Irakli Tsereteli ირაკლი გიორგის ძე წერეთელი Ираклий Георгиевич Церетели |
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Minister of Post and Telegraph of the Russian Provisional Government | |
In office 5 May 1917 – August 1917 |
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Prime Minister | Georgy Lvov |
Preceded by | Position established |
Minister of the Interior of the Russian Provisional Government | |
In office 7 July 1917 – 25 July 1917 |
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Prime Minister | Georgy Lvov |
Personal details | |
Born |
Irakli Giorgis dze Tsereteli 20 November 1881 Kutaisi, Kutais Governorate, Russian Empire (today Kutaisi, Imereti, Georgia) |
Died | 20 May 1959 (aged 77) New York, New York, United States |
Resting place |
Leuville Cemetery Paris, France |
Nationality | Georgian |
Political party | Social-Democrat, Menshevik |
Irakli (Kaki) Tsereteli (Georgian: ირაკლი გიორგის ძე წერეთელი; Russian: Ира́клий Гео́ргиевич Церете́ли; 20 November 1881 – 20 May 1959) was a Georgian politician, one of the leaders of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party and later, the Georgian Mensheviks. A leading member of the Petrograd Soviet in 1917, Tsereteli served as Minister of Post and Telegraph, and interim Minister of the Interior, in the Russian Provisional Government. After the October Revolution and rise of the Bolsheviks, he returned to Georgia, leaving when the Red Army invaded in 1921. He spent the rest of his life in exile.
Irakli Tsereteli was born in Kutaisi (western Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire) in the family of a radical writer Giorgi Tsereteli, of the noble family of Tsereteli, and Olympiada Nikoladze, sister of the journalist Niko Nikoladze. He studied law at Moscow University where he became involved in student protests. After taking part in a student demonstration in 1902 he was briefly exiled to Siberia. On his release from prison Tsereteli joined the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) and at the party's 1903 congress in London sided with Julius Martov against Vladimir Lenin. By becoming a Menshevik, opposed to Lenin's Bolsheviks. Tsereteli became editor of the pro-Menshevik publication 'Kvali ("Trace" in Georgian), but decided to move to Germany to escape increasing harassment from the authorities. He returned to Russia during the 1905 Revolution and was elected to the second Duma, emerging as a leading Menshevik.