Information about Grigol Robakidzé (Obtained from the Geneva State Archives)

Abstract

The author's English summary from the article:

Key words: Robakidzé, Giraudoux, myth, memory.

There is still only hazy knowledge of the years Grigol Robakidzé spent in Switzerland (1945-1962).We studied unedited material kept in the Geneva State Archives. This consists of two files which constitute 77 items in total. The documents, dating from 1945 to 1955, established by Swiss Police and Swiss Administration, throw light on certain facts and certain dates in the writer’s biography. During Germany’s National Socialist period and that of the Second World War, Switzerland took in a great number of refugees, people fleeing the war, persecuted in their home countries for political, religious or racial reasons. Immigration policy hardened during the first years of the War, turning thousands of « undesirables » away.

From 1943 onwards, the authorities became more tolerant towards asylum-seekers. The refugee situation was administered by the Federal Justice Department and the Police. Other bodies involved were the Federal Political Department, the Army, the Cantons, and combined aid organisations. Work camps were created with the aim of putting the immigrants to work in the interests of the country and this internment also enabled them to be controlled and monitored. People were forbidden to work or engage in political activities or to harbour any attitude other than that of neutrality. Switzerland was considered, not as a country of definitive refuge, but as one of transit, and refugees were encouraged to continue their journey towards other countries.

After the War, the authorities granted lasting asylum to those people who, by reason of their age or failing health, were unable to leave Swiss territory. The Law adopted by Parliament in 1947, decreed that the Confederation and the Cantons should provide financial aid for them. Grigol Robakidzé, accompanied by his wife Hélène Fialkina and her niece, Hélène Pogorelova, left Germany and crossed the Swiss border on 23rd April 1945. Available documents enable us to follow his peregrinations over ten years. On their arrival in Switzerland, all clandestines were placed in camps near the borders. Then they were transferred to quarantine camps for three weeks then sent on to work camps or disciplinary camps.

The Robakidzé family was sent firstly to the camp at Basle. Here they were subjected to double monitoring, civil and military. The writer’s friends tried to make his life as a refugee easier. Khariton Chavichvili, a Georgian emigrant living in Geneva, applied to the Residents’ Control Service for permission for Grigol Robakidzé to move to Geneva for three months in order to prepare his departure for France, where he would be taken care of by the Georgian Community. Despite the fact that this type of civil internment sheltering was permitted after the War, Mr Chavichvili’s application was refused : the Residents’ Control Service considered his means for living insufficient to merit a favourable reply.

In July 1945, the couple were still in Basle, then, in August, they were transferred to the Geneva camp. In 1946, the writer and his wife were placed in the Intellectual Refugees’ Home where they stayed until 1948. Grigol Robakidzé benefited from internment in this establishment, created specially for intellectuals, which allowed them to pursue their professional activities, but without being able to escape their refugee status. The Home closed in 1948 and Robakidzé applied for permission to have an individual lodging. Thanks to the fact that his wife, Hélène Fialkina had obtained a post as a typist at the European Office of the United Nations and therefore had an income, his application was granted.

In 1949, the couple became tenants of an apartment at 8 Quai de l’Ecole, in Geneva. The writer evidently changed his intention to join his Georgian emigrant compatriots in France. In 1947, he had already lodged a long term residency permit application in Switzerland ; in 1948 he renewed his application and obtained an annually renewable residency permit. Grigol Robakidzé continued writing. He finished two books : « Israël : Mystery and Destiny » and « At Isis’ Wells ». In 1950, the Robakidzé family’s relative stability was shattered. Hélène Fialkina was afflicted with apoplexy and lost her job. The couple succeeded in keeping their apartment, living on aid from the Central Refugees’ Office as well as sickness benefit.

Hélène Fialkina was in need of permanent care and in 1953 she was sent to a clinic in Zürich for several months while her husband remined in Geneva. Travel permits issued by Swiss authorities show that Grigol Robakidzé didn’t travel much, and principally within the country. They also show rare trips to Paris for a variety of reasons. The most recent document of the two files date from 7th July 1955. We found no documents concerning the writer’s life and work, neither in the Manuscripts Service of the Geneva Library, nor in the Archives of the Swiss National Library in Bern.

Published in the journal Sjani, vol. 15 (2014), pp. 157–172. Open the paper