Ardaziani, Lavrentii

Born 1815 in Tiflis; died Jan. 2 (14), 1870, in Tiflis. Georgian writer.

Ardaziani’s class origins were in the clergy, and he was a petty official. With G. Eristavi and D. Chonkadze, Ardaziani prepared the ground for critical realism in Georgian literature. His most important novel is Solomon lsakich Medzhganuashvili(1861), at the center of which is a predatory figure, a grasping merchant. In his book A Trip Along the Sidewalks of Tbilisi (1862), Ardaziani depicted the life of the city, as well as the contemptuous treatment of the people by tsarist officials. In his novel The Deceivers (1863) the writer describes the life of the gentry. In his polemical articles Ardaziani defended the progressive ideas of the “new generation” and advocated the development of the realistic trend in Georgian literature.