This relationship saw Lakoba become the rival of one of Stalin's other confidants, Lavrentiy Beria, who was in charge of the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, which included Georgia.

Nestor Lakoba was born in the village of Lykhny, in what was then the Sukhum Okrug of the Kutais Governorate in the Russian Empire (now Abkhazia)[b] to a peasant family.

[4] Physically unimpressive, he was nearly totally deaf, and used hearing aids throughout his life, though Leon Trotsky recalled it was still difficult to communicate with Lakoba.

[8] In 1911 he was expelled from the seminary for revolutionary activity and moved to Batumi, then a major port for exporting oil from the Caucasus, where he taught privately and studied for the gymnasium exam.

[10] He became involved with disseminating propaganda amongst the workers and peasants in the city and throughout Adjara, the local region, and began to refine his ability to relate to the masses.

[11] Discovered by the police, he was forced to leave Batum in 1914, so moved to Grozny, another major oil-based city in the Caucasus, and continued his efforts to spread Bolshevik propaganda among the people.

[12] Back in Abkhazia, Lakoba took up a position in the Gudauta region helping to build a railway to Russia, while continuing to spread Bolshevik propaganda to the workers.

They held power for forty-two days, before Georgian Democratic Republican forces and Abkhaz anti-Bolsheviks regained control over Abkhazia, which they regarded as an integral part of Georgia.

[22] That April he was offered the post of police commissioner of the Ochamchira District, which he accepted and used as a means to spread Bolshevik propaganda.

[27] Sariya came to be regarded as an excellent hostess, and her sister-in-law Adile Abbas-Ogly wrote that she was well known in Moscow for this, and a key reason Stalin would take vacations in Abkhazia.

[30] The Revkom resigned on 17 February 1922, and Lakoba was unanimously elected the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, a body that was formed that day, thus effectively the head of Abkhazia.

[31] He would hold this post until 17 April 1930, when the council was abolished and replaced by a Presidium of the Central Executive Committee, though Lakoba would retain the top position.

[5] Long a friend of several leading Bolsheviks, including Sergo Orjonikidze, Sergei Kirov, and Lev Kamenev, it was his relationship with Stalin that was most important to Lakoba's rise to power.

Lakoba ensured that Trotsky was isolated during the immediate aftermath of Lenin's death and funeral, an act which helped Stalin to consolidate his own power.

[32][35] Though the two possibly met during the Civil War, Lakoba and Stalin became properly acquainted at the Thirteenth Party Congress in Moscow, held in May 1924.

[40] Lakoba generally avoided going through Party channels, which would have meant dealing with reluctant officials in Georgia's capital Tbilisi, and instead used his connections to go directly to Moscow.

[5] He was especially known for his accessibility to the people: a 1924 report by the journalist Zinaida Rikhter said that: "In Sukhum, only in the reception room of the presidium can we but get an idea of the peasant identity of Abkhazia.

To Nestor, as the peasants simply call him one on one, they come with any little thing, bypassing all official channels, in certainty that he will hear them out and make a decision.

"[45]A proponent of developing Abkhazia, Lakoba oversaw massive industrialization policies like the establishment of a coal mining operation near the town of Tkvarcheli, though they did not have a large impact on the overall economic strength of the region.

[46][47] Other projects included building new roads and railways, the drainage of wetlands as a preventive measure against malaria, and increased forestry.

[49] Other agricultural products, including tea, wine, and citrus fruits—especially tangerines—were produced in large quantities, making Abkhazia one of the most prosperous regions in the entire Soviet Union, and considerably richer than Georgia.

[57] The historian Timothy K. Blauvelt has written that Lakoba tried to defer collectivization for the first two years by using a variety of excuses, such as "local conditions", "backwardness" of local agricultural methods, "primitive technology" and the lack of kulaks in Abkhazia, although Blauvelt believes that it was Lakoba's relationship with Stalin together with the remote location of Abkhazia that delayed collectivization.

[74] As they approached their destination for a picnic, near the town of Pitsunda, three rifle shots landed in the water near the boat, coming from either the lighthouse or a border post.

[75] Initially Stalin joked about the incident, though he later sent someone to investigate, and received a letter from the border guard who apparently took the shots, asking for forgiveness and explaining he thought it was a foreign vessel.

Ostensibly written by Lakoba, the book was praised by Stalin, who enjoyed the description of Khashim as "simple, naïve, but honest and devoted.

[76] The finished work, On the Question of the History of the Bolshevik Organizations in the Transcaucasus (К вопросу об истории большевистских организаций в Закавказье) falsely enhanced and aggrandized Stalin's role in the region.

[77] Beginning in 1935, Stalin made overtures to Lakoba to move to Moscow and replace Genrikh Yagoda as the head of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police.

[70] It is notable that though telegrams of condolence came from various leading officials throughout the Soviet Union, Stalin himself did not send one,[83] and did not attempt to look into what role, if any, Beria may have played in Lakoba's death.

[91] According to Nikita Khrushchev's memoirs, Beria had Lakoba's body exhumed and burned on the pretext that an "enemy of the people" did not deserve burial in Abkhazia; this may possibly have been done to hide evidence of poisoning.

[93] A trial of thirteen members of Lakoba's family was conducted between 30 October and 3 November 1937 in Sukhumi, with charges including counter-revolutionary activities, subversion and sabotage, espionage, terrorism, and insurgent organization in Abkhazia.