George Gurdjieff in Georgia (1919–1920s)

                                                                    Tengiz Simashvili

George Gurdjieff in Georgia (1919–1920s)

[Published in Works of the Faculty of Humanities and the Institute of Georgian History, 

Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Vol. XI, 2017]

 

Archival documents I have located confirm that George Ivanovich Gurdjieff lived and was “active” in Georgia in 1906.
[Tengiz Simashvili, George Gurdjieff in Georgia (1906), Works of the Faculty of Humanities and the Institute of Georgian History, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Vol. X, 2016]

It should also be noted that a great deal of contradictory information has been circulated concerning other periods of George Gurdjieff’s life and activities in Georgia, the vast majority of which is unfounded. For example, the myth about George Gurdjieff and Joseph Jughashvili - Stalin having been fellow-seminarians, which, as archival materials indicate, is not corroborated by fact.

At the same time, there exist documents reflecting George Gurdjieff’s residence and “activities” in Tbilisi in 1919-1920. Among them, particularly noteworthy is the founding in Tbilisi in 1919 of the “Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man” by Gurdjieff and his “followers.” Within the fonds of the Ministry of Education of the Democratic Republic of Georgia is preserved an application written by Gurdjieff’s associates regarding the opening of the Institute.
[Central Historical Archive of Georgia, fond 1935, opis 1, delo 728]

This document is also significant in that it outlines the goals and objectives of this “educational institution.” [Central Historical Archive of Georgia, fond 1935, opis 1, delo 728, p. 2] (On this subject and other matters related to George Gurdjieff, one may consult the works of the distinguished historian Manana Khomeriki – T.S.)

I will not review the above-mentioned archival material here, but only point out that in the memoirs of George Gurdjieff’s “associates,” this period of his life in Tbilisi is covered to some extent.
[Thomas and Olga Hartmann, Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff, Morning Light Press, USA, 2011]

As for the founding of the “Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man” in Tbilisi and the main directions of its activities, it appears that the Georgian public of the time was more or less informed. At any rate, the October 1919 issue of the newspaper Ertoba published the following announcement:

“In Tiflis, an Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man is being established, based on the system of G. I. Gurdjieff.
Olga Street, Melik Azariants’ House No. 3. Classes will be held in the mornings and evenings. Subjects: gymnastics – rhythmic, medical, plastic, ancient, jiu-jitsu. (Gurdjieff wrote in his book Meetings with Remarkable Men that he had mastered jiu-jitsu – a form of Japanese wrestling. After the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, this martial art became quite popular in Russia and Europe – T.S.)
Exercises – for the development of willpower, emotions, instincts, thought, memory, attention, hearing, voice, and so on. Means: practical and theoretical study of: 1) music, 2) painting, 3) sculpture, 4) dance – of Eastern and European peoples, 5) languages – Russian, Georgian, Armenian, Ottoman Turkish, Greek, Italian, German, French, English, and others.
Domestic science – cooking, sewing, economics, laundry, ironing, and more.
6) Crafts – carpentry, shoemaking, tailoring, and others.
Lectures: psychology, philosophy, religion, pedagogy, physiology, hygiene, aesthetics, and others.
The Institute will be led by Jeanne de Salzmann, Matignon, T. Hartmann, Dr. Chorny, Dr. Sharnavian, P. D. Ouspensky, engineer Petrov, V. V. Zhukov, and others.
At the beginning, the Institute will be directed by G. I. Gurdjieff, who is temporarily residing in Tiflis. Further information may be obtained at the first lectures. Children and adolescents will be taken for walks at appointed times by the Institute’s governesses, who will escort them home after classes. In bad weather, the Institute’s carriages will be used. Pre-registration will take place at the State Theater office from 11–1 and 7–8 daily until November 3, after which registration will cease due to the small size of the building.” (Original style preserved)
(The document was provided by young researcher Irakli Khvadagiani – T.S.)

The historian Aleksandre Kochlavashvili also wrote about George Gurdjieff’s life in Tbilisi. We have located his still-unpublished articles on Gurdjieff. In his Georgian-language article “His True Identity (A Reply to Prof. M. Kveselava),” Aleksandre Kochlavashvili refers to George Gurdjieff and his “Institute” in a distinctly negative context.
[Central Archive of Contemporary History, Department of Literature and Art, fond 269, opis 1, delo 24, pp. 1–26] (see doc.)

The fact is that in August 1967, ინ the newspaper Literaturnaya Sakartvelo, issue no. 33, Mikheil Kveselava’s article “Who Was George Gurdjieff?” was published. With this article, the author essentially informed the Georgian public of that time about the views that had taken shape in Europe regarding George Gurdjieff.
(In my opinion, this article itself laid the foundation for the myths about George Gurdjieff that were created during the Soviet period, the echoes of which can still be found in the works of some authors today – T.S.)

