Akaki Tsereteli

Akaki Tsereteli. Photo by Alexander Roinashvili

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

Born in the village of Skhvitori (Imereti region of western Georgia) on June 9, 1840, to a prominent Georgian aristocratic family; his father was Prince Rostom Tsereteli. Following an old family tradition, Ak'ak'i Tsereteli spent his childhood years living with a peasant’s family in the village of Savane. He was brought up by peasant nannies, all of which made him feel empathy for 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 Akaki Tsereteli was a close friend of Prince Ilia Chavchavadze , a Georgian progressive intellectual youth leader. The young adult generation of Georgians during the 1860s, led by Ch'avch'avdze and Tsereteli, protested against the Tsarist regime and campaigned for cultural revival and self-determination of the Georgians.

1915 photograph taken during the funeral of Ak'ak'i Tsereteli in Tbilisi

He is an author of hundreds of patriotic, historical, lyrical and satiric poems, also humoristic stories and autobiographic novel. Ak'ak'i Tsereteli was also active in educational, journalistic and theatrical activities.

The famous Georgian folk song Suliko (full English version) is based on Ak'ak'i Tsereteli’s lyrics.

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

Son: Russian opera impresario Alexey Tsereteli (1864, St. Petersburg – 1942, Paris).

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 0-7007-1163-5.