Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze

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Sergo Ordzhonikidze

Grigoriy Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze (Georgian: გრიგოლ (სერგო) ორჯონიკიძე - Grigol (Sergo) Orjonikidze, Russian: Григорий Константинович Орджоникидзе), generally known as Sergo Ordzhonikidze (Серго) (October 24, 1886 [O.S. October 12] – February 18, 1937) was a member of the Politburo, and close friend to Stalin. Ordzhonikidze, Stalin and Anastas Mikoyan comprised what was jokingly referred to as the "Caucasian Clique".

Born in Kharagauli, Western Georgia, Ordzhonikidze became involved in radical politics in 1903, and after graduating as a doctor from the Mikhailov Hospital Medical School, was arrested for arms transferring. He was released and went to Germany, but in 1907 returned to Russia and settled in Baku where he worked with Stalin and others. Sergo participated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution on a mission by the Bolshevik party and stayed in Tehran for a while (around 1909).

He was arrested for being a member of the Social Democratic Party and deported to Siberia, but managed to escape 3 years later. He returned with Stalin to St. Petersburg in April 1912, but again was apprehended and sentenced to 3 years hard labour. During the course of the civil war, he became a commissar for the Ukraine and took part in fighting in the Caucasus, where he would later help establish Soviet power in states such as Armenia. In 1921 he led an invasion of Bolshevik army of Democratic Republic of Georgia and established the Socialist Republic of Georgia.

Ordzhonikidze was appointed to the Politburo in 1926, but by 1936 Stalin began to question his loyalty; specifically when he discovered that Ordzhonikidze was using his influence to protect certain figures that were under investigation by the NKVD. Meanwhile, rumours had been spreading that Ordzhonikidze planned to denounce Stalin in his speech at the April 1937 Plenum. Ordzhonikidze was found dead before he could make his speech; his death was ruled a suicide. According to Khrushchev's memoirs, Ordzhonikidze revealed to Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan (a fellow Caucasian Party member) the night before his suicide, that he could no longer deal with what was going on in the Party, namely the arbitrary murders of Party members.

Several towns in the USSR were renamed Ordzhonikidze after him, such as Vladikavkaz.