Akaki Tsereteli was born on June 21, 1840 in the village of Skhvitori, Sachkhere district, Imereti, to the Rostom Tsereteli family. His mother - Ekaterine Abashidze - was a granddaughter of King Solomon I of Imereti.
"Whether I was born or not, my father, who was happy with the purchase of his son, was reconciled to his long-lost household and thrown out of the palace, and I immediately overcame my grandmother. Here is how this story would be followed by a gassed "Father like us" horse Gadiachem: "Venatsvale my Kako! He thought: Where did I come from? And my grandmother thought I was heartbroken and started to cry! .. She even shook one or two hands and could barely make out her voice!
Akaki spent his childhood in the village of Savane, in a peasant family, with a nanny. "I can not help but think that if things remained good and kind to me, it would be more because I was raised in a village and raised with the children of a peasant," Akaki wrote in "My Adventure."
Akaki's Georgian literacy was taught by his sister Anna, and Russian by his mother. From childhood he was very fond of reading books. At the age of 10, he had already read "Tigerskin" several times. Akaki Tsereteli started writing poems at a young age. The poem "Secret Card" published in "Tsiskari" in 1860 brought popularity.
In 1852 he began to study at the Kutaisi Classical Gymnasium, in 1859 he enrolled in the Faculty of Oriental Languages of St. Petersburg University, graduating in 1862 with a degree in Candidate. His theme was the originality of "Panther".
Akaki married Natalia Bazilevskaya in 1864.
The Georgian people hailed Akaki as a People's Poet during his lifetime.
A clear confirmation of the universal recognition was the anniversary evening dedicated to the 50th anniversary of his creative and public activity (1908), which, like the poet's trip to Racha-Lechkhumi (1912), turned into a grand national holiday.
Akaki's journey was filmed by Vasil Amashukeli. The first Georgian full-length documentary is one of the most distinguished in the history of world cinema.
Photo: March in honor of Akaki Tsereteli.
Kutaisi, December 14, 1908.