Polikarp Mdivani

Polikarp "Budu" Mdivani (Georgian: პოლიკარპე [ბუდუ] მდივანი; Russian: Поликарп Гургенович [Буду] Мдивани, Polikarp Gurgenovich [Budu] Mdivani) (1877 – July 19, 1937) was a veteran Georgian Bolshevik and Soviet government official energetically involved in the Russian Revolutions and the Civil War. In the 1920s, he played an important role in Sovietization of the Caucasus, but later led Georgian Communist opposition to Joseph Stalin's centralizing policy during the Georgian Affair of 1922. In the 1930s, he was persecuted for his support to the Trotskyite opposition and executed during the Great Purge.
Revolution and Civil War
Mdivani joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903 and engaged in revolutionary activities in Tbilisi, Baku, Batumi, and other industrial centers of the Caucasus. A close associate of Joseph Stalin, he quickly emerged as one of the leading Bolsheviks in the region and gained a reputation...