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[HISTORY IN IMAGES – I VANE JAVAKHISHVILI TBILISI STATE UNIVERSITY] T’pilisis sakhelmts’ipo universit’et’I/ p’asukhismgebeli redakt’ori K. Oragvelidze [i.e. Tbilisi State University/ Edited by K. Oragvelidze]

Item #885

Tbilisi: sakhelmts’ipo universit’et’is t’ipo-lit’ograpia, 1936. 88, [2] pp.: ill. 36.5x27.4cm. In original publisher’s full cloth. A couple of stains on the boards. Otherwise in a very good condition. Without the dust-jacket.

Extremely rare. One of 2100 copies. Edited by the university rector, Karlo Oragvelidze (1902-1937). Photographs by I. Panfilov.

This photobook features more than 180 prints documenting academic, student and communal life in the oldest university of Georgia and the Caucasus region, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (established in 1918).

The edition consists of 4 chapters: General Section; Educational Work; Scientific Work and Preparation of the Scientific Cadres; Socio-Political Work and Community Services.

The first section of the album features 16 photographs depicting the rector Karlo Oragvelidze (he was executed a year later), professors Alexander Janelidze and Alexander Tvalchrelidze, pro-rector G. Janelidze, party committee secretary S. Gegenava, head of the local trade union committee I. Surguladze, pro-rector of the financial and
economic department A. Sanadze and the head of the students’ executive bureau V. Gegechkori. The section encompasses photographs showing construction of the physicochemical corpus, the façade and hall of the TSU main building, as well as the certificate of honor awarded to the university.

104 photographs in the second chapter are arranged according to the departments of the University (Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, Faculty of Biology, Faculty of Geology and Geography, Faculty of Chemistry, Faculty of History, Faculty of Literature, Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Law, and RABFAK) and show honor students,
professors, dens and heads of the educational sections. Among prints presented in this chapter are images depicting the first rector of TSU Petre Melikishvili, professor Niko Marr, den of RABFAK V. Mirianashvili, students with national minority backgrounds (Georgian Jews, Greeks, Ossetians, Udis, Armenians, Chechens, Turks, Abkhazians, Leki, Svans, Adjarians), ceremony of thesis defense, workshops on astronomy, botany and physics, cabinets of geology, geomorphology and chemistry, lectures of the famous professors Akaki Shanidze, Luarsab Andronikashvili, Giorgi Gekhtman, etc.

The third chapter of the album features 39 photographs of the library, publishing house (typesetting and bookbinding departments, font office, lithography), scientific sessions, students who defended thesis in 1937, various experiments (including on pigeons and dogs), cartographers in the institute of geography, X-ray apparatus, meteorology station, lexicological committee, etc. The final chapter of the book gathers 31 photographs depicting celebrations of the International Workers’ Day and 15 years
of the Soviet Georgia, campus life (student residence, kitchen, cafeteria) of the university, seminars of Komsomol propagandists, sessions with agitators, Komsomol’s conference, editorial board of a large-circulation newspaper, etc. Especially interesting are the sport images that show a volleyball team of pedagogues and group of athletes, as well as students engaged in various sport activities, namely wrestling, box, weightlifting, German wheel, skydiving, exercises on gliders, etc.

Overall a very interesting and rare survival of the time.

No copies according to the Worldcat.

Price: $1,500.00