Shevardnadze's fame first came in his native country of Georgia. Joining the communist party at the age of twenty, he rose fast through the ranks by fighting corruption, in what was then the Soviet Sicily. Assuming the helm of the Georgian party in , he pursued agricultural reforms that offered more incentives to farmers.
In , following a coup against Georgia's disastrous first president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Shevardnadze accepted calls to return home to restore order. His record was uneven. Armed groups waged war against separatists in Abkhazia, and Shevardnadze failed to stop them. Georgia lost control over both territories. Over time, Shevardnadze neutralized a number of Georgian gangs, and by the mids, he brought the country to an uneasy peace. The hundreds of thousands of Georgians displaced from the separatist areas, however, posed humanitarian and security challenges.
Georgians had lived better than most Soviets and many were well educated. They had expectations for a better future, and Shevardnadze responded.
He nurtured young leaders from the Green Party, and they created the basis for a political party he led. In relatively free elections in , Shevardnadze was elected president and they won a majority in parliament. Independent media and NGOs blossomed.
Soon, however, Shevardnadze, like Yeltsin a few years earlier in Moscow, began to lose confidence in and influence over his young and dynamic reformist allies. He became uncomfortable with the sharp give and take of political debate. Reforms slowed, corruption deepened, and the economy stagnated. They conclude that history would have been far different if it were not for the personal diplomacy of Shevardnadze. As historians and specialists seek to explain the end of the Cold War in terms of endemic weaknesses in the Soviet system and the steadfast policies of the West, The Wars of Eduard Shevardnadze shows the folly of neglecting the essential role played by Soviet leaders who saw the need for reform and implemented policies designed to accomplish profound, but peaceful, change.
The Wars of Eduard Shevardnadze is required reading on how the Cold War came to an end, and the last chapter in the history of Soviet diplomacy. This work is a readable and useful study for the specialist and the general reader alike. It is a needed addition to any college library. First, in the Soviet Foreign Ministry in the closing years of the Cold War and today in his native Georgia as it struggles to emerge onto the world stage.
Among other advantages, it meant that negotiations could be conducted on a basis of frank speaking and give and take. We say what we think. If we can agree, that's fine. If we can't, then we postpone the discussion. But we no longer try to deceive each other and are establishing a new network of foreign policy relations.
Before Gorbachev, Shevardnadze had understood that the logic of their foreign policy, with its aim of ending east-west confrontation and reversing the arms race, must inevitably lead to the breakup of the Soviet bloc and to German reunification. Against domestic opposition, he insisted on negotiating the "two plus four" German reunification treaty, between the two German governments and the four former allied powers: the US, the UK, France and the Soviet Union.
In the process, he made enemies among the Soviet military, which cost him dearly when he sought its help, largely in vain, during his struggles against rebellion in Georgia.
Shevardnadze caused consternation abroad when he resigned as foreign minister in December , not least because he explained his decision as an attempt to shock Gorbachev into the realisation that "dictatorship is advancing" and that the conservative revisionists had to be resisted. Later he admitted that he had begun to doubt Gorbachev's own good faith. The friendship was at an end. A few months later, Shevardnadze became the first major Soviet figure to resign from the Communist party, increasingly alienated from it and disillusioned.
He dabbled in creating new, democratic political formations, though in November reluctantly accepted Gorbachev's pressing invitation to prop up the dying regime by returning to the foreign ministry. Apart from a continuing problem of separatism, he faced political conflict with neighbouring states over the routing of an economically vital pipeline from the nearby Baku oilfields.
But, with corruption still rife, Shevardnadze found himself beset by calls for even more political reform. Things finally came to a head in November when, after he won a disputed victory in Georgia's presidential election, he was toppled by a popular revolution.
His critics, who invaded the Georgian parliament, accused Shevardnadze of being just as corrupt and anti-democratic as those he had replaced. He had little option but to resign.
Eduard Shevardnadze was blessed with an easygoing personality, far removed from that of his predecessor as Soviet Foreign Minister, Andrei Gromyko.
His international stature made him a natural leader for Georgia but it also brought him face to face with new political realities. But the man who once preached the importance of furthering democracy was toppled by those whose definition of the term was radically different from his own.
Official Georgian President Homepage. Luxury cars.
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