However, the party's leading members were arrested by the Soviet State Security Committee (KGB) between 1983 and 1984 and imprisoned on charges of "anti-Soviet campaign and propaganda."

In June 1991, the party garnered 20% of votes in Georgia's southwestern autonomous republic of Adjara where they turned into a major opposition to Aslan Abashidze's increasingly authoritarian regime.

Yet, many members of the party remained energetically engaged in civil society and criticized Eduard Shevardnadze's increasingly unpopular government.

[7] In 2002, the party forged an alliance with Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM) and shared its success in the 2002 local and 2003 parliamentary elections.

The party was instrumental in the 2003 Rose Revolution which forced Shevardnadze into resignation, and played a prominent role in Aslan Abashidze's removal during the 2004 Adjara crisis.

The then-party chairman Davit Usupashvili became the Speaker of the Parliament, whilst another representative of the Republican party, Paata Zakareishvili, was appointed as the Minister of Reintegration in the new Georgian government.