Merab Kostava

Merab Kostawa (Georgian მერაბ კოსტავა; born May 26, 1939 in Tbilisi, † 13 October 1989 Boriti, Georgia) was a Georgian dissident, musician and poet. He was one of the leaders of the Georgian independence movement against the Soviet Union.

Life

In 1954 he founded together with Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who later became President of Georgia, the youth underground organization Gorgasliani. Between 1956 and 1958 he was arrested by the KGB because of " anti-Soviet activities " and sentenced because of the spread of anti-communist literature and propaganda.

In 1962 he completed a course of study at the National Conservatory Tiflisser. From 1962 to 1977 he was a piano teacher at a music school in Tbilisi.

In 1973 he founded with Gamsakhurdia an initiative group for the defense of human rights. In 1975, he joined Amnesty International. In 1976 he co-founded the Georgian Helsinki Group. From 1976 to 1977 and from 1987 to 1989 he was a board member there. He was co-editor of the samizdat Okros Satsmisi (Eng. Golden flow ), wrote literary and scientific works.

In 1977, he was imprisoned again along with Gamsakhurdia. He was sentenced to several years' imprisonment in a Siberian labor camp. In 1978 he was nominated by the U.S. Congress for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1987 he was released from the GULAG.

In 1988 he founded the Society Ilia the Righteous, a named after the early leader of the Georgian national movement Ilia Chavchavadze organization. 1988 and 1989 Kostawa was one of the main organizers of the peaceful protests for Georgia's independence. On 29 April 1989 he was arrested for the third time, but released after only 48 days. He tried to convey to Abkhazia in the Civil War, and sought a settlement with the Meskhetian in South Georgia.

He died in a car accident on the Rikotipass in the Lesser Caucasus, near the village Boriti ( although there are rumors of a " accident" camouflaged planned killing). He was buried in the Pantheon in Tbilisi.

Kostawa was married and had a son, Irakli. The city of Tbilisi has a street named after him. In Boriti a wooden cross was erected to his memory in 2007.