Shevardnadze, Eduard Amvrosiyevich, shehv ahrd NAHD zeh, ay doo AHRT ahm VROH see uh vihch (1928-...), was president of the country of Georgia from 1995 to 2003. He served as minister of foreign affairs for the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1990. Along with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Shevardnadze was one of the architects of Perestroika, the reform program that helped lead to the end of the Soviet Union. He then helped establish Georgia as an independent country after centuries of Russian and Soviet rule.