Nestor Apollonovich Lakoba (1 May 189328 December 1936) was a Soviet Abkhaz leader. He became a Bolshevik in the early 1910s and helped establish Soviet power in Abkhazia in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. While in power, Lakoba served as First Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Socialist Soviet Republic of Abkhazia from 1922 to 1930, and then as Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic until his death in 1936.
Popular in Abkhazia due to his ability to resonate with the people, Lakoba maintained close relationship with Joseph Stalin, which allowed him to enjoy significant autonomy and successfully oppose the extension of collectivization to Abkhazia. Stalin would frequently holiday in Abkhazia during the 1920s and 1930s. This relationship saw Lakoba become the rival of one of Stalin's other confidants, Lavrentiy Beria, who was in charge of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. During a visit to Beria in Tbilisi in December 1936, Lakoba was poisoned, allowing Beria to consolidate his control over Abkhazia and to discredit Lakoba and his family as enemies of the state. Rehabilitated after the death of Stalin in 1953, Lakoba is now revered as a national hero in Abkhazia.
Early life Youth and education Nestor Lakoba was born in the village of Lykhny, in what was then the Sukhum Okrug of the Kutais Governorate in the Russian Empire (now Abkhazia) to a peasant family. He had two brothers, Vasily and Mikhail. His father Apollo died three months before his birth; Mikhail Bgazhba, who would serve as the First Secretary of Abkhazia, wrote that Apollo Lakoba was shot for opposing the nobles and landowners in the region. Lakoba's mother remarried twice, but both husbands died while Lakoba was young. From ages 10 to 12, Lakoba attended a parish school in New Athos, followed by a further two years of schooling in Lykhny. He entered the Tiflis Seminary in 1905, but he was not interested in its religious syllabus. He read banned books and was frequently caught doing so by the school authorities. Physically unimpressive, he was nearly totally deaf, and used hearing aids throughout his life, though Leon Trotsky recalled it was still difficult to communicate with Lakoba. This became a well-known feature of Lakoba, and he would be jokingly referred to as Adagua (the "Deaf One") by Joseph Stalin.
In 1911, he was expelled from the seminary for revolutionary activity and moved to Batumi, then a major port for exporting oil from the Caucasus, where he taught privately and studied for the gymnasium exam. It was in Batum that Lakoba first became acquainted with the Bolsheviks, working with them from the autumn of 1911 and officially joining them in September 1912. He became involved with disseminating propaganda amongst the workers and peasants in the city and throughout Adjara, the local region, and began to refine his ability to relate to the masses. Discovered by the police, he was forced to leave Batum in 1914, and moved to Grozny, another major oil-based city in the Caucasus, and continued his efforts to spread Bolshevik propaganda among the people. Lakoba continued studying in Grozny, passing his examinations in 1915, and the following year enrolled in law at Kharkov University in what is now Ukraine, but the onset of the First World War and its subsequent effect on Abkhazia led him to quit his studies and return home after only a short time.
Early Bolshevik activities Back in Abkhazia, Lakoba took up a position in the Gudauta region helping to build a railway to Russia, while continuing to spread Bolshevik propaganda to the workers. The 1917 February Revolution, which ended the Russian Empire, resulted in the status of Abkhazia becoming contested and unclear. A peasant assembly was created to govern the region, and Lakoba was elected as a representative of Gudauta. Bgazhba wrote that his ability to mingle with the people of the region combined with his speaking abilities made him an ideal choice as representative. Lakoba's reputation was enhanced throughout Abkhazia by helping to establish "Kiaraz" ("Киараз"; "mutual support" in Abkhaz), a peasant brigade that would later help consolidate Bolshevik control.
Lakoba was the leading Bolshevik in Abkhazia when the Revolution began in 1917. Based in Gudauta in the north of Abkhazia, the Bolsheviks opposed the Mensheviks, who were centered in Sukhumi. On 16 February 1918 Lakoba and Efrem Eshba, an Abkhaz Bolshevik, overthrew the Abkhaz People's Council (APC), which had controlled Abkhazia since November 1917. Aided by Russian sailors from warships docked at Sukhumi, the coup only lasted five days as the warships departed, removing the main support for the Bolsheviks, and the APC was able to regain control. Lakoba joined Eshba in April, overthrowing the APC once again and holding power for forty-two days. The Abkhaz People's Council requested assistance from the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, which had recently declared independence on 9 April 1918. The Transcaucasian authorities dispatched the Georgian People's Guard, which defeated the Bolshevik rebels, allowing the Abkhaz anti-Bolsheviks to regain control over Abkhazia. Seeking protection and security, the APC concluded an agreement on unification with the Democratic Republic of Georgia on 11 June 1918. The Bolsheviks launched another revolt, but it was defeated by the Georgian general Giorgi Mazniashvili. Both Lakoba and Eshba fled to Russia. The APC retained control of Abkhazia and negotiated with the Georgian government over the final status of Abkhazia within Georgia; ultimately, no resolution was reached before the Bolsheviks invaded in 1921.
