62
Red Terror
and Georgian Artists
Art > Eka Kiknadze
“S
hoot them like mad dogs!”
This slogan was clamo-
red as an outcry – and
order – of the working class. It was
thoroughly fulfilled for decades in
Georgian courts, and obedience cau-
sed by fear was the main instrument
for ruling society. The first wave of re-
pressions spread over all of Russia and
countries they conquered, from the
beginning of the 1920s, and reached
its peak in the 1930s after millions of
innocent Russians and those in neigh-
boring countries died. Millions lived
in exile for years, and those who sur-
vived death and exile were destroyed
psychologically. They became part of
a “submissive mass” that not only lost
the notion of freedom, but were forbi-
dden to nurture it.
The “Red Terror”, or mass repressions,
was a powerful instrument created to
demoralize the population. Its total
control affected all layers of society
and age categories beginning with the
founding of the USSR until its end. It re-
mained a key part of the government’s
relationship with the populations.
At the dawn of the regime, less than
a year after the October 1917 Commu-
nist Revolution, the Council of People’s
Commissars adopted a Resolution on
September 5, 1918 in the Kremlin,
which clearly formulated the concept
of “Red Terror”: “Ensure the safety of
the Soviet Republic from class ene-
mies by isolating them in concentra-
tion camps. All persons related to Whi-
te Guard organizations, conspirators
and rioters should be shot. Publicize
their names and the basis for the mea-
sures taken against them.”
Composition with 5 figures, watercolor on paper,
Richard Sommer, Georgian National Museum
For the first time in the world, the
Soviet Union used terms like “class
enemies”, “disrupters”, “terrorists”, and
“counter revolutionaries” to isolate their
own citizens. The term “concentration
camp” was used by Lenin in an official
document sent to Penza Gubernia re-
questing him to “isolate suspicious per-
sons in concentration camps and carry
out merciless mass terror”. Those early
years, and especially the years after the
First World War are all too familiar to the
world.
The “Great Purge” carried out in
1937-1938 was personally initiated
by Joseph Stalin and Nikolai Yezhov
(The order was entitled "On the re-
pression of former kulaks, criminals,
and other anti-Soviet elements"). All
regions of the Soviet Union received
a quota of people to be executed and
arrested. The initial recommendation
was to shoot 72,950 people, and ar-
rest 259,450 throughout Soviet Union.
From the point of view of Stalin and
the Party, these numbers were mini-
mal and did not reflect the real num-
ber of enemies who mingled among
citizens and were to be eliminated
immediately. A punitive system was
created throughout the Soviet Union
that readily expedited orders, which
were carried out immediately. Some
regions were requested to increase
the number of “offenders”. As a result,
386,798 Soviet citizens were summari-
ly executed.
These “dry” statistics and numbers
cannot convey the extent of the tra-
gedy to individual people. Many were
great painters, poets, writers, musicians,
scientists and film or theatre directors.
When we speak of repression, we must
recall these people who were at the fo-
refront of the intellectual, aesthetic and
moral life of Georgia, which had beco-
me a Soviet Republic.
Like all segments of society the “Gre-
at Purge” endangered Georgian artis-
tic society. Most Georgian artists and
those of other nationalities working in
Georgia, whose lives were taken by the
repressions, had decades of experience
in artistic and social activity; they were
in the avant garde of art movements in
Georgia by 1937-1938. Henryk Hrynie-
vski, Dimitri Shevardnadze, Vakhtang
Kotetishvili, Richard Sommer, Petre
Otskheli were all convicted and execu-
ted for being counter-revolutionist or
spies. Kirils Zdanevich, Ivane Pataridze
and Vasili Shukhaev spent many years
in exile. The sculptor Raisa Mikadze and
the artist Nino Zaalishvili served their
sentences, accused as being “family
members of the People’s enemies.” Re-
pressions took away years of their lives,
if not their life itself. Those who escaped
death and exile continued to live in a
country where freedom was restricted
every day. They had to carry on with
creative work fighting (or conforming)
first with Tsarist and then with Commu-
nist Russian dominance.
