page_title: Ilia Chavchavadze
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Ilia Chavchavadze / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Ilia Tschawtschawadse (links) und Akaki Zereteli (rechts) in Tiflis (vor der Universität Tiflis)
context_page_description: Prince Ilia Chavchavadze was a Georgian writer, political figure, poet, and publisher who spearheaded the revival of the Georgian national movement in the second half of the 19th century, during the Russian rule of Georgia. He is Georgia's "most universally revered hero."
  Inspired by the contemporary liberal movements in Europe, as a writer and a public figure, Chavchavadze directed much of his efforts toward awakening national ideals in Georgians and to the creation of a stable society in his homeland. His most important literary works were: The Hermit, The Ghost, Otaraant Widow, Kako The Robber, Happy Nation, Letters of a Traveler and Is a man a human?!. He was editor-in-chief of the periodicals Sakartvelos Moambe and Iveria, and authored numerous articles for journals. He was a devoted protector of the Georgian language and culture from Russification. He is considered the main contributor of Georgian cultural nationalism. The three main ethnic markers of Georgian identity, according to Chavchavadze, consisted of territory, language, and religion. Despite this, his nationalism was secular.
  Chavchavadze was fatally wounded in Tsitsamuri, outside Mtskheta, by a gang of assassins.
context_section_description: As a result of Chavchavadze's death, the Georgian Social Democrats, especially the Mensheviks, started to gain significant power and support among the population. Eventually, after the temporary disengagement of Russia from Transcaucasia, Georgian Mensheviks decided to revive Georgian statehood and proclaimed the independence on 26 May 1918. After the Bolshevik occupation of Georgia and integration into the Soviet Union in 1921, Chavchavadze became for Georgian nationalists the symbol of Georgian freedom and national liberation.
  In 1987, Prince Chavchavadze was formally canonized by the Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church, as "Saint Ilia the Righteous."
  In October 1987 the Ilia Chavchavadze Society, an organisation that promoted Georgian cultural revival and political autonomy, was established by dissident intellectuals.
  In 1989, during the anti-Soviet protests in Tbilisi, the poems, novels and political life of Chavchavadze became a driving force behind the Georgian struggle for independence.
  The idea of national revival, which Chavchavadze preached and advocated in various Georgian societies throughout his life, gained in momentum in 1990. In 2002, Mikheil Saakashvili created the United National Movement party which claimed the political legacy of Ilia Chavchavadze, and which played a major role in the so-called Rose Revolution of 2003 which ousted President Eduard Shevardnadze.
  In 1998 Stephen Kinzer wrote about the widespread admiration of Chavchavadze across political spectrum: "Today leftists in Georgia embrace Chavchavadze for his hatred of injustice, centrists love him for his nonviolent humanism, and right-wing nationalists have adopted his slogan Homeland, Language, Religion."
caption: Monument to Chavchavadze (left) and Akaki Tsereteli (right) in front of the first Gymnasium in Tbilisi
exif: {}