Polikarp Gurgenovich Mdivani
Поликарп Гургенович Мдивани
The Georgian communist who led Lenin's last fight against Stalin's centralization
"Being shot is not enough for me; I need to be quartered! It was I who brought the 11th Army here. I betrayed my people and helped Stalin and Beria, these degenerates, enslave Georgia and bring Lenin's party to its knees." — At his NKVD trial, 1937
Born into Georgian nobility, Mdivani joined the Bolsheviks in 1903 and fought in the Caucasus revolutionary underground and Civil War. As chairman of the Georgian Sovnarkom in 1922, he led opposition to Stalin's 'autonomization' plan, defending Georgia's sovereign rights within the Soviet federation (a dispute that drew Lenin into his last political battle on Mdivani's side against Stalin and Ordzhonikidze). He joined the Left Opposition in 1923, was expelled and exiled in 1928, reinstated in 1931, and shot in 1937 during the Great Purge.
Career timeline
- 1903Joined the RSDLP; revolutionary activity in the Caucasus
- 1918–1919Member of the Revolutionary Military Council, 11th Army
- 1920Soviet mission to establish the Gilan Soviet Republic in northern Persia
- 1921RSFSR plenipotentiary in Turkey; chairman of the Georgian Revolutionary Committee
- 1922Chairman of Georgian Sovnarkom and Union Council of the Transcaucasian SFSR — led the Georgian opposition against Stalin
- 1923Joined the Left Opposition; member of the Chief Concessions Committee
- 1924–1928Soviet trade representative in France
- 1928–1931Expelled and exiled for opposition activity; reinstated after recantation in 1931
- 1931–1936Chairman of the Supreme Sovnarkhoz, People's Commissar of Light Industry, and First Deputy Chairman of Sovnarkom of Georgia
- 1937Arrested, sentenced to death for 'Trotskyist espionage and sabotage', shot 10 July