Shevardnadze, Edvard Amvrosievich

Georgian politician, president 1992–2003. He was Soviet foreign minister 1985–91. A supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, he was first secretary of the Georgian Communist Party from 1972 and an advocate of economic reform. In 1985 he became a member of the Politburo, working for détente and disarmament. In July 1991 he resigned from the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU) and, along with other reformers and leading democrats, established the Democratic Reform Movement. In March 1992 he was chosen as chair of Georgia's ruling military council, and in October was elected speaker of parliament (equivalent to president). He survived assassination attempts in 1995 and 1998.

On 20 December 1990 he made a point of resigning as foreign minister in protest against what he viewed as the onset of a dictatorship in the USSR – reactionary forces, particularly within the military, had regained the ascendancy. Following the abortive anti-Gorbachev coup in August 1991 (in which he stood alongside Boris Yeltsin) and the dissolution of the CPSU, his Democratic Reform Party stood out as a key force in the ‘new politics’ of Russia and the USSR. Shevardnadze turned down an offer from President Gorbachev to join the post-coup security council, but subsequently agreed to join Gorbachev's advisory council. In March 1992, following the ousting of President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, he was chosen as chair of Georgia's ruling State Council, and in the first parliamentary elections in October was elected speaker of parliament, with 90% of the vote.

Shevardnadze inherited a nation affected by a continuing civil war and secessionist movement in Abkhazia. Reluctantly, he turned to Russia for military aid to crush the insurgencies and attempted to disband private militias. He was directly elected executive president in November 1995.