Mirza Gelovani (March 2, 1917 – July 1944) was 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 who died, fighting in the Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 ranks during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 at the age of 27.

Gelovani, with his poetry full of childlike admiration of nature, attracted attention at the age of 16, but it was only after his death that most of his poems were published and made him into one of the best loved poets of Georgia’s younger generation. Most of his wartime poems are patriotic heroics, sometimes transcending the horrors of war with a naïve enjoyment. He was killed during the crossing of the Visla. He was posthumously awarded the Shota Rustaveli State Prize

Shota Rustaveli State Prize

The Shota Rustaveli State Prize is the highest prize awarded by Georgia in the fields of art and literature. The first prize-winners of this prize were Konstantine Gamsakhurdia , Irakli Abashidze and Lado Gudiashvili in 1965...

in 1975.