Razhden Arsenidze ( ka, რაჟდენ არსენიძე) (1 October 1880 – 24 May 1965) was a

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

jurist, journalist, and politician.

He was involved with the Georgian Social Democratic Labour Party, branch of

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP; in , ''Rossiyskaya sotsial-demokraticheskaya rabochaya partiya (RSDRP)''), also known as the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or the Russian Social Democratic Party, was a socialist pol ...

and sided with its

Menshevik The Mensheviks (russian: меньшевики́, from меньшинство 'minority') were one of the three dominant factions in the Russian socialist movement, the others being the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. The factions eme ...

wing in 1903. He later engaged in revolutionary journalism and was exiled by the

Imperial Russian The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...

administration to

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

whence he was able to return only after the 1917

February Revolution The February Revolution ( rus, Февра́льская револю́ция, r=Fevral'skaya revolyutsiya, p=fʲɪvˈralʲskəjə rʲɪvɐˈlʲutsɨjə), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and somet ...

toppled down the

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...

’s government. Arsenidze was one of the authors of the 26 May 1918 Act of Independence of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and was elected to the

Constituent Assembly of Georgia The Constituent Assembly of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს დამფუძნებელი კრება, ''sak’art’velos damp’udznebeli kreba'') was a national legislature of the Democratic Republic of Georgia which ...

in 1919. The same year, he became a Minister of Justice in the cabinet of

Noe Zhordania Noe Zhordania ( ka, ნოე ჟორდანია /nɔɛ ʒɔrdɑniɑ/; russian: Ной Никола́евич Жорда́ния; born (or ) — January 11, 1953) was a Georgian journalist and Menshevik politician. He played an eminent role ...

, and held this post until being briefly succeeded by

Evgeni Gegechkori , birth_date = , birth_place = Martvili, Kutais Governorate, Russian Empire , death_date = , death_place = Paris, France , nationality = Georgian , occupation = Politician , known_for ...

in 1921. At the same time, he functioned as a secretary of the Central Committee of Georgian Social Democratic Labour Party. The

Red Army invasion of Georgia The Red Army invasion of Georgia (15 February17 March 1921), also known as the Soviet–Georgian War or the Soviet invasion of Georgia,Debo, R. (1992). ''Survival and Consolidation: The Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia, 1918-1921'', pp. 182, 361� ...

of 1921 forced him into exile to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

where he published his memoirs about

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

(frequently cited in the works of a prominent U.S.

Sovietologist Kremlinology is the study and analysis of the politics and policies of the Soviet Union while Sovietology is the study of politics and policies of both the Soviet Union and former communist states more generally. These two terms were synonymous unt ...

Robert C. Tucker Robert Charles Tucker (May 29, 1918 – July 29, 2010) was an American political scientist and historian. Tucker is best remembered as a biographer of Joseph Stalin and as an analyst of the Soviet political system, which he saw as dynamic rather ...

) and produced a study of the 18th-century Georgian code of King

Vakhtang VI Vakhtang VI ( ka, ვახტანგ VI), also known as Vakhtang the Scholar, Vakhtang the Lawgiver and Ḥosaynqolī Khan ( fa, حسین‌قلی خان, translit=Hoseyn-Qoli Xān) (September 15, 1675 – March 26, 1737), was a Georgian m ...

(both works published in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, 1963). Arsenidze(French) Rajden Arsénidzé
died in Paris and was buried at the Leuville Cemetery.

Works

*Арсенидзе Р. Из воспоминаний о Сталине //Новый журнал. 1963.

Sources

* Lang, David Marshall (1962), ''A Modern History of Georgia'', p. 162.

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. *Stephen F. Jones (2005)
''Socialism in Georgian Colors: The European Road to Social Democracy, 1883-1917''
pp. 119–120, 157, 178.

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

, .
The history of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia
Ministry of Justice of Georgia. Accessed on November 20, 2007.

References

1880 births 1965 deaths Journalists from Georgia (country) Jurists from Georgia (country) Memoirists from Georgia (country) Russian Social Democratic Labour Party members Mensheviks Social Democratic Party of Georgia politicians Democratic Republic of Georgia Government ministers of Georgia (country) Georgian exiles Emigrants from Georgia (country) to France Burials at Leuville cemetery 20th-century journalists 20th-century memoirists {{Georgia-politician-stub