Whakaotihia te rerenga e whai ake nei: I te tau 1948, i te rua tekau o ona tau, i uru a Shevardnadze ki te Rōpū Kaunihera o Georgia (GCP) me te Rōpū Kaunihera o te Soviet Union (CPSU). I piki haere ia i roto i nga rarangi o te Komsomol o Georgia, a, i muri i tana mahi hei Hekeretari Tuarua, ka riro ia hei Hekeretari Tuatahi. I a ia e noho ana hei Hekeretari Tuatahi o Komsomol, i tutaki a Shevardnadze ki a Mikhail Gorbachev mo te wa tuatahi. I kii a Shevardnadze kua ngoikore ia ki te punaha torangapu a Soviet whai muri i te "Korero huna" a Nikita Khrushchev ki te 20th CPSU Congress. Ka rite ki te nuinga o nga tangata o te Soviet, ko nga hara i mahia e Joseph Stalin i whakamataku a Shevardnadze, me te whakautu a te kawanatanga o Soviet ki te
Ko nga whakaaturanga o te tau 1956 o Georgia i tino ohorere ia. I whakahekehia ia i te tau 1961 e te Politburo o te Rōpū Communist o Georgia i muri i tana whakahe i tetahi rangatira rangatira.