IVANE GVARAMADZE AND BOOK POPULARIZATION IN SAMTSKHE-JAVAKHETI

Abstract

In the second half of the 19th century, Georgian public figure Ivane Gvaramadze (1831-1912), a man with great erudition, made a great contribution in education of Samtskhe-Javakheti, where the Georgian population lived in difficult socio-economic conditions and most of them experienced a national degeneration. To increase the number of edu-cational institutions in Samtskhe-Javakheti and care to improve their work was not enough in the condition of shortage of Georgian books, magazines and newspapers and undeveloped reading skills of popula-tion. It was necessary to publish more books, to create school libraries and books stock, to establish public libraries, to spread more books and serial publications. From the beginning of his creative work Ivane Gvaramadze paid a great attention to it. He was the author of numerous books, translator, compiler and publisher. He tried to create a stock of books at schools; he cared to open a public library at a Catholic Church after John the Baptist in Akhaltsikhe and after its opening, in 1893, he led it (though the first Georgian library in Akhaltsikhe did not exist for a long time), he helped to open libraries in other places of the region. He actively took part in spreading Georgian books and newspapers. As a result of Ivane Gvaramadze and other people’s activity, books and serial publications, reading skills and demand on reading rather quickly spread among Georgian population in Samtskhe -Javakheti in the end of the 19th century.