76 Facts About Noe Zhordania

Noe Zhordania 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.

Noe Zhordania was the ancestor of the Zhordanias from Lanchkhuti, including Radjeb Zhordania, grandfather of Noe Zhordania.

Noe Zhordania was given the land, where he built the Oda, married the daughter of Apakidze and remained there during the period 1825 to 1830.

Noe Zhordania had four sons: Butchu, Potine, Niko and Iosef.

Noe Zhordania had his primary education in a Lanchkhuti public school.

Noe Zhordania then moved to Tbilisi where he graduated from the Georgian Orthodox Theological Seminary, a prestigious academic institution at the time.

However, while Noe Zhordania's parents hoped that their child would become a priest, from an early age he started to disbelieve in god.

Noe Zhordania was impressed by "Mr L Tikhomirov's Grief", a booklet written by Georgi Plekhanov.

In Warsaw, apart from Marxism, Noe Zhordania became acquainted with the Polish national movement, which fought for the autonomy of Poland.

In late December 1892, Noe Zhordania emerged on the political scene.

Noe Zhordania attended the Marxian meetings at the Aleksandre Pushkin House in Kvirila, and eventually became a member of the first Marxist group.

In May 1893, fearing of possible arrest, Noe Zhordania traveled to Europe from Batumi.

Noe Zhordania remained in Paris for four months before going back to Geneva and, from there he headed to Germany, the birthplace of Marxist ideologies.

Noe Zhordania settled in Stuttgart for two reasons: first, there he met Karl Kautsky, and second, there was not a single Georgian or Russian in Stuttgart who could prevent Zhordania from learning the German language.

At the beginning of 1896 Noe Zhordania left Munich and traveled to Berlin, where he attended the lectures of Richard Wagner.

In March 1897, Noe Zhordania moved to London, England with Varlam Cherkezishvili, a known photographer, who back then lived with the Wilson family.

In November 1897, Noe Zhordania organized two consortium, one in Tbilisi and the other in Lanchkhuti.

In 1899 they released the first printed leaflets called "proclamation", which advised Georgian workers to join the European workers for the first of May The proclamation was written by Noe Zhordania, and printed by Vlasa Mgeladze.

Many activists became targets of the police and Noe Zhordania being one of them.

Noe Zhordania was charged with the crime of being involved with the illegal activities of the social-democratic party, even though Kvali was considered to be a legal newspaper.

In 1902, Noe Zhordania strongly condemned the merge between the Georgian Social-Democratic organization and the Russian Social-Democratic Party.

In June 1902 Noe Zhordania was released from prison and moved to Lanchkhuti before the final verdict from the St Peterburg police.

Noe Zhordania wrote a draft of the party program during a conference held in Tbilisi in 1902.

Noe Zhordania escaped in Batumi, where he hid for 10 days in a secret flat, before fleeing to England with a ferry.

The ferry captain did not assist political refugees, so he was told that Noe Zhordania was a military deserter.

In Brussels Noe Zhordania met three delegates from the South Caucasus: Topuridze, Knuniantsi and Zurabovi.

Noe Zhordania's program was not selected by the Caucasian Committee: the one that was chosen differed only in national and agrarian issues.

In 1905, during the revolution, with a false passport and the fake name of "Ignatov", Noe Zhordania arrived in St Petersburg, where his wife and party comrade Ina Koreneva was waiting for him.

Noe Zhordania participated in the IV unifying congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in Stockholm in 1906.

The Menshevik party gained favor: Noe Zhordania was elected as a member of congress.

Noe Zhordania soon discovered that he had been elected as a member of the State Duma of the Russian Empire.

In 1907, after the murder of Ilia Chavchavadze, Noe Zhordania published article in which he wrote that Marxists nihilists do not look to the past, but, in every historical era they see progress.

Noe Zhordania compared Ilia to the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, in that "revolution lead him to death, but no one condemned the revolution".

