Gruzja Ryszarda Kapuścińskiego

Abstract

The article discusses that part of the oeuvre of Richard Kapuscinski, known as the „king of reporters,” which is devoted to describing impressions from the author’s few stays in Georgia. Particularly attention is given to the essay “Invitation to Georgia,” which is part the series of reportages titled The Kirghiz Dismounts, written in the late 1960s, after Kapuscinski’s occasional visit to the more exotic republics of the Soviet Union. Visiting Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, as well as Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, the reporter zoomed in not so much on the innovations that took place there after the October Revolution, but on what had hardly changed, what constituted an enduring value, such as, for example, attachment to the family land, to faith and customs, to the history and culture of the ancestors. The reporter was particularly captivated by Georgia, especially the ability of Georgians enamored with their homeland to celebrate life.