According to Soviet cultural policy the
main criteria for evaluating art were not
related to artistic value but to ideolo-
gical “expediency”. These criteria were
used during by the “Red Terror” to evalu-
ate citizens. On the contrary it became
necessary to create “authentic peoples’
art” that depicted the proletarian, he-
roic workers’ lives to immortalize happy
Soviet citizens, leaders and their great
63
GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM

Market Scene, oil on Cardboard, Richard Sommer, Georgian National Museum (above); Ox-cart Driver,
watercolor on paper, Richard Sommer, Georgian National Museum (below)
buildings. To uproot past aesthetic ide-
als in the 1920s, Soviet censorship had
allowed some existence for new van-
guard art, since at the initial stages of
revenge and demonization of the past,
vanguard poets, painters and writers
oriented towards innovation and the fu-
ture would still be needed. This is why,
despite the fact that ideological art and
the “Plan for Monument Propaganda”
began as soon as Soviet power was es-
tablished in Georgia, Georgian moder-
nist painting was still allowed until the
second half of the 1930s.
By the second half of the 1920s pain-
ters from Soviet Georgia who were living
64 GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM
in Paris returned to Georgia. In May, 1928
David Kakabadze exhibited his work
created in France at the Hotel Orient in
Tbilisi. This was to be his last personal
exhibition during his lifetime. The reac-
tion of his critics showed that his crea-
tive work would not last long in Soviet
Georgia. Similarly Lado Gudiashvili, who
arrived from Paris in 1925, had to alter
his painting style, as it was intolerable
for Socialist Georgian reality. His artis-
tically rendered “deformation” of reality,
his expressive techniques and faces pre-
sented in sharp dynamics and “decadent
aesthetics” were unacceptable, with their
interwoven wavy and broken forms.
Thus the borders closed behind pain-
ters who arrived from Paris. The Soviet
block and its citizens found themselves
in a complete physical and information
vacuum behind the Iron Curtain. Isola-
tion has an extremely negative impact
on the development of culture, and yet
the total ideological system and strict
control were proved very useful for the
regime. Yet David Kakabadze’s craving
to regain his lost freedom and his desire
to revive Georgian culture for “maste-
ring the contemporary soul” remained
unrealized for his generation.
Lenin’s epoch ended and Stalin’s be-
gan. His “social engineering” concept
implied a fundamental reform of all
individuals’ spiritual and conscious ac-
tivities in every sphere: the creation of
“Homo sovieticus”, a new Soviet person
without national features, religion, iden-
tity or personality, who had to become
a member of a grey mass. Individua-
lism was replaced by the notion of class
membership; freedom was replaced by
obedience; and personal thinking was
exchanged for a “mass consciousness”
built on a romantic interpretation of fal-
se and utopian ideas. Stalin’s right hand
man – a general in the bloody regime –
Nikolai Yezhov, stated: “We are starting
a fundamental attack on our enemies;
don’t be offended if anyone gets jol-
ted by our elbows. It is better that ten
innocent people suffer than to let one
spy escape. When someone cuts wood,
chips fall all around.”
This is how those who created cultu-
ral life, new Georgian art and the rising
artistic consciousness were turned into
“chips”, along with thousands of others
all over the country. They were wiped
out by the regime in 1937-1938 without
any trace or any grave. Their names
were erased; their faces on photos were
scraped off, and for decades it was even
forbidden to mention their cases.
On April 23, 1932 at the order of the
Communist Party on the “Reform of litera-
ry and art organizations” small artists’ or-
ganizations were abolished and a United
Professional Union was established. Art
specialists were centralized in the Geor-
gian Artists Union and over the next deca-
des this Union guided ideology.
Beginning with the 1930s, the doctri-
ne of “socialist realism” became establi-
shed in art. “The main goal of Soviet art
is to talk and give directions to people,
or in the first instance, it should be un-
derstandable for people and serve them
... therefore, it is obvious that Soviet art
can be only realistic”. In order to create
“understandable” art, instead of increa-
sing the educational level of population,
the Soviet government chose to use the
local spoken language and extremely
simplified techniques, reducing it to a
narrative-illustrative form. Though the
process began in the 1930s, these fea-
tures were reflected in especially stark
relief from the 1940s.
