans. Alongside these factors, it should also be noted here that, by means of these novellas, the writer likewise portrayed, in a deeply impressive form, that chivalric self-sacrifice through which the inhabitants of these regions defended, over the course of centuries and with self-sacrifice, their national, ethnic, and everyday distinctiveness – a distinctiveness that had become part of the very flesh and blood of their consciousness. In order to illustrate all of the above, the present essay analyzes two novellas from this cycle: „Imam Shamil“ and „Engadi“ (understood symbolically as a return to the point of origin).
Grigol Robakidze wrote „Imam Shamil“ drawing upon romanticized texts widely disseminated in the oral tradition of the peoples of the Caucasus. In it, the self-sacrificing struggle of Shamil and his compatriots against the Russian colonizers is glorified in romantic form. The second work in the cycle of „Caucasian Novellas“, meanwhile, tells the story of the exotic way of life and customs and traditions of the Khevsurs — traditions romantically anachronistic to the civilized world. The novella’s protagonist, Giorgi Valuev, travels on official business to a remote Khevsurian village, where he personally becomes a direct participant in the ancient customs and traditions of the inhabitants of this region. In this respect, the greatest influence upon his personal consciousness was exerted by his being left alone with a young woman for a prolonged period of time, in such a way that he was obliged to restrain himself strictly from any erotic relations with her. Giorgi personally experienced, upon himself, the full severity as well as the romance of this strange practice.
In the end, on the basis of all of the above, it may be concluded that, through the examined examples from „Caucasian Novellas“, Grigol Robakidze further extended the range of his creative world and portrayed, with new facets, both the customs and traditions of the inhabitants of these regions and their active struggle to preserve national freedom.