Lasha Bugadze is one of the writers Sulakauri cooperates with since 1998. In his early 20’s Bugadze’s name was spread all over the country after reading of his short story “The First Russian” at the Georgian Parliament. As it described the failure of the first sexual experience of a Georgian saint, a wave of threats flowed to the author from church and society. Religious leaders called Bugadze to the residence of the Patriarch and told him that he would be excommunicated from the Georgian Orthodox Church and rejected by a number of people if he did not apologize publically for his work. From time to time he received death threats from unknown persons. Many politicians in Parliament demanded to activate censorship in Georgia to avoid the publication of such stories.
The incident greatly defined the themes of Bugadze’s works; Censorship, Soviet inertia in post-Soviet states, adultery, and the flaws of Georgian mentality are the main topics of the writer who maintains a never-ending sense of humor within the tragedy.