100 years ago, in February 1919, the White Guards defeated the Georgian army. The newly formed Georgian state, created on the ruins of the Russian Empire, was actively expanding its territory at the expense of its neighbors and tried to seize Sochi and Tuapse. However, Denikin's army fought back the aggressors.
It is worth noting that the collapse of Great Russia (Russian Empire, USSR) caused similar phenomena in the North and South Caucasus. This is the flowering of the wildest nationalism, jihadism, banditry, conflicts between neighboring nations on religious, ethnic grounds, due to economic reasons and disputed territories. Hatred for yesterday's "elder brother" - the Russian, Soviet "occupier-colonialists" is also flourishing. The newly formed republics are trying with all their might to secede from Russia, the Russians, to forget about the common history and common successes, victories, and immediately begin to become dependent on external forces - Turkey, Germany, England, the United States.
Although it was the Russians who brought peace to the Caucasus, secured the Caucasian peoples from external aggression and the threat of genocide from such regional powers as Iran and Turkey. The Russians brought a higher level of civilization to the Caucasus, caused an accelerated growth of spiritual and material culture. Unfortunately, during the turmoil, all this is forgotten, only historical grievances, often false, exaggerated, are remembered. The leaders are making their way to the top who are pursuing an anti-Russian policy, thereby destroying the future of their peoples.
Background
The 1917 revolution led to the collapse of the Russian Empire. State formations were created on the territory of the South Caucasus (Transcaucasia). The Transcaucasian Commissariat, a coalition government created in Tiflis with the participation of Georgian Social Democrats (Mensheviks), Socialist-Revolutionaries, Armenian Dashnaks and Azerbaijani Musavatists, took over power in the territory of Transcaucasia in November 1917. That is, social democrats and nationalists prevailed among the political forces. The Transcaucasian Commissariat was hostile to Soviet Russia and the Bolshevik Party, fearing that they would restore the unity of Russia, which would lead to the collapse of local political forces.
The Russian Caucasian Front, which had been holding back the enemy for a long time, collapsed, and the bulk of Russian soldiers began to go home. Turkey, having waited for a favorable moment, as it seemed to the Turkish military-political leadership, launched an invasion in February 1918 with the aim of returning previously lost territories and occupying a significant part of the Caucasus. In February 1918, the Transcaucasian Seim was convened in Tiflis, at which a heated discussion about the future of Transcaucasia flared up. The Armenians offered to leave Transcaucasia as part of Russia on the rights of autonomy, divided into national regions, and in relations with Turkey - to advocate the self-determination of Western Armenia (it was occupied by the Ottomans for a long time). The Muslim (Azerbaijani) delegation advocated independence and peace with Turkey, in fact, Azerbaijani politicians for the most part had a pro-Turkish orientation. The Georgians supported the course of independence. Meanwhile, while the politicians were arguing, Turkish troops captured one city after another. They were resisted only by Armenian troops and Russian volunteers. And the armed Muslim detachments began to side with the Turks.
Berlin, worried about the agility of its Turkish ally and having its own plans for the future of Transcaucasia, put pressure on its partner. Istanbul, which had fallen into complete military-economic dependence on Germany during the war, yielded. In April 1918, the German and Ottoman Empires signed a secret agreement in Constantinople on the division of spheres of influence. Azerbaijan and the territories of Armenia (most of Armenia) and Georgia occupied by Turkish troops retreated to Turkey, the rest of the lands to Germany. In addition, Berlin was also interested in the Baku oil fields and planned to get to Baku via Georgia. The British from Anzali (Persia) also set their sights there.
The first German troops arrive in Georgia in May. In the same month, the Transcaucasian Seim collapsed - Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia declared their independence. Georgia was guided by Germany and pursued an openly anti-Russian, Russophobic policy. On June 4, an agreement was signed in Batumi, according to which Georgia renounced claims to Adjara with a predominantly Muslim population, as well as the cities of Ardagan, Artvin, Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki. The Georgian government tried to compensate for this loss by seizing territories from its neighbors, in particular Russia and Armenia. The Georgians blocked the border with Armenia, not allowing food to reach the starving "brotherly Christian" people. They quickly seized all the disputed lands and declared that under these conditions the Armenians would not be able to create a viable state, and they needed to strengthen Georgia by forming a single strong Christian state in the Caucasus, which, with the help of the Germans, would preserve its independence.
