How did Eduard Shevardnadze's relative liberalism affect Georgian novelists?

The relative liberalism experienced under Eduard Shevardnadze following his 1972 appointment as first secretary of the Communist Party in Georgia served to empower two significant novelists, allowing them to produce major works during that period.1

This era of relative openness enabled Chabua Amirejibi to continue the tradition of prose centered on rogue figures, notably through his work Data Tutashkhia (1972). Simultaneously, Otar Chiladze began a series of lengthy, atmospheric novels—such as Gzaze erti katsi midioda (1972–73)—that fused Sumerian and Hellenic mythology with the contemporary predicaments faced by Georgian intellectuals.1

It is important to note that this period of relative liberalism was distinct from the later, more challenging conditions of the 1990s, when civil war and economic collapse initially crippled the literary environment before stabilization allowed writers to resume their work.2