David Magradze (born June 28 1962) is a Georgian

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 poet and politician. He is the author of lyrics of the current National Anthem of Georgia

Tavisupleba

"Tavisupleba" is the current national anthem of Georgia. The anthem, whose title means "Freedom", was adopted in 2004, along with the new national flag and coat of arms. The symbols' change was brought about upon the successful overthrow of the previous government in the bloodless Rose Revolution...

 (2004).

Born to the family of the writer and literary scholar Elguja Magradze in Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...

, Magradze is a philologist by education trained at the Tbilisi State University

Tbilisi State University

Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University , better known as Tbilisi State University , is a university established on 8 February 1918 in Tbilisi, Georgia. TSU is the oldest university in the whole Caucasus region...

. He debuted in the 1980s and edited the leading Georgian literary journal Tsiskari for several years. Under Eduard Shevardnadze

Eduard Shevardnadze

Eduard Shevardnadze is a former Soviet, and later, Georgian statesman from the height to the end of the Cold War. He served as President of Georgia from 1995 to 2003, and as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party , from 1972 to 1985. Shevardnadze was responsible for many top decisions on...

, he served as Minister of Culture of Georgia from 1992 to 1995 and was elected to the Parliament of Georgia

Parliament of Georgia

Parliament of Georgia is the supreme legislature of Georgia. It is unicameral and has 150 members, known as deputies, from which 75 members are proportional representatives and 75 are elected through single-member district plurality system, representing their constituencies...

 from 1999 until he resigned his position in the legislature in 2001. Magradze withdrew into opposition to Shevardnadze and supported the 2003 Rose Revolution

Rose Revolution

The "Revolution of Roses" was a change of power in Georgia in November 2003, which took place after having widespread protests over the disputed parliamentary elections...

 which forced him to resign. By 2009, he had joined the opposition to President Mikheil Saakashvili

Mikheil Saakashvili

Mikheil Saakashvili is a Georgian politician, the third and current President of Georgia and leader of the United National Movement Party.Involved in the national politics since 1995, Saakashvili became president on 25 January 2004 after President Eduard Shevardnadze resigned in a November 2003...

 and featured prominently in April 2009 rallies

2009 Georgian demonstrations

The 2009 Georgian demonstrations were a mass rally by an ad-hoc coalition of opposition parties in Georgia against the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili. Thousands of people demonstrated, mainly in Tbilisi, starting on 9 April 2009, demanding Saakashvili's resignation. On the first day of...

 demanding Saakashvili's resignation.

Since 1997, Magradze is the President of the Georgian PEN club. He has been awarded several Georgian and international literary prizes and the Georgian Order of Dignity. His poems have been translated into English, German, Italian, Russian, and Armenian languages.

External links

• David Maghradze. Parliament of Georgia (1999).