[2] Lortkipanidze was an active participant and agitator in the 1937 purges that led to the deaths of many of his writer colleagues, as a detailed historical study has shown.

[4] During World War II (1939–1945) in 1942 the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia sent Lortkipanidze and other activists to strengthen the Georgian 414th Rifle Division of the Red Army.

He joined the active army in September 1943, first as a telephone operator in a communications company and then from 1944 as correspondent and organizer of the Georgian-language divisional newspaper Forward for the Motherland.

He fought in the North Caucasian Front and in the separate Primorsky Army, and participated in the Novorossiysk-Taman and Crimean offensive operations.

[2] The heroism of the people during the war was an important theme of several of Lortkipanidze's later works such as A Blade Without Rust (1949), Death Will Wait (1968, stories), How the Old Fishermen Died and others.

[2] His award-winning collection of true stories Death Will Wait (1968) was dedicated to the heroism of the Soviet people during World War II.