Sergo Orjonikidze

Sergo Ordzhonikidze
Ordzhonikidze at the 10th Party Congress in 1921
Full member of the 16th, 17th Politburo
In office 21 December 1930 – 18 February 1937
Candidate member of the 14th Politburo
In office 23 July 1926 – 3 November 1927
Personal details
Born	Grigory Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze Григорий Константинович Орджоникидзе გრიგოლ კონსტანტინეს ძე ორჯონიკიძე 24 October [O.S. 12 October] 1886 Kutais Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	18 February 1937(1937-02-18) (aged 50) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

Grigory Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze (Georgian: გრიგოლ კონსტანტინეს ძე ორჯონიკიძე Grigol Konstantines że Orjonikiże; Russian: Григо́рий Константи́нович Орджоники́дзе Grigorij Konstantinovič Ordžonikidze), generally known as Sergo Ordzhonikidze (სერგო ორჯონიკიძე; Серго́ Орджоники́дзе); 24 October [O.S. 12 October] 1886, Kutais Governorate – 18 February 1937, Moscow) was a Georgian Bolshevik, later member of the CPSU Politburo and close associate of Joseph Stalin. Ordzhonikidze, Stalin and Anastas Mikoyan comprised what was jokingly referred to as the "Caucasian Clique."

Ordzhonikidze was born in upper Imeretian village Ghorehsa, present-day Kharagauli District, western Georgia, into a Georgian noble family. According to some sources he graduated as a doctor from the Mikhailov Hospital Medical School in Tiflis, but other sources characterise him as poorly-educated and state that he qualified only as a medical orderly.

He became involved in radical politics in 1903 and took part in the Revolution of 1905-1907. He was arrested for smuggling arms in December 1905, but when released on bail after five months he fled to Germany. In 1907 he returned to the Caucasus and settled in Baku, where he worked as a medical assistant while involved with Stalin and others in Bolshevik activity. Historians have come to believe that Ordzhonikidze played a role in the 1907 assassination of Prince Ilia Chavchavadze, a prominent Georgian poet and intellectual. In 1907 he was arrested at a May Day demonstration and served 26 days in prison under the pseudonym "Kuchishvili." He later spent 18 months in prison in Sukhumi as a result of his 1905 arrest.