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August Uprising
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August Uprising
The August Uprising (Georgian: აგვისტოს აჯანყება, romanized: agvist'os ajanq'eba) was an unsuccessful insurrection against Soviet rule in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic from late August to early September 1924.
Aimed at restoring the independence of Georgia from the Soviet Union, the uprising was led by the Committee for Independence of Georgia, a bloc of anti-Soviet political organisations chaired by the Georgian Social Democratic (Menshevik) Party. It represented the culmination of a three-year struggle against the Bolshevik regime that Soviet Russia's Red Army had established in Georgia during a military campaign against the Democratic Republic of Georgia in early 1924.
Red Army and Cheka troops, under orders of the Georgian Bolsheviks Joseph Stalin and Sergo Ordzhonikidze, suppressed the insurrection and instigated a wave of mass repressions that killed several thousand Georgians. The August uprising was one of the last major rebellions against the early Soviet government, and its defeat marked a definitive establishment of Soviet rule in Georgia.
The Red Army proclaimed Georgia a Soviet Socialist Republic on 25 February 1921, when they took control of Tiflis (Tbilisi), the capital of Georgia, and forced the Menshevik government into exile.
Loyalty of the Georgian population to the new regime did not come easily. Within the first three years of their rule, the Bolsheviks managed to recruit fewer than 10,000 people into their party, while the Georgian Social Democratic (Menshevik) Party still enjoyed significant popularity in Georgia, counting over 60,000 members in their organizations. The 1918–1921 independence, though short-lived, had played a crucial role in the national awakening of Georgia, winning a popular support to the ruling Georgian Social Democratic (Menshevik) Party. The forcible Sovietization and grievances over the ensuing border rearrangements in which Georgia lost sizeable portion of its pre-Soviet territories to Turkey (see Treaty of Kars), Azerbaijan SSR, Armenian SSR, and Russia, fueled a widespread opposition to the new regime. The new Bolshevik government, led by the Georgian Revkom (Revolutionary Committee), enjoyed so little support among the population that it faced the distinct prospect of insurrection and civil war. The Bolsheviks had limited ties with the Georgian peasantry, which was overwhelmingly opposed to collectivization and dissatisfied over land shortages and other economic troubles. The situation in the country was further aggravated by a famine prevailing in many areas and the summer 1921 outbreak of cholera, which carried off thousands of victims. The desperate shortage of food and the breakdown of medical services resulted in heavy mortality, Catholicos Patriarch Leonid being among the dead. The highly politicized working class of Georgia, with its severe economic problems, was also hostile toward the new regime as were the national intelligentsia and nobility who had pledged their loyalty to the Democratic Republic of Georgia. A delayed transition from the Revkom's rule to the Soviets' system, subordination of workers' organizations and trades unions to the Bolshevik party committees and Moscow's centralizing policy created a discontent even among the multiethnic workers of Tiflis who were the most sympathetic towards Communist doctrines.
Public discontent within Georgian society indirectly reflected a bitter struggle among Bolsheviks about the way to achieve social and political transformation in Georgia. Hardliners led by Sergo Ordzhonikidze, head of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee (Zakkraikom) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and Joseph Stalin, People's Commissar for Nationalities for the RSFSR and himself a Georgian, launched a series of measures aimed at the elimination of the last remnants of Georgia's self-rule. They were opposed by a group of Georgian Bolsheviks, described by their opponents as "national deviationists" and led by Filipp Makharadze and Budu Mdivani, who advocated tolerance toward the Menshevik opposition, greater democracy within the party, a moderate approach toward land reform, and, above all, called for greater autonomy from Moscow and stubbornly opposed Stalin's project of uniting all the three Transcaucasian republics economically and politically. The crisis known as the "Georgian Affair" lasted throughout 1922 and ended with the hardliners' victory. As a result, Georgia merged with the Armenian and Azerbaijan republics into the Transcaucasian SFSR—a heavy blow to Georgian national pride.
With the defeat of national deviationists, the Bolsheviks became more assertive, and suppressed all kinds of opposition. Between April 1922 and October 1923, parties that still retained legal status were forced to announce their dissolution and declare official loyalty to the Soviet authorities. Those who continued to operate did so as underground organizations. The Soviets also persecuted the Georgian Orthodox Church, closing or demolishing over 1,500 churches and monasteries. They imprisoned a number of clerics, including Catholicos Patriarch Ambrose who was arrested and tried for having sent a letter of protest to the 1922 Genoa Conference, in which he described the conditions under which Georgia was living since the Red Army invasion and begged for the "help of the civilized world".
In the course of the Red Army invasion, part of the defeated Georgian forces withdrew into the mountains and organized themselves into a number of small partisan groups. From 1921 to 1922, guerrilla warfare broke out in several regions of Georgia. In May 1921, the highlanders of Svaneti, northwestern Georgia, led by Mosestro Dadeshkeliani, Nestor Gardapkhadze and Bidzina Pirveli, rose in rebellion. After a resistance of six months, the revolt was put down and its leaders were purged. In early 1922, the rebellion against the Soviet rule broke out in Khevsureti, another mountainous district, but in northeast Georgia. Soviet troops using aviation managed to stop this rebellion from spreading, but could not crush it completely. Colonel Kakutsa Cholokashvili, who had led the revolt, managed to escape to the neighboring Chechnya, whence he made several inroads into Georgia, preventing the Bolsheviks from gaining a foothold in the eastern Georgian mountains. The local militsiya chief Levan Razikashvili was arrested and later shot for having sympathized with the rebellion.
