The Hero of the Foreign Legion Dimitri Amilakhvari: unknown biography pages
- December 19, 2022
On December 16, 2022, a meeting of the Department of Social Sciences was held at the National Academy of Sciences of Georgia, at which Dr. Rusudan Labadze delivered a report entitled “Hero of the Foreign Legion Dimitri Amilakhvari: unknown pages of a biography”. There are many unspecified facts in the biography of Dimitri (“Bazorka”) Giorgi Amilakhvari (1906-1942), the commander of the 13th demi-brigade of the French Foreign Legion, who died in the battle of El Alamein during the North African campaign in the World War II. In September 2020, the book “Dimitri Amilakhvari – The Warrior Prince” was released by the French publishing house (Lemme Edit). This was the first book in France to honor the memory of Lieutenant Colonel Dimitri Amilakhvari. The author of the book cites information about the noble house of Zedginidze-Amilakhvar. The issue of Dimitri Amilakhvari’s ancestors has not been particularly investigated in Georgian scholarly literature. The researchers either do not touch this issue at all, or refer to him as the grandson of Ivane Amilakhvari. In addition, various Internet resources, genealogical portals, etc. who, under the influence of multilingual Wikipedia (mainly Russian and English), represent Dimitri Amilakhvari as a descendant of Ivane Amilakhvari, the famous general of the Imperial Russian army.
