Ilia Odishelidze; , Ilya Zurabovich Odishelidze) (25 March 1865 — 1921) was a 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 leader who had also served as a general of the Imperial Russian army.

Born in Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire, he graduated from the 3rd Alexander’s School (1887) and the General Staff Academy in St Petersburg (1894). The next ten years were spent in military work in various regions of the empire. He took part in the Russo-Japanese war

Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...

 (1904–1905) in the capacity of a chief of staff of the 6th Eastern Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

n Division. He served, from 9 November 1911 to 9 January 1914, a governor general of Samarkand

Samarkand

Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...

 and was moved afterwards as a chief of staff of the Turkestan

Turkestan

Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks".The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and has never been in use to denote a single nation. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of Turkish peoples...

 Military District. Promoted to lieutenant general on 11 October 1914, he held various commanding posts in the 1st and 3rd armies

3rd Army (Russian Empire)

The Russian Third Army was a World War I Russian field army that fought on the Eastern theatre of war.Field management was established in July 1914 at the headquarters of the Kiev Military District. The unit was disbanded in the beginning of 1918...

 from November 1914 to the fall of 1917. On October 2, 1917 he was appointed the commander-in-chief of the Caucasus Army. In January 1918 he was in command at Erzurum

Erzurum

Erzurum is a city in Turkey. It is the largest city, the capital of Erzurum Province. The city is situated 1757 meters above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 361,235 in the 2000 census. .Erzurum, known as "The Rock" in NATO code, served as NATO's southeastern-most air force post during the...

. After the total collapse of the Tsarist administration in the Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

, he resigned as a commander and helped to organize national Georgian divisions. In March 1918, he served as deputy minister of war for the Transcaucasian Transcaucasian Commissariat

Transcaucasian Commissariat

The Transcaucasian Commissariat was established at Tbilisi on November 11, 1917, as the first government of the independent Transcaucasia and following the Bolshevik seizure of power in St...

, but was sacked for his nationalistic sentiments. After Georgia

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...

’s declaration of independence (May 26, 1918), he held various important posts in the national armed forces and served as the commander-in-chief of army from the Fall of 1920 to February 1921. After the Soviet invasion of Georgia he was shot by the Bolsheviks.

Honours and awards

• Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd class (1902)
• Order of St. Anne
  Order of St. Anna
  The Order of St. Anna ) is a Holstein and then Russian Imperial order of chivalry established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp on 14 February 1735, in honour of his wife Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia...
  
  , 3rd class with swords and bow (1905)
• Order of St. Vladimir
  Order of St. Vladimir
  The Cross of Saint Vladimir was an Imperial Russian Order established in 1782 by Empress Catherine II in memory of the deeds of Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptizer of the Kievan Rus....
  
  , 4th class with swords and bow (1905)
• Order of St. Vladimir
  Order of St. Vladimir
  The Cross of Saint Vladimir was an Imperial Russian Order established in 1782 by Empress Catherine II in memory of the deeds of Saint Vladimir, the Grand Prince and the Baptizer of the Kievan Rus....
  
  , with Swords 3rd class (1905)
• Gold Sword for Bravery
  Gold Sword for Bravery
  The Gold Sword for Bravery was a Russian Empire award for bravery. It was set up with two grades on 27 July 1720 by Peter the Great, reclassified as a public order in 1807 and abolished in 1917. From 1913 to 1917 it was renamed the St George Sword and considered as one of the grades of the Order...
  
   (29 March 1905)
• Order of St. Anne
  Order of St. Anna
  The Order of St. Anna ) is a Holstein and then Russian Imperial order of chivalry established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp on 14 February 1735, in honour of his wife Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia...
  
   with Swords 2nd class (1906)
• Order of Saint George, 4th class (1907)
• Order of St. Stanislaus, 1st class (6 December 1912).