He abandoned his studies at the Montefiore Institute in Liège, Belgium, in 1905 to return to Georgia and take part in the revolution against the Russian rule.
Briefly fleeing police persecution to Paris, he returned in 1907 and enrolled in the University of St. Petersburg, from where he was excluded on charges of being involved in students’ disorders in 1910.
On his return to Georgia, Gabashvili engaged in opposition journalism; he founded and edited the newspaper klde (კლდე; "Rock").
The 1921 Red Army invasion of Georgia forced Gabashvili into exile to Paris where he wrote for local press on the politics and society of Georgia and the book L’apport de la race caucasienne dans la civilisation mondiale (Paris, 1967).
His resonant memoirs რაც მახსოვს (rats’ maxsovs; "What I Remember") – published in Munich in 1959 – was highly critical of the Social Democratic leadership whom Gabashvili accused of incompetence and inability to respond Georgians’ national demands.