Zhgenti, Tengiz

Born Jan. 15 (27), 1887; died May 24, 1937. Soviet state and party leader. Member of the Communist Party from 1903.

Zhgenti was born in the village of Dabla-Tsikhe, in what is now Chokhatauri Raion, Georgian SSR, the son of an impoverished nobleman. He played an active role in the revolutionary peasant movement in Guria and was engaged in party work in Batumi, Chiatura, Kobuleti, and Kutaisi. He was subjected to political repressions. After the February revolution of 1917, he was one of the organizers of Soviets of soldiers’ deputies in the Caucasus Army. In October of the same year he became a member of the Caucasian regional committee of the party. During 1918–19 he was at work in the Ukraine, as a member of the revolutionary committee of Odessa and as military commissar and garrison commander at Elizavetgrad (Kirovograd) and, later, at Odessa. In late 1919 he joined in the preparation of armed uprisings against the Musavat regime in Azerbaijan and the Mensheviks in Georgia. After the establishment of Soviet power in Georgia (1921), he served as secretary of the Adzhar regional party committee, director of Istpart (Commission on Party History) of the Central Committee of the Georgian Communist Party, and secretary of the Central Executive Committee of the Georgian SSR. He was also elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia.