Chikovani, Grigol Samsonovich

Born Mar. 2 (15), 1910, in the village of Khobi, in what is now Khobi Raion, Georgian SSR. Soviet Georgian writer.

The son of a civil servant, Chikovani graduated from the department of law at the University of Tbilisi in 1936 and from the screenwriting department of the Moscow Institute of Cinematography in 1939. He was first published in 1932. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, Chikovani wrote stories about the exploits of Soviet servicemen and workers. His most important postwar works are contained in the cycle Odishi Stories, in which critical social conflicts unfold against a background of the colorful Western Georgian landscape and sketches of peasant life. Chikovani proves himself a master of social satire in such works as the short story “Staircase.” In his historical novel about revolution entitled February Is Here (1971; Russian translation, 1973), he describes the revolutionary struggle of Georgian workers under the leadership of the Bolsheviks. The novel is noteworthy for the profound historical knowledge it displays of the period. Chikovani has also written plays and screenplays.