Alexandre Chkheidze, also known under his Polish name of Aleksander Czcheidze (1878–1940), was a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

-Georgian

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 military officer. He served with the rank of Colonel in the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Georgia

Democratic Republic of Georgia

The Democratic Republic of Georgia , 1918–1921, was the first modern establishment of a Republic of Georgia.The DRG was created after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917...

 during the short period of its independence following World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. Following the Bolshevik occupation of his country, Chkheidze (along with thousands of other Georgian officers) migrated to Poland, where he received further training in the Higher War School.

He was then admitted to the Polish Army as a contract officer and served as the Commander of Infantry (de facto deputy commander) of the Polish 16th Infantry Division

Polish 16th Infantry Division

The 16th Pomeranian Infantry Division was a military unit of the Polish Army. It was first raised on 16 August 1919 during the Polish uprising, before going on to serve during the subsequent war with the Bolsheviks...

. He took part in the Polish Defensive War

Invasion of Poland (1939)

The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...

 of 1939 and fought with distinction in a number of battles. Taken prisoner by the Germans, he was handed over to the USSR in accordance with the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and then executed by the NKVD

NKVD

The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....

 some time in 1940 during the infamous Katyn massacre

Katyn massacre

The Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre , was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs , the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. The massacre was prompted by Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all members of...

.