Both Stalin and Iremashvili grew up in Gori, Georgia (then part of the Tiflis Governorate, Imperial Russia), where they attended a local church school. Later, they studied together at Tiflis Theological Seminary. A member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, Iremashvili was involved in the revolutionary activities in Transcaucasia and joined the Menshevik faction which quickly became a dominant political force in Georgia. After 1917, he worked as a teacher at Tiflis and was elected to the Constituent Assembly of Georgia in 1919. In February 1921, the Soviet Russian Red Army invaded Georgia and put an end to its three-year independence. Iremashvili, like several other Georgian Mensheviks, was placed in the Metekhi prison, but was then released through the efforts of his sister who negotiated with Stalin during his visit to Tiflis in July 1921. In October 1921, sixty-two arrested Mensheviks, including Iremashvili, were deported to Germany where he was granted a political asylum. Having settled in Berlin, he engaged in Georgian émigré activities aimed at enlisting Europe’s support to the Georgian independence cause.