British scholar turns down Writers’ House Award in protest against Georgian government

British scholar Donald Rayfield has turned down a Gratitude Award from the Writers’ House of Georgia, citing his discontent with the country’s political climate and the actions of the ruling Georgian Dream party. 

Rayfield, a prominent Kartvelologist and Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London, was set to receive the “Award of Appreciation” on March 11, coinciding with the London Book Fair. The award, established by the Writers’ House of Georgia, recognizes Rayfield’s significant contributions to promoting Georgian literature, language, and history.

In a 20-minutes speech, Rayfield explained his decision. “I discovered that this award was supposed to be presented to me by Ketevan Dumbadze, a former parliamentarian from Georgian Dream (who voted for the “Russian law” and supported all the repressions of the Georgian Dream), with the consent of Tea Tsulukiani, who, in turn, as a former Minister of Justice and then Minister of Culture, turned Georgia’s courts into an instrument of political repression, and replaced respected experts in libraries, museums, galleries, archives and other creative institutions with incompetent and very unpopular political figures and their relatives… After that, I already knew that I had to refuse this award.” 

According to Gvantsa Jobava, Rayfield’s speech was a culmination of the Georgian protest actions during the London Book Fair.

The event was organized by Georgia’s Ministry of Culture, the Georgian Embassy in the U.K., and the Writers’ House of Georgia. The Georgian diaspora gathered outside the building, awaiting embassy representatives and members of the Ministry of Culture delegation. They held a protest rally with posters depicting demonstrators beaten at pro-European rallies. A video shared by Tatia Meqvabishvili captured the event.

Donald Rayfield is a scholar and distinguished translator. He has rendered Georgian works into English, including Mikheil Javakhishvili’s “Kvachi Kvachantiradze” and Otar Chiladze’s “A Man Was Going Down the Road.” Rayfield also translated “Dead Souls” by Mykola Gogol (Garnett Press, 2008; New York Review Books, 2012). He is known for his books “Stalin and His Hangmen” (Random House, 2004) and “Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia” (Reaktion Books, 2012). 

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Copy editing: Ben Angel