Papaskiri, Ivan

Papaskiri, Ivan Georgievich 

Born Dec. 12 (25), 1902, in the village of Kutol in what is now Ochamchiri Raion, Abkhazian ASSR. Soviet Abkhazian author. Honored Cultural Worker of the Georgian SSR (1968). Member of the CPSU since 1938.

Papaskiri, who began publishing in 1926, studied at the Leningrad Institute of Oriental Languages in 1928 and 1929. His novel Temyr (1937; title of Russian translation To Long Life, 1948) tells of the restructuring of the Abkhazian village and of the struggle against prejudices. He has also published the novels Womanly Honor (original title Khimur’s Way, books 1–3, 1949) and At the Foot of Ertsakhu (1953) and the collection Short Stories (1956).

Papaskiri has played an important role in the development of Abkhazian prose and of the literary language. His works have been translated into a number of national languages of the USSR. He has been a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Abkhazian ASSR since 1971. Papaskiri has been awarded the Order of the October Revolution, two other orders, and several medals.

WORKS

Iqimtakua reizga, vols. 1–5. Akua, 1964–70.
In Russian translation:
Zhenskaia chest’. Sukhumi, 1970.

REFERENCES

Drozdov, A. “Ocherki abkhazskoi prozy.” Novyi mir, 1949, no. 4.
Kvitsinia, I. “Proza Ivana Papaskiri.” Literaturnaia Gruziia, 1964, no. 8.
Mitin, G. Khudozhnik iz Apsny. Sukhumi, 1973.

KH. S. BGAZHBA