The rival noble clans, especially Tsulukidze and Tsereteli, attempted to counter the move by invoking a force of Ottoman and Dagestan mercenaries, only to be routed by the royal army in 1786.
The Menshevik and SR majority, including Dan, Tsereteli, Abramovich, Liber, Gots, Avksentiev, Zenzinov and so on, were 'Revolutionary Defencists'; they had been Zimmerwaldists and opponents of the war until February 1917 but now favoured limited defensive war.
3.000 Russians, including the descendants of Russian immigrants and refugees after the October Revolution and the members of royal families were buried at the cemetery such as Galitzine, Naryshkin, Obolensky, Volkonsky, Tsereteli and Gagarin family.
The writer Boris Akunin and philosopher Tengiz Tsereteli were born in Zestafoni.