The Bolshevik elder removed by Stalin for trying to Sovietize Georgia gently
"The establishment of Soviet power in Georgia had the outward appearance of a foreign occupation, because in the country itself there was nobody ready to take part in a rebellion": report to the Central Committee, December 1921
Born in Guria to a priest's family, Makharadze studied at Tbilisi Theological Seminary and the Warsaw Veterinary Institute before joining the Social Democratic movement in 1891. He became one of the few Bolshevik leaders in Menshevik-dominated Georgia, and as chairman of the Georgian Revolutionary Committee in February 1921 proclaimed the Soviet republic, only to be removed by Stalin in July for his moderate treatment of the Menshevik opposition and insistence on Georgian sovereignty, replaced by Mdivani. This ousting was the direct prelude to the 1922 Georgian Affair; Makharadze later held the chairmanships of Gosplan, Sovnarkom, and the Supreme Soviet Presidium in Georgia, and was one of the few Old Bolsheviks to survive the Great Purge, dying a natural death in 1941.
Career Timeline
- 1891Joined the Social Democratic movement
- 1903Member of the Caucasian Union Committee of the RSDLP; active in the 1905 Revolution
- 1907–1915Led Bolshevik underground groups in Transcaucasia
- 1917Editor of Kavkazsky Rabochy; member of the Caucasian Regional Committee of the RSDLP(b)
- 1918–1920Underground work in Menshevik-ruled Georgia
- 1921.2–7Chairman of the Georgian Revolutionary Committee; removed by Stalin for moderation
- 1922–1938Chairman of CEC Georgia, Sovnarkom Georgia, Gosplan ZSFSR, CEC ZSFSR
- 1938–1941Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Georgia; Deputy Chairman of the USSR Supreme Soviet