Sergo Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze (born Grigol Konstantines dze Orjonikidze; 18 February 1937) was an Old Bolshevik and a Soviet statesman.
Born and raised in Georgia, in the Russian Empire, Ordzhonikidze joined the Bolsheviks at an early age and quickly rose within the ranks to become an important figure within the group. Arrested and imprisoned several times by the Russian police, he was in Siberian exile when the February Revolution began in 1917. Returning from exile, Ordzhonikidze took part in the October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power. During the subsequent Civil War he played an active role as the leading Bolshevik in the Caucasus, overseeing the invasions of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia. He backed their union into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (TSFSR), which helped form the Soviet Union, in 1922 and served as the First Secretary of the TSFSR until 1926.
Promoted to lead the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate (Rabkrin), Ordzhonikidze moved to Moscow and joined the inner circle of top Bolsheviks. Tasked with overseeing Soviet economic production, Ordzhonikidze led a massive overhaul of Rabkrin and its associated bodies, noting inefficiencies within the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy (Vesenkha). In 1930 he was transferred to lead Vesenkha, which was re-formed as the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry (NKTP) in 1932. While there, Ordzhonikidze oversaw the implementation of the five-year plans for economic development and helped create the Stakhanovite movement of model Soviet workers. At the same time, he was named to the Politburo, the leading political body in the Soviet Union.
Ordzhonikidze was reluctant to take part in the campaigns against so-called wreckers and saboteurs that began in the early 1930s, causing friction between himself and his longtime friend Joseph Stalin, whom he helped during his rise to power. Realizing the need for people experienced in their fields, Ordzhonikidze refused to purge older workers or disassociate himself from individuals deemed anti-Bolshevik. According to some theories, his relationship with Stalin deteriorated and, on the eve of a 1937 meeting where he was expected to denounce workers, Ordzhonikidze shot himself and died at his home, though this has been contested.
Early life
Youth
Grigol Ordzhonikidze was born in 1886 in Ghoresha, a village in the Kutais Governorate of the Russian Empire (now in the Imereti region of Georgia). Named after his maternal grandfather, he was the second child of Konstantine Ordzhonikidze and Eupraxia Tavarashvili; he had an older brother, Papulia. Ordzhonikidze's father Konstantine was a member of an impoverished Georgian noble family, while Eupraxia was a peasant.
Six weeks after Grigol's birth, his mother died. Konstantine worked the family farm growing grains but this was not enough to live on. Konstantine began working in Chiatura, a mining community, and drove manganese to Zestaponi, where it was refined.
Unable to take care of his son, Konstantine sent Grigol to live with his uncle and aunt, David and Eka Ordzhonikidze, who also lived in Ghoresha. Konstantine would later marry Despine Gamtsemlidze and have three more children. Grigol grew up in the household of David and Eka, but as they lived close to his father, Grigol would frequently visit him. The elder Konstantine died when Ordzhonikidze was 10 years old, leaving him with David and Eka. He completed school, had medical training to become an orderly, and worked briefly as a medical assistant.
Bolsheviks Ordzhonikidze joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1903 when he was 17 and worked for them in an underground printshop distributing leaflets for the Bolshevik faction of the party. By 1905 a revolution began in Russia, and he was given more dangerous assignments. He was arrested for the first time in December 1905 for transporting arms and spent several months in prison. Granted bail, he fled briefly to Germany to avoid trial, though he soon returned to work in Baku, where he had previously been working. There he helped organize the 1907 May Day parade and was arrested again. He may also have been involved in the assassination of the prominent Georgian writer Ilia Chavchavadze on 12 September 1907.
Imprisoned for a third time in October 1907, Ordzhonikidze shared a cell with a fellow Georgian revolutionary, Iosif Dzhugashvili, who would later adopt the name Joseph Stalin. The two became close friends and spent their time playing backgammon and discussing politics. After his fourth arrest, in November 1907, Ordzhonikidze was exiled to Siberia, though he fled after several months and came back to work in Baku. The Bolsheviks reassigned him to Persia to help with the revolutionary movement that was launched there in 1910. The Bolsheviks were unable to gain sufficient support in Persia and Ordzhonikidze returned to Baku.
In 1911, Ordzhonikidze traveled to Paris where he met Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks. He attended classes at the Longjumeau Party School, which had been set up to train Bolsheviks, though he left after a short time because of party in-fighting. He was sent back to Russia to help prepare the Sixth RSDLP Conference, which was held in Prague, Austria-Hungary in January 1912. At this meeting the Bolsheviks, the majority faction within the RSDLP, confirmed themselves to be a distinct party and established themselves as a separate party; while they had split from the RSDLP back in 1903 and ceased to work with it, they formally remained part of it until the Prague Conference. Ordzhonikidze was elected to the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party, the leadership body of the party, and sent back to Russia to inform other Bolsheviks of the results of the Conference. He also visited Stalin, exiled in Vologda, and the two traveled back to the Caucasus, then to Saint Petersburg, where Ordzhonikidze was arrested once again in April 1912.
