Filipp Makharadze

Born Mar. 9 (21), 1868, in Shemokmedi, in present-day Makharadze Raion, Georgian SSR; died Dec. 10, 1941, in Tbilisi. Soviet statesman and man of letters. Became a member of the Communist Party in 1903. The son of a priest.

Makharadze studied at the Tbilisi Seminary and then at the Veterinary Institute of Warsaw, where he became involved in the Social Democratic movement. In 1893 he was arrested and expelled to Georgia. In 1903 he became a member of the Caucasian Union Committee of the RSDLP. He took part in the Revolution of 1905-07. In 1915 he was a member of the Caucasus Bureau of the RSDLP.

In 1917, Makharadze was an organizer of the Tbilisi Soviet, a delegate to the Seventh (April) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP (Bolshevik), and, in October, a member of the Caucasian Krai Committee of the RSDLP(B).

In 1918, Makharadze did underground work in Georgia. In 1921 he became chairman of the Revolutionary Committee of Georgia; in 1922 he was chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Georgian SSR and then chairman of the State Planning Commission of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic (TSFSR), chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Georgian SSR, and chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the TSFSR. In 1938 he became chairman of the presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR and deputy chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He was a delegate to the Twelfth, Thirteenth, and Fifteenth through Eighteenth Congresses of the party, being elected a member of the Central Executive Committee at the Fifteenth Congress. He was a delegate to the Second Congress of the Comintern (1920).

Makharadze wrote works on the history of the revolutionary movement and monographs on A. S. Pushkin, M. Gorky, and E. Ninoshvili. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the TSFSR.