Shio Zakharevich Aragvispireli

(pseudonym of Dedabrishvili). Born Dec. 4 (16), 1867, in the village of Kariskhevi, Dusheti district; died Jan. 2, 1926. Georgian writer.

Aragvispireli was born into a priest’s family. He graduated from a veterinary institute in Warsaw in 1895. He was penalized for revolutionary activities. In the stories “This Is Our Life!,” “With What Disgust He Looks on,” “Arise,” and “It Is Not My Fault, Lord!,” Aragvispireli depicted the hard life of the peasants and the penetration of capitalism into the Georgian countryside. The stories and short stories “Earth,” “My Homeland, My Heart,” and “Amiran Chained” are permeated with national liberation motifs. Their main subjects are the moral degeneration of tsarist officials and the influence of bourgeois morality on the family and on man’s spiritual life. Aragvispireli was a master of the short story.