Giorgi Leonidze State Museum of Literature

Giorgi Leonidze State Museum of Literature, Georgia (Georgian: საქართველოს გიორგი ლეონიძის სახელობის მუზეუმი ) was founded in 1930 upon the initiative of David Arsenishvili, a legendary museum-founder, who also was the creator of Tbilisi Theater Museum, and later the famous Andrej Rublow museum in Moscow.The greatest supporter for this initiative was Georgian poet Titsian Tabidze, who, together with the group of symbolist writers – the Blue Horns (Georgian: Tsisferyantselebi / ცისფერყანწელები ) – advocated the creation of a literature museum since 1919. Tabidze, together with Ivan Enikolofow, was also the first chair of the museum.HistoryThe first building of the museum was located on Mtatsminda hills in Tbilisi, home to the pantheon of Georgia’s most prominent writers and poets, Mtatsminda Pantheon; initially, the museum was created to guard the documents and manuscripts of those famous personalities. Hence the first name of the institution was Museum of Mtatsminda Writers. Later on however, in 1938, when the collection was complemented by different types of documents from the 19th and 20th centuries of Georgian literature, the museum moved to the new place - at Giorgi Tchanturia Street 8 - the historic building it occupies until present, (built in the late 19th century, previously a residence of the deputy Viceroy in the Caucasus) and became the State Literature Museum. Since 1967, it bears the name of Giorgi Leonidze, co-founder of the museum, who, for 22 years (1931–1953) was also its director.