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Noe Zhordania (January 2,
1868 – January 11,
1953) was a Georgian journalist and politician. He was the first leader of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG) in
1918 -
1921.
The son of a small landowner in Lanchkhuti, Western Georgia, he was the founder of the
Mesame-Dasi-Group ("the third group"), one of the first socialist groups in
Tbilisi. Zhordania became a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and chairman of the Georgian Social Democratic Labour Party. In
1906, he joined the
Menshevik faction of the State Duma of
Russia.
After the February Revolution of
1917 overthrew monarchy in Russia, Zhordania was elected chairman of the Workers and Soldiers' Soviet of
Tbilisi. In December 1917, he became chairman of the Georgian parliament, the National Assembly (
Dampudznebeli Kreba). On May 26,
1918 he was elected leader (Head of the Government) of the Democratic Republic (DRG), the first Republic of Georgia. His government organised a land reform, a comprehensive social legislation and fought against
Bolshevik and separatist movements in the country. From
1918 to
1921 Georgia was recognised by various countries including
Japan,
Belgium,
Germany,
Italy,
Turkey, the United Kingdom, France, and, in
1920, Bolshevist Russia.
On February 25,
1921, Zhordania was deposed by Russian Red Army forces, which re-occupied Georgia and incorporated it into the Soviet Union as part of the Transcaucasian SFSR. On March 17,
1921, Zhordania was exiled to
Paris, where he led a Georgian government-in-exile; he died there 32 years later.
Zhordania was buried on Leville Cemetery in France. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili visited his grave on March 10,
2004 and offered the family a state funeral in
Tbilisi.
Works
*Noi Nikolaevich Zhordania,
My Life, The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford, California, 1968
Zhordania, Noe
Zhordania, Noe
Zhordania, Noe
Zhordania, Noe
