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Akaki Tsereteli

Prince Akaki Tsereteli (Georgian: აკაკი წერეთელი; June 9, 1840-January 26, 1915) was a prominent Georgian poet and national liberation movement figure.

He was born in the village of Skhvitori (Imereti region of western Georgia) on June 9, 1840 to the prominent Georgian aristocratic family. His father was Prince Rostom Tsereteli. Following the old tradition Akaki Tsereteli spent his childhood years in the village of Savane in a peasant’s family and was brought up by a peasant nanny, all of which made him feel through the peasants’ life in Georgia.

He graduated from the Kutaisi Gymnasium in 1852 and the University of Saint Petersburg Faculty of Oriental Languages in 1863.

Prince Tsereteli was a close friend of Prince Ilia Chavchavadze, Georgian progressive intellectual youth leader. The generation of 1860s led by Chavchavdze and Tsereteli protested against the Tsarist regime and campaigned for cultural revival and self-determination of the Georgians.

He is an author of hundreds of patriotic, historical, lyrical and satiric poems, also humoristic stories and autobiographic novel. Akaki Tsereteli was involved actively in educational, journalistic and theatrical activities.

The famous Georgian folk song Suliko (full English version [1]) is based on Akaki Tsereteli’s lyrics.

He died on January 26 1915 and was buried at the Mtatsminda Pantheon in Tbilisi.

See also

• List of Georgians

References

• Georgian Information Portal biography
• Donald Rayfield (2000), The Literature of Georgia: A History, pp. 159-168: "The luminaries: Ilia Chavchavadze & Akaki Tsereteli", ISBN 0700711635.