Shalva Nutsubidze (; December 14, 1888 – January 6, 1969) was a Georgian philosopher, cultural historian, rustvelologist, literary critic, translator, public figure, one of the founders of scientific school in the field of history of Georgian philosophy, one of the founders and prorector (1920–1929) of the Tbilisi State University, Director of the Fundamental Library of the TSU, Dean of the Department of History of World Literature, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor, elected member of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR (1944), Meritorious Scientific Worker of Georgia (1961).
Nutsubidze attended universities in Saint Petersburg, Berlin, and Leipzig. In 1917, he obtained assistant professorship of the Saint Petersburg State University. He received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1927.
From 1904 to 1911, Nutsubidze was a member of the Bolskevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and the Georgian Socialist-Federalist Revolutionary Party from 1915. From 1919 to 1921, he was a member of the Constituent Assembly of Georgia. After the Soviet annexation of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, he did not leave the country.
He founded his original philosophical doctrine, Alethiologian Realism, while working in Germany. Nutsubidze studied the history of Georgian philosophy in the 1930s, laying the groundwork for a new field of Kartvelian studies, the history of Georgian philosophy. He developed the theory of the Eastern Renaissance and the Nutsubidze-Honigmann theory, which established the identity of Peter the Iberian and Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.
Nutsubidze was fluent in Greek, Latin, German, Russian, and French. His translation of The Knight in the Panther's Skin into Russian language is considered one of the best translations of this poem.
Ancestry Nutsubidze's grandfathers were both priests. Philipe Datiashvili, his grandfather (from mother's side), loved to read and taught his grandson Nuskhuri alphabet to read at a young age. Nutsubidze's father, Isak Nutsubidze, was a teacher. He studied with Vazha-Pshavela at Gori's Mastery Seminary before becoming a teacher in Khoni and Kutaisi. Isak Nutsubidze was a skilled hunter who frequently went hunting with his son. He died in 1927. Nutsubidze's mother, Rebeka Datiashvili, was from Kvitiri.
Nutsubidze's elder sisters were Aneta, Tamar, Elene, and Nino. Tamar, one of them, attended St. Petersburg Technological University and then the Faculty of Geography and Geology at Tbilisi State University. He worked as a researcher and academic secretary at the Institute of Geography of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences. Nino, the second sister, graduated from the Russian Department of the Faculty of Philology of Tbilisi State University and worked as a Russian language teacher, first at a school and then at the Tbilisi Medical Institute.Khidasheli, Sh. (1989). Shalva Nutsubidze: Life and Work. Tbilisi: Tbilisi University Press. pp. 3-21.
Early years and education
Nutsubidze was born on December 14, 1888, in Partskhanakanevi (near Kutaisi). He attended Khoni Primary School and Khoni's Mastery Seminary for his primary education. Here he met with Akaki Tsereteli, Vazha-Pshavela, Niko Nikoladze, Ivane Gomarteli, Barbara Kipiani, and Ilia Khoneli first time. In 1897, he continued his studies at the Kutaisi Classical Gymnasium. He was elected editor of the illegal magazine "Gantiadi" in sixth grade, which he led until he graduated from high school.
From 1904 to 1905, he was an active participant in the gymnasium's political life. In 1904, he joined the Bolshevik fraction of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party. He worked as a regional propagandist and attended the funeral of the revolutionary Alexander Tsulukidze in 1905, where he also spoke on behalf of the Samtredia organization. From 1905 to 1906, he attended illegal Vano Sturua meetings. He was part of a group led by Vano Sturua that traveled from St. Petersburg to Finland in 1906 to meet with Vladimir Lenin.
In 1905, Isak Nutsubidze was appointed headmaster of the school in the village of Kulashi, and the family relocated there. Nutsubidze graduated from the Classical Gymnasium and enrolled in the Department of Philosophy of the Faculty of History and Philology at St. Petersburg University in 1906.Barkava, M., Dolidze, E. (1986). Shalva Nutsubidze (1888-1969): Biobibliography. Tbilisi: Metsiereba. ISBN 978-9941-0-9318-0. pp. 3-14. While studying in St. Petersburg, he once again collaborated with Georgian revolutionary students such as Vano Sturua, Mamia Orakhelashvili, Shalva Eliava, Silibistro Todria, and others.
Nutsubidze delivered a lecture about "Philosophical and Historical Materialism" at the public session of St. Petersburg's University in 1907. During his stay at university, he studied under Alexander Vvedensky, N. Karaev, N. Losky, and others. Nutsubidze frequently visited Georgia and read public reports about political issues. The report "Marxism and Personality", which was read at the Kutaisi Theater, drew a large audience, and the police almost detained members of the Imereti-Samegrelo Committee of the Social Democratic Party, who were listening to the report from behind the scenes.
Nutsubidze graduated from St. Petersburg University in 1910 and began his career as a history, psychology, and Latin language teacher in the Kuban Oblast. Later, with the assistance of Professor Alexander Vvedensky, he returned to St. Petersburg University, passed the master's oral and written examinations, and began lecturing in 1917 to achieve the Privatdozent degree. Nutsubidze received a Privatdozent degree the same year.
