Olga Guramishvili-Nikoladze

Olga Guramishvili-Nikoladze (, 29 July 1855 – 24 May 1940) was a Georgian biologist and educator. One of the first women to study abroad, she earned a degree in pedagogy and brought advanced teaching methods to Georgia. In 1886, she founded a girls' school, and later a women's gymnasium, in Didi Jikhaishi. At the school, she introduced sericulture to the country and taught her students mechanical knitting and weaving. In her later career, she served as the chair of the school board in Poti from 1894 to 1912. She is remembered for her contributions to education and a street in Tbilisi bears her name. Early life Olga Alexandres asuli Guramishvili (Olga daughter of Alexander Guramishvili) was born on 29 July 1855 Lower Avchala, a northern suburb of Tiflis (known after 1936 as Tbilisi), in the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire to Ketevan Tumanishvili and Alexander Guramishvili. She was related to the Georgian poet Davit Guramishvili, and a relative and god-daughter of , a Georgian literary figure, married to Ilia Chavchavadze. After completing her secondary education, Guramishvili attended the Tiflis Women's Gymnasium. Hoping to become an agronomy teacher, upon completing her high school studies, she attended biology lectures with Professor Tarkhnishvili. At the time, there were few opportunities for university study for women in the Russian Empire, and Guramishvili dreamed of going abroad to further her education in Switzerland. Her father was against the plan, but her mother encouraged Guramishvili, who obtained the passport of Ephrosine Nikoladze, older sister of Niko Nikoladze, and made her way to Zurich in 1872. In the early 1870s, Switzerland was a gathering place for Russian revolutionaries who were preaching the socialist doctrine. Guramishvili, one of the first Georgian women to study abroad, became involved in the student movement and became active with other Georgian women students like Fefo Eliozishvili, Ekaterine Melikishvili, Pelagia Natsvlishvili, Ekaterine "Kato" and Olympiad Nikoladze, Mariam Tsereteli. When Giorgi Tsereteli founded an organization known as the (Yoke Society), supported by and Niko Nikoladze in 1873, Guramishvili became a member of the group. Its stated purpose was for students abroad to study socialist doctrine to liberate their homeland and form a republican state. In 1874, the Tsarist regime issued a decree requiring woman students to leave the University of Zurich and return to their homelands.