Historical persons who visited Batumi

From the day of its establishment, Batumi has attracted many people with different professions, interests or social status. Some of them visited Batumi for a few days or months, but this small seaside town left an indelible mark on them. There are lots of interesting and prominent people among the visitors. Here are the important people who visited Batumi:

John Ernst Steinbeck

American writer, winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is best known for his novel Of Mice and Men and his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck wrote in a naturalistic style, often focusing on working-class life, with a wide range of interests ranging from ocean biology to jazz, politics, philosophy, history and mythology. In his “Russian diaries” he described his trip to Georgia, paying special attention to Batumi. He was fascinated by the beautiful views, the tropical climate and the amazing nature. “We already believed that most Russians, if they spent their whole lives honestly and morally, hoped to come to Georgia instead of paradise after death, a place where they would have wonderful air, fertile land and their own tiny ocean,” wrote Steinbeck;

Mikhail Bulgakov

Famous Russian writer, playwright, theater director and actor. He visited Batumi twice. The first time in 1921, and the second time in 1928 he visited Batumi with his wife, visited the Green Cape, which inspired him and he had an idea to write the novel “Master and Margarita”. The Russian writer wrote a play called “Batumi”, which was written to mark the 60th anniversary of Stalin;

Sergei Yesenin

Famous Russian poet-imaginist, who visited Batumi in 1924 and spent two months. During these two months, he fell in love with two girls, one of them being Shagane Taliani, to whom he dedicated the poem “Shagane mine, my Shagane” and also Kabtsova, whom he jokingly introduced to his acquaintances as his new wife. The short period spent here had a very good impact on his creativity. The poem “Anna Snegina” ann many poems were written here, including the one dedicated to Batumi;

Georges Joseph Christian Simenon

French-speaking Belgian writer who stopped in Batumi while traveling around the Black Sea. The streets of Batumi, interesting places and the stories developed here were told in one of his first novels “People on the Opposite Side”.