Merab Kostava

Merab Kostava

Merab Kostava ( Georgian მერაბ კოსტავა ; born May 26, 1939 in Tbilisi ; † October 13, 1989 , Boriti, Georgian SSR ) was a Georgian dissident , musician and poet. He was one of the spokesmen for the Georgian independence movement against the Soviet Union .

Life

In 1954 he founded the underground youth organization Gorgasliani together with Swiad Gamsachurdia , who later became President of Georgia . Between 1956 and 1958 he was imprisoned by the KGB for “anti-Soviet activities” and convicted of disseminating anti-communist literature and propaganda.

In 1962 he graduated from the Tbilisi State Conservatory . From 1962 to 1977 he was a piano teacher at a music school in Tbilisi.

In 1973 he founded Gamsachurdia, an initiative group for the defense of human rights . In 1975 he joined Amnesty International . In 1976 he became a co-founder of the Georgian Helsinki Group . From 1976 to 1977 and from 1987 to 1989 he was a board member there. He became co-editor of the samizdat Okros Satsmisi (German: Golden Fleece ), wrote literary and scientific works.

In 1977 he was imprisoned again with Gamsachurdia. He was sentenced to several years in prison in a Siberian labor camp. In 1978 he was the US - Congress nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1987 he was released from the GULAG .

In 1988 he founded the Ilia des Righteous Society , an organization named after the early leader of the Georgian national movement, Ilia Chavchavadze . In 1988 and 1989 Kostava was one of the main organizers of the peaceful protests for Georgia's independence. He was arrested for the third time on April 29, 1989, but was released after 48 days. He tried to mediate in the civil war for Abkhazia and sought a balance with the Meshes in South Georgia.

He died in a car accident on the Rikoti Pass in the Lesser Caucasus near the village of Boriti (with rumors of a planned killing disguised as an "accident"). He was buried on the Pantheon in Tbilisi.

Kostava was married and had a son, Irakli. The city of Tbilisi named a street after him. In 2007 a wooden cross was erected in his memory in Boriti.

literature

• Zviad Gamsachurdia and Merab Kostava . Amnesty International, London 1977
• Gamotxoveba Merab Kostavastan: mceralta da sazogado moçgvaceta mtacmindis panteoni, 1989 clis 21 octomberi . Macne, Tbilisi 1992

Fonts

• Leksebi . Merani, Tbilisi 1990

Web links

Commons : Merab Kostava  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files