Shevardnadze, Eduard Amvrosiyevich, << `shehv` ahrd NAHD zeh, ay doo AHRT ahm VROH see uh vihch >> (1928-2014), was president of the country of Georgia from 1995 to 2003. He served as minister of foreign affairs for the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1990. Along with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Shevardnadze was one of the architects of Perestroika, the reform program that helped lead to the end of the Soviet Union. He then helped establish Georgia as an independent country after centuries of Russian and Soviet rule.
Shevardnadze was born on Jan. 25, 1928, in Mamati, Georgia, which was then part of the Soviet Union. He joined the Soviet Communist Party in 1948 and gradually rose through the ranks in Georgia’s government. Shevardnadze served as head of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs from 1965 to 1972. From 1972 to 1985, he was leader of Georgia’s Communist Party.
In 1985, Shevardnadze became a voting member of the Politburo, the Soviet Communist Party’s chief policymaking body. That same year, Gorbachev appointed him minister of foreign affairs for the Soviet Union. Shevardnadze helped reform Soviet foreign policy. He resigned in 1990 to protest opposition to his reform efforts.
In 1991, Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union. Shevardnadze returned to Georgia in 1992, and he was elected to lead the country as chairman of Parliament. In 1995, after a new constitution came into effect, Shevardnadze was elected president. Georgia experienced territorial conflicts, economic and political crises, and corruption. Shevardnadze was reelected in 2000, but protests sparked by disputed elections forced him to resign in 2003. He died on July 7, 2014.
See also Georgia (History); Saakashvili, Mikheil.
