DEVELOPMENT OF BOOK-SELLING IN GEORGIA (SUMMARY)

George Kokoshvili

According to the article, book-selling has great social-economic importance. Research of the mentioned problem is of special interest in Georgia.

The matter is that the general economic crisis and decreased life-standard serve to reduce interest towards books. Thus, it is necessary to take measures for the recovery and development of one of the main material grounds of the oldest Georgian culture – book sphere.
The first Georgian book to reach our generation was I. Tsurtaveli’s manuscript “Martyrdom of Shushanik”. Vakhtang VI helped to open a printing-house in Tbilisi where in 1709 “The New Tastement” and in 1712 “Knight in the Panther’s Skin” was printed. Book-selling developed together with publishing business. There were book-distributors. The old book-selling centre (XVII-XVIII) was at Sioni Cathedral in Georgia. There were no specialised book-shops in Tbilisi before 40s of the XIX century. At that time books were sold mostly in schools. Since that time bookshops with books in Georgian, Russian and foreign languages are opened in Tiflis. Development of book-selling was much promoted by editorial office of periodicals “Tsiskari” (1852-1875), “Sakartvelos Moambe” (1863), “Droeba” (1866-1885), “Iveria” (1877), etc.
Georgian partnership on publication and distribution of books played an important role. It created its own network of books-selling in 1891 and distributed production of other publishers in the following places: Sukhumi, Batumi, Poti, Ozurgeti, Supsa, Kutaisi, Rioni, Zestafoni, Khashuri, Gori, Akhaltsikhe, Telavi, Ganja, etc. Since 80s of the XIX century and in the beginning of the XX century publication of books increased from 6025 to 334160, i.e. 55 times as much. The annual turnover of book-selling (1891) reached 50000 roubles. There appeared new book-selling subjects – bibliopoles.
Special stage of book-selling development was in 1917-1990. At that time Georgia was part of the USSR and book-selling as well as trade in other goods was arranged in a centralised way. In the Soviet Republic of Georgia book-selling was managed by “Saktsigni”. The number of bookshops in Tbilisi exceeded 80 in the end of 80s. In accordance with “Saktsigni” system, there were 15 bookshops in Ajara (6 in Batumi), 12 in Abkhazia (5 in Sukhumi), 4 in Tskhinvali. Apart from “Saktsigni”, book-selling was also managed by “Tsekavshiri” that provided rural population with books. Book-selling reached great success in the XX century.
The new stage of book-selling in Georgia began since the second half of 90s of the last century. New publishing houses were opened. They contribute to the development of book-selling in Georgia. Festivals and book presentations are held.