Centenary of Abkhaz writer Georgy Gulia celebrated in Moscow
MOSCOW. March 20 (Interfax) - A gala evening and concert to mark the centenary of renowned Abkhaz and Soviet writer Georgy Gulia has taken place in the Moscow International House of Music.
The concert involved performances by Abkhaz artists and Gulia's friends. The concert started by performances from two Abkhaz opera singers Alisa Gitsba and Khibla Gerzmayeva who sang a popular Abkhaz song 'About Cliff'.
Music critic Svyatoslav Belza noted the contribution that Gulia made to Abkhaz and Russian culture.
Actors Valery Sheiman, Yevgeny Knyzev and Nina Antonova read short novels by Gulia. Artist Yevgeny Gorchakov read a series of memoires of the writer.
Georgy Gulia was born on March 14, 1913 in Sukhumi. He became a people's artist of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1943. He became an honored artist of the Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1971. His novel Spring in Saken (1949) won the Stalin prize of the third degree. He became a member of the All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) in 1940. He wrote such novels as 'Life and Death of Mikhail Lermontov', 'Hannibal the Son of Gamilkar', 'Pharaoh Akhenaten', 'Sulla' and others. He died in 1989 in Moscow. He is buried in Sukhumi.
