Giorgi Kvinitadze - Biography

Biography

Born into the family of a colonel of the Russian army in Tiflis or Dagestan, Kvinitadze entered the Tiflis Cadet Corps in 1884, and then continued his military education at St Constantine Infantry School, St Petersburg, which he graduated from in 1894, being commissioned as a podpuruchik in the 153rd Vladikavkaz Infantry Regiment. He then served in Russian Poland. During the Russo-Japanese war (1904–1905) Kvinitadze was promoted to captain. In 1910, he graduated from the General Staff Academy and was dispatched to the Caucasian Military District headquarters.

During World War I, in 1916, Kvinitadze was promoted to colonel and appointed a chief of staff of the 4th Caucasian Rifle Division. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Kvinitadze, now major general, served as a Deputy Minister of War for the Transcaucasus federal government before becoming the Commander in Chief of the army of a newly independent Georgia in 1918. He resigned shortly thereafter due to his disagreement with the Menshevik leadership of the country. Later that year, however, he returned to military service in the capacity of Chief of Staff during the war with Armenia. In 1919, he commanded the Georgian troops that defeated Muslim revolutionaries in the Akhaltsikhe province, and occupied, on April 20, 1919, the hitherto Turkish-held city of Artvin. He helped establish a military school in Tiflis and served as its Commandant before being made Commander-in-Chief of Georgian army again early in May 1920, when the Bolsheviks attempted a coup d'état. He happened still to be on the spot when the Bolsheviks assaulted the military school as a preliminary to a coup. Kvinitadze, with his cadets, put up a stout resistance and successfully defended the building. Days later, he, in the head of the Georgian army, rolled back an attempt by the Soviet Russian troops to penetrate from Azerbaijan. During the Red Army invasion of Georgia of 1921, he was reappointed the Commander-in-Chief. After Georgia's defeat in the war in March 1921, Kvinitadze left for France, where he first worked as a clerk for Pathé Records and then run a small business producing matsoni. He died in Chatou in 1970 and was buried at the Georgian cemetery of Leuville-sur-Orge. A street in Tbilisi, where Georgia's Ministry of Defense is located, was named after Kvinitadze in 2006.