Polikarp Mdivani
Encyclopedia
Polikarp "Budu" Mdivani (1877 – July 19, 1937) was a veteran Georgian
Bolshevik
and Soviet
government official energetically involved in the Russian Revolutions and the Civil War
. In the 1920s, he played an important role in Sovietization
of the Caucasus
, but later led Georgian Communist opposition to Joseph Stalin
's centralizing policy during the Georgian Affair
of 1922. In the 1930s, he was persecuted for his support to the Trotskyite opposition and executed during the Great Purge
.
in 1903 and engaged in revolutionary activities in Tbilisi
, Baku
, Batumi
, and other industrial centers of the Caucasus. A close associate of Joseph Stalin, he quickly emerged as one of the leading Bolsheviks in the region and gained a reputation of a brilliant orator.
During the Russian Civil War
, that followed the Russian Revolution of 1917
, he was commissioned to the Caucasus Front where he worked for the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party and served as a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 11th Army. In 1920, he was instrumental in the occupation of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan. Later that year, he was sent as a special envoy to Turkey
in an effort to mediate a peace deal between the Turkish government and the Democratic Republic of Armenia
.
Early in 1921, Mdivani, along with Stalin and Sergo Ordzhonikidze, played an important role in engineering the Red Army invasion of Georgia
which toppled down the local Menshevik
-dominated government in favor of the Bolshevik regime. However, with the establishment of the Georgian SSR, Mdivani emerged as one of the leading proponents of the republic’s sovereignty from Moscow
. He protested against a series of territorial rearrangements in Transcaucasia that dispossessed Georgia of several of its former districts and advocated more tolerance towards political opposition to ensure the survival of the highly unpopular Bolshevik government.
, a moderate Georgian Communist leader, was removed from his position of the chairman of the Georgian Revolutionary Committee (Revkom) and replaced with Mdivani. During his tenure, Mdivani entered in a bitter conflict with Stalin and Ordzhonikidze who pursued hardliner, centralizing policy towards Georgia. This dispute known as the Georgian Affair
peaked in 1922, when Mdivani and his comrades – Makharadze, Mikhail Okudzhava, Sergey Kavtaradze
, and Shalva Eliava
– were denounced by Stalin as "national deviationists". The Mdivani group, in their turn, accused their opponents of "Great Russian chauvinism" and tried to secure Lenin’s support, but without any success. The "deviationists"’ failure to prevent the Georgian SSR from being amalgamated with the Armenian
and Azerbaijan
republics into the Transcaucasian SFSR
resulted in the final victory of the Stalin-Ordzhonikidze line and the removal of Mdivani from his post in January 1923.
The "national deviationists" were not actively persecuted until the late 1920s, however. Once Lenin had been incapacitated by a series of strokes, Stalin used his increasing power to remove Mdivani and other oppositionists to diplomatic posts. Mdivani served as the Soviet trade representative to France
from 1924 until being excluded, in 1928, from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
during Stalin’s crackdown on the Left Opposition
. Reinstated three years later, he worked in various government positions, including as chairman of the Supreme Sovnarkhoz
, People’s Commissar of Light Industry and first deputy chairman of the Georgian Council of People’s Commissars between 1931 and 1936. He remained an outspoken critic of Stalin’s Transcaucasian enterprise and was famous for his sarcastic comments on the Soviet leader. According to the modern historian Ami Knight, Mdivani liked to tell a joke about how Georgian workers urged Lavrentiy Beria
to set up an armed guard around the house of Stalin’s mother, Ekaterina Geladze, in Tbilisi so that she would not give birth to another Stalin.
. During the interrogations at the Metekhi
prison in Tbilisi, Mdivani repeatedly refused to "confess". He is quoted to have said to the troika members:
"Being shot is not enough punishment for me; I need to be quartered! It was me who brought the 11th Army here [in Tbilisi]; I betrayed my people and helped Stalin and Beria, these degenerates, enslave Georgia and bring Lenin’s party to its knees."
