MDIVANI, POLIKARP (BUDU) (1877-1937). Bolshevik revolutionary and government official. Joining the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party of Workers in 1903, Mdivani established himself as an active revolutionary operating in Tbilisi, Baku, Batumi and other towns. In 1918, he became a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the 11th Army, which three years later invaded Georgia. He also acted as the chief of the Political Department of the 10th Army. In 1920-1921, Mdivani served in the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party. Although he participated in the Soviet occupation of Georgia in 1921, Mdivani later played important role in the Georgian Affair of 1922; he firmly believed that Georgia should retain its national autonomy and join the Soviet Union directly and not through the Transcaucasian Federation, as Joseph Stalin, Sergo Ordzhonikidze and other Georgian Bolsheviks demanded. As a result, Mdivani was perceived as a nationalist and ostracized, especially for his support of the Leftist opposition. In 1924, Mdivani became the Soviet trade representative to France but four years later he was expelled from the Communist party for his support of the Troitskyite opposition. Reinstated three years later, he worked in various government positions, including as chairman of the Supreme Sovnarkhoz, people’s commissar of light industry and first deputy chairman of the Georgian Council of People’s Commissars between 1931-1936. With the start of Stalin’s purges, Mdivani was expelled from the party again in 1936 and later arrested and sentenced to execution that was carried out on 19 July 1937.

ALM