Grigoriy Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze (Georgian: გრიგოლ (სერგო) ორჯონიკიძე - Grigol (Sergo) Orjonikidze, Russian: Григорий Константинович Орджоникидзе), generally known as Sergo Ordzhonikidze (Серго) (October 24 O.S. October 12] 1886 – February 18, 1937) was a member of the Politburo, and close friend to Stalin. Ordzhonikidze, Stalin and Anastas Mikoyan comprised what was jokingly referred to as the "Caucasian Clique".
Born in Kharagauli, Western Georgia, Ordzhonikidze became involved in radical politics in 1903, and after graduating as a doctor from the Mikhailov Hospital Medical School in Tiflis, was arrested for arms transferring. He was released and went to Germany, but in 1907 returned to Russia and settled in Baku where he worked with Stalin and others. Sergo participated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution on a mission by the Bolshevik party and stayed in Tehran for a while (around 1909), and later in 1920-1921 in establishing the Socialist Republic of Gilan (Iran).
Sergo Ordzhonikidze if he was younger and served in the tsarist guard, cartoon by Nikolai Bukharin, 1927
Ordzhonikidze was appointed to the Politburo in 1926, and became Commissar of the Soviet Heavy Industry. Contrary to some post-Khrushchev stories there is no evidence that Ordzhonikidze disagreed with the Moscow Trials, including with the arrest, conviction, and execution of Yuri Piatakov, who had been his second-in-command in the Commissariat of Heavy Industry. Ordzhonikidze questioned Piatakov personally, and was convinced of his guilt. He drafted a speech for the February-March 1937 Central Committee Plenum that left no doubt of his determination to uproot saboteurs like Piatakov in his commissariat. We have a copy of the speech, which was delivered to the Plenum by Molotov after Ordzhonikidze's death.
Ordzhonikidze was found dead on February 18, 1937, before he could make his speech. His death was ruled the result of a heart attack. Almost 20 years later Khrushchev claimed Ordzhonikidze had committed suicide but did not claim any first-hand knowledge of this. Khrushchev's account clashes with that by Mikoian, who obviously did not have first-hand information either. Research by Russian historian Vladimir L. Bobrov 1 in 2008 shows that there is no reason to reject the official story of the day that Ordzhonikidze committed suicide. Likewise there is no evidence that Ordzhonikidze had quarreled with Stalin.
Several towns in the USSR were renamed Ordzhonikidze after him, such as Vladikavkaz.
