Niko Nikoladze was a liberal Georgian writer, publicist, and public figure. For his writing and his political activities he faced censorship, exile, and imprisonment from the tsarist authorities and attracted the ire of conservatives. He also took a leading role in various social and economic projects, including expansion of the Georgian railway, construction of a Grozny-Poti pipeline, and transforming the small town of Poti on the coast of the Black Sea into one of the region’s most important ports.

This caricature is accompanied by a humorous biography of Nikoladze. One of the incidents it recounts, is how Nikoladze was able to get a canal dug to irrigate the village of Jikhaishi, where he lived. He managed to convince everyone of the canal’s importance except one “very influential peasant” who “many people in the village looked up to.”

“One day,” author tells us, “Niko used all his oratorical and agricultural skills and finally managed to convince the stubborn man. When he was finished, the peasant cried out: ‘I now understand that it's important, I do! Your mind has moved into my head!’ Nikoladze took his hat off, put it on the peasant's head and said: ‘Take good care that my mind doesn't fly back out.’”

 

Source: National Parliamentary Library of Georgia