28 Facts About Sergey Kavtaradze

Sergey or Sergo Kavtaradze was a Soviet politician and diplomat who briefly served as head of government in the Georgian SSR and as Deputy Prosecutor General of the Soviet Union.

Sergey Kavtaradze was Deputy to the Foreign Commissar Vyacheslav Molotov for the greater part of World War II, and, in 1944, was sent to Iran, where his controversial stance helped topple the Mohammad Sa'ed cabinet.

Sergey Kavtaradze was born into a noble family in Zovreti, in the Georgian area of Imereti, at the time part of the Russian Empire.

Sergey Kavtaradze joined the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party in 1903 and engaged in agitation during the period leading up to the October Revolution.

Sergey Kavtaradze first met his fellow Georgian Joseph Stalin early in his youth, and became his collaborator.

Sergey Kavtaradze then worked for the Bolshevik paper Pravda, and, in 1915, graduated from the Saint Petersburg University Faculty of Law.

Sergey Kavtaradze later filled the same post in the Georgian SSR, where he was People's Commissar for Justice.

Sergey Kavtaradze was counselor of the Soviet Embassy in Turkey, and later served as Deputy Prosecutor General of the Soviet Union.

Around that time, Sergey Kavtaradze joined Leon Trotsky and the Left Opposition in their conflict with Stalin and other Party leaders, and ceased his involvement with the group only as it collapsed.

Sergey Kavtaradze attempted to visit Moscow on vacation in December 1928, but was arrested on charges of spreading "Anti-Soviet propaganda".

Sergey Kavtaradze was nonetheless sentenced to three years in prison, which he served in Tobolsk.

Sergey Kavtaradze was eventually released on Stalin's orders, and was allowed to return to and settle in Moscow, where he worked as a journalist without reentering the Party.

One of Sergey Kavtaradze's journalistic pieces, published soon after his return to Moscow, was a recollection of his early activities, which was reportedly well liked by Stalin.

Sergey Kavtaradze consequently worked for a publishing house, reviewing works of fiction.

Sergey Kavtaradze was later moved to a prison in Tbilisi, but brought back to Moscow in February 1939.

Sergey Kavtaradze was assigned to the State Publishing House in 1940, and reinstated in the Party later that year.

Sergey Kavtaradze became an assistant to Foreign Commissar Vyacheslav Molotov in 1941, being placed in charge of the Near East Department.

Sergey Kavtaradze approached Prime Minister Mohammad Sa'ed, asking him to allow Soviet prospectors in northern Iran.

Sergey Kavtaradze then resorted to threats, which he notably voiced during a meeting with Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Sergey Kavtaradze protested the change, claiming that it was aimed against the Soviet Union, but the Bayet cabinet refused to renegotiate and he returned to Moscow without having registered any gain.

Sergey Kavtaradze took over his post in 1945, and kept it until 1952.

At a lower level, Pauker's relations with Sergey Kavtaradze were replicated by the close relationship between Gheorghiu-Dej and Mark Borisovich Mitin, the Cominform activist and Stalinist theorist.

Sergey Kavtaradze relayed his government's position that no guarantees were to be made, and the islands were ceded to the Soviet Union as part of the Paris Treaty system.

Since the Soviet-dominated Allied Commission ended its mandate and until his recall, Sergey Kavtaradze replaced Red Army general Ivan Susaykov as the most important representative of his country in relations with the Groza government, and, later, with Communist Romania.

Sergey Kavtaradze retired in 1954, one year after Stalin's death, and in 1961, was a delegate to the 22nd Party Congress.

Sergey Kavtaradze died ten years later in Tbilisi, where his descendants were still residing in 2003.

Stalin's forgiveness for Sergey Kavtaradze has drawn interest from historians, as did the fact Stalin's attitudes toward his friend remained ambiguous after he was released from prison.

Sergey Kavtaradze confided in him: at some point after the Great Purge, Stalin allegedly told his friend that "we had to shoot" Nikolai Yezhov.