Viktor Nozadze, Rustaveli’s The Knight in the Panther’s Skin, and the Soviet Ideology

Abstract

The creative maturity of the Georgian emigre writer and scholar Viktor Nozadze coincided with the period when the newly established communist authorities in Georgia blocked the way for all those that could not adapt to the new political system. During his thirty-year exile in France, Germany, Austria, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Spain, and finally again France, Nozadze created six monumental volumes devoted to The Knight in the Panther’s Skin (Georgian: Vepkhistqaosani) by Shota Rustaveli, reviewing its ideology, worldview, and ethical and aesthetic ideals. Like all Georgians living in emigration, Viktor Nozadze was labeled an “enemy of the people” and, naturally, the totalitarian regime could not permit a place for him among Soviet scholars. In the Soviet Union before Perestroika, the research method for any work in any field was based on Marxist-Leninist philosophy. Viktor Nozadze could not fit into the ideological context governing Georgian research when he created his study of The Knight in the Panther’s Skin. Examining the scholarly works at his disposal, Nozadze realized that Rustaveli’s personality, perspective, and artistic-aesthetic thinking were viewed and considered superficially and ideologically by Soviet scholarship. This was especially true regarding Rustaveli’s religious beliefs and worldview. Consequently, mentioning and citing Nozadze was banned in the Soviet Union, and his life passed in vain expectation of returning to his native land.