Zhordaniia, Noi Nikolaevich

(pseudonyms, Kostrov and George). Born Mar. 9 (21), 1869, in Lanchkhuti; died in 1953. Leader of the Georgian Mensheviks; journalist. A member of the nobility.

Zhordaniia graduated from the Tbilisi Theological Seminary and studied at the Warsaw Veterinary Institute. He joined the Mesamedasy group in the 1890’s. He was anlskra supporter at the Second Congress of the RSDLP in 1903 but belonged to the minority faction, which became known as the Mensheviks. He was a deputy from Tbilisi to the First State Duma and a leader of the Social Democratic faction in the Duma. At the Fifth Congress of the RSDLP in 1907 he was elected to the Central Committee from the Menshevik wing. Zhordaniia sided with the party Mensheviks but supported the liquidators. During World War I he took a social-chauvinist position. He was chairman of the Tbilisi soviet after the February Revolution of 1917 and chairman of the Menshevik government of Georgia from 1918 to 1921. In 1921 he emigrated and engaged in anti-Soviet activity. In 1924, while living abroad, he took part in the organization of a counterrevolutionary uprising in Georgia.