Kote Tsintsadze
Encyclopedia
Kote Tsintsadze (1887 – 1930) was a Georgian
Bolshevik
involved in the Russian revolutions and the Sovietization
of Georgia
. He was purged under Joseph Stalin
as a member of the Left Opposition
within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
.
Tsintsadze joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
in 1904, and sided with its Bolshevik faction. During the Russian Revolution of 1905
, he was closely associated with the famous revolutionary fighter Kamo
and served as head of the Bolshevik armed detachments that engaged in expropriation
and robbery
organised in the Manganese
mine of Chiatura
. He organised a group of female student-revolutionaries (who were in love with him) to rob banks.
In 1906 he took part in the execution of traitors after the Bolshevik
battle squads were driven out of the cities.
On February 16 1906, Tsintsadze took part in the assassination of Commander in chief of the Caucasus, General Fyodor Griiazanov (nicknamed General Shitheap). Stalin commissioned the hitmen who pretended to be painting a nearby gate. They threw grenades at his carriage and blew him to pieces. Then Stalin commissioned him to set up the Druzhina (outfit) or Bolshevik expropriator's club for robbing banks. He robbed the Tiflis pawn shop, the Georgian Bank of Agriculture, a train at Kars
, a stagecoach in Borzhomi, stole 20,000 rubles from the Kadzhorskoe stagecoach
and ambushed a gold train at Chiatura
carrying 21,000 roubles of miners' wages. He was at Stalin's wedding supper in 1906.
In 1907 he was arrested by the Okhrana, then joined Stalin's 'Mauserists' in Baku
. On August 15 1912 he helped spring Kamo
from Tiflis prison. On September 24 the two of them ambushed a mail coach with 18 gunmen three miles from Tiflis. They were beaten back though seven Cossacks died. After this, the Druzhina was destroyed.
In 1917, Stalin introduced Tsintsadze to Lenin "Meet Kote Tsintsadze the old bank robber-terrorist of the Caucasus."
Later, he became the first permanent chairman of the Georgian Cheka
, which was established in February 1921, immediately following the Soviet invasion of Georgia. At the same time, he was a member of the Communist Party Central Committee
and of the Central Executive Committee
of the Georgian SSR. Although ruthless against the widespread anti-Soviet opposition in Georgia, he was a strong proponent of Georgian sovereignty from Moscow
and, during the 1922 Georgian Affair
, engaged in a bitter political confrontation with Stalin and Sergo Ordzhonikidze whom the Georgian moderate Communists accused of "Great Russian chauvinism". As a result, Tsintsadze was denounced as a "national deviationist" and removed from his posts later that year, being replaced by E. A. Kvantaliani, who was more compliant with the centralizers' policy. Having joined the Left Opposition in 1923, Tsintsadze was excluded from the Communist Party in 1927 and arrested in 1928. He died in prison of tuberculosis
.
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...
Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
involved in the Russian revolutions and the Sovietization
Sovietization
Sovietization is term that may be used with two distinct meanings:*the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets .*the adoption of a way of life and mentality modelled after the Soviet Union....
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...
. He was purged under Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
as a member of the Left Opposition
Left Opposition
The Left Opposition was a faction within the Bolshevik Party from 1923 to 1927, headed de facto by Leon Trotsky. The Left Opposition formed as part of the power struggle within the party leadership that began with the Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin's illness and intensified with his death in January...
within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
.
Tsintsadze joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party , also known as Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or Russian Social Democratic Party, was a revolutionary socialist Russian political party formed in 1898 in Minsk to unite the various revolutionary organizations into one party...
in 1904, and sided with its Bolshevik faction. During the Russian Revolution of 1905
Russian Revolution of 1905
The 1905 Russian Revolution was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. Some of it was directed against the government, while some was undirected. It included worker strikes, peasant unrest, and military mutinies...
