Vasil Mzhavanadze

Vasil Mzhavanadze
ვასილ მჟავანაძე
First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party
In office 20 September 1953 – 29 September 1972
Preceded by	Aleksandre Mirtskhulava
Succeeded by	Eduard Shevardnadze
Candidate member of the 20th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th Politburo
In office 29 June 1957 – 18 December 1972
Full member of the 20th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th Central Committee
In office 29 June 1957 – 18 December 1972
Personal details
Born	20 September 1902 Kutaisi
Died	5 September 1988 (aged 85) Moscow, Russian SFSR
Nationality	Soviet (Georgian)
Political party	Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Spouse(s)	Anna Ianko Victoria Tereshkevich
Children	4
Awards
Military service
Service/branch	MVD
Years of service	1924–1950
Rank	Lieutenant general

Vasil Pavlovich Mzhavanadze (also Vasily; Georgian: ვასილ მჟავანაძე; 20 September [O.S. 7 September] 1902 – 5 September 1988) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Georgian SSR from September 1953 to September 28, 1972 and a member of the CPSU's Politburo from June 29, 1957 to December 18, 1972. Dismissed after a corruption scandal, he was replaced by Eduard Shevardnadze.

Mzhavanadze served in the Red Army as a political commissar during World War II. After the war, he became deputy commander for political affairs in the Kiev military district in the Ukrainian SSR, under the administration of Ukrainian Communist Party leader (and later Soviet leader) Nikita Khrushchev.

Georgia was at this time ruled by supporters of Lavrentiy Beria, who had been the First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party from 1931 to 1938. In July 1953, following the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and the arrest of Beria, the leadership of the Georgian Communist Party was purged by Khrushchev's supporters. Mzhavanadze was promoted to lead the Party in Georgia, replacing Beria's protégé Aleksandre Mirtskhulava as First Secretary in September 1953. In an unprecedented display of military presence on the political arena, Mzhavanadze was joined in the Georgian Central Committee by the generals Alexi Inauri and Aleksei Antonov.^[1] When Khrushchev became leader of the USSR in 1957, Mzhavanadze was appointed to become a candidate (non-voting) member of the Soviet Politburo. He became a full member in 1966.

Georgia prospered during Mzhavanadze's term of office against a background of corruption. Mzhavanadze himself became a symbol of corrupt, inefficient governance. He was accused of auctioning jobs, pocketing state funds and running illegal factories for his own enrichment; his wife Tamara, nicknamed Queen Tamara after the famous Georgian medieval queen, became known for her tastes in expensive jewellery and antiques.

In mid-1972, Mzhavanadze was publicly accused of corruption and was denounced by the state-controlled media. He resigned from his post as First Secretary on September 28, 1972, and was replaced by his ambitious Interior Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze. It has widely been speculated that Shevardnadze had a hand in his boss's downfall; he was certainly the obvious candidate to replace Mzhavanadze. On December 18, Mzhavanadze was sacked from his Politburo position and retired to Georgia in disgrace. He died in 1988.

References

1. Knight, Ami W. (1993), Beria: Stalin's First Lieutenant, p. 214. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, ISBN 0-691-01093-5.