Sochi conflict

The Sochi conflict was a three-party armed conflict which involved the counterrevolutionary White Russian forces, Bolshevik Red Army and the Democratic Republic of Georgia, each of which sought control over the strategic Black Sea town of Sochi. The conflict was fought as a part of the Russian Civil War and lasted with varying success from June 1918 to May 1919, and ended through British mediation.

Georgian claims came from the fact that the area was politically dominated by the medieval Kingdom of Georgia at the height of its prestige and strength, and then came under the rule of a successor, the Kingdom of Imereti and, eventually, the Principality of Abkhazia. The area of increasing tourist interest, part of this region was detached by the Tsar's decree of December 25, 1904, from the Sukhumi district (Kutais Governorate) to become part of the Black Sea Governorate. The region was inhabited by a significant number of Armenians and Georgians.

According to Peter Kenez, "The collapse of the Turkish front, which resulted directly from the fall of the Provisional Government, meant a great danger to this area: Georgians and Armenians, traditional enemies of the Turks, remained defenseless. Politicians formed a federal government, the Transcaucasian Commissariat, with the participation of Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Russians in order to cope with the immediate problems of the area and to organize some sort of defense." After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, each member of the federation declared their own independence. Kenez states, "Whatever the Georgian Mensheviks felt about the Germans, the Republic desperately needed their help; they were the only force with the means to restrain the Turks. Indeed the German Command pressured the Turks into accepting a reasonable treaty with Georgia. German troops soon arrived and took possession of the most important roads and railways."

The Russian general Anton Denikin and his colleagues insisted, however, that the border between Georgia (though not yet recognized by either White or Soviet leadership) and the White-controlled Kuban People's Republic should be that between the former Russian governorates of Kutais and Black Sea, i.e. slightly in the north to the Bzyb River.

The conflict was preceded by a pro-Bolshevik revolt in Abkhazia. In March 1918, local Bolsheviks in Abkhazia under the leadership of Nestor Lakoba, a close associate of Joseph Stalin, capitalized on agrarian disturbances and, supported by the revolutionary peasant militias, kiaraz, won power in Sukhumi in April 1918. The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, which claimed the region as its part, sanctioned the suppression of the revolt and, on May 17, the National Guard of Georgia ousted the Bolshevik commune in Sukhumi.

Another revolt took place in June 1918 that made the local Abkhazian government, Abkhaz People's Council, which emerged after the February Revolution in Russia, to request aid from the Democratic Republic of Georgia and join it as an autonomous entity (June 8, 1918). A Georgian force under Major General Giorgi Mazniashvili was deployed in the region and joined by Abkhaz cavalry provided by local nobility. Mazniashvili repulsed a Bolshevik offensive from Sochi late in June.

The Georgians armed the Kuban Cossacks, and prevented a Red Army advance south along the Black Sea coast. By the middle of July the Georgians had occupied Tuapse. Mazniashvili was soon ordered to take control of the Tuapse-Maykop railway line, the Caspian oil pipeline, and Sochi. Denikin sent E.V. Maslovskii as Volunteer Army's representative. Kenez states, "The first month in the history of the relations between the Volunteer Army and Georgia was the best." The Volunteer Army helped stop a Bolshevik advance on Tuapse, after the Georgians retreated to Sochi.

On September 18, a Council for Sochi (a legislature formed by the local Mensheviks and SRs in August) declared the unification of the city and its district to the Democratic Republic of Georgia as a "temporary measure" against the threats from both Lenin and Denikin. The annexation by Georgia followed immediately and caused an acute protest from the leaders of the White forces.