Niko Nikoladze

Niko Nikoladze (27 September 1843 – 5 June 1928) was a Georgian writer, pro-Western enlightener, and public figure primarily known for his contributions to the development of Georgian liberal journalism and his involvement in various economic and social projects of that time. Biography He was born in the village of Didi Jikhaishi, Imereti, western Georgia (then part of the Russian Empire) into petite noble family of Nikoladze. After the graduation from Kutaisi Gymnasium (1860), he enrolled the Faculty of Law at St Petersburg University in 1861. In the same year he was excluded from the university for taking part in student protests. After leaving St. Petersburg he went to study in Western Europe in 1864 and became the first Georgian to receive a doctorate (in law) from a European university, namely in Zurich (1868). Like many other Georgian intellectuals of that time, he followed the evolution of Russian liberals to different versions of socialism, establishing his own contacts with the Western leftist thinkers. Nikoladze was the first Georgian figure within this trend to gain position of influence in all-Russian liberalist movements. During his stay in Zurich, through Paul Lafargue he met Karl Marx, who asked Nikoladze to become the representative of the International in Transcaucasia. Nikoladze declined the offer because at that time his views were closer with the Russian revolutionary democrats, Nikolai Chernyshevsky and Nikolay Dobrolyubov, whom he had met in St. Petersburg. While in Europe, he briefly collaborated with Aleksandr Herzen in his influential newspaper, Kolokol (The Bell), in 1865, but Nikoladze soon broke with Herzen when the latter sent a reconciliatory open letter to the tsar. Back in his native Georgia, he became involved in national-liberation movement inspired by Georgia's most famous intellectual of that time Prince Ilia Chavchavadze though Nikoladze's relations with Chavchavadze were not always easy. Nikoladze joined a more radical wing of this movement later named the Second Group (meore dasi) and quickly became one of its most influential leaders. This group sought widely for a program, ranging from state-regulated capitalism to various forms of "association" and collectivism, and worked to introduce European learning and culture in Georgia. They became the first Georgian political team to stress the importance of the urban and economic life of Georgia.