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August Uprising
The August Uprising (Georgian: აგვისტოს აჯანყება, romanized: agvist'os ajanq'eba) was an unsuccessful insurrection against Soviet rule in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic from late August to early September 1924.
Aimed at restoring the independence of Georgia from the Soviet Union, the uprising was led by the Committee for Independence of Georgia, a bloc of anti-Soviet political organisations chaired by the Georgian Social Democratic (Menshevik) Party. It represented the culmination of a three-year struggle against the Bolshevik regime that Soviet Russia's Red Army had established in Georgia during a military campaign against the Democratic Republic of Georgia in early 1924.
Red Army and Cheka troops, under orders of the Georgian Bolsheviks Joseph Stalin and Sergo Ordzhonikidze, suppressed the insurrection and instigated a wave of mass repressions that killed several thousand Georgians. The August uprising was one of the last major rebellions against the early Soviet government, and its defeat marked a definitive establishment of Soviet rule in Georgia.
The Red Army proclaimed Georgia a Soviet Socialist Republic on 25 February 1921, when they took control of Tiflis (Tbilisi), the capital of Georgia, and forced the Menshevik government into exile.
Loyalty of the Georgian population to the new regime did not come easily. Within the first three years of their rule, the Bolsheviks managed to recruit fewer than 10,000 people into their party, while the Georgian Social Democratic (Menshevik) Party still enjoyed significant popularity in Georgia, counting over 60,000 members in their organizations. The 1918–1921 independence, though short-lived, had played a crucial role in the national awakening of Georgia, winning a popular support to the ruling Georgian Social Democratic (Menshevik) Party. The forcible Sovietization and grievances over the ensuing border rearrangements in which Georgia lost sizeable portion of its pre-Soviet territories to Turkey (see Treaty of Kars), Azerbaijan SSR, Armenian SSR, and Russia, fueled a widespread opposition to the new regime. The new Bolshevik government, led by the Georgian Revkom (Revolutionary Committee), enjoyed so little support among the population that it faced the distinct prospect of insurrection and civil war. The Bolsheviks had limited ties with the Georgian peasantry, which was overwhelmingly opposed to collectivization and dissatisfied over land shortages and other economic troubles. The situation in the country was further aggravated by a famine prevailing in many areas and the summer 1921 outbreak of cholera, which carried off thousands of victims. The desperate shortage of food and the breakdown of medical services resulted in heavy mortality, Catholicos Patriarch Leonid being among the dead. The highly politicized working class of Georgia, with its severe economic problems, was also hostile toward the new regime as were the national intelligentsia and nobility who had pledged their loyalty to the Democratic Republic of Georgia. A delayed transition from the Revkom's rule to the Soviets' system, subordination of workers' organizations and trades unions to the Bolshevik party committees and Moscow's centralizing policy created a discontent even among the multiethnic workers of Tiflis who were the most sympathetic towards Communist doctrines.
Public discontent within Georgian society indirectly reflected a bitter struggle among Bolsheviks about the way to achieve social and political transformation in Georgia. Hardliners led by Sergo Ordzhonikidze, head of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee (Zakkraikom) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and Joseph Stalin, People's Commissar for Nationalities for the RSFSR and himself a Georgian, launched a series of measures aimed at the elimination of the last remnants of Georgia's self-rule. They were opposed by a group of Georgian Bolsheviks, described by their opponents as "national deviationists" and led by Filipp Makharadze and Budu Mdivani, who advocated tolerance toward the Menshevik opposition, greater democracy within the party, a moderate approach toward land reform, and, above all, called for greater autonomy from Moscow and stubbornly opposed Stalin's project of uniting all the three Transcaucasian republics economically and politically. The crisis known as the "Georgian Affair" lasted throughout 1922 and ended with the hardliners' victory. As a result, Georgia merged with the Armenian and Azerbaijan republics into the Transcaucasian SFSR—a heavy blow to Georgian national pride.
With the defeat of national deviationists, the Bolsheviks became more assertive, and suppressed all kinds of opposition. Between April 1922 and October 1923, parties that still retained legal status were forced to announce their dissolution and declare official loyalty to the Soviet authorities. Those who continued to operate did so as underground organizations. The Soviets also persecuted the Georgian Orthodox Church, closing or demolishing over 1,500 churches and monasteries. They imprisoned a number of clerics, including Catholicos Patriarch Ambrose who was arrested and tried for having sent a letter of protest to the 1922 Genoa Conference, in which he described the conditions under which Georgia was living since the Red Army invasion and begged for the "help of the civilized world".
In the course of the Red Army invasion, part of the defeated Georgian forces withdrew into the mountains and organized themselves into a number of small partisan groups. From 1921 to 1922, guerrilla warfare broke out in several regions of Georgia. In May 1921, the highlanders of Svaneti, northwestern Georgia, led by Mosestro Dadeshkeliani, Nestor Gardapkhadze and Bidzina Pirveli, rose in rebellion. After a resistance of six months, the revolt was put down and its leaders were purged. In early 1922, the rebellion against the Soviet rule broke out in Khevsureti, another mountainous district, but in northeast Georgia. Soviet troops using aviation managed to stop this rebellion from spreading, but could not crush it completely. Colonel Kakutsa Cholokashvili, who had led the revolt, managed to escape to the neighboring Chechnya, whence he made several inroads into Georgia, preventing the Bolsheviks from gaining a foothold in the eastern Georgian mountains. The local militsiya chief Levan Razikashvili was arrested and later shot for having sympathized with the rebellion.
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