Kalistrate Samushia (1917-2002), an outstanding folklorist, and a deep connoisseur of Georgian national culture, became one of the honored researchers of Georgian culture, linguistics, and folk poetry, and his name is fixed with remarkable letters. He devoted his whole life to collecting, researching, and systematizing folk heritages. He published unique materials studied from 1971 to 2001 in seven books. K. Samushia’s research works are well-known to scientists and museum workers, but it is less known to modern society, so that is why I prepared this article.
Kalistrate Samushia was born on September 12, 1917 the village Paluri, Zugdidi Mazra (now this village belongs to the municipality of Tsalenjikha), where he received his primary education, but he completed secondary school in the neighboring village Liya (1937). Next, he graduated with an Honored Diploma from both the Tbilisi Pedagogical Institute (1940) and the Faculty of Philology of Georgia State University (1945).
He had had a hard student years – the death of his father, World War II, Therefore, to improve his financial situation, Kalistrate worked during the holidays in the forest industry of Svaneti. At that time, he walked around hundreds of villages in Samegrelo region, collecting poems, myths, legends, fairy tales, and songs from the rural inhabitants and systematizing of them.
He worked at various times as a teacher of Georgian language and literature – at the Zugdidi Pedagogical Institute (closed in 1954 by a decree of the Soviet government), at the secondary schools in Svaneti, Gulripshi and Zugdidi regions, and as a director of a secondary school as well. From 1961 until the end of his life (2002) was the director of Zugdidi Historical and Ethnographic Museum. As a senior researcher and head of the chair, in the 1990s he lectured on aspects of mythology and the history of Georgian folk oral literature at the Zugdidi branch of the Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and the Zugdidi Independent University as a professor led the Chair of Georgian Language and Literature. Kalistrate Samushia was awarded by “Orden of Honor” for his scientific, pedagogical, and societal activities in 1999. K. Samushia was buried Zugdidi pantheon.
Books of Kalistrate
His first book – “Materials of Georgian Folk Poetry (Mergelian Samples)” – was published in Tbilisi in 1971 (publishing house “Metsniereba”), it was sold in a few weeks and became a bibliographic rarity,
аs а bestseller the book attracted great interest the public – the Georgian press dedicated the several articles to this book that time. Kalistrate continued to create, and in 1979 his second book “Questions of Georgian Folk Poetry (According to Megrelian Models)” was published in Tbilisi, and was awaited by experts and connoisseurs of folk poetry. It was extremely difficult to publish books of this kind in the Soviet Union.
K. Samushia’s next book “Oral Georgian Literature” 1990 was published in the capital of Georgia.
Since 1991, Georgia has been going through a very difficult period, Kalistrate continued his creative search in difficult social-economic and social-political conditions (1992-2000). His new book “Lekhera” was published in Zugdidi 1997, but the following books were published again in Tbilisi: The Jubile collection dedicated to K. Samushias’s 80th Anniversary; The stories “Foundation of the Kolkhas” 2001, – “Old Kolkhuri (Megruli) Poems-Songs” 2001.
He kept from destruction many unique exhibits, and monuments of material and spiritual culture, which he collected and exhibited in the Zugdidi Museum. Kalistrate Samushia attracted famous writers, poets, and scientists, including Konstantin Gamsakhurdia (1893-1975) and Ioseb Megrelidze (1909-1996) to the preservation and development of the exhibits of this museum and the museum building in the 1960-70s.
Sokhumi 1972, Western radio stations and Kalistrate
Living in Sokhumi, my family (autor) was friends with the eldest daughter of Kalistrate – Rusudan Samushia, who, after graduating from school in Zugdidi (1966), moved to Sokhumi – graduated from the Sokhumi Pedagogical Institute, and then worked in various organizations, in the 1980s – in the Sokhumi Neurosurgery Center. Rusudan lived with her husband (Emir Pachkoria) and children (Kakha and Maka) on the same street in Sokhumi (until 1993) as we did.
As a child, I heard a lot about К. Samushya from foreign radio podcasts. At the end of 1971, my father Bochia Pachkoria (who was killed on February 20, 1993 in Sokhumi as a result of the bombing of our residential area by a Russian fighter) brought me the first book of Kalistrate, and soon information about this book was printed not only in Sokhumi and Tbilisi newspapers but also on the air of “The Voice of America” and Radio “Liberty” of the Georgian services. Information from Western radio stations about Kalistrate and his book was unexpected for me (I was 12 years old), although later, when I met Mr. Kalistrate Samushia as a matter of fact, the possible reasons for their interest became clear.
