The Georgian Affair of 1922 (Russian: Грузинское дело) was a political conflict within the Soviet leadership about the way in which social and political transformation was to be achieved in the Georgian SSR. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (საქართველოს საბჭოთასოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა The dispute over Georgia, which arose shortly after the forcible Sovietization of the country and peaked in the latter part of 1922, involved local Georgian Bolshevik leaders, led by Filipp Makharadze and Budu Mdivani, on one hand, and their de facto superiors from the Russian SFSR, particularly Joseph Stalin and Sergo Ordzhonikidze, on the other hand. The Red Army invasion of Georgia also known as the Soviet-Georgian War ( February 15 – March 17 1921) was a military campaign by the Soviet The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists ( Большевик Большевист (singular, derived from bolshe, "more" were a faction Filipp Makaradze ( Georgian: ფილიპე მახარაძე Russian: Филипп Махарадзе (1868–1941 was President of the Georgian Polikarp "Budu" Mdivani (პოლიკარპე მდივანი Поликарп Гургенович Мдивани Polikarp Gurgenovich Mdivani) (1877 Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party Grigoriy Konstantinovich Ordzhonikidze (გრიგოლ (სერგო ორჯონიკიძე - Grigol (Sergo Orjonikidze Russian: Григорий Константинович The content of this dispute was complex, involving the Georgians’ desire to preserve autonomy from Moscow and the differing interpretations of Bolshevik nationality policies, and especially those specific to Georgia. Moscow (Москва́ romanised: Moskvá, IPA: see also other names) is the Capital and the largest city of National delimitation (or nation-building in the Soviet Union refers to the process of creating well-defined nations from the ethnic diversity of the Soviet Union and the corresponding One of the main points at issue was Moscow’s decision to amalgamate Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan into Transcaucasian SFSR, a move that was staunchly opposed by the Georgian leaders who urged for their republic a full-member status within the Soviet Union. The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (Հայկական ՍովետականՍոցիալիստական Հանրապետություն Haykakan Sovetakan Sotsialistakan Hanrapetutyun This article is about the former Soviet republic for other similar uses see Azerbaijan (disambiguation. The Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (Հայաստանի Խորհրդային Սոցիալիստական Հանրապետություն Azerbaijani: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991
The affair was a critical episode in the power struggle surrounding the sick Vladimir Lenin whose support Georgians sought to obtain. The dispute ended with the victory of the Stalin-Ordzhonikidze line and resulted in the fall of the Georgian moderate Communist government. It also contributed to a final break between Lenin and Stalin, and inspired Lenin’s last major writings. Lenin's Testament is the name given to a document written by Vladimir Lenin in the last weeks of 1922 and the first week of 1923 [1]
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Background
The Soviet rule in Georgia was established by the Soviet Red Army during the February-March 1921 military campaign that was largely engineered by the two influential Georgia-born Soviet Russian officials, Joseph Stalin, then People's Commissar for Nationalities for the RSFSR, and Sergo Ordzhonikidze, head of the Transcaucasian Regional Committee (Zaikkraikom) of the Russian Communist Party. The Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya Council of Ministers of the USSR (Совет Министров СССР tr The South Caucasus is a mountainous geopolitical area of south-central Eurasia, also referred to as Transcaucasia, or The Transcaucasus. Disagreements among the Bolsheviks about the fate of Georgia preceded the Red Army invasion. While Stalin and Ordzhonikidze urged the immediate Sovietization of independent Georgia led by the Menshevik-dominated government, Trotsky favored "a certain preparatory period of work inside Georgia, in order to develop the uprising and later come to its aid. The Mensheviks (Minority (Меньшевик) were a faction of the Russian Revolutionary movement that emerged in 1903 after a dispute between Vladimir " Lenin was unsure about the outcome of the Georgian campaign, fearful of the international consequences and the possible crisis with Kemalist Turkey. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (19 May 1881 &ndash 10 November 1938 was an army officer revolutionary Statesman Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches Lenin finally gave his consent, on February 14, 1921, to the intervention in Georgia, but later repeatedly complained about the lack of precise and consistent information from the Caucasus. [2] Well aware of widespread opposition to the newly established Soviet rule, Lenin favored a reconciliatory policy with Georgian intelligentsia and peasants who remained hostile to the militarily imposed regime. However, many Communists found difficult to abandon the methods exploited against their opposition during the Russian Civil War and make adjustment to the more flexible policy. The Russian Civil War (1917–1923 was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed For moderates like Filipp Makharadze Lenin’s approach was a reasonable way to secure for Soviet power a broad base of support. Filipp Makaradze ( Georgian: ფილიპე მახარაძე Russian: Филипп Махарадзе (1868–1941 was President of the Georgian They advocated tolerance toward the Menshevik opposition, greater democracy within the party, gradual land reform, and above all, respect for national sensitivities and Georgia’s sovereignty from Moscow. Communists like Ordzhonikidze and Stalin pursued more hardliner policy; they sought to completely eliminate political opposition and centralize party control over the newly Sovietized republics. [3][2]
