During the Russian Revolution of 1905, he was elected to the First State Duma for the Kutais Governorate and became one of its leading Menshevik deputies.

He also chaired the proceedings that resulted in Joseph Stalin’s expulsion from the party.

He led a special committee established to organise the Petrograd Burial Procession of March 1917.

From summer 1918 to September 1920, he was an envoy of the Government of Georgia to autonomous Abkhazia.

The Red Army invasion of Georgia early in 1921, forced him to retire from politics.