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Vasil Mzhavanadze

Vasil Mzhavanadze
ვასილ მჟავანაძე
Vasil Mzhavanadze 1957.jpg
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 (1902-09-20)20 September 1902
Kutaisi
Died 5 September 1988(1988-09-05) (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 Medal Hero of Socialist Labor.svg
Order of Lenin ribbon bar.png Order of Lenin ribbon bar.png Order of Lenin ribbon bar.png Order of Red Banner ribbon bar.png Order of Red Banner ribbon bar.png Order of Red Banner ribbon bar.png Order suvorov1 rib.png Order kutuzov1 rib.png Order kutuzov2 rib.png
Military service
Service/branch MVD
Years of service 1924–1950
Rank RAF A F7LtGen after2010.png
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. 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.


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