Gogoberidze, Levan

Born Jan. 9 (21), 1896; died Mar. 21, 1937. Soviet statesman and party figure. Member of the Communist Party since 1916.

Gogoberidze was born in the village of Pridonaan-Dzhikhaishi, Kutaisi Province, into the family of a noble. After the February Revolution of 1917 he was deputy chairman of the Dzhivizlik soviet (near Trapezund). In February 1918 he went to Baku where he was a member of the bureau of the Baku Committee. He was also a member of the Caucasus Regional Party Committee. In May 1919, Gogoberidze was one of the leaders of a strike of Baku workers against the Musavatists. In 1921 he became chairman of the Tiflis Revolutionary Committee. He was secretary of the Tiflis Committee of the RCP (Bolshevik) and from 1923 to 1924 he was deputy chairman of the Georgian Council of People’s Commissars. From 1924 to 1925 he was secretary of the Adzhar Party Regional Committee. During 1925-26, Gogoberidze did diplomatic work in Paris, and from 1926 to 1930 he was secretary of the Central Committee of the Georgian Communist Party (Bolshevik). From 1930 to 1934 he studied at the Institute of the Red Professoriat and worked on the People’s Commissariat for Supply of the USSR. In May 1934 he became a party official in Eisk and Rostov-on-Don. Gogoberidze was a delegate to the Thirteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Party Congresses.