On July 11, 1937, the Soviet newspaper Zaria Vostoka, with the headline of "Death to Enemies of the People
", announced that the Georgian Supreme Court found Mdivani, Okudzhava and several of their colleagues guilty of treason and other counterrevolutionary crimes all categorized under Article 58
of the Criminal Code. On July 19, Mdivani was executed in Tbilisi. His wife and sons, including the notable tennis player Archil Mdivani (1911-1937), and daughter Marry were also shot. Marry left a newborn son, David Kobakhidze, with the neighbor when she was taken away for questioning. Before being executed she had a chance to write a letter to him that was the only object he had from his mother.
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....
and Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
government official energetically involved in the Russian Revolutions and the Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
. In the 1920s, he played an important role in 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 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...
, but later led Georgian Communist opposition to 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...
's centralizing policy during the 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...
of 1922. In the 1930s, he was persecuted for his support to the Trotskyite opposition and executed during the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
.
Revolution and Civil War
Mdivani joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour PartyRussian 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 1903 and engaged in revolutionary activities in Tbilisi
Tbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
, 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...
, Batumi
Batumi
Batumi is a seaside city on the Black Sea coast and capital of Adjara, an autonomous republic in southwest Georgia. Sometimes considered Georgia's second capital, with a population of 121,806 , Batumi serves as an important port and a commercial center. It is situated in a subtropical zone, rich in...
, and other industrial centers of the Caucasus. A close associate of Joseph Stalin, he quickly emerged as one of the leading Bolsheviks in the region and gained a reputation of a brilliant orator.
During the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
, that followed the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
, he was commissioned to the Caucasus Front where he worked for the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party and served as a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 11th Army. In 1920, he was instrumental in the occupation of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan. Later that year, he was sent as a special envoy to Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
in an effort to mediate a peace deal between the Turkish government and the Democratic Republic of Armenia
Democratic Republic of Armenia
The Democratic Republic of Armenia was the first modern establishment of an Armenian state...
.
Early in 1921, Mdivani, along with Stalin and Sergo Ordzhonikidze, played an important role in engineering the Red Army invasion of Georgia
Red Army invasion of Georgia
The Red Army invasion of Georgia also known as the Soviet–Georgian War or the Soviet invasion of Georgia was a military campaign by the Soviet Russian Red Army against the Democratic Republic of Georgia aimed at overthrowing the Social-Democratic government and installing the Bolshevik regime...
which toppled down the local Menshevik
Menshevik
The Mensheviks were a faction of the Russian revolutionary movement that emerged in 1904 after a dispute between Vladimir Lenin and Julius Martov, both members of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party. The dispute originated at the Second Congress of that party, ostensibly over minor issues...
-dominated government in favor of the Bolshevik regime. However, with the establishment of the Georgian SSR, Mdivani emerged as one of the leading proponents of the republic’s 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...
. He protested against a series of territorial rearrangements in Transcaucasia that dispossessed Georgia of several of its former districts and advocated more tolerance towards political opposition to ensure the survival of the highly unpopular Bolshevik government.
The Georgian Affair
On July 7, 1921, Filipp MakharadzeFilipp Makharadze
Filipp Makaradze was a Bolshevik revolutionary and government official.-Life:...
, a moderate Georgian Communist leader, was removed from his position of the chairman of the Georgian Revolutionary Committee (Revkom) and replaced with Mdivani. During his tenure, Mdivani entered in a bitter conflict with Stalin and Ordzhonikidze who pursued hardliner, centralizing policy towards Georgia. This dispute known as the 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...
peaked in 1922, when Mdivani and his comrades – Makharadze, Mikhail Okudzhava, Sergey Kavtaradze
Sergey Kavtaradze
Sergey or Sergo Kavtaradze was a Soviet politician and diplomat who briefly served as head of government in the Georgian SSR and as Deputy Prosecutor General of the Soviet Union...
, and Shalva Eliava
Shalva Eliava
Shalva Eliava was a Georgian Old Bolshevik and Soviet official who contributed to Sovietization of Central Asia and Caucasus but fell victim to Stalin’s Great Purge....