Azerbaijan with its capital in Ganja found itself under the Musavat (Equality) party with a strong pan-Turkist bias and became a protectorate of Turkey. A common Turkish-Azerbaijani Caucasian Islamic army was formed under the command of the Turkish commander Nuri Pasha. The Islamic army fought against the Armenians, launched an offensive against Baku, where the Bolsheviks and Armenian detachments (Dashnaks) settled. The Baku oil attracted the Turks like other players like the British. The Turks also planned to seize Dagestan and other regions of the North Caucasus. On September 15, 1918, Turkish-Azerbaijani troops occupied Baku, in October - Derbent.
The Armenians, who lost the most from the collapse of the Russian Empire and the Turkish intervention, found themselves in the circle of enemies. Georgia was hostile. Turkey and Azerbaijan are outright enemies who tried to completely destroy Armenia. Armenian partisan detachments stopped the Turks just a few kilometers from Erivan. In the course of this bitter confrontation, Armenia became a small mountainous area around the city of Erivan and Echmiadzin, including Novobayazet district and part of the Alexandropol district. At the same time, this small area was packed with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing from the massacre staged by the Turks and bandit formations. In addition, there was a separate Armenian region - Zangezur, under the leadership of General Andranik Ozanyan, who did not recognize peace with Turkey, cutting the territory of Armenia to 10-12 thousand km². His troops fought a fierce struggle against the Turks and local Muslims in the Zangezur and Karabakh regions. Only stubborn resistance and defeat of Turkey in the world war saved Armenia and the Armenian people from complete death and the threat of genocide. In November, the Armenians returned Karaklis, in early December - Alexandropol. And in the spring of 1919, the Armenians reached the old Russian-Turkish border in 1914.
Georgia celebrates the first anniversary of its independence. Jordania, Mdivani, Tsereteli, Kakhiani, Lordkipanidze, Takaishvili and foreign guests on the podium. May 1919
Expansion of Georgia
The first government of the Georgian Democratic Republic was headed by the Menshevik Noy Ramishvili. The government included Social Democrats (Mensheviks), Socialist Federalists and National Democrats. In the next government, headed by the Menshevik Noy Jordania, only the Social Democrats remained. At the same time, the government included people who were previously politicians of all-Russian importance, organizers of the Russian revolution, such as the Minister of the Provisional Government Irakli Tsereteli, the chairman of the Petrosoviet Nikolai Chkheidze.
The Georgian Mensheviks took a sharply anti-Soviet position and pursued an aggressive policy. Germany's support opened up an opportunity for Georgia to compensate for territorial losses on the border with Turkey at the expense of land on the Black Sea coast. In Georgia, detachments of the People's Guard of about 10 thousand people began to be formed under the command of Dzhugeli. Then the formation of the Georgian army was taken up by the lieutenant colonel of the Russian tsarist army Georgy Mazniev (Mazniashvili). Georgia began to round off its possessions at the expense of Ossetians, Lezgins, Adjarians, Muslims (they were then referred to as “Tatars” in the Caucasus), Armenians. As a result, national minorities made up more than half of the population of the newly formed state.
