Irakli Tsereteli, 1881-1959

Portrait photograph of Irakli Tsereteli, ca. 1900.

Biography

Police photograph of Irakli Tsereteli, ca. 1903.

Rusudana Nikoladze. Scrapbook, 1907.

When the tsarist government dissolved the Second Duma on June 3, 1907, Tsereteli and his fellow Social Democratic deputies were arrested and accused of high treason. Tsereteli’s cousin, Rusudana Nikoladze, then a student at the Women’s Higher Pedagogical Institute, regularly visited him in prison. During one such visit she smuggled out Tsereteli’s notes on his experiences in the Duma, which were soon published by the exiled Menshevik leader Iu. O. Martov in Geneva (Ternii bez roz, Geneva, 1908). She also served as a go-between for the imprisoned Duma deputies and their defense attorney, Nikolai Dmitrievich Sokolov, himself a prominent Petrograd Social Democrat. Rusudana’s scrapbook contains numerous postcards from Irakli (called “Kaki” in the family) in prison. In the accompanying excerpt Rusudana describes her activities for Kaki Tsereteli and his comrades during that time.

Translation (Excerpt)

Letter with envelope from Irakli Tsereteli in prison to Rusudana Nikoladze in St. Petersburg, December 2, 1907.

Tsereteli was tried for treason in November 1907, and sentenced to five years of forced labor. The accompanying letter was written to Rusudana on December 2, 1907.

Translation

Letter from Irakli Tsereteli in Aleksandrovskii Prison, Irkutsk, to E. L. Nikoladze (Kato) in Kutaisi, February 11, 1913.

By the time this letter was written Tsereteli had spent more than four years in prison, in St. Petersburg, Nikolaev, and Irkutsk. The stamp at the upper right reads “Aleksandrovskii Central Prison for Penal Servitude”; on the opposing page is the censor’s mark.

Letter from Irakli Tsereteli in Usol’e to E. L. Nikoladze (Kato) in Kutaisi, October 19, 1913.

In the fall of 1913, Tsereteli joined many other political exiles in the small Siberian village of Usol’e located on the Trans-Siberian Railway. The Polievktov-Nikoladze Collection contains dozens of Tsereteli’s letters from Siberian exile to his family, written both in Russian and in Georgian.

Translation (Excerpts)

Photograph of Ekaterina (Kato) Nikoladze, Tsereteli’s aunt, ca. 1900.

Letter from Irakli Tsereteli in Petrograd to E. L. Nikoladze (Kato) in Kutaisi, June 26, 1917.

On June 26, 1917, Tsereteli wrote this letter, in Georgian, to his aunt Kato Nikoladze on the stationary of the Tauride Palace, which was the official seat of the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies. Tsereteli writes that he is on his way to the train station to travel to Kiev as part of a three-member delegation (the others were Kerensky and Tereshchenko) of the Provisional Government, in an attempt to dissuade the Ukrainian Central Rada from declaring national and territorial autonomy from Russia. He also tells his aunt that he will try to visit her and her sister Anna soon after his return from Kiev and that he will wire them money by telegraph, 600 rubles monthly.

Pass (No. 206) for a seat on the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee, September, 1917

This is Tsereteli’s pass for a seat on the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee, to participate in the All-Russian Conference of Democratic Organizations in September, 1917.

Pass (No. 1399) to the State Conference in Moscow, August 12-14, 1917.

This is Tsereteli’s Provisional Government pass to the State Conference in Moscow as a representative of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Soldiers’ and Workers’ Deputies. Although his name can still be read, someone—probably his cousin Rusudana who was the custodian of the family documents throughout most of the Soviet period—has tried to erase it, as incriminating evidence of the family’s connection with the February bourgeois revolution.

Tsereteli’s draft Declaration of the first coalition cabinet of the Provisional Government, May 5, 1917.

This is a draft of the Declaration (program) of the coalition government, including Tsereteli’s suggested changes, in his hand. All Tsereteli’s changes were adopted in the final Declaration, which was published in the official bulletin of the Provisional Government on May 6, 1917. The Declaration was signed by Prince G. E. L’vov, Minister-President, and all other ministers.

For English translation, please consult:

Browder, Robert P., ed., The Russian Provisional Government, 1917: Documents (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1961): 1276-1277.

Irakli Tsereteli with Nika Polievktov-Nikoladze, Tbilisi, ca. 1920

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Irakli Tsereteli (1881-1959)

Already a prominent Georgian radical by the turn of the twentieth century, Irakli Tsereteli became one of the most important leaders of the Petrograd Soviet and the Russian Provisional Government during the spring and summer of 1917. Niko Nikoladze’s favorite nephew and the youngest son of the famous Georgian revolutionary writer Giorgi Tsereteli, Irakli was raised by his aunts Anna and Kato Nikoladze (Niko’s sisters) in the western Georgia city of Kutaisi. He attended Tiflis gymnasium and Moscow University where he studied law. Irakli was arrested in 1902 for leading student demonstrations and deported to Iakutsk in Eastern Siberia. A year later, he joined the Menshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. Released from exile in 1903, he returned to Georgia where he joined the Tiflis Menshevik committee. Arrested again in 1904, he was allowed to emigrate and went to Berlin to continue his studies. He returned to Georgia in 1906 and the following year was elected to the Second Duma, where he had been spokesman for the Social Democratic faction. After the dissolution of the Second Duma in June 1907, Tsereteli and his co-factionists were arrested, accused of high treason, and sentenced to five years of imprisonment. He was released from prison in 1913 and exiled to the small village of Usol’e, outside Irkutsk in Eastern Siberia.

