Georgian diplomat, writer and educator Gela Charkviani dies at age 82. Teona Charkviani, daughter of Georgian diplomat released the relevant news on her official Facebook page today.
Gela Charkviani was born in Tbilisi on 1 March 1939 into the family of Candide Charkviani, a leader of the Georgian Communist Party. He studied architecture at the Georgian Technical University and eventually graduated from the Chavchavadze Institute of Foreign Languages. Gela Charkviani's post-graduate studies included a semester at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1970, a period regarded as the peak of the Youth Revolution in the United States. The time spent at Ann Arbour, in Charkviani's opinion, has caused a major shift in his worldview.
Gela Charkviani served as Vice-President of the Georgian Society for Cultural Relations from 1984 to 1992. From 1992 to 2003 Charkviani was Chief Foreign Policy Adviser to Eduard Shevardnadze, President of Georgia.
In 2005 President Mikheil Saakashvili appointed him his spokesperson and in 2006 Ambassador of Georgia to the UK and Ireland. He retired from diplomatic service in September 2011.
Of the many interests he has pursued for pleasure and relaxation music has remained central through Charkviani's life. A CD of his Piano Miniatures was released in 2004, followed in 2006 by that of his early work: a musical Nargiza and the Nonstop Luxury Express (1974).[6] Charkviani's latest work is Irakliana - a triptych of three piano suites featuring tunes by his late son Irakli. His literary efforts include a modern Georgian language translation of Shakespeare's King Lear. The work was commissioned by the internationally acclaimed Georgian theater director Robert Sturua. The production had a successful run at the Rustaveli Drama Theater in Tbilisi in 1980s and 90s. It was also performed at various venues abroad.
In 2013 the “Artanuji Publishers” released Gela Charkviani's “An Interview with my Dad” – a dialogue between father and son, who not only belong to different generations, but also hold contrasting beliefs and dissimilar sets of values. The text is based on actual conversations that took place in 1989 – 1992. Already past eighty by that time Candide Charkviani was the only living person who had been directly involved in, and knew first-hand the specifics of relations between Stalin's Kremlin and the Soviet Georgia. After several editions of the book were brought out by the Artanuji, it was translated into Italian and published in 2016 by Palombi Editori under the title “La Dimensione Georgiana di Stalin.”
Charkviani's next work “Nagerala” (Self-sown seedlings) is a collection of excerpts from the notebook records he made over a period of twenty years. It was first published by “Intelecti” in 2014. Its second edition became Georgia's National Bestseller #2 in 2015.
Charkviani's latest works include sequels to Nagerala – Nagerala 2 and Nagerala 80. Along with the notebook records, the latter features a play and two short stories written by the author in 1970s. Also in 2018 Artanuji Publishers issued his collection of 70 short narratives titled “In Those Times,” depicting the life in Soviet Georgia.
Gela was married to Nana Toidze-Charkviani and has one son and one daughter. His son Irakli Charkviani was an influential Georgian musician and writer.
