Noe Besarionis dze Ramishvili (; his name is also transliterated as Noah or Noi; 5 April 1881 – 7 December 1930) was a Georgian politician and the president of the first government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. He was one of the leaders of the Menshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He was also known by his party noms de guerre: Pyotr, and Semyonov N.
He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1902 and soon became a prominent spokesman of the Mensheviks.
Biography
Early years
Noe Besarionis dze Ramishvili was born into a peasant family. His father, Besarion Ramishvili, was a master of building wooden houses. In 1887 Noe enrolled in the village primary school. From 1890 to 1894 he studied at the Ozurgeti Theological Seminary. In 1894 he continued his studies at the Kutaisi Theological Seminary, where he became involved in the work of the students' social-democratic circles. After graduating, in 1900, he enrolled at Yuryev University, from which he was expelled on March 3, 1901, for participating in student activism. There he became a member of the Russian Social-Democratic Party. He was reinstated in February 1902, but was eventually expelled again and deported to the Caucasus for his revolutionary activities.
Noe Ramishvili began an active political career now he was back in Georgia. He lived in Batumi, taught private lessons, and was involved in the work of the Batumi Committee of the RSDLP. In 1903 he was a delegate of the Batumi Committee during the establishment of the RSDLP Caucasus Committee in Tbilisi. In June 1903, under his leadership, the Social-Democratic Committee of Peasants was established. Ramishvili became one of the leaders of the revolutionary movement in Batumi and Guria. In 1903 he published an illegal book, "Soldierhood". He left Batumi in 1904 because the gendarmerie was pursuing him and he settled in Tbilisi with an illegal passport under the name of "Apollon Sofromi Lomadze". There he became a member of the RSDLP Tbilisi Committee. On October 3, 1904, he was arrested and sent back to Batumi. On October 18, with the help of passengers, he fled the escort, living illegally in Rostov-on-Don and Novorossiysk. He continued his party work there and was a member of the RSDLP Level Committee. As a result of the split in the party, he sided with the Mensheviks. Participated in the debates between the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks in Batumi, Chiatura, Khidistavi.
1905 Revolution
He returned to Tbilisi in February 1905. He was elected a member of the Menshevik Caucasus Regional Committee at an illegal congress of Menshevik organizations. He was known for his oratorical talents, actively participating in discussions against the Bolsheviks, and participating in discussions in the provinces to reduce the influence of the Bolsheviks. Together with Noe Jordania, he edited the Social Democrats, an illegal Menshevik magazine. During the 1905 Russian revolution he was one of the leaders and organizers in Tbilisi, was involved in the formation of the armed "Red Guards". The Okhranka materials referred to him as the father of revolutionary terror. He was arrested several times, but managed to free himself and return home. After the defeat of the revolution he led the restoration of weakened organizations, was the organizer of illegal party publications and led the election campaign of the Social-Democratic Party in the State Duma of the Russian Empire. In 1907, he participated in the 5th Congress of the RSDLP in London as a delegate of the Tbilisi Organization, and was elected a member of the Menshevik Central Committee.
From 1908 to 1910 he lived in Germany, studied Marxism, became acquainted with the Social Democratic Party of Germany, and was a free listener at the University of Leipzig. His areas of interest were economics and philosophy. During this period he authored the paper "Historical Materialism". In 1908, he arrived in Geneva from Leipzig to attend a meeting of the RSDLP CEC, where he confronted Stalin, leading to a physical altercation between the two. He returned to Georgia in 1910, but he was arrested on November 2 and relocated to Rostov-on-Don. He was the head of the Georgian exile colony in Rostov. In 1913 he worked for a few months in the Social-Democratic faction of the State Duma in Petrograd, then returned to Georgia illegally and headed the illegal party press - first in Kutaisi and then in Tbilisi. During the First World War he was the initiator of discussions in the party to resolve the issue of Georgian independence.