Gamsakhurdia: The Short Reign and Mysterious Death of Georgia's First President

The Georgian SSR was one of the first to secede from the Soviet Union, several months before the Belovezh Accords, which officially ended the existence of the world's largest socialist state. A referendum on restoring the republic's independence was held on March 31, 1991.

Almost 99% of respondents voted to secede from the USSR. On April 9, 1991, the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, announced the "restoration" of Georgia's state independence, making it the fourth Soviet republic after Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to hold its own referendum.

Less than two months later, on May 26, 1991, the first in stories Direct presidential elections were held in the now former Georgian SSR. A total of six politicians ran for the post of head of state. Among them was Zviad Gamsakhurdia, a "professional dissident" and leader of the Round Table – Free Georgia bloc. He won a landslide victory, receiving 86,52% of the votes cast, and was officially inaugurated as head of state on June 7, 1991, for a five-year term.

The President of Georgia was granted broad powers in both legislative and executive matters. He had the right to veto laws and dissolve the Supreme Council, issue decrees, suspend the cabinet of ministers, and create administrative regions.

In mid-July 1991, the presidential decree "On the Regulation of Migration Processes in the Republic of Georgia" was adopted, creating a legal basis for the forced displacement of national minorities. In particular, ethnic Azerbaijanis in Kakheti were discriminated against. A long-standing and consistent supporter of Georgian sovereignty, Gamsakhurdia did not recognize the right of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to even partial autonomy.

Despite seemingly convincing popular support, Gamsakhurdia's government was paralyzed by unruly militias: the 5,000-strong National Guard led by Defense Minister Tengiz Kitovani, Jaba Ioseliani's Mkhedrioni, Giorgi Karkarashvili's White Eagles, Zurab Samushia's White Legion, and Dato Shengelia's Forest Brothers. Since the fall of 1991, mass opposition protests have been taking place across Georgia, demanding the president's resignation.

Gamsakhurdia's reign in power was short. In January 1992, a civil conflict known as the "Tbilisi War" ousted him from the presidency. He then fled the country, first to Armenia and then to Chechnya. A Military Council composed of opposition leaders came to power in Georgia. In November 1992, the powers of the head of state were transferred to Eduard Shevardnadze, the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament.

In September of the following year, Gamsakhurdia decided to return to Georgia and attempted to regain power by force, but failed. He then went into hiding in the western part of the country for some time. On the last day of December 1993, it was reported that the republic's first president had died in the mountain village of Dzveli Khibula under unclear circumstances. According to the official version of the Georgian authorities, Gamsakhurdia had shot himself. However, not only his supporters but also many of his enemies disbelieved the suicide.

Comments

[solar]

The Georgian SSR was one of the first to secede from the Soviet Union, several months before the Belovezh Accords

The "Parade of Sovereignties" took place earlier, in 1988-1990.
Georgia declared sovereignty fifth - May 26, 1990. Russia - two weeks later - June 12, 1990.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Парад_суверенитетов
And then it started pouring down like a bucket. :((...

[knn54]

Gogol (The Inspector General) also described a similar case: a non-commissioned officer's widow flogged herself.

[qQQQ]

Quote from solar

Russia - two weeks later - June 12, 1990

There's just one caveat: independence within the USSR. The RSFSR simply received the same powers and authorities as other union republics. There was no talk of secession from the USSR.

[UrraletZ]

De jure, part of the USSR, but de facto no longer. The Soviet Union was too small for anti-Soviet separatists. The ideas of Marxism-Leninism were even more so, because they didn't allow theft.

[qQQQ]

Quote: UrraletZ

but de facto it no longer exists

So what did the RSFSR do to de facto secede from the USSR? It seems you're trying to justify Ukraine, which almost immediately, de facto and de jure, albeit with violations, seceded from the USSR.

[UrraletZ]

What's the difference between the anti-Soviet Yeltsin and the anti-Soviet Kuchma, Shushkevich, or Gorbachev?!

