Of a noble family, Gabashvili served as an officer in the Imperial Russian army and took part in the 1877-78 war with the Ottoman Empire. He then fought in World War I and was promoted to lieutenant general in 1916. He served as a military commandant of Tiflis from 1916 until 1917 when he was appointed commander of the newly created Georgian Army Corps which provided a basis for a future national Georgian army. He retained a top military post during Georgia's short-lived independence (1918-1921), but retired after the Soviet takeover in 1921.