Lezhava Andrey Matveevich

Member of the Communist Party since 1904. Born in Sighnaghi (Georgia) into a peasant family. Graduated from the Tbilisi Teachers' Institute. At the end of the 80s. joined the populist movement. In 1893 he was arrested for participating in the organization of an underground printing house in Smolensk, was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress for more than 2 years, and in Yakut exile for 5 years, where, under the influence of N. E. Fedoseev and others, he became a Marxist.
After exile, he conducted party work in Tbilisi, Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov, and Moscow. After the October Revolution of 1917, he was in leading economic and Soviet work.
In 1919 - 1920 Chairman of the Central Union, in 1921 - 1922 Deputy People's Commissar of Foreign Trade, in 1922 - 1924 People's Commissar of Domestic Trade. In 1924 - 1930, deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, at the same time chairman of the State Planning Committee of the RSFSR, then chairman of the Soyuzryba trust.
In 1930 - 1937, head of the Main Directorate of Subtropical Crops of the USSR. Delegate of the 10th, 13th - 17th Party Congresses; At the 15th congress, member was elected. Central Control Commission. Member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Central Executive Committee of the USSR of several convocations.