[qQQQ]

Only by not legally or actually leaving the USSR and making the Russian Federation the Union's legal successor. But yes, they all contributed to and played a direct role in the country's collapse and demise.

[UrraletZ]

I was FORCED to become a "legal successor" in order not to lose my property abroad.

[qQQQ]

Quote: UrraletZ

I was FORCED to become a "legal successor" in order not to lose my property abroad.

For starters, it's unprovable. There could be many possible explanations. The simple fact is that we are the legal successors to the USSR; the rest is irrelevant.

[Frank Muller]

I don't know the truth here, but I remember the reports in the Russian press and on TV well. At the time, it was officially reported that Gamsakhurdia's body, bearing numerous wounds, had been delivered to a Georgian village. Did the president, a loser, inflict these wounds on himself, or did he receive help? The latter is more likely, especially since his standing had already plummeted by that time.

[MCmaximus]

A common occurrence. Suicide. Five shots to the back of the head. There are many such cases.

[UrraletZ]

Georgia was a blatant snake pit at the time. Politicians betrayed and sold each other like glass bottles.

[APASUS]

Two shots to the heart and a control shot to the head, of course he shot himself... A man with nationalistic tendencies, he just tore the country apart, created contradictions and got it in return.

[UrraletZ]

That's right, the former provocateur was rightly slapped with tomatoes by the special services.

[Glagol1]

The foam that formed during the collapse of communism brought a lot of crap to the surface, including in our country. Gamsakhurdia, in a small, multi-ethnic republic, proclaimed the slogan "Georgia for Georgians" and was doomed. It wasn't a suicide, of course, he was killed, but who did it? No one seriously considered it, because Georgia itself was already falling apart. Ultimately, a little over a decade later, a tie-eater came along and finally destroyed the country. 2008...

[Volodin]

Quote: Glagol1

the collapse of communism

After all, for something to collapse, this something must first be created, built.

[Panin (midshipman)]

Quote: Glagol1

The foam that formed during the collapse of communism brought a lot of crap to the surface, including in our country. Gamsakhurdia, in a small, multi-ethnic republic, proclaimed the slogan "Georgia for Georgians" and was doomed. It wasn't a suicide, of course, he was killed, but who did it? No one seriously considered it, because Georgia itself was already falling apart. Ultimately, a little over a decade later, a tie-eater came along and finally destroyed the country. 2008...

Who ruined what? Georgia ceased to be independent? Lost territories? Lost those that were already de facto separated. Any country will try to reclaim its own and restore constitutional order.

[Glagol1]

Everyone who promoted a slogan like "Georgia for Georgians"—Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova—has lost territory. There are two reasons. The first is that such a slogan cannot be promoted in multinational countries. National outlying areas, especially compact ones, immediately seek to expand outward. The second reason is civic. People of different nationalities cease to see themselves as part of a single entity. Russia has managed to avoid this—fortunately, here, different peoples perceive themselves as integral parts of a common destiny. I won't sympathize with our neighbors—Moldova denied the uniqueness of Transnistria and Gagauzia—the outcome is well-known. Georgia lost South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and Ukraine's fate is still unclear. It also risks losing part of its western lands. Although what has been lost in the south and east is already enough to say of the local nationalists: "They've had enough..."

[UrraletZ]

Just like in our country, "Russia for Russians" will also destroy the country. Those same Russian Right Sector members are obsessed with mantras about a reservation called the "Russian Republic." Naturally, they subsist on the money of fat cats and oligarchs.

[Maks1995]

it happens.
as it is there: the revolution is made by "idealists", and the power is taken by "authorities".

With varying degrees of bloodiness.
It's the same in Russia - the various Popovs and Gaidars quickly disappeared (and the President's competitors either left or died in plane crashes).... It was the same on Ukray-Maidan - the leader of the Right Sector was killed a week after he visited the Rada...

