Daniel Chonkadze

He is primarily known for his resonant novella "Surami Fortress", which contained social commentary of early 19th century Georgia and criticized serfdom; it was subsequently made into a film.

He authored an unfinished Russian-Ossetic dictionary, and wrote down a collection of Ossetic proverbs using an alphabet invented by Professor Anders Sjögren for the Ossetians.

Published in 1859/60 in the Georgian literary journal Tsiskari ("Dawn"), the novella is a mixture of folklore, history, political protest, and romantic drama in which Chonkadze passionately attacks serfdom.

The contemporary socio-political system is symbolized by the crumbling Surami fortress that requires a living person to be buried within its walls to stand firm.

Chonkadze died of tuberculosis at the age of thirty, and many of his writings were destroyed by his relatives as a potential source of infection.