Recognized by the authorities as a revolutionary, Ordzhonikidze was sentenced to three years at the Shlisselburg Fortress prison. Late in 1915 he was sentenced to permanent exile in the eastern Siberian town of Yakutsk, where he met his future wife Zinaida in September 1916. They were married in 1917 and would adopt a daughter, Eteri (born 1923).
In exile, Ordzhonikidze mainly spent his time reading; his favourites were Georgian classics as well as authors like Jack London, Lord Byron, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. He also was interested in statistics relating to the Russian economy, especially details regarding the production of food and agriculture, as well as the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Ordzhonikidze was still in Yakutsk when news of the 1917 February Revolution reached him. He briefly worked with the Yakutsk soviet (council) before quickly leaving for Petrograd (as Saint Petersburg had been named since 1914), reaching there by the end of May. Once in the city, Ordzhonikidze took on an active role in the revolution. He became a member of the Petrograd Bolshevik Committee and would frequently address rallies and visit large factories to conduct party work. In doing this Ordzhonikidze became closely associated with both Lenin and Stalin. He returned briefly to Georgia for a visit but was back in Petrograd by October and was there for the October Revolution when the Bolsheviks seized power.
Russian Civil War
North Caucasus The outbreak of the Russian Civil War in 1917 saw Ordzhonikidze appointed as the Bolsheviks' Commissar of Ukraine, South Russia, and the North Caucasus. In this role he saw action at the Battle of Tsaritsyn and the Western Front in Ukraine, but it was in the Caucasus that he was most active. Sent to Vladikavkaz in the North Caucasus in July 1918, Ordzhonikidze and other Bolsheviks had to flee to the mountains in August as the city was occupied by Cossacks.
While in hiding Ordzhonikidze led attempts to convince Cossack soldiers to abandon their officers and join the Bolsheviks, but was not successful. Ordzhonikidze also organized meetings with the local Chechen and Ingush population and urged them to join, arguing that the soviet system was similar to the Islamic system the Chechens favored. This proved successful, and with Ingush help the Bolsheviks re-conquered Vladikavkaz in mid-August.
By late 1918 Ordzhonikidze effectively controlled every Bolshevik body within the North Caucasus and surrounding region: "the Crimea, Don, Kuban, Terek, Dagestan Oblasts, Stavropol, and Black Sea Gubernias, and the Black Sea Fleet", as historian Stephen Blank has noted, were subordinate to him. Ordzhonikidze earned a reputation as a brutal leader and ordered the arrest or execution of many opponents associated with the Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries, or any other group fighting the Bolsheviks.
To help co-ordinate control over the region, the Central Committee in Petrograd authorized the formation of the Caucasian Bureau (Kavbiuro) on 8 April 1920. It was tasked with establishing Bolshevik rule over the Caucasus (both the North, which was under Bolshevik control, and the South Caucasus), and assisting other revolutionary movements in the region. Ordzhonikidze was named the chairman of the Kavbiuro, while Sergei Kirov was made vice-chairman. Ordzhonikidze was also given a position on the Revolutionary Military Council of the Caucasian Front and named Chairman of the North Caucasus Revolutionary Committee.
South Caucasus
In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the South Caucasus had broken away from Russia and by mid-1918 comprised three independent states: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Bolshevik activity in the region was limited; only the city of Baku was under control of a small group of local allies at that point. With vast deposits of oil in the region around Baku, it was of vital importance to the Bolsheviks that they control the area. After Ordzhonikidze consolidated control in the North Caucasus, Lenin issued an order to him on 17 March 1920 to prepare for an invasion of Azerbaijan.
Using the pretext of a local Bolshevik uprising in Azerbaijan, Ordzhonikidze ordered the Eleventh Army to invade on 27 April 1920; with most of the Azerbaijani army fighting Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh, Baku was occupied by the Bolsheviks by 23:00 that night. The ease with which Azerbaijan was occupied emboldened Ordzhonikidze, and he began making preparations to launch similar invasions of Armenia and Georgia and supported a failed coup attempt in Georgia on 2–3 May. It was not until 27 November that he was given approval from both Lenin and Stalin to prepare the Eleventh Army to invade Armenia, which he did the next day. Already weakened from earlier regional conflicts, Armenia was unable to put up any resistance and surrendered on 2 December.
There was serious discussion among the Bolshevik leadership on how to best approach Georgia, the remaining state outside of their control. While Ordzhonikidze wanted to repeat his earlier actions and invade, he was opposed by the rest of the Central Committee, Lenin in particular favouring a more peaceful approach.
By early February 1921 Lenin had relented somewhat and consented to Ordzhonikidze leading the Eleventh Army into Georgia to support a local Bolshevik uprising. Concerned about gaining the support of the Georgian populace, Lenin sent Ordzhonikidze a telegram outlining a policy to be implemented, which included seeking a compromise with the Menshevik leadership.