The leading political force in the Democratic Republic of Georgia in 1918–1921.

The first social-democratic organization of Georgia – the literary and political group Mesame Dasi, founded in 1892 – was the predecessor of the party. After the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party (RSDLP) was created, Mesame Dasi joined it, becoming a member of the Caucasian Union Committee of the RSDLP. After the split of the Russian social democracy into Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, most of the Mesame Dasi members, including Noe Zhordania, Isidore Ramishvili, Nikolay Chkheidze, and Irakli Tsereteli, joined the Mensheviks.

In 1917, the Georgian Social Democrats Mensheviks took an active part in the Russian Revolution. They held important posts in the Petrograd Soviet and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies (with Nikolay Chkheidze as a chairman), as well as in the Provisional Government (in May–July 1917, Irakli Tsereteli as a Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, at the same time in July, as a Minister of Internal Affairs). They played an important role in the development and implementation of the course of the Menshevik and socialist-revolutionary bloc to support a coalition with bourgeois parties. They did not recognize the October coup and since November 1917, moved their activities to Transcaucasia. Believing in the possibility of restoring the Russian Democratic Federative Republic, the leaders of the Georgian Mensheviks headed the provisional regional authorities: the Transcaucasian Commissariat (Evgeni Gegechkori), Transcaucasian Seim (Nikolay Chkheidze), Government of the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (Akaki Chkhenkeli).

After the Democratic Republic of Georgia was proclaimed in May 1918, the Georgian Mensheviks separated from the RSDLP to form the Social Democratic Party of Georgia. By August 1918, the party consisted of over 70 thousand people. “Ertoba” (“Unity”) newspaper that was published in Tiflis in 1917–1921 was the Party’s central printed edition. Taking advantage of the broad support of the Georgian population, the Social Democrats dominated the political life of the country. The first coalition Government of independent Georgia was headed by Noe Ramishvili, the following two cabinets of Noe Zhordania were completely social-democratic. At the elections to the Constituent Assembly of the Georgian Republic on February 14, 1919, the party won 81.5 % of the votes and 109 seats out of 130.

After the establishment of Soviet power in Georgia in March 1921, the leaders of the Georgian Social Democrats emigrated and formed a Foreign Bureau and a government in exile in France. They maintained close contact with the remaining members of the party in Soviet Georgia, who continued the underground struggle. In August 1924, the party members took an active part in organizing an anti-Soviet uprising in Georgia, after the failure of which the repressions put an end to the activities of the Social Democratic Party in their homeland. Until the 1950s, the Georgian Social Democrats in exile tried to maintain ties with Georgia by sending their emissaries there.