In the 1930s, when the art modernism
movement was already coming to an end
in other parts of the world, it was naturally
illogical and regressive to legalize artis-
tic realism. Also, an extreme profanation
of the notion of realism occurred in the
Soviet Union. Under the dictatorship of
the workers and peasants (according to
the official ideology), there was no “op-
pressed class” and “no censorship was Samarkand, oil on canvas, Richard Sommer, Georgian National Museum
allowed”. Posters and superficial pictures
and slogans offered myths about a “So-
viet paradise” and the people living there. any deviations from official requirements. Accusations about formalism mainly
Heroically idealized faces of the Leaders By the end of the 1930s this doctrine had came from functionaries, for whom the
were presented in naturalistic styles and become a life-threatening accusation. The essence of art was absolutely unfami-
terrible aesthetics with falsely modeled heavy atmosphere of that decade led to liar. Nevertheless, the authority to con-
pictures and scenes. These later laid the a significant rise in self-censorship. This trol art was their prerogative, although
foundations for the extreme vulgarization became a principle feature of Soviet citi- their artistic evaluation criteria had
of art and its perception. Art censorship zens’ behavior and thinking for decades nothing to do with creativity. Only the
was in fact extremely strict, forbidding to come. production of propaganda was signi-
GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM 65
 ficant for them. Along with the evalu-
ation of ideological work, Party orga-
nizations concentrated on “Bolshevik
vigilance, focusing Bolshevik atten-
tion, studying professors and teachers
and those who work in the system but
are not in line with the Government’s
goals”. David Kakabadze, Shalva Ami-
ranashvili, Nikoloz Kandelaki were na-
med and considered among such peo-
ple. Controlling and revealing people’s
enemies, counter-revolutionaries or
spies who mingled in with Soviet citi-
zens, was to be done by everyone. The
Party had to be aware of everything –
how each Soviet painter lived, how he
breathed, and what he was talking and
even thinking about.
Reckless speech often caused the
Party elite to become enraged and
could lead to significant problems for
an artist’s career. At a meeting organi-
zed by a Party organization held at the
Academy of Arts on September 11, 1936 Battle Scene, watercolor on paper, Henryk Hryniewski, Georgian National Museum
Alexander Bazhbeuk Melikov’s “incon-
sistent speech and behavior” were exa- gs for newspapers. In addition he never reading these accusations arouses ryk Hryniewski’s involvement. His legacy
mined. “Bazhbeuk-Melikov was asked attended lessons in Marxism-Leninism surprise, anger and heartache all at comprises easel and monumental pain-
why he did not use good colors while that were given for the pedagogical once. The regime repeated that “if you ting, book illustrations, sketches of the
working on comrade Stalin’s historical staff of the Academy of Arts. When they do not search for an enemy, you are an most significant Georgian architectural
theme (high quality oil paint is implied demanded an explanation, he made ex- enemy yourself”, which made people monuments, architectural details and
here. E.K.), his reply was: ‘I cannot use cuses saying that he attended classes at act in self-preservation for themsel- ethnographic items. Even a building in
good colors for this theme’. As it became “Sakhelgami” (the State publishing hou- ves and their families. Thus to survive, the center of Tbilisi was designed and
clear that Bazhbuk Melikov used good se), but failed to submit a certificate of they sometimes chose denunciation painted by him. As one of the founders
artistic materials for pictures of the attendance. Gabashvili died in Tsikhis- and betrayal. of the Georgian Academy of Arts, Hen-
petit-bourgeois, Bohemians and ero- dziri in 1936, when he was to carry out ryk Hryniewski educated a generation
tic nude women rather than historical an order in Ajara to paint the working Henryk Hryniewski of painters and architects from 1922
revolutionary themes ... such a person community there. He traveled to Ajara An official NKVD Order dated August until his arrest. “I knew him very well;
should be expelled from the Georgian but passed away, alone, and although he 11, 1937 “On the liquidation of Polish sa- he was my teacher,” wrote Academician
Soviet Arts Union and suspended from was elderly the circumstances were un- botage and espionage groups” laid the Vakhtang Beridze in 1989. “He lived in
the management of a Department in clear. His family was notified about his foundation for ethnically motivated re- one of the buildings of the Academy of
the Academy of Arts”. death a week later, and soon after that pressions, while declaring socialism and Arts, this building... It was round, with a
There is another very interesting re- his wife, Olympia Milbaum, was arrested friendship among nations. After WWII, hall covered by a dome – it was his stu-
cord in the minutes of a meeting held on and exiled. It was made to appear that Germans living in the USSR met this dio, where we were asked to come and
April 5, 1935. Due to “Bolshevik vigilance” Gabashvili was not a victim of repres- fate, however the first target of Stalin’s he would teach us. It is easy to imagine
it had come to the attention of the admi- sion. While it is true he was seriously in- ethnically motivated persecutions were what atmosphere there was in the stu-
nistration that the founder of Georgian volved in establishing and popularizing the Poles. One hundred and forty-five dio, where walls were covered with his
realistic fine art, Gigo Gabashvili, who easel painting, he spent the last years of Polish citizens were arrested in Georgia works and shelves were full of books...
was 72 years old, behaved “inappropria- his life under heavy pressure and had to during the 1930s, and 88 were senten- Hryniewski sincerely loved Georgia and
tely”. He created Beria’s portrait “inap- keep justifying himself before Party bu- ced to the firing squad. One of these Georgian culture, which he selflessly
propriately” and was not trying to get reaucrats. Today it is difficult to say what was the painter Henryk Hryniewski. served until the end of his life.” By this
permission to draw Stalin’s portrait. It circumstances brought on his death. In Georgia, during the 1900s and until time more than a half-century had pas-
was said that he used to draw anti-Party, Even Party bureaucrats, colleagues, 1938, no significant cultural events in sed after his execution. For decades, ho-
Trotskist counter-revolutionary paintin- sometimes accused each other. Today Georgia were carried out without Hen- wever, Soviet citizens had been told to
Soldiers, watercolor on paper, Henryk Hryniewski, Georgian National Museum
GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM 67
commemorate those lost to repression
soundlessly, and without mentioning
their names.
Hryniewski was born in Kutaisi in 1869.
He studied painting and architecture
Europe, including the Academy of Arts
in Florence and the Karlsruhe Polytech-
nic Institute in Germany. He returned to
Georgia at 29 and settled in Tbilisi, at Gri-
boedov Street #22. From 1902 he partici-
pated in exhibitions arranged by the Fine
Arts Society of the Caucasus, and from
1907 he became a permanent member
of the Society. During those years he
taught painting in the Arts School of the
Society, and in 1918 he was nominated
as Director of the School. After transfor-
ming the school into the Academy of
Arts, he became a Professor in the Aca-
demy and at the same time taught at the
Technical School for Construction. Hry-
niewski travelled extensively throughout
Georgia and his sketches of medieval
monuments, paintings and decors are
distinguished by their priceless artistic
and documentary value. The Iconostatsis
paintings of the Kashveti Church (1904-
1910) were done by him, and from 1908
to 1913 he was a member of a Commis-
sion working on the monument of Lilia
Chavchavadze’s grave, established by
the Society for Spreading Literacy (with
Anatoli Kalgin, Simon Kldiashvili, Ivane
Javakhishvili). Work on the sculpture and
Monk and Sleeping Woman, Illustration for ilia Chavchavadze's poem Hermit, watercolor on paper, 1912-13,
Henryk Hryniewski, Ilia Chavchavade Saguramo State Museum
architecture was carried out under his
direct supervision. At the same time he
participated in the establishment of the
Georgian Historic and Ethnographic Mu-
seum. In the 1910s he carried out his two
most important projects – The Bank of
the Nobility and Illustrations for the first
volume of Ilia Chavchavadze’s novels.
After Ilia Chavchavadze’s murder, the
publication of a book of his literary le-
gacy was discussed within the Society,
initiated by physician and public figure,
Mikhail Gedevanishvili. Gedevanishvili
owned the first X-ray and physiothe-
rapy offices in Tbilisi and had a long
friendship with the Chavchavadze fami-
ly. After Ilia’s death he took care of his
widow, Olga Guramishvili. He began by
publishing the first volume of the aca-
demic collection of Ilia Chavchavadze’s
novels. “Publishing this book – the
first volume of the full collection of Ilia
Chavchavadze’s works – is a desire that
has turned into the engagement of ide-
as and thoughts that I’ve had for many
years,” he wrote in the introduction of
the book. The first volume was publi-
shed in 1914 and was the first Georgian
book with color illustrations after the
edition of “The Knight in the Tiger’s Skin”
published by the philanthropist and pu-
blisher Giorgi Kartvelishvili in 1888.
Gedevanishvili invited Hryniewski to
decorate the volume. He worked on
the decorations in 1912-1913. The only
décor on the simple cover was Ilia’s
signature. Hryniewski displayed his ge-
nuine knowledge of Georgian architec-
ture and ethnography when drawing
illustrations for the book. The distincti-
ve arrangement of ornaments and the
expressive inclusion of architectural
details in some scenes is very effecti-
ve. The illustrations of these novels re-
main a priceless source of information
about the clothing, weapons, and hou-
sehold environment of the epoch. The
choice of illustration themes revealed
Hryniewski’s rational, objective nature.
Art critic Meri Karbelashvili wrote:
“The most important subjects are se-
lected from each novel for the deve-
lopment of its plot... The artist follows
almost precisely, with documentary
accuracy, the narrative of the writer, the
look of each character, and the descrip-
tion of their environment. Hryniewski
is very restrained in expressing his
own attitudes which shows the natu-
Lighthouse, watercolor on paper, Henryk Hryniewski, Georgian National Museum
re of the painter and his personality”.
Gedevanishvili’s edition is a most sig-
nificant rarity. In addition to its cultural ber of the special commission created mentioned in the edition. In 1937 Hry- intelligence network. He was senten-
importance, Hryniewski’s design and to study issues of treasures that were niewski was arrested and on the same ced to death with the confiscation of his
artwork are significant contributions to taken from Georgia to France, along day a short note was entered into the property. After his arrest, Academy staff
the uniqueness of the book. with Dimitri Shevardnadze, Giorgi Chu- records of the Academy of Arts: “Remo- observed individuals who were thou-
The Project to design the Bank of the binashvili, Ioseb Sharleman and Sergi ved from occupied position – Head of ght to be snitches inside Hryniewski’s
Nobility, presented by Architect Anatoli Giorgadze. This confirms his solid re- the Department of painting, teacher of mercilessly destroyed studio. Later, the
Kalgin and Henryk Hryniewski, won the putation as a respected authority in art perspective, from 15th December of the reasons that he was betrayed were clari-
bid and was selected among six compe- and culture. current year”. fied – he had first toasted his homeland,
titive projects. It best met the terms of From 1922 until his death, Hryniewski Two days later, on December 17, 1937 Poland, during a banquet at his friends’
the competition as being of “Georgian continued to lecture at the Academy of a meeting of the Party committee lis- home. On May 7, 1938 a letter was sent
style”. Hryniewski’s part of the Project Arts. From 1923 he was the Dean of the tened to “information about currently from the Academy to the Chairman of
was the decor of the building. While Faculty of Architecture and one of those revealed enemies Hryniewski and De- the Tbilisi Council, Comrade M. Gvishia-
creating the decoration of the façade who loudly argued against its planned vdariani (a second repressed individual ni: “In the yard of the Academy of Arts,
and especially the interior, Hryniewski abolishment. “Architecture, as art, is so E.K.) and stated that the Bolshevik so- on Griboedov street 22 lived Professor
successfully combined medieval Geor- closely linked to sculpture and visual briety of the Party organization is weak, Hryniewski, who has been arrested sin-
gian architectural motifs and modern art, that it is physically impossible to and that professors and teachers of the ce February… an order was issued that
styles. Completed in 1916, it represents split them without disintegrating the Academy have not been scrutinized. For the above room with the inventory be
a brilliant example of Georgian National harmony of visual art.” During 1927- example this is obvious as our organiza- handed over to the Academy.”
