Noe Zhordania ( ; ; – January 11, 1953) was a Georgian journalist and Menshevik politician. He played an eminent role in the socialist revolutionary movement in the Russian Empire, and later chaired the government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia from July 24, 1918, until March 18, 1921, when the Bolshevik Russian Red Army invasion of Georgia forced him into exile to France. There Zhordania led the government-in-exile until his death in 1953.

Biography

Early life and background

Zhordania was born on to a petty landowner family living in the village of Lanchkhuti in Guria, western Georgia, then part of the Kutais Governorate of Imperial Russia. However, while Noe's parents hoped that their child would become a priest, from an early age he started to disbelieve in God. He wrote:

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'God is Nature herself; as for a white-bearded deity, seated upon a throne, such a personage simply does not exist'. 'I thought to myself: If Nature's lord and master is Nature itself, then who is the rightful lord and master of mankind? The general opinion was that the Tsar (King) was the lord over the people, and that the Tsar(King) was himself appointed by God. But if God did not exist any more, the Tsar(King) could not be his representative. I was therefore at a loss to understand by whose command and authority he sat upon his throne.'

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In the academy he was the head of an illegal student association that was opposing the drawbacks of the present situation in Academy. At the same time he was reading forbidden books, such as the Russian revolutionary-democratic literature of (Nikolay Chernyshevsky and Alexander Herzen), and familiarized himself with the content of populist literature, magazines and newspapers provided by Zakaria Chichinadze. He was impressed by "Mr. L. Tikhomirov's Grief", a booklet written by Georgi Plekhanov. In Warsaw, apart from Marxism, Zhordania also became acquainted with the Polish national movement, which fought for the autonomy of Poland. In 1892, he was forced to leave for Georgia due to Pneumonia. The programme was adopted and then, in 1894, published in the journal "Moambe". It was based on the following provisions: 1.The person's physical well-being 2. Freedom of the individual and state 3. National identity of the people, based on social label. Later on, the group got the name Mesame Dasi. In 1895, he went to Paris and studied at the for 3 months, became acquainted with Jules Guesde, Paul Lafargue and other French socialists in the meantime.

Having been elected as a delegate to the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1903, The congress discussed how to boycott the elections and land issues. The Menshevik party gained favor: Zhordania, however, was elected as a member of congress. He soon discovered that he had also been elected as a member of the State Duma of the Russian Empire. Meanwhile, the Social Democrats won the elections in Georgia. They created the Social Democratic faction in the Duma led by Noe: however, after about a month the State Duma was discharged. to participate, and he later became the Social Democratic faction leader in the Duma. In 1907, after the murder of Ilia Chavchavadze, it focused on press crimes and gave Zhordania his freedom. Meanwhile, Ina Koreneva, who led the Social Democrats in the election campaign in Baku, was banned from living in the Caucasus and moved in Moscow with her children.

World War I

The RSDLP did not work properly in different countries in 1914. The only exception of this rule was in Georgia, where they were relatively more effective. In Baku they were not working as well, while in Kiev the RSDLP did not exist at all. Zhordania went to Europe with the aim of finding an agreement with the members of RSDLP's central committee. The party had already split into two factions, and none of them had any hope of the revolution that was due to come in Russia. Zhordania met Leon Trotsky in Vienna, in June, and published his letters regarding Bolshevik-Menshevik relations and national issues. Following his doctor's advice, he later decided to spend the summer in Montreux, Switzerland, where he staid three weeks. During the second half of July he went to Beatenberg, where he intended to stay until the end of August, and then to visit Zürich, where the Bolsheviks gathered, and Geneva, where the Mensheviks had gathered. In Geneva, he intended to meet Mgeladze Vlasi and the other Social Democrat immigrants.

The First World War started on August 2, changing his plans. Zhordania immediately decided to return to his homeland: the only way was through Istanbul, by the sea. Benito Mussolini, at the time the editor of the Italian Social Democratic Party newspaper "Avanti", helped him to buy the tickets from Venice to Istanbul. It appeared that all three South Caucasus nations had different foreign policies.

Georgia favored assistance from Germany, who required Georgia to become independent.

thumb|right| Zhordania and other officials have been summoned to the parade, 1919|400px

In the morning of May 26, 1918, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic and so-called "Transcaucasian Seim" () announced their self-dissolution. At 5:10PM Georgia declared its independence. The Independence Act was formed by lawyer Gvazava and had been previously introduced to Zhordania. In addition to the national provisions, there were also included some social issues, like, for example, the eight-hour working day and rules for land confiscation. Zhordania, however, removed the social provisions and left only the national political ones. He read the redacted Independence Act at the National Council, who unanimously approved it. From 24 June, Zhordania replaced Noe Ramishvili to become Prime Minister (chairman of the Government) of the coalition government.

In 1919, there was a proportional system based on the Constituent Assembly elections. The meeting was opened on March 12. Out of 130 deputies, 109 were Social-Democrat.

In December 1920, the League of Nations refused to make Georgia and Armenia members,

Emigration and death

thumb|Noe Zhordania's grave

In Istanbul, Zhordania met with the French ambassadors and was invited to settle the Georgian government in exile in France. However, in April 1921, Zhordania was not warmly welcomed in France.

