ZVIAD KONSTANTINOVICH GAMSAKHURDIYA - USSR

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005403095
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: June 23, 2015
• Document Release Date: August 26, 2010
• Case Number: F-2009-00705
• Publication Date: October 3, 1991

APPROVED FOR
RELEASE^ DATE:
27-Jul-2010
Zviad Konstantinovich GAMSAKHURDIYA
GAM SAKHURDIYA
gamsakhurDEEyah))
President, Republic of Georgia (since May 1991)
Georgia's first popularly elected President, Zviad Gamsakhurdiya is a staunch
proponent of republic independence who has often found himself at odds with Moscow.
During the August coup attempt, Gamsakhurdiya urged the people of his republic to
remain calm; nevertheless, he neither praised nor condemned the ouster of USSR President
Gorbachev. Gamsakhurdiya has since denied his political opponents' accusations that
he supported the coup. Accusing the President of being dictatorial, the opposition
has organized massive anti-Gamsakhurdiya rallies and is demanding the President's
resignation.
Gamsakhurdiya, an ethnic Georgian, was born in 1939. He has been active in
Georgia's dissident community since age 17, when he received a five-year suspended
sentence for anti-Soviet speeches. He later graduated from Tbilisi State University
and worked at the Institute of Georgian Literature. Through the 1960s and 1970s his
reputation as an opposition figure grew. Gamsakhurdiya was elected chairman of the
Georgian Supreme Soviet in November 1990 after leading his round table coalition to
a decisive victory over the Communists in the October 1990 republic parliamentary
elections. He resigned from that post in April 1991 after being appointed Interim
President.
A philologist, Gamsakhurdiya is a specialist in American poetry and cites Robert
Frost as a favorite. He has published several books of poetry and fables. In a recent
interview he expressed admiration for former US President Ronald Reagan and cited
the late French statesman Charles de Gaulle as the ideal modern politician. Gamsakhurdiya
speaks German, French, and English. He has three sons, ages 30, 14, and 12.
LDA M 91-15068
3 October 1991