Remembrance Day of Mikha Khelashvili

Mikha Khelashvili - Hero and poet, was born on January 25, 1900, in the village of Akhadi, Ukanapshavi.

He spent his childhood and youth there, in Akhadi, learning to read and write at home, although he visited and studied at Tamar-Ghele Shrine with monk Hilarion. Later there was the Mtskheta Theological School, and then in 1920 he returned and was a psalm-reader-deacon in Barisakho. He returned to Chargali in 1921. Runs through the woods and begins to fight against the Soviet system. In 1922 he joined Kakutsa Cholokashvili's "Sworn's detachment".

"A liturgy was held in Chargali and after that Mikha Khelashvili left and joined Kakutsa Cholokashvili's detachment in the battle of Magaroskari. So, nothing happens by accident, Kakutsa did not take a man by accident and did not ask to join his detachment," Tristan Makhauri wrote.

Kakutsa Cholokashvili also offered him to go abroad, but Mikha did not agree to defect.

Khelashvili created the real face of the hero with his short life. He was only 25 years old when he was already fighting for the liberation of the country, the author of many wonderful poems, husband, son, brother, the patriot was betrayed, killed by his friends in the village of Chargali, where he was overnighting. Later the communists, in front of Dusheti district, "exemplarily" threw his body in the yard, intended to seek revenge on a boy who could not have been procured, captured, killed, or silenced in any other way.

Tragically continues the chronicles following his death likewise, as it were in life.

His half-sister, Salome Kakablishvili-Zhamiashvili, who was not only his sister but also his foster mother, accomplice, even fellow-warrior, steals his remains from the yard of the district with the help of her brother's friend and buried next to his mother.

Communists also killed his mother. His wife and one daughter survived, deceased Tamar Khelashvili.

As for his poetry, "Mikha's poems were still circulating in his life. He was a very talented man, respected, loved, valued for his poetry, and it seemed his poems were passed from hand to hand. Mikha had one bag in which he kept his handwritten poems. He would carry this bag with him, wherever he went ... His poems have passed from hand to hand, being rewritten, and already during the communist era, these poems were spread as folk variants. Some people knew these poems but did not know the real author. They were passed down from generation to generation like samples of folk poetry." - T. Makhauri.

January 25 has been celebrated as Khelashvili Day in the village of Chargali for ten years now, which is referred to as "Mikhaoba".