Architecture. The building today houses 1929 Hryniewski was Vice-Rector of the tion failed to identify people’s enemies Henryk Hryniewski’s wife, the Italian
the National Library. Academy of Arts and authored a book who we just currently detected.” dancer Maria Perini, who founded the
In addition to the Bank of the Nobili- entitled A Practical Manual in Linear Pers- According to the minutes of the first ballet studio in Tbilisi, was banished
ty, Hryniewski worked on the Project for pective. He didn’t manage to publish his “Troika’s memo” dated February 3, 1938, from her flat. Her son from a first marria-
the Tbilisi Stadium with architect Archil second book, Analysis of Georgian Or- Hryniewski was accused of gathering ge was arrested and executed. In 1938
Kurdiani. He also designed the building naments, however his staff later publi- intelligence and spying in favor of three Maria Perini, as a citizen of a foreign
of the Transcaucasian Railway Depart- shed the book based on Hryniewski’s countries over 20 years, collecting in- country was urged to leave the coun-
ment in Tbilisi. In 1927 he was a mem- materials although his name is not telligence materials and creation of an try, and one year later she died in Nice.
GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM 69
Last Disclose of a Secret, Illustration for Ilia Chavchavadze story Otar's Widow, watercolor on paper, 1912-13,
Henryk Hryniewski, Ilia Chavchavade Saguramo State Museum
Henryk Hryniewski was rehabilitated
on 16th January 1989. It is all the more
poignant that some of the greatest Ge-
orgian ballet dancers that Perini taught
and supported during her years in Tbi-
lisi included Vakhtang Chabukiani, Vera
Tsignadze, Maria Bauer, Iliko Sukhishvili
and Nino Ramishvili.
Karl Sommer
in December 1937 the German pain-
ter Richard Karl Sommer (1869-1938)
was arrested. He had come to Geor-
gia the first time in 1894. In the 1890s
he travelled several times to Central
Asia, including Samarkand, Bukhara
and Tashkent. During his travels he
has painted landscapes, ethnographic
and natural scenes where habitat and
environment were depicted with preci-
sion. After settling in Georgia Sommer
70 GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM
participated in the establishment of
the Society of Caucasian Painters and
simultaneously lectured at the Scho-
ol of Pictorial Art and Sculpture, and
gave private lessons. He was one of the
first to notice the artistic talent of the
very young Lado Gudiashvili. Later,
Gudiashvili recalled Richard Sommer
as, “Blond, with a slightly swollen face,
dressed in a shabby suit with a black ri-
bbon bowtie round his neck, he looked
like a real aristocrat. I was especially
impressed by his wide-brimmed hat.
With his appearance he looked like a
character straight out of Rembrandt’s
paintings”. In the 1920s Sommer, like
many of his fellow-countrymen were
significantly involved and very positi-
vely influenced by artistic movements
in Georgia. His works preserved in Ge-
orgian National collections that were
created in Central Asia and the Cau-
casus, or paintings depicting Tbilisi,
convey highly interesting information
for specialists in many fields. His lands-
capes are distinguished by their atten-
tion to space in a poetic style.
According to “Troika records” of De-
cember 31, Erich Karl Sommer was ac-
cused of being an agent of German
intelligence, of transferring espionage
information and having links with several
foreign consulates. He was executed on
January 2, 1938. Sommer was sacrificed
to the terror earlier than other Germans
living in Georgia. They, like the Polish,
became victims of repression on ethnic
grounds. Between September 15 and 30,
1941, during mass deportations, 23,580
Germans were extradited to Siberia and
Central Asia. Richard Karl Sommer was
rehabilitated on January 16, 1989.