Dato Turashvili is one of Georgia’s most famous writers. In the well documented Flight From USSR we follow an event from the eighties that shocked the world. Young actor Gega Kobakhidze and seven friends hijacked an airplane to escape Georgia. They are united in both their hate of the Russian occupier and their love for the country and culture of Georgia. And their love for the classic jeans, which is viewed as the symbol of anti-Soviet sentiments.

One day, one of his friends says what all of them are thinking: ‘We need to get out of here! This land has become a Soviet prison!’ They come up with a naïve and overconfident plan to hijack a tourist flight on their wedding day and escape to Turkey. Weapon of choice: a toy gun.

But their amateur plan is destined to fail, as they have underestimated the Russian police and the KGB. Their commandos refuse to negotiate and plan an assault on Aeroflot 6833. Kalashnikovs are emptied onto the desperate hijackers. Resistance: none. Death toll: eight. Most Georgians are arrested and sentenced to death penalty after a short fake trial. Gega Kobakhidze and his new wife are executed first and their bodies are buried at an unknown place.

Shortly after Georgia’s independency the gravedigger reveals the burial grounds of Gega and his friends. They are excavated, their jeans still intact. Opinions on the events are divided. Some thought that the young artists from the better Georgian families were merely terrorists. Other felt that life under the Soviet regime was unbearable and had more comprehension for their rash acts.

In his telling novel Turashvili gives this dilemma back to the reader and opens a window to a forgotten and often misunderstood land at the edge of Europe.

‘Dato Turashvili was one of the leaders of the Georgian student revolt of 1989 that was suppressed with violent action. He has successfully written a novel about the hijacking of the airplane. The 33 year old monk Tevdore is outright impressive as he takes the blame for the events and tries to avoid the death penalty for his accused friends.’ – NRC Handelsblad ****

‘A tragical, fascinating piece of Sovjet history that is hardly known.’
– De Standaard ***

‘An astonishing book. Turashvili researched the sensational and extremely violent termination of the hijacking of an airplane in 1983 by eight young Georgians. And he wrote a fictional novel about it. Despite all we already knew about the Sovjet regime, this is still shocking literature.’
– Noordhollands Dagblad ***

‘Dato Turashvili is famous in Georgia and Flight From the USSR is one of the country’s most beloved novels. It has been adapted for a stage play and shall be made into a movie next year. Read it and you will know why. Even though you feel a disastrous ending coming from page one, it doesn’t diminish the tension in the book one bit. Turashvili’s tone is light, interlaced with romance, poetic images and humor. Lots of dialogues which give the story its necessary lightness. It also gives the writer the freedom to give each character a personality of its own and a possible answer for their rash actions, which border a collective suicide. Turashvili describes and fictionalizes but refuses to judge and glorify. Flight From the USSR is a beautiful novel and deserves a huge audience.’ – 8weekly.nl ****1/2

‘Back in the USSR; a prohibition on jeans, pop music in secrecy and a miserably failed hijacking. Turashvili turned it into a tragicomic masterpiece.’
– Chris Keulemans

‘Dato Turashvili has written an interesting and well crafted document. He writes laconically and with a lot of pace which emphasizes the cruelty of the story. The book is very easy to read.’ – Literatuurplein.nl