Vasil Mzhavanadze

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Vasil Mzhavanadze (also Vasily; Georgian: ვასილი მჟავანაძე; Russian: Василий Павлович Мжаванадзе; Kutaisi, 20 September 1902 [O.S. 7 September] - 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 Ukraine, under the administration of Ukrainian Communist Party leader (and later Soviet leader) Nikita Khrushchev.

Georgia was at this time ruled by supporters of the notorious Lavrenti Beria, who had been the First Secretary of the republic's Communist Party from 1931 to 1938. In July 1953, following the death of Soviet leader Josef 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, becoming First Secretary in September 1953. 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.

Although Georgia prospered during Mzhavanadze's term of office, it did so against a background of rampant corruption. Mzhavanadze himself became a symbol of corrupt, inefficient governance. He was accused of auctioning jobs, pocketing state funds and running illegal factories for his own enrichment; his wife Tamara, nicknamed Queen Tamara after the famous Georgian medieval queen, became known for her tastes in expensive jewellery and antiques.

The corruption in Georgia eventually became so embarrassing for the Soviet authorities that they decided to make an example of Mzhavanadze. In mid-1972, he was publicly accused of corruption and was denounced by the state-controlled media. He resigned from his post as First Secretary on September 28, 1972, and was replaced by his ambitious Interior Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze. It has widely been speculated that Shevardnadze had a hand in his boss's downfall; he was certainly the obvious candidate to replace Mzhavanadze. On December 18, Mzhavanadze was sacked from his Politburo position and retired to Georgia in disgrace. He died in 1988.