In April 1918, the Bolsheviks established control over Abkhazia. In May 1918, Georgian troops attacked the Reds and captured Sukhumi. Georgia established their control over Abkhazia. General Mazniev was appointed governor-general of Abkhazia, crushed the Bolshevik resistance. The Abkhaz National Council, in order to overthrow the power of the Georgians, decided to ask for help from Turkey. In response, the Georgian authorities dispersed the Abkhazian council. In the summer of 1918, Georgian troops launched an offensive in the Sochi direction. The Georgian leadership has chosen a convenient moment to strike. The Kuban-Black Sea Soviet Republic at that moment was under attack by Denikin's army (Second Kuban campaign) and was shackled by the struggle with the insurgent Kuban Cossacks. In addition, the local population, angered by the policies of the Bolsheviks, initially supported the Georgians. On July 3, 1918, Georgian troops under the command of Mazniev captured Gagra, Adler, on July 5 - entered Sochi. Then, after a series of battles, repelling attempts by the Reds to counterattack, the Georgians occupied Tuapse on July 27.
Thus, the entire Black Sea territory by September 1918 was occupied and declared “temporarily annexed to Georgia”. The Georgian authorities substantiated their claims by the fact that these lands were under the control of medieval "Great Georgia" (King David the Builder and Queen Tamara the Great). True, the "liberators" in the Sochi District behaved like robbers and marauders. State property was plundered, even the rails of the Tuapse road, hospital equipment were taken away, cattle were stolen, etc.
It should be noted that the toughest regime was established in the Georgian Republic against the Russians. In Armenia, Russians were treated well, Russian specialists, especially military ones, were valued. They were looking for connections with Soviet and White Russia, for the most part they understood that without Russia Armenia would perish. The Azerbaijani government, despite its clear pan-Turkism and orientation towards Turkey, was tolerant of the Russians. The young republic, poor in cultural, educated personnel, needed Russians for development. In Georgia, it was the opposite. Although power in the republic was seized by former famous Russian politicians, members of the State Duma, the most prominent organizers of the February Revolution, creators of the Provisional Government and the second center of power - the Petrosovet, Februaryist revolutionaries. However, the Russian Mensheviks Tsereteli, Chkheidze, Jordania turned out to be, in fact, inveterate nationalists. They sowed hatred for everything Russian. In this respect, they were allies of the Ukrainian social democrats and nationalists. Tens of thousands of people - the backbone of the Russian Transcaucasia, were deprived of civil rights and jobs. They were subjected to forced evictions, arrests. They were expelled from Georgia to the ports of the Black Sea or along the Georgian Military Highway.
Georgian General Georgy Ivanovich Mazniev (Mazniashvili)
Georgian cavalry in 1918
Change of patron
After the defeat of the Central Powers in the World War, Germany and Turkey withdrew their forces from the Caucasus. They were immediately replaced by the British. In November 1918, 5 thousand British detachment of General V. Thomson arrived in Baku. At the end of 1918, the British occupied other strategic points of the Caucasus: Tbilisi, Batumi, and controlled the Transcaucasian Railway. The size of the British army in the entire Transcaucasia reached 60 thousand people, in Georgia - about 25 thousand soldiers. The British immediately organized the export of oil and kerosene from Baku, manganese from Georgia.
The British policy was ambivalent, hypocritical. Divide and conquer. With one hand, London supported the Transcaucasian state formations, their desire for "independence", which from the very beginning was illusory. Since "dependence" on Russia immediately changed to German-Turkish, and then British. The dismemberment of Russian civilization, and the Caucasus is the Russian outskirts, its natural southern defensive line, for which the Russians paid a lot of blood and made great efforts to develop the region, is the strategic goal of England.
With the other hand, the British supported Denikin's army in the fight against the Bolsheviks, and with all their might they fomented a fratricidal war in Russia. At the same time, the white government adhered to the principle of "one and indivisible" Russia, that is, it refused to recognize the independence of Georgia and other Transcaucasian entities. Denikin proposed an alliance against the Bolsheviks, and after the war a general Constituent Assembly, which should resolve all issues, including territorial ones. In the meantime, Georgia has been promised autonomy in the future. This did not suit Tiflis. The Georgian government wanted independence, and the creation of "Great Georgia" at the expense of the Russian lands (Sochi), as well as Muslim Georgia (Adjara), which was taken away by the Turks. Now Turkey was defeated and in chaos, it was possible to feast at its expense.
Demonstration in support of the entry of the Georgian army into Sochi in 1918. Source:
