1902-1921
Maro Makashvili was born into the family of famous poet, Kote Makashvili, and Tamar Gabashvili, a daughter of famous writer, Ekaterine Gabashvili.
In 1921, when Russia’s 11th Red Army advanced on Tbilisi and Georgian youth left for Kojori and Tabakhmela to fight against the Soviet army, the 19-year-old student Maro Makashvili joined the Red Cross as a nurse and went with the Georgian regiment heading for Kojori. After two days she was mortally wounded by a splinter of a bomb. She was buried along with military school students in the yard of former military cathedral, on the territory of current building of parliament on the Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi.
Maro Makashvili
Author: Titsian Tabidze
“This battle killed many fighters and will take lives of many in future, but such an instant death is even more distressing – as if the Georgian front was sanctified with the first innocent blood and that blood was of Maro Makashvili. Her love to homeland will inspire many women of Joan of Arc type for braver patriotic deeds.
“But one thing gives hope. As Paris once turned to Mounet-Sully, who lost two children, to say that the whole France grieved along with him, so will the entire Tbilisi do.”
The newspaper Sakartvelo, issue #42,
23 February, 1921