Benia Chkhikvishvili

Who was Benia Chkhikvishvili?

Benia Chkhikvishvili was a Georgian politician who was involved in the Social Democratic movement in the early 20th century. An active member of the Menshevik party, he led the 1905 revolution in Guria, a Georgian province on the Black Sea. Became a de facto head of the peasant government, sometimes described by the contemporary observers as a "Gurian president" or even "Gurian king".

During the short-lived independent Democratic Republic of Georgia, he served as a mayor of Tiflis, the capital of Georgia. After the Soviet invasion of Georgia, he immigrated to France, where he became an official owner of the Leuville chateau, a residence of the Georgian government-in-exile.

He returned to Georgia in 1923 to take part in the preparations for a general uprising against the Bolshevik regime. He was arrested, however, and executed.