Zakaria Paliashvili - Sickness and Death

Sickness and Death

Since the beginning of the 1930s, Zakaria was frequently unwell. His illness was diagnosed as sarcoma of the adrenal gland. Anton and Nikoloz Paliashvili, the composer’s brothers took Zakaria to Leningrad to see a friend of theirs, Yustin Djanilidze, a famous Soviet surgeon. The latter operated on Paliashvili, but when he saw that surgical interference would do no good, he stopped the operation and sewed up the wound. In regard to Paliashvili’s health he said: “There is no hope. He will live not more than two or three months.” And so it proved to be. Zakaria Paliashvili was bedridden during the summer months of 1933.His condition continually deteriorated. The new season began at the Tbilisi Opera House. Several days before his death, Zakaria said to his relatives “before I die, I want to hear my Absalom once again.” The radio was switched on. Paliashvili strained to listen and at first his face was happy but soon it was contorted with severe pain. At 5 p.m. on October 6, 1933, Zakaria Paliashvili died. He was buried on October 10 in the garden of the opera house next to the grave of his friend Vano Sarajishvili, known as the “Georgian nightingale” By a decree of the Georgian Government the Tbilisi Second Musical School, the Tbilisi Ten-Year Musical School, the Batumi Musical School and a street in Tbilisi were named after Zakaria Paliashvili. Later, a street in Moscow was also named after him.

Valuable materials relating to the life and work of this great national composer have been gathered at the Home-Museum of Z. Paliashvili. In 1959, the entire second storey of house no.10 in Barnov Street, where Paliashvili lived from 1915 to 1933, was set aside as his Home-Museum. In October 8, 1962, a special ceremony marked the opening of a permanent exhibition at this museum. The director of the museum was Vazha Chinchaladze, a journalist, philologist and publicist, a merited worker in culture. Another permanent exhibition dedicated mainly to the childhood and youth of the composer was opened in Kutaisi, in the house were Z. Paliashvili was born. There is a special place for exhibits on Paliashvili’s life and work at the M. I. Glinka All-Union museum of Musical Culture in Moscow.