"National deviationism" vs. "Great Russian nationalism"
Conflict soon broke out between the moderate and hardliner Georgian Bolshevik leaders. The dispute was preceded by Stalin’s ban on formation of the national Red Army of Georgia, and subordination of all local workers’ organizations and trade unions to the Bolshevik party committees. A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages hours and working conditions forming Dissatisfied by the Soviet Georgian government’s moderate treatment of the political opposition and its desire to retain sovereignty from Moscow, Stalin arrived in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, in early July 1921. Tbilisi (ˌtbiˈliːsi in Georgian: თბილისი is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari After summoning a workers' assembly, Stalin delivered a speech outlining a program aimed at elimination of local nationalism, but was booed by the crowd and received hostile silence from his colleagues. [4] Within the days that followed, Stalin removed the Georgian Revolutionary committee chief Makharadze for inadequate firmness and replaced him with Budu Mdivani, ordering local leaders to "crush the hydra of nationalism. Revolutionary committees or revkoms (Революционный комитет ревком were Bolshevik -led organizations in Soviet Russia and in areas Polikarp "Budu" Mdivani (პოლიკარპე მდივანი Поликарп Гургенович Мдивани Polikarp Gurgenovich Mdivani) (1877 "[3] Makharadze’s supporters, including the Georgian Cheka chief Kote Tsintsadze and his lieutenants, were also sacked and replaced with more ruthless officers Kvantaliani, Atabekov, and Lavrentiy Beria. The Cheka ( ЧК - чрезвычайная комиссия Chrezvychaynaya Komissiya,) was the first of a succession of Soviet State security Kote Tsintsadze (კოტე ცინცაძე Котэ Цинцадзе (1887-1930 was a Georgian Bolshevik involved in the Russian revolutions and the Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria; Russian: Лаврентий Павлович
Within less than a year, however, Stalin was in open conflict with Mdivani, and his associates. One of the most important points at issue was the question of Georgia’s status in the projected union of Soviet republics. While Moscow’s envoys, led by Sergo Ordzhonikidze and strongly backed by Stalin, insisted that all three Transcaucasian republics – Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia – join the Soviet Union together as one federative republic, the Georgians wanted their country to retain an individual identity and enter the union as a full member rather than as part of a single Transcaucasian SFSR. The South Caucasus is a mountainous geopolitical area of south-central Eurasia, also referred to as Transcaucasia, or The Transcaucasus. The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (Հայկական ՍովետականՍոցիալիստական Հանրապետություն Haykakan Sovetakan Sotsialistakan Hanrapetutyun This article is about the former Soviet republic for other similar uses see Azerbaijan (disambiguation. The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (საქართველოს საბჭოთასოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 The Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (Հայաստանի Խորհրդային Սոցիալիստական Հանրապետություն Azerbaijani: Stalin and his henchmen accused the local Georgian Communists of selfish nationalism and labeled them as "national deviationists". On their part, the Georgians responded with charges of "Great Russian chauvinism". Lenin suddenly upheld Stalin’s position and expressed his strong support for the political and economic integration of the Transcaucasian republics, informing the Georgian leaders that he rejected their criticism of Moscow’s bullying tactics.
The conflict peaked in November 1922, when Ordzhonikidze resorted to physical violence with a member of the Mdivani group and struck him during a verbal confrontation. [5] The Georgian leaders complained to Lenin and presented a long list of abuses, including the notorious incident involving Ordzhonikidze.
Lenin’s involvement
Lenin was no longer able to overlook the bitterness of the conflict in Georgia and unleashed his criticism upon Ordzhonikidze. In late November 1922, he dispatched the VeCheka chief Dzerzhinsky to Tbilisi to investigate the matter. The Cheka ( ЧК - чрезвычайная комиссия Chrezvychaynaya Komissiya,) was the first of a succession of Soviet State security Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky ( Polish: Feliks Edmundowicz Dzierżyński, Russian: Феликс Эдмундович Дзержинский Belarusian Dzerzhinsky sympathized with Stalin and Ordzhonikidze and, hence, tried to give Lenin a significantly smoothened picture of their activities in his report. [3] However, Lenin's doubts about the conduct of Stalin and his allies around the Georgian question mounted. He was also afraid of negative outcry that might ensue abroad and in other Soviet republics. In late December 1922, Lenin accepted that both Ordzhonikidze and Stalin were guilty of the imposition of Great Russian nationalism upon non-Russian nationalities. [6] He now considered Stalin and his forceful centralizing policy increasingly dangerous and decided to dissociate himself at once from his protégé.
