Irakli Tsereteli

Irakli Tsereteli (1881 – 20 May 1959) was a Georgian politician and a leading spokesman of the Social Democratic Party of Georgia. He was a member of the Menshevik faction of the RSDLP and was elected to the Duma in 1907. In 1915 he formed what would become known as Siberian Zimmerwaldism. He spent the rest of his life in exile, mainly in France, working with socialist organisations and writing on socialism.

About Irakli Tsereteli in brief

Irakli Tsereteli (1881 – 20 May 1959) was a Georgian politician and a leading spokesman of the Social Democratic Party of Georgia and later Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He was a member of the Menshevik faction of the RSDLP and was elected to the Duma in 1907. In 1915 he formed what would become known as Siberian Zimmerwaldism, which advocated for the role of the Second International in ending the war. He spent the rest of his life in exile, mainly in France, working with socialist organisations and writing on socialism. He died in New York in 1959 and is buried in the Tiflis National Cemetery, Georgia. He is buried next to his father, Giorgi, who was also a Social Democrat, and his mother, Olympiada Nikoladze, the sister of the journalist NikoNikoladze. He also had a brother, Levan, and a sister, Eliko, who were members of the meore dasi, a group of Georgian populists and socialists, and they greatly influenced Irakli’s outlook. He became embroiled in the student protests that broke out in Moscow in 1900, and became a leading figure in the movement. It is unclear how he became involved, with the only certainty being that he was not yet a Marxist. He later moved to Moscow to study law, and was involved in the protests again that year. He eventually became a speaker and eventually became the leading figure and speaker of the student movement in Moscow. He worked as a diplomat at the Paris Peace Conference, where he lobbied for international recognition and assistance for the newly independent Democratic Republic of Georgia; meaningful assistance largely failed to materialize before the Bolshevik-led Red Army invaded in 1921.

In the 1930s, he became a well-known commentator on Russian politics and wrote a book on the history of the Russian Revolution. He wrote about his experiences in Russia, including his time in Siberia and his experiences as a Russian exile. He retired from politics in the 1950s and later wrote a biography of his father. He had a daughter, Elikia, who died in 2008, and died in a car crash in Florida, USA. Tse reteli died in 2009, aged 89, and is survived by his wife, Anastasia Tumanova, and two children,  Eliko and Levan. He has a son, Giorgi TseReteli, who is also a prominent Georgian politician, and daughter, Katerina, who lives in Moscow and works as a consultant for the World Health Organisation. In his youth, he was known for his oratory abilities and was a prominent member of Georgia’s Duma. In 1907 he was arrested and charged with conspiracy to overthrow the Tsarist government, and exiled to Siberia. During his exile, he developed the idea of a defensive war which only allowed for the defence of territory, and argued it was not being utilized. He returned to the government in the aftermath of the 1917 February Revolution, and accepted a position in the Russian Provisional Government as Minister of Post and Telegraph.

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