Abstract

This article traces the remarkable survival of Kolau Nadiradze’s poem “25 February 1921,” an anti‑Soviet occupation piece that eluded censorship and was published in a special volume in summer 1985. Combining archival research with eyewitness testimony from an insider at the Merani publishing house, the author reconstructs how the patriotic Georgian poem was inadvertently included in a 1985 Soviet poetry anthology, subsequently recalled and mostly pulped, yet survived in a few original copies. The study situates Nadiradze’s work within Georgian symbolism and the mechanics of Soviet censorship, and examines the poem’s revived political significance in independent Georgia, offering a concise account of literary resilience and the perilous fate of dissenting verse under authoritarian regimes.