Simon Mdivani

Simon Mdivani  (in Georgian: სიმონ მდივანი; October 20, 1876, in Khoni, Russian Empire – December 13, 1937, in Sceaux, France), was a Georgian politician member of the Georgian Socialist-Federalist Revolutionary Party, exiled in Turkey, then in France following the invasion of his country by the Red Army, and died on December 13, 1937, in Sceaux.

He was a member of the National Council and of the Georgian Constituent Assembly, of which he assumed the vice-presidency, then Ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Georgia to Turkey.

Youth
Simon (Svimon) was born in the family of Gurgen Mdivani, heiress of a local nobility (aznauri), on October 20, 1876, in Khoni. He continued his studies in turn at primary school, at the Lyceum of Kutaisi, at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Odesa, in Ukraine. After obtaining his higher education diploma, he found a job as a chemist in the administration of the city of Odesa and became politically committed against tsarism.

1905 to 1917, Batumi
He joined the Georgian Socialist-Federalist Revolutionary Party in Batumi and participated in the popular movement that shook the Russian Empire. He was editor of the daily Chermorskoe Echo, was prosecuted on December 14, 1906, for an article, was convicted and forced to close the newspaper. He was elected president of the local section, then a member of the central committee of the Georgian Socialist-Federalist Revolutionary Party. At the same time, he chaired a mutual bank.

1918 to 1921, the Democratic Republic of Georgia
Signatory of the act of return to the independence of Georgia on May 26, 1918, member of the Georgian National Council, then of the Georgian Constituent Assembly, he was elected vice-president on March 12, 1919, under the social-federalists who obtained 8 deputies in the legislative elections. He sat as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Secretary of the Military Committee and the Budget Committee.

On December 27, 1920, he was appointed ambassador to Turkey, in Ankara, with a diplomatic representation made up of General Eristavi, soldiers Emkhvari and Chalikachvili, diplomats Aristo Tchumbadze and Meliton Kartivadze. Simon Mdivani is the first foreign ambassador to recognize the Kemalist regime poised to overthrow the power of Sultan Mehmed VI and the Ottoman Empire.

1921 to 1928, temporary exile in Turkey
After the entry of the Red Army into Georgian territory, he emigrated to Constantinople; his brother Polycarpe Mdivani (1877-1937), known as Budu, represented Soviet Georgia in Turkey. In 1926, he participated in the Prometheus movement initiated in Poland by Józef Piłsudski in order to weaken Soviet Russia, and as such was a member of a Council of a Caucasus Confederation in exile (Georgia, Azerbaijan, North Caucasus and Ukraine ). In 1928, he was expelled from Turkey, and joined France.

1928 to 1937, the definitive exile in France
He continued to fight for the liberation of Georgia from Soviet occupation. He prepared in particular the days devoted to Shota Rustaveli, at the University of the Sorbonne, but died before them : he died on December 13, 1937, in Sceaux. He rests in the Georgian square of the Leuville-sur-Orge cemetery.