The March 1917 overthrow of the tsarist regime ended his exile. Tsereteli returned to Petrograd on March 19 of that year and quickly became a central figure in revolutionary politics. His meteoric rise to national prominence can be explained by his charismatic personality and extraordinary political skills. Equally important was the fact that his policy of “Revolutionary Defensism” and support for soviet cooperation with the Provisional Government was soon adopted as official doctrine by the leadership of the Petrograd Soviet. In early May 1917, Tsereteli joined the first coalition government as Minister of Posts and Telegraphs; two months later, he became the Minister of the Interior in the second coalition cabinet under A. F. Kerenskii. After playing a major part in the organization of the Moscow State Conference (his original pass to the State Conference is exhibited in this case) and the Provisional Council of the Republic, he left Petrograd to visit his family in Georgia in October, just days before the Bolshevik takeover.

During 1918-1921 Tsereteli was active in Georgian democratic politics, serving as a member of the Transcaucasian Sejm, leading the Georgian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and representing his still independent country at the Second International. After Georgia lost its independence to Soviet Russia in 1921, Tsereteli left his native land. He spent the rest of his life in exile in Paris and New York, where he died in 1959.

Selected Bibliography

Action, Edward, et al., eds., Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution, 1914-1921 (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997).

Jones, Stephen F., Socialism in Georgian Colors: The European Road to Social Democracy, 1883-1917 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005).

Roobol, W. H., Tsereteli, a Democrat in the Russian Revolution: a Political Biography (The Hague: Nijhoff , 1976)

Shukman, Harold, ed., The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Russian Revolution, 2nd edn, rev. and updated (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1994).

Suny, Ronald G., The Making on the Georgian Nation (Bloomington: Indiana University Press in association with Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif., 1988).

Tsereteli, Iraklii, Vpechatleniia detstva ed. by A.N. Nenarokov (Moscow: Tvorcheskaia Masterskaia, 2006).

Wade, Rex A., The Russian Search for Peace, February-October 1917 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1969).

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Action, Edward, et al., eds., Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution, 1914-1921 (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997).

Jones, Stephen F., Socialism in Georgian Colors: The European Road to Social Democracy, 1883-1917 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005).

Roobol, W. H., Tsereteli, a Democrat in the Russian Revolution: a Political Biography (The Hague: Nijhoff , 1976)

Shukman, Harold, ed., The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Russian Revolution, 2nd edn, rev. and updated (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1994).

Suny, Ronald G., The Making on the Georgian Nation (Bloomington: Indiana University Press in association with Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif., 1988).

Tsereteli, Iraklii, Vpechatleniia detstva ed. by A.N. Nenarokov (Moscow: Tvorcheskaia Masterskaia, 2006).

Wade, Rex A., The Russian Search for Peace, February-October 1917 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1969).

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. . . The flood of errands fell to me—for all of their “Faction” [imprisoned Social Democrats]. Kaki would write, “Please consult with Nikolai Dmitrievich,” and it would consume half of my evening. Nikolai Dmitrievich Sokolov was their defense attorney. I had to do a lot of running around to help with their “party-literature” matters. After poor Julia and the apolitical “Tsilia”, the wife of Tsoly Lomtatidze [imprisoned Social Democratic deputy from Kutaisi] made several terrible mistakes, all “party-literature” matters were transferred to me. They [Julia and Tsilia] continued to muddle everything, Kaki flew into a rage with them. Soon I had to make the acquaintance of all of “their” journalists, writers, and lawyers—by bringing them “nubbins” of cigarette paper [on which the prisoners wrote information for their party comrades and lawyers] that I would bring back, from “behind the bars.” Kaki used to joke with me, “I dreamed that I would turn you into an agitator, but instead you have become the Talleyrand of conspiracy!”

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Dear Rusia!

Do you really think that the warden did not allow the meeting out of fear that we will get upset? Do you remember that Katia Poltaratskaia expressed the same hypothesis in Tiflis?

I just came back from a walk.

Even though the sentence has not been announced to us, we already know what it is, and I am now writing “reassuring” postcards to Kato [his aunt] and Eliko [his sister]. This is not very productive, since I know from my previous experience that the consolations will have the same effect as on Tamara [Nikoladze] after she lost her ring. Our people here do not lose heart and are quite cheery. I can only imagine what the situation is among the women out there.

With passionate kisses for you all,

Kaki [Tsereteli]

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Tsereteli writes: “ . . . I could barely find a suitable home. Even so, the room is remarkable—spacious, light, and warm—but very expensive at 15 rubles. In 1902, a whole house could be rented for 3 rubles. This is because a railroad has since been built and many inhabitants are hoping to work for Russian newspapers and journals. It is possible to have a good life here for 40-50 rubles . . . .”

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