Tedo Sakhokia

He wrote several well-known works, including "Travelings (Guria, Adjara, Samurzakano and Abkhazia)," "Ethnographic Writings, "How We Grew Up in the Old Time" and "Georgian Imaginative Words and Sayings".

He translated Giovanni Boccaccio's "The Decameron" and Giuseppe Garibaldi's "Clelia" from Italian, and works by Voltaire, Guy de Maupassant, Emile Zola, Alphonse Daudet, François Coppée, Henri Barbusse, and Octave Mirbeau from French, Ivan Vazov's "Under the Yoke" from Bulgarian and Cornelius Borozdin's “Samegrelo” and “Serfdom in Samegrelo“ from Russian.

That's why Timote Sakhokia sent his son to priest Shio Iosava, with whom Tedo lived for nearly a year but still couldn't learn to read or write in Georgian.

[4] Tedo Sakhokia was admitted to the Martvili Spiritual School in 1877, but due to his lack of Georgian literacy, he was placed in the first preparatory class.

During this time, he released the following books: "აკაკის ნაკვესები" (1895), "Russian-Georgian Dictionary" (1897) and translation of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Wild Swans (1997).

Tedo Sakhokia was arrested on September 20, 1894, accusation for communicating with Shio Dedabrishvili and participating with the "Liberty League of Georgia" and was sent to Kutaisi's prison the following day.

He was the leader of a political movement, known as the "Georgian Party", in Abkhazia, and with Antim Jugheli, Ivane Gegia, Grigol Kandelaki and others, was an outspoken opponent of Russia's russification policy.

[17] Tedo Sakhokia was sentenced to five years in prison and deported to Siberia by the Emperor's administration, but he assisted himself by emigration to Novorossiysk, where he secured a foreign passport, and then returning to Paris.

[18] in 1905, Tedo Sakhokia was ordered by George Dekanozishvili, one of the leaders of the Socialist-Federalist Party in France, to accept illegally smuggled weaponry from abroad and meet people in various places of the Black Sea.

In the same year, the Dutch ship "Sirius" transported weapons purchased in Switzerland into Georgia, some of which were handed to the public, some of which were seized by the government, and some of which were dumped into the sea.

[6] He eventually retreated from political activity, abandoned his pedagogical duties, and devoted himself exclusively to the public and scientific realms once the revolt was suppressed.

[16] The Georgian National Opera and Ballet Theater of Tbilisi hosted a meeting in 1925 to debate the question of Samegrelo's secession and autonomy from Georgia.

Tedo Sakhokia's close friends were: Anton Kekelia, Ambrosius Khelaia (who helped him to learn Georgian language while he was in Martvili spiritual school), Kirion Sadzaglishvili (who assisted him financially while studying abroad), and Kalistrate Tsintsadze.

In September 1917, Tedo Sakhokia was elected as a member of the Catholicos Council with Protoiereus Nikoloz Talakvadze, Pavle Ingorokva, Mikhail Machabeli, P. Makhatashvili, Raphael Ivanicky and Christopher Kapanadze.

[20] Tedo Sakhokia extensively studied anthropology, then Georgian language, literature, ethnography, folklore, opinion journalism, lexicology, and other fields during his time in Paris.

[33][34][35] Tedo Sakhokia's ethnographic and folklore writings were collected in a separate book entitled "Travelings: Guria, Adjara, Samurzakano, Abkhazia," which was released in 1950.

After finishing the work, he gave the book to the Nikolai Marr Institute of Language, History and Material Culture, but due to the onset of World War II, publishing was delayed.

Tedo Sakhokia gathered oral histories, labor poems, ritual poetry samples, mythological narratives, and fairy tales, among other things.

"Travelings: Guria, Adjara, Samurzakano, Abkhazia", "Ethnographic Writings," "Ethnography of Samegrelo," "Georgian Imaginative Words and Sayings", and other volumes by the author contain folklore materials.

Tedo Sakhokia's translation of Jules Lemet's short story "The King's Daughter Mimi and Her Sweethearts" appeared in the 164th issue of "Iveria" this year.

[10] Tedo Sakhokia translated "Clelia" by Giuseppe Garibaldi from Italian, as well as works by Voltaire, Émile Zola, Henri Barbusse ("Under Fire") and Octave Mirbeau from French.

The society put out a program in 1882 "for the gathering materials of Georgian orality", which contained samples of folk wisdom from various regions of Georgia, but Samegrelo was left out.

[46][47] Tedo Sakhokia also wrote about agriculture and economy, describing the economic situation in Tsilkani in letters published in Iveria in 1892, harvest in Vladikavkaz,[48] etc.

[16] Tedo Sakhokia wrote articles about rural life in the periodical "Кавказ" from 1894 to 1898, specifically, about Shida Kartli's important difficulties, such as schools, farmer living conditions, harvest, diseases, etc.

In the same year, Mitropane Laghidze's letter was published in one of the issues of the newspaper "Kvali", in which Tedo Sakhokia was severely attacked for mistakes of the translation.

[54] A critical remark was also published in "Iveria," in which the author (using the pen name "Georgian from Fereydan") chastised Tedo Sakhokia for inventing and misusing new vocabulary words.

Tedo Sakhokia published a series of letters titled "Passenger Notes" in the newspaper "Tsnobis Furtseli" in 1903–1904, in which he reported what he had seen and experienced while traveling from Sukhumi to Gagra.

Their quarrel lasted a long time, but eventually they rekindled their friendship, and their scientific collaboration continued until Mikheil Tamarashvili's tragic death.

Tedo Sakhokia extensively collaborated with periodicals and newspapers before fleeing, including "Tsnobis Furtseli", "Droeba", "Sakhalkho Gazeti", "Arrow", "Traveler", etc.

Reports about Tedo Sakhokia's life and works were read aloud by Solomon Tsaishvili, Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Geronti Kikodze, Giorgi Chitaia, and others.

Timote Sakhokia in 1886
Tedo Sakhokia in 1884
Young Tedo Sakhokia
Tedo Sakhokia in 1891
Tedo Sakhokia in 1893
Tedo Sakhokia
Tedo Sakhokia
Tedo Sakhokia in 1941
Tedo Sakhokia with Georgian scientists in 1928
Tedo Sakhokia
Tedo Sakhokia
Nade Kekelia ― Tedo Sakhokia's wife
Tedo Sakhokia with his granddaughter