In the autumn of 1918, Lakoba was ordered to return to Abkhazia, in order to attack the Mensheviks from their rear positions. He was captured by the Mensheviks during this time and imprisoned in Sukhumi, but released early in 1919 due to public opposition. After his release, Nestor Lakoba resumed underground political activities, while outwardly maintaining a lifestyle that appeared respectable to the Menshevik authorities. That April he was offered the post of police commissioner of the Ochamchira District, which he accepted and used as a means to spread Bolshevik propaganda. When the Menshevik authorities became aware of this, Lakoba again left Abkhazia to avoid the arrest sanctioned by the Abkhaz People's Council. He stayed in Batumi for a few months. While he was there, an underground conference of the Bolshevik organizations of Abkhazia was held in August 1919, at which Lakoba was elected deputy chairman of the Sukhumi District Party Committee.
In Batumi, which was controlled by the British occupation force, Lakoba participated in several Bolshevik sabotage operations that disrupted the shipment of weapons, ammunition, and other supplies to the White movement (opponents of the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War). One of these involved the bombing of the Kobuleti railway bridge to disrupt the delivery of supplies to the White forces and their allies in Ukraine and Crimea. He also participated in the bombing of the steamship Vozrozhdenie ("Rebirth"), which was carrying weapons and ammunition for the forces of General Pyotr Wrangel. Lakoba also participated in the assassination of White Army General Vladimir Liakhov.
In 1921, Lakoba married Sariya Dzhikh-Ogly. Born to a wealthy family in Batumi, her father was ethnically Adjaran while her mother was Abkhazian and originally from Ochamchire. They had met a couple years before when Lakoba was hiding from the British occupation forces. The following year they had their only child, a son named Rauf. The family was close, with Lakoba helping his wife get an education, and providing the same to Rauf as well. Sariya came to be regarded as an excellent hostess, and her sister-in-law Adile Abbas-Ogly wrote that she was well known in Moscow for this, and a key reason Stalin would take vacations in Abkhazia.
Leader of Abkhazia Establishment as leader Lakoba returned to Abkhazia in 1921, during the Soviet invasion of Georgia. By that time, a Revolutionary Committee (Revkom) had been established in Abkhazia on 18 February 1921, led by Bolshevik Isak Zhvania, with Mikheil Chaguria among its members. During the initial phase of the establishment of Soviet rule in Abkhazia, Efrem Eshba and Lakoba were absent from Abkhazia, having been sent on a mission to Turkey. Along with Eshba and Nikolai Akirtava, Lakoba was one of the signatories on a telegram to Vladimir Lenin announcing the formation of the Socialist Soviet Republic of Abkhazia (SSR Abkhazia). The Revkom, which took control of Abkhazia, resigned on 17 February 1922, and Lakoba was unanimously elected the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, a body that was formed that day, thus effectively the head of Abkhazia. He would hold this post until 17 April 1930, when the council was abolished and replaced by a Presidium of the Central Executive Committee, though Lakoba would retain the top position. Though held in high regard by his fellow revolutionaries, Lakoba never held a significant role within the Communist Party and refused to attend any meetings, instead using his patronage network to establish himself.
Lakoba in power
Long a friend of several leading Bolsheviks, including Sergo Orjonikidze, Sergei Kirov, and Lev Kamenev, it was his relationship with Stalin that was most important to Lakoba's rise to power. Stalin was fond of Lakoba as they had much in common with each other: both were from the Caucasus, both grew up fatherless (Stalin's father had moved away for work when Stalin was young), and they both attended the same seminary school. Stalin admired Lakoba's marksmanship, as well as his work during the Civil War. Familiar with Abkhazia from his revolutionary days, Stalin had a dacha built in the region and vacationed there throughout the 1920s. He would joke, "I am Koba, and you are Lakoba" ("Я Коба, а ты Лакоба" in Russian; Koba was one of Stalin's pseudonyms as a revolutionary).
It was the role that Lakoba played in Stalin's own rise to power that cemented his status as Stalin's close confidant. When Lenin died in January 1924, Leon Trotsky, who was Stalin's only serious rival for the leadership, was in Sukhumi for health reasons. Lakoba ensured that Trotsky was isolated during the immediate aftermath of Lenin's death and funeral, an act which helped Stalin to consolidate his own power. Though the two possibly met during the Civil War, Lakoba and Stalin became properly acquainted at the Thirteenth Party Congress in Moscow, held in May 1924.