Nevertheless, Lenin’s misgivings over the Georgian problem were not fundamental, and as his health deteriorated, the Georgian leaders were left without any major ally, watching Georgia being pressed into the Transcaucasian federation that signed a treaty with the Russian SFSR, Ukraine and Belarus, joining them all in a new Soviet Union on December 30, 1922. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or the Ukrainian SSR was one of the 15 constituent republics that made up the Former Soviet Union from its The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (abbreviated as Byelorussian SSR or BSSR) (Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка [7]
The Politburo decision of 25 January 1923 concerning the removal of Mdivani and his associates from Georgia represented a conclusive victory for Ordzhonikidze and his backers. Politburo, short for Political Bureau, Russian Politicheskoye Buro, is the executive organization for a number of Political parties, most notably [1]
The end of the affair
On March 5, 1923, Lenin broke off personal relations with Stalin. He attempted to enlist Leon Trotsky to take over the Georgian problem, and began preparing three notes and a speech, where he would announce to the Party Congress that Stalin would be removed as Secretary General. Leon Trotsky ( Russian:, Lev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lyev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij [8] However, on March 9, 1923 Lenin suffered a third stroke, which would eventually lead to his death. Trotsky declined to confront Stalin on the issue probably due to his long-held prejudice against Georgia as a Menshevik stronghold,[6] At the 12th Party Congress in April 1923, the Georgian Communists found themselves isolated. With Lenin’s notes suppressed, every word uttered from the platform against Georgian or Ukrainian nationalism was greeted with stormy applause, while the mildest allusion to Great Russian chauvinism was received in stony silence. [9]
Thus, Lenin’s illness, Stalin’s increasing influence in the party and his assent toward full power, coupled with the sidelining of Leon Trotsky led to the marginalization of the decentralist forces within the Georgian Communist party. [10]
The affair held back the careers of the Georgian Old Bolsheviks, but Ordzhonikidze’s reputation also suffered and was soon recalled from the Caucasus. Old Bolshevik (ста́рый большеви́к is an unofficial designation for a member of the Bolshevik party before the Russian Revolution of 1917, most of [1] Mdivani and his associates were removed to minor posts, but they were not actively molested until the late 1920s. Most of them were later executed during the Great Purge of the 1930s. Great Purge (Большая чистка transliterated Bolshaya chistka) was a series of campaigns of Political repression and Persecution Another major consequence of the defeat of Georgian "national deviationists" was the intensification of political repressions in Georgia, leading to an armed rebellion in August 1924 and the ensuing Red Terror which took several thousands of lives. The August Uprising (აგვისტოს აჯანყება agvistos adjank’eba) was an unsuccessful Insurrection against the Soviet rule The Red Terror in Soviet Russia was the campaign of mass arrests and Executions conducted by the Bolshevik government
References
- ^ a b c Smith, Jeremy (May, 1998), The Georgian Affair of 1922. Policy Failure, Personality Clash or Power Struggle? Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. Europe-Asia Studies is an academic Peer-reviewed journal published 8 times a year by Routledge on behalf of the Institute of Central and East European Studies 50, No. 3, pp. 519-544.
- ^ a b Suny, Ronald Grigor (1994), The Making of the Georgian Nation: 2nd edition, pp. Ronald Grigor Suny is currently the Charles Tilly Collegiate Professor of Social and Political History at the University of Michigan, and Emeritus Professor of Political 210-212. Indiana University Press, ISBN 0-253-20915-3
- ^ a b c Knight, Ami W. Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is a Publishing house at Indiana University that engages in Academic publishing, specializing (1993), Beria: Stalin's First Lieutenant, p . 26-27. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, ISBN 0691010935
- ^ Lang, David Marshall (1962). The Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. See also Princeton Township New Jersey, Borough of Princeton New Jersey Princeton Borough New Jersey Princeton Township New Jersey this David Marshall Lang ( May 6, 1924 – March 20, 1991) was a Professor of Caucasian Studies School of Oriental and A Modern History of Georgia, p. 238. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom.
- ^ Kort, M (2001), The Soviet Colossus, p. 154. M. E. Sharpe, ISBN 0765603969
- ^ a b Thatcher, Ian D. (2003), Trotsky, p. 122. Routledge, ISBN 0415232503
- ^ Lieven, Dominic C. B. ; Perrie Maureen; Suny, Ronald Grigor (ed. , 2006), The Cambridge History of Russia, p. 175.
- ^ McNeal, Robert H. (1959), Lenins Attack on Stalin: Review and Reappraisal, American Slavic and East European Review, 18 (3): 295-314
- ^ Lang (1962), p. 243.
- ^ Cornell, Svante E. (2002), Autonomy and Conflict: Ethnoterritoriality and Separatism in the South Caucasus – Case in Georgia, pp. 141-144. Department of Peace and Conflict Research, University of Uppsala, ISBN 91-506-1600-5
- Jones, Stephen F. (October 1988). Stephen F Jones is an American expert on post- Communist societies in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe who currently serves as a Professor "The Establishment of Soviet Power in Transcaucasia: The Case of Georgia 1921-1928". Soviet Studies 40, No. Europe-Asia Studies is an academic Peer-reviewed journal published 8 times a year by Routledge on behalf of the Institute of Central and East European Studies 4 (4): 616–639.
- Ogden, Dennis George (1978), National Communism in Georgia: 1921-1923, The University of Michigan (doctoral dissertation)
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