Sergo Ordzhonikidze

Sergo Ordzhonikidze

Sergo Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze (1886 – 18 February 1937) was a Georgian Bolshevik and Soviet politician. Born and raised in Georgia, he joined the Bolsheviks at a young age and quickly rose within the ranks to become an important figure. Arrested and imprisoned several times by the Russian police, he was in Siberian exile when the February Revolution began in 1917. During the subsequent Civil War he played an active role as the leading Bolshevik in the Caucasus, overseeing the invasions of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia. He was posthumously honoured as a leading Bolshevik, and several towns and cities throughout the Soviet Union were named after him.

About Sergo Ordzhonikidze in brief

Summary Sergo OrdzhonikidzeSergo Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze (1886 – 18 February 1937) was a Georgian Bolshevik and Soviet politician. Born and raised in Georgia, he joined the Bolsheviks at a young age and quickly rose within the ranks to become an important figure. Arrested and imprisoned several times by the Russian police, he was in Siberian exile when the February Revolution began in 1917. During the subsequent Civil War he played an active role as the leading Bolshevik in the Caucasus, overseeing the invasions of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia. He was posthumously honoured as a leading Bolshevik, and several towns and cities throughout the Soviet Union were named after him. According to some theories, his relationship with Stalin deteriorated, and on the eve of a 1937 meeting where he was expected to denounce workers, he shot himself at his home, though this has been contested. He may also have been involved in the assassination of the prominent Georgian writer Ilia Chavchavadze on September 12, 1907. He had a son, Papulia, and a daughter, Grigol, with his wife Despine Gamtsemlidze. He died of a heart attack on February 18, 1937, at the age of 48. He is buried in Baku, Georgia, where he had previously been working as a revolutionary. He also had an adopted son, Iughbili, who would later adopt the Georgian revolutionary Iughvili Jughbashvili and adopt a fellow Georgian revolutionary, Chavvadze, who later adopted the Georgian Jughvashvile.

He never had any children of his own, and his father sent him to live with his uncle and aunt, David and Eka Ordzh on the outskirts of Ghoresha, in the Kutais Governorate of the Russian Empire. His father Konstantine was a member of an impoverished Georgian noble family, while his mother Eupraxia was a peasant. He worked the family farm growing corn, but this was not enough to live on. He began working in Chiatura, a mining community, and drove manganese to Zestaponi, where it was refined. In 1903 he was arrested for the first time, and spent several months in prison transporting arms. By 17 he was given more dangerous assignments. He fled to Germany to avoid trial for a third time in October 1907, though he soon returned to work. He helped organize the 1907 May Day parade and was arrested again in September 1907. In October 1907 he was granted bail, but he shared a cell with a fellow revolutionary, Ilavadzha ChavChavvile, who he later adopted. In 1913 he was released and went on to work for the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, and worked for an underground printshop distributing leaflets for the Bolshevik faction of the party. He later became the First Secretary of the TSFSR until 1926. In 1930 he was transferred to lead Vesenkha, which was re-formed as the People’s Commissariat of Heavy Industry. While there, he oversaw the implementation of the five-year plans for economic development.