Vladimir “Valiko” Jugheli (January 1, 1887 - January 9, 1924) 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...

 politician and military commander.

He was involved in the Marxist movement in Georgia (then part of the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

) at the beginning of the 20th century. After the split within 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...

, to which he was a member, Jugheli sided with the Bolsheviks, but later defected to the 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...

 faction and became an influential member. After 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 organized the Red Guard detachment which was later renamed into the People's Guard of Georgia. On November 29, 1917, he successfully commanded a famous raid on the Tiflis military arsenal guarded by the pro-Bolshevik Russian soldiers. In May 1918, he was reluctant to support the proclamation of Georgia's independence, but still retained his post. As a commander of the People's Guard, he was commonly assigned to retain an internal order in the country. During his tenure, he gained a reputation of a ruthless suppressor of agrarian disturbances in various regions of Georgia.

In March 1921, the Soviet 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...

 forced him into exile. He returned in 1924 to take part in the preparations for the anti-Soviet rebellion

August Uprising in Georgia

The August Uprising was an unsuccessful insurrection against Soviet rule in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic from late August to early September 1924....

 in Georgia. He was soon arrested, however, and executed by the Soviet 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...

.