Revolution and Independence
During the World War I years, he maintained a “defensist” position and worked for Georgi Plekhanov’s Samozaschita (1916). After the February Revolution of 1917, he chaired the Tiflis soviet and on March 6, 1917 was elected a commissar of the executive committee of the Tiflis Soviet. In August 1917, he was elected to the Central Committee of the RSDLP(u). On the session of the Tiflis Soviet of September 3, 1917, he made a speech calling the workers not to succumb to the Bolshevist sentiments, but rather to fight for the establishment of a parliamentary republic. In October 1917, he joined the all-Russian Pre-Parliament, but soon became disillusioned in it and returned to his native Georgia. On November 26, 1917, he became a chair of the Presidium of the National Council of Georgia and played a leading role in the consolidation of the Menshevik power in Georgia. His wavering position on the formal secession from Bolshevist Russia ended in May 1918, and Zhordania effectively chaired a parliament session which declared the independent Democratic Republic of Georgia. On July 24, 1918, he became a Head of the Government of Georgia.
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Within the three years of rule, his government organized a successful land reform, adopted comprehensive social and political legislation, and cultivated widespread international ties, enabling Georgia to become the only Transcaucasian nation to earn de jure recognition from Soviet Russia and the Western powers. Apart from a massive peasant support, his government managed to gain, through combining socialism, democracy, and a moderate form of nationalism, the loyalty of intellectual élites and nobility, and played a crucial role in transforming Georgia into the modern political nation. However, the invasion of the Soviet armies in February–March 1921 toppled down the Georgian government, forcing Zhordania and many of his colleagues to take refuge in France where he led the government-in-exile and continued his efforts to earn the international recognition of the Soviet occupation of Georgia and a foreign support for the Georgian independence cause until his death in Paris in 1953.
In 1923, Noe Zhordania made an appeal to Washington on which he said:
| “ | In the twentieth century, before the eyes of the civilized world, I appeal to the conscience of civilized nations and all honest people to condemn this persecution of a small nation and the criminals inspiring and carrying out these barbarous acts — the Bolshevik Government. | ” |
He also said in the appeal that Chekists had killed without trial hundreds of people, including women and children, many of them from the Georgian intellectual class.
Zhordania was buried on Leuville-sur-Orge Cemetery in France.
Read more about this topic: Noe Zhordania
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