Society Shevardeni as a Culturological Phenomenon and One of Geronti Kikodze’s Works

Abstract

The work provides discussion of Sokol Society (sokol – falcon) estab­lished in Czechia by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner and similar public movement named Shevardeni (meaning of this Georgian word is also falcon) established by Giorgi Nikoladze, Giorgi Egnatashvili, Gaioz Berelashvili, Davit Javrishvili, Tamar Nikoladze etc. According to the article, just like So­kol, Shevardeni was not a purely sports society and its purpose was disse­mi­nation of the moral-oriented philosophy and original esthetics related to many arts (painting, poetry, choreography, music...), members of the Society were closely related to the spheres of medicine, social and political sciences. Similar to Sokol, worldview of Shevardeni was mentally close to the ancient Hellenic world, in particular, with Kalokagathia.

Shevardeni had time to publish quite limited literature, but these pub­lications demonstrate that many Georgian poets, musi­cians, painters, publi­cists (Shio Mgvimeli, Mikel Pataridze, Sezman Ertatsmindeli, Ioane Kipiani, Ivane Beridze, Evgeni Mikeladze, Va­le­rian Sidamon-Eristavi, Soso Aslanish­vili, Vano Pataridze, Ivane Machavariani...) collaborated with Shevardeni and esthetics, close to ancient Hellenic and Czech Sokol, gradually estab­lished in their art. For Shevardeni, similar to Sokol from Prague, revival of the national spirit was one of the main goals, Hellenic and Czech Sokol esthetics influenced members and followers of Shevardeni but they intended to develop this esthetics on the basis of Georgian national soil (they have created the Society’s anthem relying on the national spirit, also Georgian logotypes, national sportswear etc.). They had no time to fully realize their ideas. Shevardeni was founded in 1918 and, supposedly, for alleged nati­onalism, it was terminated by the Soviet government in 1922.

Magazines published by Shevardeni contained numerous ar­ticles that, regarding both, their contents and stylistics, were quite close to one of the works (“On Physical Upbringing”) by famous Georgian writer and politician Geronti Kikodze (1888-1960) pub­lished in 1919 (generally, this book was very popular in 20s in Georgia); it praises ancient Hellas and discusses the worldview that has the greatest influence on the ancient Greek philosophy, litera­ture and arts; Kikodze’s work mentioned Czech Sokol in very posi­tive context… In our opinion, in addition to the fact of existence of Sokol in Prague, the mentioned work by Geronti Kikodze has also contributed to emergence of the idea of creation of the society similar to Sokol in Georgia.

According to the main conclusion in the work, Georgian so­ciety She­vardeni existing in the period from 1918 to 1922 should not be regarded as a sports organization only and the history of its activities should be studied in the aspects of philosophy, fiction, many arts, medicine, political, social sciences etc.