Before the Sovietization of Georgia, the medieval Georgian epic poem vepkhist’q’aosani was little known to people outside Georgia. By the mid-1960s, the supposed author of the poem Shota Rustaveli had become a household name across the Soviet Union, and his work was widely read and celebrated. Besides the literary prowess and the philosophical depth of the work itself, the celebration of vepkhist'q'aosani and its biographically obscure author had much to do with the cultural, educational, and literary policies of the Soviet government. Moreover, the promotion of Rustaveli was part and parcel of the Soviet government’s efforts to mainstream Georgian literature as a bastion of philosophical ideals, moral ethics, and literary genius for the non-European peoples inhabiting the multi-ethnic state and beyond. In this chapter, I look into the Soviet government’s promotion and celebration of the trans-regional and cross-civilizational characteristics of Georgia that were achieved through the promulgation and appropriation of vepkhist'q'aosani within the state’s ideological confines. Subsequently, I analyze the historical significance and literary content of the work, its translations commissioned by the Soviet government, and the celebration of the life of its author. Building on this, I illustrate the role of epic poetry in Soviet nationality policy by looking into some of the cultural and literary characteristics of vepkhist'q'aosani and situating them within the ideological confines of the Soviet regime.

Pre-Circulated Papers and Registration

The pre-circulated papers will be available one-week prior to the workshop. The paper will be available to the Princeton University community via SharePoint. All others should request a copy of the paper by emailing Shachar Gannot at [email protected].