Mikheil Kveselava’s ideas, however, appear to have been unacceptable to Aleksandre Kochlavashvili — one of the first investigators of the case of Giorgi Berbichashvili (arrested in 1941 for the murder of Ilia), who had served in various leadership positions within the Soviet security apparatus, and who, after Stalin’s death, changed his profession.
(It should be emphasized that Mr. Aleksandre Kochlavashvili wrote a rather extensive, also unpublished, remarkable study concerning the murder of Ilia, preserved in his personal archive at the Giorgi Leonidze State Museum of Georgian Literature. Here I must underline that my reference to his service in the security structures is merely a statement of fact and nothing more – T.S.)

In the Russian translation of the article, which, as documents show, he intended at that time to publish in the Soviet journal Иностранная Литература (Foreign Literature), the author changed the title to “George Gurdjieff – Agent of the Tsarist Okhrana” (Георгий Гурджиев – Агент Царской Охранки).
[Central Archive of Contemporary History, Department of Literature and Art, fond 269, opis 1, delo 24, pp. 27–38] (see doc.)

In both the Georgian and Russian versions of the article, Aleksandre Kochlavashvili argues that it was Gurdjieff himself who acted as an agent of the Tsarist secret police and who betrayed the illegal printing house in Avlabari.
(I would like to note here that researcher Irakli Khvadagiani also identifies George Gurdjieff as the betrayer of the Avlabari illegal press; however, in my view, this does not correspond to reality. Which of these interpretations is correct is, I believe, a question that only further research can answer – T.S.)

The Georgian and Russian versions of Aleksandre Kochlavashvili’s above-mentioned article differ somewhat from one another—not only in title but also in certain content. Nevertheless, both contain quite negative assessments of George Gurdjieff’s activities in Georgia, particularly regarding the “Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man.”

Kochlavashvili reviews Mikheil Kveselava’s aforementioned article and, from a strictly “Marxist-Leninist” position, subjects Gurdjieff’s “system of upbringing” to harsh criticism, essentially “pulverizing” it.

According to Aleksandre Kochlavashvili:

“The fact that the Menshevik Ministry of Education allowed the founding in Tbilisi of such an institute, which, as it is said, for some time even continued to exist during our own period due to some misunderstanding, of course does not in any way mean that ‘Gurdjieff’s teaching—the “principle” on which this institute was based—is clear, acceptable, and capable of opening up as-yet-unknown perspectives.’”
[Central Archive of Contemporary History, Department of Literature and Art, fond 269, opis 1, delo 24, p. 7] (see doc.)

It should also be noted that Kochlavashvili, as his writings suggest, was acquainted with people who still remembered the functioning of the “Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man” in Tbilisi. He writes:

“One noteworthy fact is that the head of Tbilisi University was petitioned with a request to allow Gurdjieff to deliver a lecture there. The university head considered it an insult to the sacred name of the university to admit Gurdjieff, an immoral figure, for a lecture. Another interesting fact, characteristic of Gurdjieff’s personality: a certain Georgian public figure once took Gurdjieff to a Georgian club to show him around. Afterward, the club’s indignant doorman reproached that public figure, saying he had brought Gurdjieff into a nightclub. Even today, in some suburbs of Tbilisi, one can still hear the expression: ‘Do you think this is Gurdjieff’s school?’”
[Central Archive of Contemporary History, Department of Literature and Art, fond 269, opis 1, delo 24, p. 8] (original style preserved)

Continuing his “campaign” against Gurdjieff’s system of upbringing, Kochlavashvili adds:

“Gurdjieff’s so-called ‘hypnopedic’ and other immoral séances created a highly unfavorable impression of Gurdjieff and of his Tbilisi institute. It was therefore no accident that the Soviet press of the time called such charlatanry in the training of willpower ‘plastic prostitution.’ The authorities immediately closed down this legalized den of immorality.”

In the Russian version of the article it is further noted:

“The Institute for Harmonious Development, organized under the Mensheviks, soon came to be called among the people the ‘Institute of Plastic Prostitution’ after the G.I.G. system.”
[Central Archive of Contemporary History, Department of Literature and Art, fond 269, opis 1, delo 24, p. 12] (original style preserved)

I have cited these excerpts from both the Georgian and Russian versions of the article because, alongside other valuable information, they point to a very important circumstance: namely, that for a certain period during the Soviet era, the “Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man” in Georgia appears to have continued to function.

The issue here is that, according to Gurdjieff’s official biography, he and his followers left Georgia in May 1920, traveling through the city of Batumi to Constantinople. Official sources do not confirm Gurdjieff’s presence in Georgia after that time.

