Gerzel Baazov (Georgian: გერცელ ბააზოვი) (October 28, 1904 – September 12, 1938) was a Georgian Jewish poet and playwright who fell victim to Joseph Stalin’s Great Purges. He was born in Oni, Georgia (then part of the Russian Empire) into the family of the leading Georgian Zionist David Baazov. At the age of 14, he published his first poems under the pen name of Ger-Bi (1918). In the 1920s, he systematically published poems, historical stories and journalistic essays in Georgian-Jewish press and garnered acclaim with his Georgian translation of Song of Songs in 1924. In 1925, he organized a Tbilisi-based Georgian-Jewish dramatic troupe "Kadima" and began writing plays depicting the life of the Georgian Jews. In 1927, he graduated from the Faculty of Law, Tbilisi State University, and brief