The Tragedy of Tite (Titus) Margvelashvili

Türkçe Tercüme

Tite (Titus) Margvelashvili was born on April 2, 1890, in Kutaisi, in the family of Margvelashvili as the son of Tadeoz Margvelashvili and Pelagia Chavchanidze. 
He received his primary education between 1899 and 1909 at Ilarion Mataridze's private preparatory school and Kutaisi Classical High School in Kutaisi. In November 1909, he enrolled at the Faculty of Philosophy at Leipzig University. In 1913, he started doctoral studies at the Friedrich University of Halle-Wittenberg.  During this period, he was in constant close contact with other Georgian students studying in Germany. In 1914, he earned his Doctor of History degree with a thesis titled “Colchis, Caucasian Iberia, and Albania at the Beginning of the 1st Century BC—Especially in the Context of Strabo.” After spending three months in London to improve his English, he returned to Georgia the same year.

After returning to Kutaisi, he taught foreign languages at a high school until 1917 and actively participated in public and political life. He published articles on cultural, historical, economic, and political topics in various magazines that reflected the spirit of nationalist-democratic circles. He was one of the founders of the Georgian National Democratic Party. In 1917, he was elected to the Central Committee of the party at its first congress in Tbilisi. On May 26, 1918, as a member of the Georgian National Council, he was among those who signed the Georgian Declaration of Independence.
From 1918 onwards, he played an active role in German-Georgian relations. He was a member of the founding committee of the Georgian-German Cultural Association, established on July 21, 1918, and became its first president.
In 1919, he ran as a candidate for the National Democratic Party in the Constituent Assembly elections, which were won by an overwhelming majority by the Mensheviks, with the National Democrats winning eight seats. In February 1921, a week before the Soviet occupation, he fled to Istanbul via Batum. He then settled in Berlin in July 1921. His wife Mariam Khechinashvili and daughter Elizabeth Margvelashvili were brought to Berlin by his brother Vasiko in 1922. Their son, Givi Margvelashvili, was born there in 1927.
He led the Georgian community in Berlin between 1921 and 1923. Although he was re-elected president in 1924, he did not accept the position due to the time constraints. He continued his work in political immigration as a member of the group affiliated with Spiridon Kedia. He wrote articles about Georgia's independence in Georgian publications. He served on the Berlin Political Commission and the Berlin branch of the “Georgian Political Red Cross.”
From the early 1930s onwards, with the rise of the Nazis in Germany, he was involved in the diplomatic relations established to strengthen Georgia's position with the Nazi regime. In 1933, he became president of the Georgian Nationalist Organization established in Berlin and participated in efforts to unite anti-Soviet groups and promote Georgian culture and history in Germany. Shortly thereafter, he resigned from the presidency of this organization due to a political conflict with another National- Democrat, Shalva Karumidze.  He withdrew from active public life for a while and published scientific articles on the history, ethnography, and traditional culture of Georgia and the Caucasus. In addition, after his wife committed suicide in 1933, Tite was left with full responsibility for their children.
During World War II, he once again became the leader of the Georgian community in Berlin. Between 1941 and 1942, he worked for the German Foreign Ministry and participated in propaganda activities. In early 1945, when it became clear that the Germans would lose the war, he attended a meeting of Georgian political émigré groups in Salzburg. His daughter Elizabeth left Berlin at that time, first for Italy and then settling in Argentina. Tite returned to Berlin to retrieve his documents and complete his unfinished business. According to his son, Givi, this was one of the last trains to enter Berlin while the city was being bombed.
After the war, father and son lived in relative safety in the British-controlled zone until 1946. Tite even worked as a translator for the Soviet troops for a time. One day, Tite's childhood friend, Professor Shalva Nutsubidze, invited him to the Soviet-controlled Eastern Sector. Tite crossed into the Soviet zone with his 18-year-old son, Givi, and was arrested there. The next night, father and son were separated. Givi was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp under Soviet control. After two years there, he was sent to Tiflis to live with relatives.
There was no news about Tite's fate for a long time. The trial that began in Moscow in March 1946 ended in Tiflis in October.  He was declared an “Enemy of the People” under Articles 58-4, 58-10, paragraph 2, and 58-11 of the Soviet Criminal Code. All his property was confiscated, and he was sentenced to death by firing squad. His sentence was carried out on October 17, 1946. 

After he and his son disappeared from Berlin, the fate of the documents left in his apartment remains unknown. His notes, works, and documents belonging to the Georgian community were there. Tite was well aware of the destruction that the Georgian Mensheviks had caused to their own national cause and the ideal of Caucasian unity. He should have priceless data on these topics in his private archive, which is lost now.  Though had been censored by the Communists’ censorship, his statements found in interrogation transcripts clearly demonstrate this fact. As much as Tite's notes on the social and political life of the Georgian immigration, his notes on North Caucasian émigré groups and especially Haydar Bammate's group Kavkaz, further highlight his important position within the Caucasian political immigration.  Some of Tite's works, writings, letters, and personal documents are currently preserved in various archives and libraries in Georgia and Germany. His granddaughter, Anna Margvelashvili, continues to work on documenting the family's history.

Our subscribers can access the interrogation transcripts of Tite (Titus) Margvelashvili from our primary sources section by clicking the following link:

 

Cem Kumuk
İstanbul, 13 July 2025