In order to more clearly highlight the significance of the archival documents I have recently located (see below), I would like to briefly touch upon the period preceding George Gurdjieff’s arrival in Georgia. It is known that from 1912, or according to some sources from 1913, he began living in the central cities of the Russian Empire and gained a certain level of recognition in the “intellectual” circles of Saint Petersburg and Moscow—among individuals interested in the study of Eastern philosophy and Eastern “spiritual practices.”

Subsequently, in 1917, Gurdjieff rented a dacha near Yessentuki in southern Russia, where he gathered students he had “acquired” in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Later he moved to Tuapse, where he stayed for several months with his students. Allegedly, under the pretext of gold prospecting in the Caucasus mountains, he used funding obtained from the Bolsheviks to relocate to the Caucasus mountains with his students and family members, eventually arriving in Tbilisi in 1919.

In the archival fonds of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, I located a file in the archives of the Cheka of Adjara (ЧК – Extraordinary Commission), which concerns the arrest of George Karapetovich Gurdjieff and a French citizen of Iranian origin, one Lutfi Kuci Abdulla, on charges of gold speculation in Batumi.
[Ministry of Internal Affairs Archive (Security Archive), fond 6, opis 1, delo 28911]

I will not discuss the documents in this file in detail here, as I believe they require in-depth study. I will only note that George Karapetovich Gurdjieff and Lutfi Kuci were arrested in the autumn of 1921, specifically in December. The documents show that they were, in fact, not seriously punished. Gurdjieff, who, according to the records, owned a shop on Marinsky Avenue in Batumi, had various property—including carpets—confiscated. He was released relatively quickly, within a few days, while Lutfi Kuci was released several months later. It is also noteworthy that these documents indicate that Gurdjieff had obtained a passport in Sukhumi in 1919.

Another important point emerging from these materials is that they may provide insight into a very interesting detail of Gurdjieff’s life. I quote what I consider one of the most intriguing excerpts from the documents: a resolution of the Cheka Collegium of Georgia:

“April 9, 1922 – Due to the fact that the accused were secret collaborators of the Georgian Cheka (‘seksot’ – sekretniy sotrudnik, secret agent) and today they have been exposed (unmasked), their free presence within the territory of Transcaucasia would seriously hinder the work of the Cheka. Therefore, the accused Gurdjieff and Zamlinsky are to be expelled beyond the borders of Transcaucasia.” [Ministry of Internal Affairs Archive (Security Archive), fond 8, opis 1, delo 2203, p. 388] (see doc.)

Accordingly, I note that these materials are quite interesting in relation to George Gurdjieff’s biography, but also somewhat contradictory, since, as we know, Gurdjieff was Ivanovich and, according to official records, left Georgia in 1920.

I would also like to point out that the aforementioned Lutfi Kuci, in the autumn of 1921, brought products by ship from Constantinople to Batumi for sale. Notably, the historical record of a Constantinople merchant engaging in a gold speculation–type activity in Batumi is indirectly corroborated by the memoirs of the well-known Chekist Evgeny Dumbadze.
[E. Dumbadze, Na Sluzhbe Cheka i Kominterna (Personal Memoirs), Paris: Mishen, 1930, p. 106]

Returning to George Gurdjieff, in 1920, his student John Bennett, who met him in Constantinople, wrote that Gurdjieff had been introduced to him by his colleague from British intelligence, William Pinder, who during the period of the Democratic Republic of Georgia was responsible for the security of the Baku–Batumi oil pipeline, and who had himself met Gurdjieff in Tbilisi in 1919.
[J.G. Bennett, Gurdjieff: Making a New World, USA, Reprint edition, 1992]

According to Bennett, Gurdjieff frequently traveled from Constantinople and Paris to countries in the East on journeys lasting several weeks or months, ostensibly to visit teachers of various esoteric schools. Bennett also notes that despite having such recommenders as he and Pinder, Gurdjieff was not granted a visa by the British Embassy in Constantinople to travel to England, because he was suspected of being a Bolshevik agent.
[J.G. Bennett, Gurdjieff: Making a New World, USA, Reprint edition, 1992]

Interestingly, in January 1924, when Gurdjieff traveled to America with his students, William Pinder, who suspected Gurdjieff was a secret agent, personally examined Gurdjieff’s archive.
[The Gurdjieff Legacy Foundation Archives, Frank Pinder (1882–1962), http://www.gurdjiefflegacy.org/archives/fpinder.htm]

Thus, it is clear that in order to better study Gurdjieff as a person and his activities in Georgia, it is necessary to locate additional materials in foreign archival collections to identify the settled individual(s) — George Ivanovich Gurdjieff and George Karapetovich Gurdjieff. However, given the contemporary “practice” of funding research projects in Georgia, this remains a distant and uncertain prospect for me.