Born in Samtredia, Georgia (then part of Imperial Russia), he was sent by the Georgian government to complete his studies in Berlin. Nikuradse remained in Berlin and became a German citizen after the 1921 Red Army invasion of Georgia. Being in staunch opposition to Soviet rule in Georgia, he was actively involved in Georgian émigré activities, and had close Nazi connections. Since their common days as Soviet exiles in Munich in the early 1920s, he had been on friendly terms with Alfred Rosenberg whose views on the Caucasus were largely shaped under Nikuradse's influence. He tried to lobby for an independent Georgia, and enlist German support for anti-Soviet Georgian political emigration. Influenced by Karl Haushofer's theory of "large spaces", he conceived an ambitious project of the German protectorate over the projected Caucasian confederation in which the Georgians were to play the leading role. During World War II, he used his prestige and influence to save many Georgians from Nazi repression.