The “Snakeskin” as a Main Reason for the Prosecution

Abstract

The repressions of the 1920s and the atmosphere of fear forced the socialist-federalist Grigol Khoperia to change the political vector and to prove his loyalty to the proletariat he moved to the Bolshevik camp, even changed his name to Mushishvili. He entered the service of Soviet criticism. In order to show himself, he found a spectacular material: for the purpose of humiliating Robakidze who lived in exile being convicted by the Soviet authorities as a traitor, he published a pamphlet “The Snakeskin” in 1934. It is known that Grigol Mushishvili could not survive repressions. He was detained and shot in 1937 and “The Snakeskin” also remained among the banned books.

This paper considers one case of the accused Konstantin Ivanovich Gabashvili (born in 1896,
Kutaisi resident) with archival # 4184, Vol. 2. Box 217 was found in the Archive of the State
Security Committee of Georgia; He was detained in November 1941 being accused of counterrevolutionary activity, namely that he, as a hostile element to the Soviet power, was engaged in anti-Soviet and counter-revolutionary-fascist agitation. Among the students of the Kutaisi Pedagogical Institute Gabashvili spoke: “The transition of the People’s Commissariat from Moscow to Kuibyshev means that the Soviet government will no longer see Moscow... Touching upon the Nazi racial doctrine, he humiliated the great Russian people and its ability to fight. In order to spread the fascist racial doctrine, he distributed to the students of the Pedagogical Institute the counter-revolutionary fascist book “The Snakeskin”; instructed students to read a book of a traitor of the motherland, Grigol Robakidze. Finally, Gabashvili did not find himself guilty and claimed that he knew nothing about the book being banned. It is also noteworthy that neither the accusers nor the accused pay attention to the fact that here the matter concerned the pamphlet written on Grigol Robakidze’s book and not directly on “The Snake’s Skin”.

Konstantine Gabashvili was sentenced to eight years imprisonment, 3 years deprivation of his rights, confiscation of his property. The verdict was final.