Statue of Alexander Kazbegi

This statue of the Georgian Poet, Alexander Kazbegi, is the main square of the small town of Stepantsminda which is in the northeast of Georgia not far from the Russian border.

The figure of Kazbegi is on top of a tall rectangular plinth and shows the poet in a long cloak and scarf. He makes a striking figure with a full-beard and tidy hair.

Kazbegi lived in the second half of the 19th century and was born in Stepantsminda. He was the son of a local nobleman and ran the family estate following his father’s death until he went to Tbilisi in 1879 where he began his writing career.

Among the themes which are apparent in Kazbegi’s writing are love of the motherland, humanity, fairness and making a stand against oppression of the common man. His best-known work was ‘The Patricide”.