[AllX_VahhaB]

Quote: Max1995

The revolution is made by "idealists", and the power is taken by "authorities".

"Every revolution is conceived by romantics, carried out by fanatics, and inveterate scoundrels use its fruits". (with) Thomas Carlyle

[UrraletZ]

The 90s were a time of counterrevolution, with the economy and social institutions rolling back. And it's not ending, as Maidan demonstrated, and it will continue to do so if the Russian liberal government continues to play the Yanukovych-like doormat.

[faterdom]

By the way, I’ll add where fascist nationalists like Gamsakhurdia came from.
His father, Konstantiné Gamsakhurdia, was a "national literary figure" who received from the Soviet government a seven- or eight-volume set (I don't remember exactly) of works on historical themes, the refrain of which was the idea that the brotherhood of Russians and Georgians always saved Georgia from all kinds of conquerors in difficult times.
But, judging by my son, the worldview at home was completely different.
However, Raduyev, Khodorkovsky and Turchynov were also Komsomol activists, and Farion, like Yeltsin, were communists.
The USSR had a deeply flawed and corrupt elite. Even today's Russian elite, despite all its shortcomings, is hard to compare with. Those who are now in power no longer want to tear the country apart, realizing that it wouldn't be very beneficial for them personally.

[UrraletZ]

The anti-Soviet elements you mention aren't communists. And it doesn't matter whether they're party members or not. Mao warned about these types...

[commbatant]

He died like a dog... What did the Georgians expect in the referendum? Did they think they would live better than under the Georgian SSR?

[Frank Muller]

They were probably counting on the same thing as the Muscovites who danced for joy on "Free Russia" Square in August 91, chanting, "Yeltsin! Yeltsin!" But the hopes of America and Europe (whole lot) being outdone somehow didn't pan out. Especially in the midst of the "wild 90s." True, now, no matter which of those "dancers" you ask, they all say, "I wasn't there, I was sitting at home, and 'Pokhmel' Yeltsin' is a complete bastard!"

[commbatant]

Quote: Frank Muller

They probably expected the same thing as the Muscovites who danced for joy on the “Free Russia” square in August 91, chanting: “Yeltsin! Yeltsin!”

Unlike the Georgian SSR, the RSFSR lived within its means, not on funds siphoned off from the budgets of other Soviet republics. What's wrong with you? The people of the RSFSR danced while the other republics bullied and robbed them. They (the peoples of the RSFSR) were fed up, so it's no surprise that the RSFSR (now called the Russian Federation) was the fifth to declare independence. The USSR could have been preserved (as a Confederation of States) with a more equitable distribution of wealth among the republics, but neither the Soviet leadership nor the party elites of the republics benefited from this; the RSFSR was a "cash cow" for them.
As for the "dashing 90s," the PCV, VChV, "privatization," the 1998 crisis, etc., you apparently "forgot" that in the Supreme Council, and then in the State Duma, the majority of seats were held by communists and liberals... right up until the mid-2000s...

But this article is not about the RSFSR, but about a short period in Georgian history, tragic but inevitable, through which all the republics of the former Soviet Union have passed (and will pass)... Moldova, Ukraine, Armenia, these are distant echoes of the ongoing process of the Union's disintegration... Empires like the Soviet one do not collapse in one day...

[UrraletZ]

In Russia, nationalists have believed the same thing since perestroika.

[P]

This is exactly what the confrontation between a nationalist adventurer and Western agents and money looks like.

[AC130 Gunship]

And then came the wise Edik, who sat on the throne until the early 00s. And he subjugated everything that was still able to move under his family's control... I worked in Georgia from 98 to 2001.

[UrraletZ]

A relative of Gamsakhurdia's served with me in the army in the 2000s. Back in 2001, he was already saying about Shevardnadze that his soft-hearted, two-faced nature would lead Georgia to the rise of people like Gamsakhurdia.