He later visited Brussels and London, asking the respective governments for support, but they expressed no interest in the issue.

Zhordania gave up and decided to work with the European countries, and to assist his remaining comrades in Georgia.

Zhordania lived first in Paris, and then in Leuville-sur-Orge, where he helped with the preparation of the Georgian revolt in 1924. Shortly after, his mother, and his daughter Asmat, who had not left Georgia in 1921, were arrested and imprisoned in Batumi. Sergo Kavtaradze, a week later, offered to help them flee the country, but his mother refused the proposal.

Zhordania wrote books in which he criticized the Soviet Union as "the revolution under mask of imperialism". In addition to his political treatises, when he was still in Paris, in 1930, he published the Georgian epic poem by Shota Rustaveli, "The Knight in the Panther's Skin".

By 1933 he had published 12 other books, some of which were "Combating Problems" (), "We and They" (), "Soviet System" (), "True and False Communism" (), "Politics" (), "Bolshevism" (), "Our Differences" (), and "Democracy" (). In Paris he founded the Georgian Social-Democratic journal "Battle" () and the newspaper "Battle Cry" (). Until the 1990s the journal he founded, "Our Flag" (), was active, and later edited by his son-in-law, Levan Paghava.

Noe Zhordania died at the age of 85, on January 11, 1953, in Leuville-sur-Orge, where he is buried. In 1968 his memorial, titled "My Past", was published in English and Russian posthumously. On 10 March 2004, Mikhail Saakashvili offered to move Zhordania's remains to Georgia.

The "Noe Zhordania Institute" in Paris studies his heritage and the history of social democracy in Georgia.

Ideology

thumb|Noe Zhordania Statue and square in [[Lanchkhuti]]

Zhordania was a Marxist, leaning towards the social-democratic. He focused on the peasantry and dealt with the national issue.

As a child he grew up as an Orthodox Christian. He questioned the existence of God for the first time in school, after reading "The Door to Nature" of Iakob Gogebashvili: because of it, he found out that natural disasters had a scientific explanation. Because of his doubts regarding the existence of God he ended up questioning the legitimacy of the government of the king, since the king's legitimacy was commonly perceived being a divine ordination. Even in school he had a strong belief:

During the seminary studies he formed the Group of Narodnik Socialists, that supported the revolution. The Narodniks recognized a revolution that was not Democratic, but Socialist: they demanded the establishment of socialism. They believed that the only choice was between either priesthood or being a Narodnik.

In Warsaw, Zhordania was introduced to Marxism and its political ideology: that was after 1892, when the revolutionaries in Russia went from seeking socialism to European Marxism.

In his view, Russian socialism was an utopian and reactionary doctrine, which brought people back to barbarism. Zhordania believed that European socialism was leading the proletariat towards the factories, so the political actions had to be based on that type of proletariat. In addition, he shared the view that the backward countries needed political revolution, democracy, economic development and later the transition to socialism.

He had different views on war tactics in respect to the Russian Marxists. In "Kvali" and "Skhivi", he thought it was fair to use terror under certain circumstances.

Zhordania had conservative views regarding the role of families and believed that a person's main objective was to have family and procreate.

The agrarian issue

To better understand the ideology of Marxism, he traveled to Switzerland, France, Germany and England, where he became part of several European socialist parties. What he discovered was that the structure of the European society was considerably different from the Georgian one.

He was foremost interested in agrarian issues. In Europe, the peasant was considered a private owner, and the petty bourgeoisie was subjected to state taxes, unlike the aristocracy. In Georgia it was the opposite: because of that, the peasants and the landlords monarchists were opposed. The agrarian question was, for Zhordania, a central issue. In contrast to the European and Russian Social Democratic Movements, which sought political change through the industrial proletariat, Zhordania believed that farmers were the leading force in the revolutionary movement. Subsequently, he opposed the Social-federalist movement. According to him Georgia was a young nation, whose national consciousness was only born at the end of the 19th century. In his view, Russia had brought in Georgia a higher political-economic system, namely capitalism. and Andreika. The daughter of Asmat Zhordania and Levan Pagava, :fr:Ethéry Pagava, would become a famous ballerina in France. Nina married Archil Tsitsishvili and had three daughters and five grandchildren. Andreika died in Georgia on 4 April 1919 from meningitis at age 12, while Redjeb Zhordania (1921–2021) had one son and two daughters, and lived in New York, where he was a lecturer on French civilization.

Zhordania's relative, Nina Gegechkori, was Lavrenti Beria's wife.

Works

  • Noi Nikolaevich Zhordania, My Life, The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford, California, 1968,

References

Bibliography

  • Mikaberidze, Alexander (ed., 2007), Zhordania, Noe. Dictionary of Georgian National Biography. Retrieved on May 24, 2007.
  • Georgia, Between Hope and Fear, The Washington Post. August 21, 2008. An article by Noe Zhordania's son Redjeb Zhordania.
  • (French) Noé Jordania .
  • (French) Ière République de Géorgie.
  • (French) Ière République de Géorgie en exil.