Ilia Venediktovich Tsivtsivadze

Born Mar. 8 (20), 1881, in the village of Khoni, now the city of Tsulukidze, Georgian SSR; died Mar. 15, 1938. Russian revolutionary. Member of the Communist Party from 1903.

The son of a peasant, Tsivtsivadze studied at the Kutaisi Religious Seminary, from which he was expelled in 1902 for disseminating revolutionary propaganda. In 1903 and 1904 he was in charge of the underground presses of the Batumi and Tbilisi committees of the RSDLP. During the Revolution of 1905–07 he helped organize fighting druzhinas (armed bands) in Transcaucasia and served as editor and publisher of the Bolshevik newspaper Dro (Time). In 1911 he undertook party work in Moscow, and in 1915 he was sent to Irkutsk Province.

After the February Revolution of 1917, Tsivtsivadze was the chief organizer of the Zamoskvoretskii district committee of Moscow and a member of the Moscow city committee of the RSDLP(B); during the October Days of 1917 he was a member of the Zamoskovretskii district military committee. In December 1917, Tsivtsivadze became a member of the presidium of the Moscow soviet, chairman of the Investigative Commission, and deputy chairman of the Moscow revolutionary tribunal. In 1920 he was named administrative head of operations of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Georgian SSR and deputy chairman of the executive committee of the Tbilisi soviet. In 1923 he undertook administrative work in Moscow.

Tsivtsivadze was a delegate to the Eighth and Ninth Congresses of the RCP(B) and in 1919 and 1920 served on the Auditing Commission of the RCP(B). Tsivtsivadze was a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.