Transcaucasian Commissariat
During the Russian Revolution of 1905, Tevzaia headed a Social-Democratic organization in the Black Sea port town of Poti, where he organized a strike of railway workers. He then lived in Western Europe and obtained the post of "Privatdozent" on the law faculty of the University of Geneva. He again became involved in the Caucasian politics after the 1917 February Revolution ousted the Russian monarchy during World War I. In December 1917, he was part of the delegation of the Transcaucasian Commissariat that signed a truce with the Ottoman Empire in Erzincan.