Eduard Shevardnadze

Eduard Shevardnadze began in the late 1940s as a Komsomol organizer, rose through the Georgian Soviet hierarchy, fell into obscurity in 1961 after insulting a senior official, then clawed back by prosecuting corruption - eventually charging Georgia's own First Secretary. He led Soviet Georgia from 1972 to 1985, launching economic reforms that produced rare growth during the stagnation years. Gorbachev made him Foreign Minister in 1985, a post he held until the Soviet collapse, second only to Gorbachev himself in shaping the era's diplomacy. When Georgia won independence, a military council asked him to return; he led the country from 1992, elected president in 1995. He navigated a civil war against Gamsakhurdia loyalists, signed agreements that ended fighting in South Ossetia and Abkhazia but left both territories beyond Tbilisi's control, joined the Commonwealth of Independent States for Russian help, and later pivoted toward Europe and NATO. His government privatized aggressively, but corruption and nepotism festered. Fraud allegations in the 2003 election brought crowds into the streets, and Shevardnadze resigned in the Rose Revolution.