Leader of the Georgian Mensheviks who headed the government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia in 1918–1921
Born in Guria, western Georgia, in 1868, he took up Marxism at the Warsaw Veterinary Institute and in the 1890s led Mesame Dasi, Georgia’s first legal Marxist organization. He sided with the Mensheviks in 1903 and sat in the First State Duma in 1906. In 1917 he chaired the Tbilisi Soviet and the National Council of Georgia; in May 1918 he headed the session that declared independence, and from July he led the government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, carrying out land reform and social legislation. After the Red Army invasion of 1921 he went into exile in France, led the government-in-exile and died near Paris in 1953.
Career timeline
1890sLeader of Mesame Dasi
1906Member of the First State Duma
1917Chairman of the Tbilisi Soviet and of the National Council of Georgia
1918–1921Head of the government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia
1921–1953Head of the government-in-exile in France
Menshevik politician who chaired the Transcaucasian Commissariat and became foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of Georgia
Born to a noble family in Martvili in 1881, he joined the Social Democratic movement as a student at Moscow University, became a Menshevik and sat in the Third State Duma from 1907 to 1912. From November 1917 to March 1918 he chaired the Transcaucasian Commissariat, then served as minister of war under the Transcaucasian Sejm. He signed the Georgian declaration of independence in May 1918 and was foreign minister, justice minister and deputy head of government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. He left for France in March 1921 and from 1953 until his death in Paris in 1954 headed the government in exile.
Career timeline
1907–1912Member of the Third State Duma
1917Russian Provisional Government commissar for western Georgia
1917–1918Chairman of the Transcaucasian Commissariat
1918–1921Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of Georgia
Architect of Revolutionary Defencism and the man to whom Lenin replied, 'There is such a party!'
At the First Congress of Soviets on 4 June 1917, Tsereteli declared that 'there is no party in Russia that says: give us power.' Lenin rose from his seat and answered: 'There is such a party!'
A Georgian Menshevik leader who championed Revolutionary Defencism in 1917 and served as Interior Minister in the Provisional Government. He is remembered for drawing Lenin's famous retort, 'There is such a party!' After the October Revolution he helped found an independent Georgia.
Career timeline
1900–1902Entered Moscow University law faculty; arrested as student-movement leader, exiled to Siberia
1903–1906Joined RSDLP, aligned with Mensheviks; editor of Kvali weekly. Studied in Berlin, returned 1906
1907Deputy, Second Duma (Kutaisi); head of SD faction. After dissolution, 5 years' hard labour, Siberian exile
1915–1917.02Led Siberian Zimmerwaldism; edited Siberian Journal. Joined Irkutsk Revolutionary Committee
1917.03–09Petrograd Soviet Executive Committee; leading voice of Revolutionary Defencism
1917.05–08Minister of Post and Telegraph (May–July), concurrently Minister of Interior (July–August)
1918–1921Co-signed Georgian independence declaration; Constituent Assembly deputy; Paris Peace Conference delegate
1921–1959Exile in France; executive member of the Second International. Moved to USA 1940; died in New York, 1959
Dissident
1939–1993
✕ Shot dead under disputed circumstances
The nationalist dissident who became Georgia's first democratically elected president
"All my life I was in the opposition and fought against the government. Now I am the government": said in an interview after becoming chairman of the newly elected Supreme Council, 1990.
Georgian philologist and dissident, son of the celebrated writer Konstantine Gamsakhurdia. In 1977 he co-founded the Georgian Helsinki Group with Merab Kostava, exposing Soviet human rights abuses to the world, and was repeatedly imprisoned. In April 1989, as co-leader of the Independence Committee, he organized mass peaceful demonstrations and hunger strikes in Tbilisi; the Soviet military's bloody crackdown on them decisively radicalized Georgian opinion toward independence. Leading the Round Table-Free Georgia coalition, he won the first multiparty elections in 1990 and was elected Georgia's first president in May 1991 with 87% of the vote, only to be overthrown in an armed coup seven months later, flee to Chechnya, and die under disputed circumstances in western Georgia in December 1993.
Career timeline
1954Founded the underground youth group Gorgasliani
1963–1977Lecturer in English, Tbilisi State University; researcher, Institute of Literature, Georgian Academy of Sciences
1977–1979Co-founded Georgian Helsinki Group; arrested, imprisoned, released after public recantation
1988–1990Co-chair, Society of St. Ilia the Righteous; co-leader of the Independence Committee
1990–1991Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia
