In 1910, Jijikhia, already a captain, was transferred in Congress Poland to serve in the staff of the 6th Infantry Division and then of the 15th Army Corps in which he served during World War I. He took part in the Russian invasion of East Prussia (1914) and was captured by the Germans in the Battle of Tannenberg (1914). Once released, he joined the army of the newly established and initially German-friendly independent Georgian republic in 1918 and was promoted to major general in 1919. During the Soviet Russian offensive against the Georgian capital of Tiflis in 1921, he commanded an attack force of 5 People’s Guard battalions and a cavalry brigade which successfully defended the approaches to the capital, but the battle was ultimately lost and Georgia became a Soviet republic. Jijikhia became victim of the Stalinist purges in 1938.