Hidden Story of the Georgian Hero

This day of the 100th anniversary of the 1st session of the Constituent Assembly of Georgia, it may be necessary to forget the official history which is not always very accurate and to remember a man, Nikoloz (Karlo) Chkheidze (1864 -1926), buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery (Paris) where great French men are buried.

On March 12, 1919, Nikoloz Cheidze is elected president of the Constituent Assembly, but he is not present, and does not appear in any of the official photographs: where is he? He is in Paris, with Georges Clemenceau (Prime Minister of France) and David Lloyd George (Prime Minister of Great Britain), at the Peace Conference, trying to get recognition for the Republic of Georgia. He even proposes that Georgia become a protectorate of Britain or France (Foreign Affairs and Defense) and that the Georgian Government takes charge of Internal Affairs. Lloyd George and Clemenceau refuse; they do not wish to drag Britain and France into a war against Soviet Russia; they will recognize the Republic of Georgia in January 1921, a month before the invasion of the Red Army.

50 years later, Veronique Chkheidze (1909-1986), Karlo's daughter, said that her father had always reproached himself for not having convinced Britain and France, and thus leaving the Georgian people in the hands of the Bolsheviks. He killed himself on June 13, 1926, in the Georgian house of Leuville (France).