In 1929–31, he was chief of the political directorate of the Red Army in Ukraine, and second secretary of the Ukrainian communist party,[2][3] where part of his role was to suppress peasant rebellions during the drive to force peasant families to surender their land and join collective farms, which led to the mass famine known as Holodomor.

In December 1930, Besso Lominadze, First Secretary of the Transcaucasian party committee (covering Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan), was dismissed for criticising the drive towards collectivisation, and Kartvelishvili was recalled to Tbilisi to replace him.

In August 1931, while on holiday in the region, Stalin wrote to his deputy, Lazar Kaganovich complaining that the "reckless methods" introduced by Kartvelishvili and his associates had "brought a number of districts in western Georgia to the point of famine" and that they were "arresting people by the hundreds".

In October 1931, Kartvelashvili was summoned to Moscow, with other regional leaders, to meet Stalin, who complained that Transcaucasia was being run by "chieftains" who too fond of drinking wine, and nominated Lavrentiy Beria to be Second Secretary of the Transcaucasian party.

[1] On 29 June 1937, Kartvelishvili was arrested by the NKVD at the request of Pavel Postyshev, accused of espionage for Germany, Japan, Great Britain and other foreign powers, participation in a conspiracy to overthrow Soviet power and the murder of Stalin, Yezhov and other party and state leaders.