Book 145: Georgia (English) – Kvachi (Mikheil JAVAKHISHVILI)

But I’ve already told you that history is a lying gossip. This simple truth has yet again been proven in the case of Kvachi. In the last ten years enough books have been written about Russia to fill two hundred carts. A bookworm may read them all from beginning to end, but – typical of the world’s ingratitude – he’ll never come across Kvachi’s name anywhere. Others have ascribed to themselves, misappropriated and redistributed his glorious cause, his inestimable labors, and invaluable good deeds. But, thank God, Kvachi has many living witnesses… who can confirm what is said above and below. Just try and disbelieve them!

Kvachi is a conman and a universal man of mystery who manages to change the course of Russian history.

He takes after his father who has ‘acquired’ a false noble title from a swindler. Kvachi takes the family business to a new level, becoming a consummate confidence trickster. He ingratiates himself by grovelling to the influential, and eventually becomes an international celebrity himself.

I found the novel’s structure a bit loose, a series of episodes like short stories (reflecting its original manner of composition) which can be read in one bite, making the task of tackling this dauntingly large novel somewhat easier.

I found Kvachi’s relationship with the ‘Mad Monk’ of Russia, Rasputin, and his involvement in the assassination, the most interesting section. Of the incidents, the funniest was when Kvachi under the pretext of filming a bank robbery stages a real one. He is a great womaniser and some of his ex-girlfriends end up in a strange place…

Like Stalin, most of his doings take place on the larger Russian stage rather than in Georgia. He (Kvachi) started the Russian Revolution (!), becoming a revolutionary. He returns to Georgia with an overblown reputation (which had been exaggerated by his friend Beso). There are excursions into Paris and Istanbul.

I loved the way Russia’s split personality – should it look east or west – is mythologised into the struggle between Peter (the Great?) and Ivan (the Terrible?). This is one of the many vital sections sliced by the Soviet censors.

The author’s style of often talking to his creation (“You…”) in direct address really grabbed me. He regards Kvachi with (in the words of translator Donald Rayfield in his excellent introduction) “horror mixed with delight”. And this is a delightful novel, another one (apologies for sounding like a broken record) which merits a wider audience.

While Kvachi avoids execution, his creator was not so lucky, a victim of Stalin’s purges.

JAVAKHISHVILI, Mikheil (1880 – 1937), Kvachi, translated from Georgian by Donald Rayfield, Champaign/London/Dublin, Dakley Archive Press (Georgian Literature Series), 2014, ISBN 978-1-56478-879-5

Original title: Kvachi Kvachantiradze, published 1925