A revolution, like a monster, devours its own children. In the 21st century, this does not occur so often, but the politician Zurab Zhvania, who actively participated in the Georgian “Rose Revolution, ” died under mysterious circumstances two years after the overthrow of the previous regime. Over the years, hundreds of versions of the incident have been put forward, many investigations have been initiated, but even today the causes of the death of the Prime Minister remain vague.
Climbing politician
Zurab Vissarionovich Zhvania was born in 1963 in an intelligent Soviet family of physicists. Ram Antonov’s mother had Armenian-Jewish roots. After graduating from school, Zurab entered the Tbilisi State Institute at the Faculty of Biology. Having successfully defended his diploma, he stayed to work in his native university at the Department of Human and Animal Physiology.
The beginning of perestroika opened the way for ambitious young people who want to pursue a career in politics. Zurab Zhvania did not stand aside. What is party activity, he learned at a young age, having created in 1989 his own Green Party.
Gradually, the politician gains authority in Georgia, while remaining opposed to the existing Soviet power. Soon he goes international, becoming for several years the co-chairman of the Green Party.
Until 1992, Zurab Zhvania worked at the university, remaining the leader of his movement. Only after the collapse of the USSR did he get the opportunity to actively participate in the state building of Georgia.
The period of independent Georgia
After Georgia gained independence, a radical change ensues in the biography of Zurab Vissarionovich Zhvania. The formation of statehood in the country was accompanied by a series of political and social disasters.
The civil war, the uprisings in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which dreamed of freeing themselves from the Georgian yoke - all this fell to the lot of the young republic in the first years of independent development.
By 1993, Zurab Zhvania made his political choice and put on the authoritative Eduard Shevardnadze. The coalition party SGG (Union of Georgian Citizens), created by a young politician, was conceived as a movement in support of exactly Eduard Shevardnadze. Two years later, the SGG won a deafening victory in the parliamentary elections, and Zurab Zhvania was elected chairman of the legislative assembly of the republic.
Four years later, he was re-elected to this position and continued to lead the legislative branch until 2001.
Revolutionary
At the turn of the century, Zurab Zhvania became in opposition to the current president, Eduard Shevardnadze. By that time, society was tired of economic problems, corruption, and was unhappy with the actual departure of Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Georgia. The president was rapidly losing popularity, and Zurab Zhvania officially broke off relations with him, quitting the SGG and resigning as speaker.
In 2002, he leads the Democrats parliamentary faction. The next step in the biography of Zurab Zhvania is the creation of his own political movement called “United Democrats”.
In the 2003 parliamentary elections, he was part of the Burjanadze Democrats bloc.
The victory of the pro-presidential party of Eduard Shevardnadze caused a series of mass protests. Crowds of demonstrators took to the streets demanding the resignation of the current government. The leaders of the opposition leading this movement were just Zhvania, Burjanadze and Mikheil Saakashvili. As a result, the famous “Rose Revolution” happened, and supporters of change came to power.
Strange death
After the triumphal victory of the revolution, its leaders took up key posts in the government. Saakashvili became president, Burjanadze became speaker, and Zurab Zhvania was appointed to the post of state minister. A year later, he was officially approved as the Prime Minister of Georgia.
However, the post-revolutionary reality in the country was accompanied by deep reforms and a clash of interests of many influential groups. One of the victims of the transformation of Georgia was Zurab Zhvania. He was found dead in an apartment in the center of Tbilisi in 2005 under very strange circumstances.
On February 3, the Prime Minister arrived at the apartment on Saburtalinskaya Street to meet with his friend Raul Yusupov, the deputy authorized president of the country in one of the regions. He released his guards, saying he would call them if necessary.
However, after a few hours, the bodyguards could not get through to their ward and returned to their place. Having broken the window grill, they entered the apartment and found the bodies of Zurab Zhvania and Raul Yusupov. According to eyewitnesses, there was a smell of gas in the room.
February 5 and 6 were days of state mourning in Georgia in connection with the death of a high-ranking official. Delegations from many countries, including Russia, represented by Minister of Transport Igor Levitin, attended the funeral of Zurab Zhvania.
Official version
The official version of what happened was made public the day after the prime minister’s death. According to the Minister of Internal Affairs of the country, there was a gas leak from a faulty gas heater of Iranian production. Investigators claimed that Raul Yusupov rented an apartment on Saburtalinskaya Street a month before the sad events, and three days before his death he put an unfortunate gas heater in the apartment.
