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
Comintern architect of the Canton uprising who led the first party-apparatus challenge to Stalin's collectivization
At the 16th Party Congress in 1930, he took the podium and openly assailed Stalin's forced collectivization. When he finished, the hall fell silent — his was one of the few speeches not greeted by applause.
A Georgian Bolshevik who left a deep mark on the Chinese revolution as a Comintern operative. In 1927 he chaired the August 7 Emergency Conference, engineered the removal of Chen Duxiu, elevated Mao Zedong to the Politburo, and approved the Canton uprising. He also advanced the theory that China's 'Asiatic mode of production' made it possible to bypass the capitalist stage. In 1930 he and Syrtsov formed the first party-apparatus opposition to Stalin's forced collectivization; demoted and marginalized, he shot himself in 1935 under threat of arrest.
Career timeline
1917Worked in Petrograd military organization; secretary of Kutaisi party committee
1918–1920Led Tbilisi and Baku committees; Presidium member, CP of Azerbaijan
1921–1922Fought in the Kronstadt suppression; party organizer for Vyborg district, Petrograd
1922–1924First Secretary, Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia
1925–1929Secretary of KIM (Young Communist International); Comintern rep to China — led Aug. 7 Emergency Conference and approved Canton uprising
1930First Secretary of Transcaucasian Kraikom; formed Syrtsov-Lominadze bloc — expelled from CC
1933–1935Secretary of Magnitogorsk city party committee
Soviet Union
Soviet communism
1928–2014
○ Natural causes, died
The Soviet foreign minister who ended the Cold War, then led Georgia
On 20 December 1990 Shevardnadze warned the Congress of People's Deputies that dictatorship was coming, announcing his resignation as foreign minister and his break with the party; some accounts date the speech to 21 December, so the date is disputed.
Born in 1928 at Mamati in Georgia, in a teacher's family. Interior minister of Georgia from 1965, he became the republic's party first secretary in 1972, waging large-scale anti-corruption campaigns and the Abasha experiment. In 1985, despite having no diplomatic experience, he was made Soviet foreign minister and negotiated arms cuts, the Afghan withdrawal and German unification. On 20 December 1990 he resigned, warning that dictatorship was coming. He returned home in 1992 and led Georgia as State Council chairman and president until the 2003 Rose Revolution. He died in Tbilisi on 7 July 2014.
Career timeline
1968–1972Interior Minister of Georgia
1972–1985First Secretary of Georgia: anti-corruption, experiments
1985–1990Foreign Minister: arms cuts, the Afghan exit, German unification
1990.12Resigns warning that dictatorship is coming
1992–2003Leads Georgia; steps down in the 2003 Rose Revolution
1957–1961First Secretary of the Georgian Komsomol
1992–2003State Council chairman, parliamentary speaker, head of state, president
