Meeting with Redjeb Jordania In Prospero's Books. 
  On Friday, 3rd of June, at  7pm Prosperos Books invites you on meeting with Redjeb Jordania,son of Noe Jordania. 

Noe Jordania - (January 2, 1868 – January 11, 1953) was a Georgian journalist and Menshevik politician. He played an eminent role in the Social Democratic revolutionary movement in Imperial Russia, and later chaired the government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia from July 24, 1918 until March 18, 1921, when the Bolshevik Soviet Russian Red Army invasion of Georgia forced him into exile to France. There Zhordania led the government-in-exile until his death in 1953.

During the World War I years, he maintained a “defensist” position and worked for Plekhanov’s Samozaschita (1916). After the February Revolution of 1917, he chaired the Tiflis soviet and on March 6, 1917 was elected a commissar of the executive committee of the Tiflis Soviet. In August 1917, he was elected to the Central Committee of the RSDLP(u[nited]). On the session of the Tiflis Soviet of September 3, 1917, he made a speech calling the workers not to succumb to the Bolshevist sentiments, but rather to fight for the establishment of a parliamentary republic. In October 1917, he joined the all-Russian Pre-Parliament, but soon became disillusioned in it and returned to his native Georgia. On November 26, 1917, he became a chair of the Presidium of the National Council of Georgia and played a leading role in the consolidation of the Menshevik power in Georgia. His wavering position on the formal secession from Bolshevist Russia ended in May 1918, and Zhordania effectively chaired a parliament session which declared the independent Democratic Republic of Georgia. On July 24, 1918, he became a Head of the Government of Georgia. Within the three years of rule, his government organized a successful land reform, adopted comprehensive social and political legislation, and cultivated widespread international ties, enabling Georgia to become the only Transcaucasian nation to earn de jure recognition from Soviet Russia and the Western powers. Apart from a massive peasant support, his government managed to gain, through combining socialism, democracy, and a moderate form of nationalism, the loyalty of intellectual élites and nobility, and played a crucial role in transforming Georgia into the modern political nation.[1] However, the invasion of the Soviet armies in February–March 1921 toppled down the Georgian government, forcing Zhordania and many of his colleagues to take refuge in France where he led the government-in-exile and continued his efforts to earn the international recognition of the Soviet occupation of Georgia and a foreign support for the Georgian independence cause until his death in Paris in 1953.

In 1923, Noe Zhordania made an appeal to Washington on which he said:“ In the twentieth century, before the eyes of the civilized world, I appeal to the conscience of civilized nations and all honest people to condemn this persecution of a small nation and the criminals inspiring and carrying out these barbarous acts — the Bolshevik Government. ”


He also said in the appeal that Chekists had killed without trial hundreds of people, including women and children, many of them from the Georgian intellectual class.[2]

Zhordania was buried on Leuville-sur-Orge Cemetery in France.
 

• Pantomime will act broken heart by Valentine at the entrance of Courtyard and invite you inside.

 

• The students of the Art Academy will display paintings about love inside our Courtyard.

 

• The group “String” will perfom love songs especially for the Valentines inside our new extension cafe.

 

• Special Cappucino for couples!

We have the pleasure to invite you to the double book launch of "Timeless". The first internationally published novel written by a Georgian has just been translated into Georgian – and is now published here for the first time. Written in 1949 in English and published in California, the book was forgotten until last year when the English writer Peter Nasmyth found it in a bookshop in London. He republished it and the book was widely read and reviewed, (including on the BBC and in the Financial Times).
 

This passionate love story between a Georgian Prince and Russian Princess, set between Paris, Tbilisi, Davos and the Caucasian mountains was the only book the author wrote and is mostly true. He left Georgia in 1921 and unable to return, asked that his heart be buried in Georgia. His relatives smuggled it back to Tbilisi in 1988 and buried it in Vera cemetery.
 

Now the book finally returns to Georgia, to accompany his heart.
 

To celebrate the republication of both the English and Georgian editions, the author’s son, Charles Tchkotoua is flying from Spain; Peter Nasmyth and David Tobin (owner of the London bookshop where it was found) will also be present.

Translated by Irakli Topuria and Kakha Jambouria, published by Bakur Sulakauri  - the book’s return to Tbilisi will be toasted by a new wine created especially for the occasion by Irakli Topuria. Like the love that the book celebrates, it too will be called ‘Timeless,’ and shall be drunk by all at the launch.
 

LAUNCH TO BE HELD on Friday 2nd October, 17:30 (5:30pm) at PROSPERO’S BOOKS (34 Rustaveli Ave., Tbilisi)