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Nestor LakobaStatesman and party figure
Date of Birth: 01.05.1893
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Content:
- Early Life and Education
- Political Career
- Imprisonment and Exile
- Return and Leadership of Abkhazia
- Suspicious Death and Rehabilitation
Early Life and Education
Nestor Lakoba was born on May 1, 1893, into a poor peasant family in the village of Lykhny (now in Abkhazia). He enrolled in the Tbilisi Theological Seminary in 1911, but was expelled for engaging in revolutionary propaganda.
Political Career
In 1912, Lakoba joined the Communist Party and actively participated in party work across the Caucasus region. He played a pivotal role in the 1918 uprising against the Georgian Menshevik government, serving as Deputy Chairman of the Sukhumi Military Revolutionary Committee and organizing a partisan detachment.
Imprisonment and Exile
Lakoba's opposition to the Menshevik government led to his arrest and imprisonment in Sukhumi in late 1918. He was eventually deported from Georgia in the spring of 1919.
Return and Leadership of Abkhazia
Following the Red Army's victory in the Caucasus, Lakoba returned to Abkhazia in 1920 and became the leader of the Bolshevik organization in Batumi. He was also appointed Commissioner for the Affairs of the Highlanders by the Kuban-Black Sea Revolutionary Committee.
From March 1921 onwards, Lakoba served as Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Committee of Abkhazia and People's Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. In February 1922, he became Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Abkhazian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR).
Lakoba's leadership of Abkhazia lasted from 1922 to 1936, during which time he served as Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Abkhazian ASSR, a member of the Central Executive Committees of the Georgian SSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, and the USSR, and a member of the Bureau of the Communist Party of Georgia.
Suspicious Death and Rehabilitation
Lakoba died suddenly on December 28, 1936, under suspicious circumstances. According to some reports, he was poisoned on the orders of Lavrentiy Beria. His funeral in Sukhumi was a grand affair, but he was later posthumously declared an "enemy of the people." Lakoba's reputation was rehabilitated in the late 1950s.
