ABSTRACT
The watershed in the nineteenth century divides those born before and after the conspiracy of 1832 into ‘fathers’ and ‘sons’, a term owing something to Turgenev’s novel of that name, but indicating a very much more acrimonious and irreconcilable division. If the old generation were resigned to the political status quo, to preserving national character and values in an imperial structure, and to literature as pleasing instruction, the new generation were radical on the Russian pattern (whether liberal or socialist), internationalist in sympathy (if still national at heart), and saw in literature an instrument of political and moral change. The new generation’s leader and outstanding writer was Ilia Chavchavadze (ილია ჭავჭავაძე) He is the most revered of Georgian writers and civic leaders — so much so that he is known just as Ilia.
