Shevardnadze Heading Home to Political Arena : Georgia: Loyalty to his troubled state is drawing him back, he says. What post he will fill is not known.

Eduard A. Shevardnadze, the former Soviet foreign minister, heads home to the grapevines and explosive tempers of his native Georgia today for an attempted political comeback, which could end with the snowy-haired diplomat as Georgia’s new de facto leader.

At a Moscow news conference on Friday, Shevardnadze said that feelings of duty toward his homeland were drawing him back to Georgia to try to rebuild it after the political turmoil there gave way to virtual civil war this winter.

“It would be immoral to stand on the sidelines during such a tough period,” he said. “The main thing is a feeling of responsibility, of responsibility to my people.”

Shevardnadze, 64, said he does not know exactly what post he would occupy in the Georgian government, although he likely would run for the legislature in elections expected this summer. But Georgian journalists said the current government, which took power in January after effectively ousting Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the elected president, would almost certainly make Shevardnadze head of the National Salvation Committee now being formed.

Known as one of the architects of perestroika and for the charm with which he won over his Western counterparts during more than five years as Soviet foreign minister, Shevardnadze and his ally, former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, effectively ended the Cold War with their “new thinking” foreign policy.

Less well-known is Shevardnadze’s 13-year tenure as Communist Party chief of Georgia beginning in the early 1970s, as well as a spell as its police chief. According to many Georgians, he resorted during that period to typical practices of the Soviet era, repressing dissidents--including Gamsakhurdia--and maintaining a strict regime.

Lingering memories of the old Shevardnadze era make his reception among his countrymen far from certain. “He is viewed there as a political figure,” said Nodar Akhaladze, spokesman of the Georgian mission in Moscow. “But the attitudes toward him have always been varied in Georgia. People feel all different ways about him. But no one doubts he is a prominent political figure.”

Asked about his past role there, Shevardnadze said blandly that he would simply have to dispose of bad old habits and keep what was good of the past.

His main task now, he said, is to help Georgia out of an all-encompassing economic crisis that includes drastic shortages of food, gas, oil and raw materials as well as a frightening rise in crime. “In such conditions it’s hard to talk about building a new country,” he said. “Now, we’re talking about saving a country.”

He did not rule out running for president but said there was some doubt about whether Georgia wanted to retain the post at all after Gamsakhurdia used it to institute what Shevardnadze called a “totalitarian” regime.

Asked whether he would push for Commonwealth of Independent States membership for Georgia, the only one of the former 15 Soviet republics aside from the three Baltic states that did not join, Shevardnadze hedged, saying that “This question is not being examined.”

He prefers to focus on substantive two-sided agreements with other Commonwealth states, he said, adding a hint that Georgians, as a people, may not be particularly eager to join another Moscow-dominated organization.

Shevardnadze said he had Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin’s backing and promises of cooperation, and he hinted that he could also deliver large-scale Western aid as soon as he convinced his friends in high places abroad that democracy was indeed taking root in Georgia. “I will help Georgia join the world process,” Shevardnadze said.

When he arrives in Georgia, he said, his first task will be to visit the head of the Georgian Orthodox Church and the graves of the Georgian protesters who died in a clash with Soviet troops in April, 1989.