Noe Zhordania was elected as a member of the Party Central Committee at the congress.

In occasion of the elections of the State Duma in December 1907, Noe Zhordania illegally returned to Georgia.

Noe Zhordania helped Nikolay Chkheidze in defeating another candidate, Luarsab Andronikashvil, in elections.

In Baku Noe Zhordania became head editor of the Menshevik newspaper "Our Words".

In 1909, during his stay in Italy, Noe Zhordania attended the Paris meeting of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party.

Noe Zhordania was sentenced to three years in prison in Kutaisi, but he was able to pay his bail, that was only three thousand rubles.

Noe Zhordania went to Europe with the aim of finding an agreement with the members of RSDLP's central committee.

Noe Zhordania immediately decided to return to his homeland: the only way was through Istanbul, by the sea.

Noe Zhordania arrived in Odessa, where he reunited with his wife and children.

Noe Zhordania published a letter from "War and Peace", where he stressed his anti-Germanic position.

Noe Zhordania supported the idea of independence, but had different views on tactics: he was waiting for the right moment, and did not support the protests against Russia, because he felt that it would lead to repression.

Noe Zhordania's wavering position on formal secession from Bolshevist Russia ended in May 1918, when he headed a parliamentary session which declared the independent Democratic Republic of Georgia.

Noe Zhordania did not support the declaration of independence, as he believed that an independent Caucasus could have easily fallen into the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

Noe Zhordania removed the social provisions and left only the national political ones.

Noe Zhordania read the redacted Independence Act at the National Council, who unanimously approved it.

Noe Zhordania was free from autocratic dictatorial aspirations and considered the advice from other parties.

Noe Zhordania opposed Bolshevik and separatist tendencies, and ethnic minorities were granted political and cultural rights.

In 1920, Noe Zhordania sent Gregory Uratadze to Russia to begin negotiations regarding the recognition of Georgia as an independent state.

However when the Soviet government proposed a joint offensive against the Volunteer Army of Anton Denikin, Noe Zhordania remarked " "I prefer the imperialists of the West to the fanatics of the East.

In 1923, Noe Zhordania made an appeal to Washington in which he said:.

Noe Zhordania 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.

In Istanbul, Noe Zhordania met with the French ambassadors and was invited to settle the Georgian government in exile in France.

However, in April 1921, Noe Zhordania was not warmly welcomed in France.

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

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

Noe Zhordania lived first in Paris, and then in Leuville-sur-Orge, where he helped with the preparation of the Georgian revolt in 1924.

Noe Zhordania wrote books in which he criticized the Soviet Union as "the revolution under mask of imperialism".

Noe Zhordania died at the age of 85, on January 11,1953, in Leuville-sur-Orge, where he is buried.

On 10 March 2004, Mikhail Saakashvili offered to move Noe Zhordania's remains to Georgia.

Noe Zhordania focused on the peasantry and dealt with the national issue.

Noe Zhordania 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.

In Warsaw, Noe 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.

Noe 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.

Noe Zhordania had different views on war tactics in respect to the Russian Marxists.

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

In contrast to the European and Russian Social Democratic Movements, which sought political change through the industrial proletariat, Noe Zhordania believed that farmers were the leading force in the revolutionary movement.

At the beginning of 1896, in a letter to Karl Kautsky regarding Polish autonomy, Noe Zhordania's viewpoint came to life.

Noe Zhordania thought that Marxism does not deny the national issue and the national struggle for freedom.

Noe Zhordania did not believe that the promotion of the national issue came first.

Noe Zhordania considered it a physical threat to the nation.

Noe Zhordania thought that the country should show commitment to Russia, otherwise the whole government would be under threat.

In 1904, Noe Zhordania married Ina Koreneva, a party comrade.

Andreika died in Georgia, while Redjeb Noe Zhordania has one son, two daughters, and lives in New York, where he is a lecturer on French civilization.