Confession of a Toastmaster. Vladimir Shatakishvili

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      Compiled by E. Kirilskaya

      There is a photo of heroes of story by V. Shatakishvili «Our friend – Abramovich» on the cover.

      © Vladimir Shatakishvili, 2016

      © International Union of writers, 2016

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      Vladimir Shatakishvili

      Biography of Vladimir Shatakishvili

      To the Book «Confession of a Toastmaster»

      In the Soviet times, «literature of fact» was always in demand. There is much talk about the non-fiction literature these days. It is considered to include not only the documentary (memoirs, biographies, traveling, chronicles) but also essays, critical and scientific literature. These works are based on facts. A certain degree of sincerity is important here. Our author Vladimir Shatakishvili, who is known as the Caucasus specialist of «Lucullean» feasts, the best toastmaster, also has the measure of sincerity. In Russia, a toastmaster was called «a friend» – a Friend of everybody. In Georgia, the art of being a toastmaster have reached the highest level, where a toastmaster – a king of the table, and this gift can be distinguished already in childhood. Little Volodya, living in Tbilisi, was mastering this art. His father (Georgian) – Akaki Mikhailovich was a famous lawyer in Georgia, his mother (Ukrainian) – Elena Nikiforovna – a teacher, and his sister, marrying the British, left the country. So, it was no surprise that Vladimir easily got enrolled in the Pyatigorsk State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages, and in 1988 he got the second diploma of the economist of the Moscow Cooperative Institute.

      Open-minded and hospitable Shatakishvili had many friends, each with his/her own fate and peculiarity. Some are now in Moscow, others are in Georgia, Ukraine, and other countries. Friendship can be broken by the distance and the fate, but friendship, sealed in the memory of the heart and in the books, is immortal. It is impossible to list all the heroes of the books of the author. Some of them are being discussed even today. Hardly anyone knows that the current Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich began his career from the bottom – in Kislovodsk, in the city where Alexander Solzhenitsyn spent his childhood. Sergey Mikhalkov, Genrikh Borovik studied in school No. 1 of Pyatigorsk – the favourite city of Yan Frenkel, Arkady and Georgy Vajner, Viktor Manuilov, Stanislav Govorukhin, Boris Rozenfeld, Vladimir Shalaev, Albert Fardzinov. And Irakly Andronnikov, Anatoliy Aleksin, Mikhail Tanich, Lion Izmailov, Andrei Dementiev, Shamil Tarpischev… were the guests of Shatakishvili, and he wrote kindly and interesting about of them.

      Encyclopedic erudition, wit, and kindness to people – all this Vladimir has in the blood. His integrity and exceptional tact to those, about whom he wrote, helped to create truthful memoirs. Some of the texts in his books represent a kaleidoscopic genre sketches, and in their form remind essays interspersed with memoirs, but factual approach creates a framework arrangement, within which there is a variety of events. In his works, the author shows the situational pace of time, dependent on the heroes of the story, and he himself fades into the background as the observer, being one of the characters of the story.

      One of the most popular books of Shatakishvili «Companion at the Feast» did not have time to reach bookstores, as it was sent to the happy owners – friends of the author, directly from the printing office. This is a book of memories «about one feature of the Russian life». The content is framed with aphorisms, toasts and historical anecdotes from the life of the Russian emperors, statesmen, and public figures. Popular Russian writer Vasily Zvyagintsev, commending this book of the author, called it «an encyclopedia of life of the Caucasian Mineralnye Vody». Its bright cover design is like a vernissage of photos with portraits of famous personalities. The title of the book – «Companion at the Feast» has a footnote: «Fun about sad…».

      Vladimir Shatakishvili began to write books when his beloved wife got seriously ill. He had to do something just to stay in this world. The longing and the bitterness overshadowed the whole world when the blue eyes of Lyudmila closed forever, but the fourteen-year-old son Sandro (Alex), with a desperate hope, was looking at Vladimir with the same blue eyes… He had to live! So, he wrote dozens of notebooks with confessions of the «resurrected» toastmaster, whose good friends never ceased to invite him to feasts, where he said lovely words wishing them eternal health, love, happiness, and wealth… Having found out about his diaries, the son persuaded his father to publish these stories, and soon his books came out: «The Casket of Colourful Contemporaries» (2004); «Ball Wanted» (2005); «The Most Russian Person» (2007); «Companion at the Feast» (2012); «How Good we Badly Lived» (2014).

      In the book «CONFESSION OF A TOASTMASTER» includes selected texts of these books in the genre of travelogue, where the author describes not only trips with his friends, but looks at the national colouring through the prism of his perception of the universe, so the works of Vladimir Shatakishvili have a lot of Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Armenian, Jewish, Kabardian, Ossetian, Dagestani. And this brings the reader back to the Soviet period, when people did not ask each other about nationality. Between the lines one can see the social observation of the author, and one wonders how the author, as the son of the prominent lawyer, enjoying wealth and freedom, has not lost decency he and love for people! Is he the Epicurean who has not drowned the nobility of his soul in the sea of brands?

      Vladimir Shatakishvili is now able to combine professional literary work with the position of assistant of the Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation and the freelance expert-consultant in several editorial boards of the major Russian magazines. He deliberately left the business arena and hid in the shell – the hard-won abode of muses, not giving weight to the received public and creative awards. For his creative works only, the Lermontov Russian Committee awarded Shatakishvili at different times two medals: Jubilee «In commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of M. Yu. Lermontov» and the medal «For contribution to the development of the Pyatigorsk State Museum – reserve of M. Yu. Lermontov», and the Caucasian Academy awarded the Jubilee medal of the Ossetian poet Kosta Khetagurov. But the participation in Nabokov prize came to Shatakishvili with the mature comprehension of the essence of his creative work.

      The book «CONFESSION OF A TOASTMASTER» can be considered the guide of the Fates, Names, unique Cultures of the multinational Russian Soul at the meeting-point of the author's fiction and publicism, where there is no explicit confrontation. And Shatakishvili performs with the apologia of the hidden decency: an aesthete, a fan and a true connoisseur of everything beautiful – from women's beauty to the ringing silence. And the poet said about such people: «Could you play nocturne on a flute of drainpipes?»

Marina Bayros – a member of the Union of Russian Writers (knowing the author for 36 years)

      Six Trips to Munich

      For a few months, I have a story lying on my table. It was specifically written for the volume II of «Companion at the Feast». This is the story of the most famous and popular writer of the Stavropol region Vasily Zvyagintsev: «Something about beer, or «liquid bread» in our lives». Actually, I am a «debtor» of Vasily Dmitrievich. In fact, he and the recently departed Alexander Mosintsev have given «start in life» for my first book «The Box of Colourful Contemporaries», having written the introduction and the afterword to it. After all, there must be the time when I make a good, deserved tribute to the «master», who has given me, the writer-beginner, whom I consider myself to this day, a helping hand. We met in 1975 when I was passing military service in the Stavropol Aviation School for pilots and navigators of anti-aircraft defence. Many years of communication have led me to the conclusion that it is one of the smartest people (if not most intelligent) that I met me in my life. Certainly, he had nothing to do with writing, although, he had been writing for almost twenty years «in the table»… But today his books are read by fans of science fiction, rightly putting it on one level with the most prominent authors of this genre in our country. The total circulation of books of our fellow countryman has already exceeded 5 million copies.

      I still remember one episode from the seventies.

      In 1961, V. Zvyagintsev got interested in the work of the famous Soviet writer Valentin Pikul when he had a chance to read the second novel of the writer «Bayazet». The first novel «Ocean Patrol» did not attract special attention. But the