Nikolay Chkheidze

Not to be confused with the footballer Nikoloz Chkheidze.

Nikoloz Chkheidze (Georgian: ნიკოლოზ (კარლო) ჩხეიძე; Russian: Никола́й (Карло) Семёнович Чхеи́дзе, romanized: Nikolay (Karlo) Semyonovich Chkheidze) commonly known as Karlo Chkheidze (21 March [O.S. 9] 1864 – 13 June 1926), was a Georgian politician. In the 1890s, he promoted the Social Democratic movement in Georgia. He became a key figure in the Russian Revolution (February 1917 to October 1917) as the Menshevik president of the Executive Committee of the Soviet of Petrograd (until September 1917). Later he served as president of the Transcaucasian Sejm (February 1918 to May 1918), and he held office in the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (April–May 1918). Later he became president of parliamentary assemblies of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, National Council, Constituent Assembly and Parliament (May 1918 to March 1921).

Nikoloz Chkheidze
ნიკოლოზ ჩხეიძე Николай Чхеидзе
Autochrome portrait by Auguste Léon, 1919
Leader of Social-Democrat Opposition (Duma)
In office 1907–1917
Executive President of Petrograd Soviet
In office 12 March 1917 – 19 September 1917
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Leon Trotsky
President of the Transcaucasian Sejm
In office 23 February 1918 – 26 May 1918
Preceded by	Office established
Parliamentary President of Georgia (National Council, Constitutional Assembly, Parliament)
In office 26 May 1918 – 16 March 1921
Preceded by	Office established
Personal details
Born	(1864-03-21)21 March 1864 Puti, Kutais Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Puti, Zestaponi, Imereti, Georgia)
Died	13 June 1926(1926-06-13) (aged 62) Leuville-sur-Orge, Seine-et-Oise, France
Political party	Social Democratic Labour Party of Georgia
Signature

Early life and family

Chkheidze was born to an aristocratic family in Puti, Kutais Governorate (in the present-day Zestaponi Municipality of the Imereti province of Georgia). From his marriage with Alexandra Taganova (X-1943), he would have four children including a daughter who would accompany him in exile.

Political career

In 1892 Chkheidze, together with Egnate Ninoshvili, Silibistro Jibladze, Noe Zhordania and Kalenike Chkheidze (his brother), became a founder of the first Georgian Social-Democratic group, Mesame Dasi (the third team).

Russia

Chkheidze in June 1917

From 1907 to 1919 Chkheidze was a member of Tiflis Gubernyia in the Russian State Duma and gained popularity as a spokesman for the Menshevik faction within the Russian Social Democratic Party. He was an active member of the irregular freemasonic lodge, the Grand Orient of Russia’s Peoples. In 1917 the year of the Russian Revolution, Chkheidze became Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. He failed to prevent the rise of Bolshevism and refused a post in the Russian Provisional Government. However, he did support its policies and advocated revolutionary oboronchestvo (defencism). He also voted to continue the war against the German Empire.

Transcaucasia

In October 1917 the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia. At the time, Chkheidze was in Georgia. He remained in Georgia and on 23 February 1918, became leader of the Transcaucasian Federation in Tiflis. Some months later the federation was dissolved.

Democratic Republic of Georgia

On 26 May 1918 the Act of Independence of Georgia was adopted, Chkheidze was elected chairman of the National Council of Georgia: this Georgian Provisional Assembly decided to appoint a government, to prepare elections and to create a constitutional commission. In February 1919 he was elected a member of the Constituent Assembly of Georgia and on 12 March president of this assembly, but could not participate in its first session because he was located in Paris. Chairing the Georgian delegation to the Versailles Conference, he tried to gain the Entente's support for the Democratic Republic of Georgia. He also proposed to Georges Clemenceau and to David Lloyd George a French or British protectorate for Georgian foreign affairs and defense, but was unsuccessful. Chkheidze, who had 14 years of parliamentary life experience, oversaw the writing of the Constitution by Razhden Arsenidze and 14 other MPs of the majority and the opposition.

France

In March 1921 when the Red Army invaded Georgia, Chkheidze fled with his family to France via Constantinople. In 1923 and 1924, as part of the Social Democratic Labour Party of Georgia in exile, Chkheidze opposed a national uprising in Georgia. Chkheidze, Irakly Tsereteli, Datiko Sharashidze, and Kale Kavtaradze formed a group called Oppozitsia. In their mind, the Red Army and Cheka were too strong, and the unarmed Georgian people too weak. After the August Uprising of 1924, 10,000 Georgians were executed, and between 50,000 and 100,000 Georgians were deported to Siberia or to Central Asia.

Death

Tomb of Nikolay and Alexandra Chkheidze, in Paris

On 13 June 1926 Chkheidze committed suicide at his official residence in Leuville-sur-Orge, France. He was buried in Paris, in the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Bibliography

• Figes, Orlando (1996), A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution, New York City: Viking, ISBN 978-0-14-024364-2
• Jones, Stephen F. (2005), Socialism in Georgian Colors: The European Road to Social Democracy 1883–1917, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-67-401902-7
• Kazemzadeh, Firuz (1951), The Struggle for Transcaucasia (1917–1921), New York City: Philosophical Library, ISBN 978-0-95-600040-8
• Rabinowitch, Alexander (1968), Prelude to Revolution: The Petrograd Bolsheviks and the July 1917 Uprising, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, ISBN 978-0-25-320661-9
• Rabinowitch, Alexander (1976), The Bolsheviks Come to Power: The Revolution of 1917 in Petrograd, New York City: W.W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0-7453-2269-7
• Rabinowitch, Alexander (2007), The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, ISBN 978-0-25-334943-9
• Rayfield, Donald (2012), Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia, London: Reaktion Books, ISBN 978-1-78-023030-6
• Suny, Ronald Grigor (1994), The Making of the Georgian Nation (Second ed.), Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, ISBN 978-0-25-320915-3

External links

• (in Russian) Чхеидзе, Николай Семенович Hronos.km.ru.