Irakli
Tsereteli was born in Georgia, Russia, in 1881. He studied
law at Moscow University where he became involved in the reform movement.
After taking part in a student demonstration he was sentenced to five
years exile in Eastern Siberia.
On his
release from prison Tsereteli joined the Social
Democratic Labour Party(SDLP). At the party's Second Congress
in London in 1903, there was a dispute
between Vladimir Lenin and Julius
Martov, two of SDLP's leaders. Lenin argued for a small party
of professional revolutionaries with a large fringe of non-party sympathizers
and supporters. Martov disagreed believing it was better to have a
large party of activists.
Julius
Martov based his ideas on the socialist parties that existed in
other European countries such as the British
Labour Party. Lenin argued that the situation was different in
Russia as it was illegal to form socialist political parties under
the Tsar's autocratic government. At the end of the debate Martov
won the vote 28-23 . Vladimir Lenin was
unwilling to accept the result and formed a faction known as the Bolsheviks.
Those who remained loyal to Martov became known as Mensheviks.
Tsereteli,
along with George Plekhanov, Pavel
Axelrod, Lev Deich, Vladimir
Antonov-Ovseenko,
Leon Trotsky, Vera
Zasulich, Irakli Tsereteli, Moisei
Uritsky, Noi Zhordania and Fedor
Dan joined the M. Whereas Gregory Zinoviev,
Anatoli Lunacharsky, Joseph
Stalin, Mikhail Lashevich, Nadezhda
Krupskaya, Mikhail Frunze, Alexei
Rykov, Yakov Sverdlov, Lev
Kamenev, Maxim Litvinov, Vladimir
Antonov, Felix Dzerzhinsky, Gregory
Ordzhonikidze and Alexander Bogdanov
supported Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks.
Tsereteli
became editor of the pro-Menshevik Kvali
(Track) but after harassment from the local police he decided to move
to Germany. He returned to Russia during the 1905
Revolution and in 1907 was elected to the second Duma.
A great orator, Tsereteli soon emerged as one of the leaders of the
Mensheviks.
In June,
1907, Nicholas II closed the Duma
and Tsereteli was arrested and sentenced to five years imprisonment.
On his release in 1913 he was exiled to Irkutsk in Siberia.
Tsereteli
returned to Petrograd after the February Revolution.
He supported the Provisional Government
and in May, 1917, was appointed Minister of Posts and Telegraphs.
The following month Alexander Kerensky
gave him the important post of Minister of the Interior.
Tsereteli
was in Georgia during the October Revolution.
Vladimir Lenin gave orders for his arrest
and so he remained in Georgia during the Civil
War. When the area was taken by the Red
Army Tsereteli moved to France. Irakli Tsereteli emigrated to
the United States where he died in 1960.
(1)
George Buchanan, My Mission to Russia
and Other Diplomatic Memories (1922).
Tsereteli
had a refined and sympathetic personality. He attracted me by his
transparent honesty of purpose and his straightforward manner. He
was, like so many other Russian Socialists, an Idealist; but though
I do not reproach him with this, he made the mistake of approaching
grave problems of practical policies from a purely theoretical standpoint.
(2)
In his book My Reminiscences of the Russian Revolution, Morgan
Philips Price, described a speech made by Irakli Tsereteli
when the Bolsheviks
were threatening to close down the Constituent Assembly.
In this
swan-song apology for the history of the previous eight months, Tsereteli
was the same as ever - thoughtful, unemotional, philosophic, calm,
like some Zeus from Olympus, contemplating the conflicts of the lesser
gods. "The Constituent Assembly," he said, "elected
democratically by the whole country, should be the highest authority
in the land. If this is so, then why should an ultimatum be sent to
it by the Central Soviet Executive? Such an ultimatum can only mean
the intensification of civil war. Will this help to realize Socialism?"
On the contrary, it will only assist the German militarists to divide
the revolutionary front. The break-up of the Constituent Assembly
will only serve the interests of the bourgeoisie, whom you (the Bolsheviks)
profess to be fighting. The Assembly alone can save the Revolution.
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