Zugdidi 1977
My first meeting with Kalistrate Samushia took place in Zugdidi in July 1977. Immediately after graduating from secondary school in Sokhumi (1976), I took the entrance exams at the Faculty of History of Donetsk State University (Ukraine). After the end of the first year of study, all students had to undergo a three-week internship in one of the history museums of any city of the USSR – some chose Ukraine, others – Russia, and I – the Zugdidi Museum (Georgia).
Actually, I used to meet and talk to Kalistrate daily about issues of museum practice, the history of exhibits, and current events in Georgia, the USSR and the world at that time.
Then I was 17 years old and after several conversations with Kalistarate, I realized that in his character and worldview, he was close to dissidents, although he had never openly shown political sympathies and antipathies. When I told him that at the beginning of 1972 I heard information about his work from Western radio stations, after a pause he smiled at me and said – “Now we are in the museum, let’s talk about it on fresh air in the evening”.
That’s how it happened: he advised me to be careful while talking to people about politics and history. “Tengiz avoid talking about politics with strangers, who knows how your words will be transmitted to others. You are young, at first studying, graduating from university, and then life will show you,” Kalistrate said to me. He told me that «Many listen to western radio stations, but it is better not to talk about this with «unknown acquaintance».
In July 1977 Kalistrate told me about his meetings (1965 and 1967) with Konstantin Gamsakhurdia at the “Kolkhuri Tower”. “I knew Mr. Konstantin since the 1940s, meetings with him were actual to resolve issues necessary for the functioning of the Zugdidi Museum, he had great authority, and after his appeals” to the top “these issues were quickly resolved” – Kalistrate said me. Subsequently, I met him several times in Zugdidi, including in 1994-1995. He was worried about the current situation in Georgia then, although he said that the time for the unification of Georgia would come.
Kalistrate Samushia – Mindia of Antiquities of Kolkheti
In 2012, the writer Tite Mosia, a professor at the Sokhumi State University, published the book “Mindia of Antiquities of Colchis”, dedicated to the life of Kalistrate Samushia. Born and raised in the Zugdidi region, T. Mosia was acquainted with K. Samushia since the 1970s, when Tite Mosia worked at the Sokhumi Pedagogical Institute. The author of the book notes that “Kalistrate Samushia was rightly called the “Mindia of Colchis antiquities.” “Under his care, hundreds of unique exhibits were saved from inevitable death. The priceless monuments of the material and spiritual culture of the past, searched for by this man with inexhaustible energy, will forever take their place in the Zugdidi Historical and ethnographic museum. Who knows how many monuments of old Georgian literature and oral lyrics were kept by K. Samushia. All collected materials were attached to K. Samushia’s research books” – remarks T. Mosia. He notes that “Samushia himself was a poet and prose writer, he published the books “Lekher” and “On the Foundation of Colcha”.
The son of Kalistrate – A member of the USSR national racing team.
Kalistrate’s wife, Tsiala Daraselia (1926-2018) was an honored doctor of Georgia, after graduating from the Tbilisi State Medical Institute, she worked as a doctor in Zugdidi all her life. Kalistrate and Tsiala started a family in 1948. I told you about the eldest daughter Rusudan Samushia, the youngest one – Marina Samushia, a medical doctor who lives and works in St. Petersburg. Kalistrate’s son Juansher Samushia (1954-1984), graduated from the Forestry Engineering Academy and postgraduate studies in Leningrad, was a successful race car driver, master of sports of the USSR, winner and prize-winner of several all-Union and international tournaments, 1979-1983. – a member of the teams of Leningrad and the USSR. In July 1983, in Lithuania (near the city of Plunge), during the Union Championship, he had an accident, because of the crash he received severe cranial injuries, at first he was treated in Moscow, then in Sokhumi, but unfortunately, it was not able to keep him alive. He died in May 1984. Juansher was buried Zugdidi pantheon.
Recently I met Rusudan Samushia who arrived in Georgia. She informed me that in the future, she is going to publish a special collection book that will include all the important materials from the work of Kalistrate Samushia in Tbilisi.
By Tengiz Pachkoria
The honored Journalist of Georgia
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