He was twice dispatched on scientific visits to Europe from St. Petersburg University. From 1911 to 1914, every May–August, he attended summer seminars in Germany. He founded his original philosophical doctrine, Alethiologian Realism, while working in Germany. He spent much of his time at Leipzig, where he was mentored by notable philosophers such as Wilhelm Wundt, Johannes Folkelt, and Karl Barth. Nutsubidze was a teacher at St. Petersburg's Second Gymnasium in 1914. Grigol Tsereteli, who eventually became his closest friend, met him here. Nutsubidze was a lecturer at St. Petersburg University from 1916 to 1918.
Tbilisi State University
Nutsubidze was a key figure in the formation of Tbilisi State University. During his stay in St. Petersburg in 1917, Giorgi Akhvlediani handed him Ivane Javakhishvili's invitation. Nutsubidze left his wife and children in St. Petersburg and returned to Tbilisi to participate in the university's establishment preparations. He was in charge of bringing Georgian professors to the university.
Nutsubidze held a variety of posts at the university, including Vice-Rector (1920–1929), Dean, Director of the Fundamental Library, Head of the department, First Dean of the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, and others. He also founded and oversaw a law school. For 15 years, he was the Dean of the Department of History of World Literature, which eventually became the Faculty of Western European Languages and Literature. Nutsubidze taught a variety of courses at different faculties, including logic, introduction to philosophy, historical materialism, history of social and political thoughts, scientific methodology, history of Western European literature, and others.
Nutsubidze was also tasked with writing textbooks for students studying philosophy at Tbilisi State University. In a short period of time, he prepared textbooks on which subsequent generations (Mose Gogiberidze, Konstantine Megrelidze, Savle Tsereteli, Konstantine Bakradze, Angia Bochorishvili) were raised: "Logic. Elementary Textbook" in 1919,Nutsubidze, Sh. (1919). Logic. Elementary Textbook. Kutaisi. "Logic for Secondary School"Nutsubidze, Sh. (1920). Logic. For Secondary Schools. Tiflis: Sakhalkho Sakme. and "Introduction to Philosophy, Part I, The Problem of Cognition"Nutsubidze, Sh. (1920). Introduction to Philosophy, Part I, The Problem of Cognition. Tbilisi: Sakhalkho Sakme. in 1920 and "Logic: A Propaedeutic Course" in 1923.Nutsubidze, Sh. (1923). Logic: A Propaedeutic Course. Tiflis: Sakhelgami.
Nutsubidze and his companions (Sergi Gorgadze, among others) established the Petritsi Intellectual Society at Tbilisi State University in 1918, organizing seminars and discussions to gather Georgian philosophical monuments and spread philosophical knowledge. He also introduced "General Education Courses", in which students of all ages who did not have a high school degree were admitted and allowed to continue their education at the university after graduation. The classes were incorporated into government school in 1927.Kakulia, N. [ed.]. (2018). Freedom for one Promise: Shalva Nutsubidze 130. Tbilisi: Tbilisi State University. pp. 40-65.
1920–1940
Nutsubidze and Giorgi Chubinashvili attended an exhibition of Georgian art relics in Germany in 1920. In 1921, he started working for Tedo Glonti's Socialist-Federalist newspaper, which was published with the consent of the Revolutionary Committee. The "Social Philosophy Studying Group" was founded the same year under his direction.
On the recommendation of the university's pedagogical department, Nutsubidze left for Europe in 1925, to become acquainted with the work of philosophical seminars at Berlin University. Nutsubidze was a professor at Leipzig University from 1925 until 1926. He intended to translate "The Basics of Aletheology" into German while on a scientific trip, but changed his mind and authored a new book, "Wahrheit und Erkenntnisstruktur" ("Truth and the Structure of Cognition"), which was reviewed in 1926 by prominent Neo-Kantians Arthur Liberty and Buchenau.
Nutsubidze received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy on April 17, 1927, after successfully defending his doctoral dissertation, "Truth and the Structure of Cognition". He went on a scientific trip to Germany in 1928. In 1930, he traveled to Germany to see an exhibition of Georgian art relics. Nutsubidze was not permitted to continue his philosophy lectures at Tbilisi State University after his return to Georgia.
He was a senior researcher at the Tbilisi Teaching Institute in 1935.
1940–1950 Nutsubidze was a professor at the Maxim Gorky Institute of World Literature in Moscow from 1940 to 1941. He returned to Georgia in 1942 and resumed his lecturing at Tbilisi State University. Nutsubidze was elected a full member of the Georgian SSR Academy of Sciences in 1944.
Nutsubidze was dispatched to Berlin on a special assignment in 1945. According to one story, he was in charge of investigating the fate of Yakov Dzhugashvili, though his presence and work in Berlin were exploited to hold Georgian exiles by Soviet security services.
He began working at the Institute of Philosophy of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia in 1946. At the same time, he taught a course at Tbilisi State University about the history of Georgian philosophy. During a discussion at the Institute of Philosophy in 1948, Petre Sharia and Ilarion Talakhadze fiercely criticized the work "Rustaveli and the Eastern Renaissance", and Nutsubidze was dismissed a year later.
Politics
Nutsubidze was a prominent political figure. He was actively involved in the school's political life while still in high school. From 1904 until 1911, he was a member of the Bolshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, which he left in 1911 to join the Georgian Social-Federalist Revolutionary Party. In 1917, he was elected to the Central Council of All-Russian National Socialist Parties and as a representative of it was dispatched to St. Petersburg, where the Declaration of All-Russian Nationalities was declared. He was elected to the National Council of Georgia in November of the same year.