Akaki Mgeladze

Born in the Guria region of Georgia, into the Mgeladze family, then part of the minor Russian nobility. Mgeladze had grown up in Abkhazia and was serving with the military on the Transcaucasus Front when he was appointed head of the Communist Party of Abkhazia by Joseph Stalin. Under Mgeladze, Georgian was made the language of instruction in Abkhazia, replacing Abkhaz and Russian at the start of the 1945–1946 academic year.

After the Second World War, Mgeladze became a confidant of Stalin, who nicknamed him “Comrade Wolf”.^[1] He made a declaration that Abkhazia would produce lemons for the entirety of the Soviet Union after Stalin repeatedly showed him lemon trees.^[2] Using his influence with Stalin, Mgeladze manoeuvred against head of the Ministry of State Security Lavrentiy Beria, denouncing his corruption and that of Stalin’s other confidant Kandid Charkviani, who was an ally of Beria.^[3] Mgeladze succeeded in convincing Stalin to turn against Charkviani and strengthened his distrust of Beria.^[4] In March 1952 Mgeladze was appointed First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party by Beria, replacing Charkviani.^[5]