, he was closely associated with the famous revolutionary fighter Kamo
Kamo
-Japan:*Kamo, Niigata*Kamo District, Gifu*Kamo District, Hiroshima*Kamo District, Shizuoka*Kamo, Kyoto*Kamo, Okayama*Kamo, Shimane*Kamo, Shizuoka*Kamō, Kagoshima*The Kamo River in Kyoto-Rest of the world:*Gavar, Armenia - formerly Kamo*Kamo, Armenia...
and served as head of the Bolshevik armed detachments that engaged in expropriation
Confiscation
Confiscation, from the Latin confiscatio 'joining to the fiscus, i.e. transfer to the treasury' is a legal seizure without compensation by a government or other public authority...
and robbery
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
organised in the Manganese
Manganese
Manganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a free element in nature , and in many minerals...
mine of Chiatura
Chiatura
Chiatura is a city in the Imereti region of Western Georgia. In 1989, it had a population of about 30,000. It is inland, in a mountain valley on the banks of the Kvirila River, and since 1879 has been a major centre of manganese production in the Caucasus. There is a rail link to transport...
. He organised a group of female student-revolutionaries (who were in love with him) to rob banks.
In 1906 he took part in the execution of traitors after the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
battle squads were driven out of the cities.
On February 16 1906, Tsintsadze took part in the assassination of Commander in chief of the Caucasus, General Fyodor Griiazanov (nicknamed General Shitheap). Stalin commissioned the hitmen who pretended to be painting a nearby gate. They threw grenades at his carriage and blew him to pieces. Then Stalin commissioned him to set up the Druzhina (outfit) or Bolshevik expropriator's club for robbing banks. He robbed the Tiflis pawn shop, the Georgian Bank of Agriculture, a train at Kars
Kars
Kars is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. The population of the city is 73,826 as of 2010.-Etymology:As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography as part of ancient Armenia...
, a stagecoach in Borzhomi, stole 20,000 rubles from the Kadzhorskoe stagecoach
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
and ambushed a gold train at Chiatura
Chiatura
Chiatura is a city in the Imereti region of Western Georgia. In 1989, it had a population of about 30,000. It is inland, in a mountain valley on the banks of the Kvirila River, and since 1879 has been a major centre of manganese production in the Caucasus. There is a rail link to transport...
carrying 21,000 roubles of miners' wages. He was at Stalin's wedding supper in 1906.
In 1907 he was arrested by the Okhrana, then joined Stalin's 'Mauserists' in Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
. On August 15 1912 he helped spring Kamo
Kamo
-Japan:*Kamo, Niigata*Kamo District, Gifu*Kamo District, Hiroshima*Kamo District, Shizuoka*Kamo, Kyoto*Kamo, Okayama*Kamo, Shimane*Kamo, Shizuoka*Kamō, Kagoshima*The Kamo River in Kyoto-Rest of the world:*Gavar, Armenia - formerly Kamo*Kamo, Armenia...
from Tiflis prison. On September 24 the two of them ambushed a mail coach with 18 gunmen three miles from Tiflis. They were beaten back though seven Cossacks died. After this, the Druzhina was destroyed.
In 1917, Stalin introduced Tsintsadze to Lenin "Meet Kote Tsintsadze the old bank robber-terrorist of the Caucasus."
Later, he became the first permanent chairman of the Georgian Cheka
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
, which was established in February 1921, immediately following the Soviet invasion of Georgia. At the same time, he was a member of the Communist Party Central Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
and of the Central Executive Committee
Executive Committee
Executive Committee may refer to:* The Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland, a government body in the United Kingdom 1921–1972* The Northern Ireland Executive, a government body in the United Kingdom...
of the Georgian SSR. Although ruthless against the widespread anti-Soviet opposition in Georgia, he was a strong proponent of Georgian sovereignty from Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and, during the 1922 Georgian Affair
Georgian Affair
The Georgian Affair of 1922 was a political conflict within the Soviet leadership about the way in which social and political transformation was to be achieved in the Georgian SSR...
, engaged in a bitter political confrontation with Stalin and Sergo Ordzhonikidze whom the Georgian moderate Communists accused of "Great Russian chauvinism". As a result, Tsintsadze was denounced as a "national deviationist" and removed from his posts later that year, being replaced by E. A. Kvantaliani, who was more compliant with the centralizers' policy. Having joined the Left Opposition in 1923, Tsintsadze was excluded from the Communist Party in 1927 and arrested in 1928. He died in prison of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
.