Named after Georgian national hero Ilia Chavchavadze the group was established in October 1987 in the wake of a series of amnesties for dissidents that April as part of the Glasnost scheme.
[3] It co-operated with like-minded groups in Armenia and the People's Movement of Ukraine and in 1989 took part in the International Committee in Defence of Political Prisoners in Yerevan.
[4] It was weakened in 1988 when radical members under Giorgio Chanturia, who wanted an independent Georgia that would be aggressively anti-Russian and join NATO, split to form the National Democratic Party.
The group was also caught up in the Abkhaz–Georgian conflict on 1 April 1989 when a bus carrying Society members was attacked by Abkhaz rebels, resulting in ten injuries.
This was a part of a wider de-radicalisation of Georgian politics that saw attempts to build more normal relations with Russia in the aftermath of the War in Abkhazia as well as a desire to forge ever closer links to European institutions as an alternative to nationalist isolation.