Polikarp Mdivani

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Polikarp "Budu" Gurgenovich Mdivani (

Georgian Affair of 1922. He was executed during the Great Purge
.

Early life

He was born in to a prominent noble family in the

Kutaisi Governorate. Mdivani enrolled in the Imperial Moscow University but was later expelled from the university for his participation in the student riots of 1899.[1]

Revolution and Civil War

Mdivani joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903 and engaged in revolutionary activities in Tbilisi, Baku, Batumi, and other industrial centers of the Caucasus. A close associate of Joseph Stalin, he quickly emerged as one of the leading Bolsheviks in the region and gained a reputation of a brilliant orator.

During the

Democratic Republic of Armenia
.

Early in 1921, Mdivani, along with Stalin and

Transcaucasia
that dispossessed Georgia of several of its former districts and advocated more tolerance towards political opposition to ensure the survival of the highly unpopular Bolshevik government.

The Georgian Affair

On 7 July 1921

Transcaucasian SFSR
resulted in the final victory of the Stalin-Ordzhonikidze line and the removal of Mdivani from his post in January 1923.

The "national deviationists" were not actively persecuted until the late 1920s, however. Once Lenin had been incapacitated by a series of strokes, Stalin used his increasing power to remove Mdivani and other oppositionists to diplomatic posts. Mdivani served as the Soviet trade representative to

Ekaterina Geladze, in Tbilisi so that she would not give birth to another Stalin.[3]

Repression

Stalin could not forgive Mdivani for his defiance and Mdivani became one of the first victims of the

Great Purges. He was removed from his post and excluded from the party in late 1936. In May 1937, Mdivani was accused by Beria of having founded the "Trotskyite Centre for Espionage, Sabotage and Terrorism" with the aim to kill Beria and bring down the Soviet government. In July he was arrested and tried by the NKVD troika. During the interrogations at the Metekhi prison in Tbilisi, Mdivani repeatedly refused to "confess"[citation needed
]. He is quoted to have said to the troika members:

"Being shot is not enough punishment for me; I need to be quartered! It was me who brought the 11th Army here [in Tbilisi]; I betrayed my people and helped Stalin and Beria, these degenerates, enslave Georgia and bring Lenin’s party to its knees."[4]

Budu Mdivani in 1937

On 11 July 1937 the Soviet newspaper Zaria Vostoka, with the headline of "Death to

Enemies of the People", announced that the Georgian Supreme Court found Mdivani, Okudzhava and several of their colleagues guilty of treason and other counterrevolutionary crimes all categorized under Article 58 of the Criminal Code.[3]
On 19 July Mdivani was executed in Tbilisi. His wife and sons, including the notable tennis player Archil Mdivani (1911–1937), and daughter Meri (Mary) were also shot. Meri left a newborn son, David Kobakhidze, with the neighbor when she was taken away for questioning. Before being executed she had a chance to write a letter to him that was the only object he had from his mother. [source?]

References

  1. ^ a b "Мдивани Буду (Поликарп Гургенович)". www.hrono.ru. Retrieved 2021-12-18.
  2. ^ Mikaberidze, Alexander (ed., 2007), Mdivani, Budu Archived 2016-02-14 at the Wayback Machine. The Dictionary of Georgian National Biography. Retrieved on April 23, 2007.
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-691-01093-5
    .
  4. ^ (in Russian) Antonov-Ovsenko, A. (1991), Карьера палача//Берия. Конец карьеры, p. 27. Moscow. Cited at: Rumiantsev, Vyacheslav (ed., 2000), Мдивани Буду (Поликарп Гургенович) Archived 2005-12-30 at the Wayback Machine. Хронос. Retrieved on April 23, 2007.
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