– were denounced by Stalin as "national deviationists". The Mdivani group, in their turn, accused their opponents of "Great Russian chauvinism" and tried to secure Lenin’s support, but without any success. The "deviationists"’ failure to prevent the Georgian SSR from being amalgamated with the Armenian
Armenian SSR
The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet...
and Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan SSR
The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Azerbaijan SSR for short, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union....
republics into the Transcaucasian SFSR
Transcaucasian SFSR
The Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic , also known as the Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Transcaucasian SFSR and the TSFSR for short, was a short-lived republic of the Soviet Union, lasting from 1922 to 1936...
resulted in the final victory of the Stalin-Ordzhonikidze line and the removal of Mdivani from his post in January 1923.
The "national deviationists" were not actively persecuted until the late 1920s, however. Once Lenin had been incapacitated by a series of strokes, Stalin used his increasing power to remove Mdivani and other oppositionists to diplomatic posts. Mdivani served as the Soviet trade representative to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
from 1924 until being excluded, in 1928, from 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...
during Stalin’s crackdown on 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...
. Reinstated three years later, he worked in various government positions, including as chairman of the Supreme Sovnarkhoz
Sovnarkhoz
Sovnarkhoz, , usually translated as Regional Economic Council, was an organization of the Soviet Union to manage a separate economic region....
, People’s Commissar of Light Industry and first deputy chairman of the Georgian Council of People’s Commissars between 1931 and 1936. He remained an outspoken critic of Stalin’s Transcaucasian enterprise and was famous for his sarcastic comments on the Soviet leader. According to the modern historian Ami Knight, Mdivani liked to tell a joke about how Georgian workers urged Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....
to set up an armed guard around the house of Stalin’s mother, Ekaterina Geladze, in Tbilisi so that she would not give birth to another Stalin.
Repression
Stalin could not forgive Mdivani for his defiance and Mdivani became one of the first victims of the Great Purges. He was removed from his post and excluded from the party in late 1936. In May 1937, Mdivani was accused by Beria of having founded the "Trotskyite Centre for Espionage, Sabotage and Terrorism" with the aim to kill Beria and bring down the Soviet government. In July he was arrested and tried by the NKVD troikaNKVD troika
NKVD troika or Troika, in Soviet Union history, were commissions of three persons who convicted people without trial. These commissions were employed as an instrument of extrajudicial punishment introduced to circumvent the legal system with a means for quick execution or imprisonment...
. During the interrogations at the Metekhi
Metekhi
Metekhi is a historic neighborhood of Tbilisi, Georgia, located on the elevated cliff that overlooks the Mtkvari river.- History :The district was one of the earliest inhabited areas on the city’s territory...
prison in Tbilisi, Mdivani repeatedly refused to "confess". He is quoted to have said to the troika members:
"Being shot is not enough punishment for me; I need to be quartered! It was me who brought the 11th Army here [in Tbilisi]; I betrayed my people and helped Stalin and Beria, these degenerates, enslave Georgia and bring Lenin’s party to its knees."
On July 11, 1937, the Soviet newspaper Zaria Vostoka, with the headline of "Death to Enemies of the People
Enemy of the people
The term enemy of the people is a fluid designation of political or class opponents of the group using the term. The term implies that the "enemies" in question are acting against society as a whole. It is similar to the notion of "enemy of the state". The term originated in Roman times as ,...
", announced that the Georgian Supreme Court found Mdivani, Okudzhava and several of their colleagues guilty of treason and other counterrevolutionary crimes all categorized under Article 58
Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code)
Article 58 of the Russian SFSR Penal Code was put in force on 25 February 1927 to arrest those suspected of counter-revolutionary activities. It was revised several times...
of the Criminal Code. On July 19, Mdivani was executed in Tbilisi. His wife and sons, including the notable tennis player Archil Mdivani (1911-1937), and daughter Marry were also shot. Marry left a newborn son, David Kobakhidze, with the neighbor when she was taken away for questioning. Before being executed she had a chance to write a letter to him that was the only object he had from his mother.