A report on Georgian Orthodox Church, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Georgia (country) and Eduard Shevardnadze
Zviad Konstantines dze Gamsakhurdia (ზვიად გამსახურდია; Звиа́д Константи́нович Гамсаху́рдия; 31 March 1939 – 31 December 1993) was a Georgian politician, dissident, scholar, and writer who became the first democratically elected President of Georgia in the post-Soviet era.
- Zviad GamsakhurdiaEduard Ambrosis dze Shevardnadze (ედუარდ ამბროსის ძე შევარდნაძე, romanized: ; 25 January 1928 – 7 July 2014) was a Soviet and Georgian politician and diplomat who governed Georgia for several non-consecutive periods from 1972 until his resignation in 2003 and also served as the final Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1985 to 1990.
- Eduard ShevardnadzeIt is Georgia's dominant religious institution, and a majority of Georgian people are members.
- Georgian Orthodox ChurchIn the early 4th century, ethnic Georgians officially adopted Christianity, which contributed to the spiritual and political unification of the early Georgian states.
- Georgia (country)Gamsakhurdia achieved wider prominence in 1972 during a campaign against the corruption associated with the appointment of a new Catholicos of the Georgian Orthodox Church, of which he was a "fervent" adherent.
- Zviad GamsakhurdiaIn the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, Shevardnadze returned to the newly independent Republic of Georgia, after being asked to lead the country by the Military Council which had recently deposed the country's first president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia.
- Eduard ShevardnadzeIn Georgia, the government of Eduard Shevardnadze (who was then First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party) arrested Gamsakhurdia and his fellow dissident Merab Kostava on 7 April 1977.
- Zviad GamsakhurdiaIn 1991, Shevardnadze was baptized into the Georgian Orthodox Church.
- Eduard ShevardnadzeFirst signs of revival can be seen from the 1970s, when Eduard Shevardnadze, then secretary of the Georgian SSR's Communist Party, adopted a more tolerant stance, and new Patriarch Ilia II could from 1977 renovate derelict churches, and even build new ones.
- Georgian Orthodox ChurchAt the same time, nationalist dissidents such as Zviad Gamsakhurdia emphasized the Christian nature of their struggle against Communist power, and developed relations with Church officials that would come to fruition after 1989.
- Georgian Orthodox ChurchOn 26 May, Zviad Gamsakhurdia was elected as the first President of independent Georgia.
- Georgia (country)Eduard Shevardnadze (Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1985 to 1991) returned to Georgia in 1992.
- Georgia (country)0 related topics with Alpha