Ilia Chavchavadze - Legacy

Legacy

In 1987, Prince Chavchavadze was formally canonized by the Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church, as "Saint Ilia the Righteous."

As a result of Ilia's death, and the Georgian Social Democrats, especially the Mensheviks, started to gain significant power and support among the population. Eventually, after the temporary disengagement of Russia from Transcaucasia, Georgian Mensheviks decided to revive Georgian statehood and proclaimed the independence on May 26, 1918. After the Bolshevik occupation of Georgia and integration into the Soviet Union in 1921, Ilia became for Georgian nationalists the symbol of Georgian freedom and national liberation. In 1989, during the anti-Soviet protests in Tbilisi, the poems, novels and political life of Ilia Chavchavadze became a driving force behind the Georgian struggle for independence. The idea of National revival, which Ilia preached and advocated in various Georgian societies throughout his life, gained in momentum in 1990. In 2002, Mikheil Saakashvili, a young Georgian politician who was educated in the United States, created a movement which claimed the political legacy of Ilia Chavchavadze's party, known as the United National Movement. Mikheil Saakashvili’s National Movement party played a major role in the so-called Rose Revolution of 2003 which ousted President Eduard Shevardnadze.