Levan Davidovich Gogoberidze ( ka, ლევან ღოღობერიძე; ; 21 January 1896 – 21 March 1937) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and Georgian

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

and politician. He served as

First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party The First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party (; ) was the leading position in the Georgian Communist Party (Soviet Union), Georgian Communist Party during the Soviet Union, Soviet era. Its leaders were responsible for many of the affairs in ...

from 6 May to 19 November 1930.

Biography

Early years

Levan Davidovich Gogoberidze was born on in Pridonaan-Jikhaishi,

Kutais Governorate The Kutaisi or Kutais Governorate was a province (''guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty (1801–1917), Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire. It roughly corresponded to most of western Georgia (country), Georgia throughout most of its ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

into an old Georgian noble family. He graduated Petrograd Polytechnic University before joining the Communist Party in 1916 and after the

February February is the second month of the year in the Julian calendar, Julian and Gregorian calendars. The month has 28 days in common years and 29 in leap years, with the February 29, 29th day being called the ''leap day''. February is the third a ...

and later

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

he was made deputy chairman of his local

soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in Dzhikhaishi near Trapezund.

Baku

In May 1919 he was sent along with

Anastas Mikoyan Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan (; , ; ; – 21 October 1978) was a Soviet statesman, diplomat, and Bolshevik revolutionary who served as the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the head of state of the Soviet Union. As a member of th ...

, to

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

in the recently independent

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (), also known as the Azerbaijan People's Republic (; ), was the first secular democracy, democratic republic in the Turkic peoples, Turkic and Muslim worlds. *Tadeusz Swietochowski. ''Russia and Azerbaijan: ...

as one of the leaders of the Bolshevik Faction in a Worker's Strike against the

Musavat Party The Müsavat Party (, from ''musāwāt'', ) is the oldest existing political party in Azerbaijan. Its history can be divided into three periods: Early Musavat, Musavat-in-exile and New Musavat. The party was prohibited from contesting the 1995 ...

. After the strike Gogoberidze, Mikoyan and other leaders were arrested by the authorities and imprisoned together. After escaping imprisonment alongside Mikoyan, Gogoberidze was wounded in a shooting that took place in a café in central Baku that killed the two younger men he was eating dinner with. He was shot in the stomach and shoulder, and recovered after around 2 weeks in the hospital. The exact cause of the shooting is still a matter of debate but contemporary leftist reports alleged it was an assassination plot by the

. After his recovery, in September 1920, it was decided by a plenum of the Central Committee of the

Azerbaijan Communist Party The Azerbaijan Communist Party (; ) was the ruling political party in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, Azerbaijan SSR, making it effectively a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It was formed on 20 February 1920, when ...

, that Gogoberidze along with Aliheydar Garayev would be sent to

Quba Quba () is a city and the administrative centre of the Quba District (Azerbaijan), Quba District of Azerbaijan. The city lies on the north-eastern slopes of Mount Shahdagh, Shahdag mountain, at an altitude of 600 metres above sea level, on the ...

to quell an

uprising Rebellion is an uprising that resists and is organized against one's government. A rebel is a person who engages in a rebellion. A rebel group is a consciously coordinated group that seeks to gain political control over an entire state or a ...

, while there around 400 - 500 villagers where killed in operations he led along with Garayev.

Later career

After returning to Tbilisi, he began working through the ranks of Georgian Soviet leadership, after being in middle levels of leadership during the August Uprising, he was named Secretary of the Adjarian Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia from 1924 to 1925. After this he went to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to do diplomatic and some intelligence work. After his return Tbilisi in 1926, he became a Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party, and wrote "Georgian Emigration and the Work of Anti-Soviet Parties" in 1927. He would eventually oversee a program under First Secretary Mikheil Kakhiani of both

Collectivization Collective farming and communal farming are various types of "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member- ...

and

Dekulakization Dekulakization (; ) was the Soviet campaign of Political repression in the Soviet Union#Collectivization, political repressions, including arrests, deportations, or executions of millions of supposed kulaks (prosperous peasants) and their familie ...

in Georgia. After the tempo of these programs was criticized by

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

in an article in ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, 'Truth') is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most in ...

,'' Kakhiani and his faction were replaced by a new group led by

Vissarion Lominadze Vissarion Vissarionovich "Beso" Lominadze ( ka, ბესარიონ ლომინაძე, tr; ; – 19 January 1935), was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet politician. The head of the Transcaucasian Oblast organization of the All-Ru ...

. Gogoberidze would eventually take over as

on 6 May 1930. He held the position for a little under 200 days, before being replaced as First Secretary by

Samson Mamulia Samson Mamulia ( ka, სამსონ მამულია; ; 1892–1937) was a Georgian Soviet politician and the First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party from November 20, 1930 to October 13, 1931. In June 1937 he was imprisoned on ...

because of Lominadze, who made several statements at the 16th Party Congress criticizing the current methods of Collectivization and they were widely condemned as too 'leftist' and 'factionalist' by Party Leadership. This would later become known as the Syrtsov-Lominadze Affair, and resulted in Gogoberidze's brief tenure as First Secretary ending. After his removal, he went to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

to study at the

Institute of Red Professors The Institute of Red Professors of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) () was an institute of graduate-level education in the Marxist social sciences located in the Orthodox Convent of the Passion, Moscow. History It was founded in February 1 ...

from 1930 to 1934. After graduating he worked as a party leader in Eisk and

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

. On 14 December 1936 he was arrested, and consequently on 21 March 1937 he was shot in Tbilisi as part of the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

. His reputation was later rehabilitated along with other victims of the Great Purge after

Stalin's death Joseph Stalin, second leader of the Soviet Union, died on 5 March 1953 at his Kuntsevo Dacha after suffering a stroke, at age 74. He was given a state funeral in Moscow on 9 March, with four days of national mourning declared. On the day of t ...

Personal life

His wife Nutsa was a pioneering Soviet filmmaker and is thought to be the first Georgian woman to direct a feature film. His daughter

Lana Gogoberidze Lana Gogoberidze ( ka, ლანა ღოღობერიძე) (born 13 October 1928 in Tbilisi) is a Georgian film director, as well as a former diplomat and member of parliament. Biography Gogoberidze's mother was Nutsa Gogoberidze, an ...

, was also a notable Georgian director and had a political career serving in the

Parliament of Georgia The Parliament of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს პარლამენტი, tr) is the supreme national legislature of Georgia. It is a unicameral parliament, currently consisting of 150 members elected through fully pr ...

, the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up of ...

and later as the Georgian ambassador to France.

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gogoberidze, Levan 1896 births 1937 deaths 20th-century politicians from Georgia (country) First secretaries of the Georgian Communist Party Great Purge victims from Georgia (country) People from Kutais Governorate Soviet politicians