The Red Army invasion of Georgia (15 February – 17 March 1921), also known as the Soviet–Georgian War or the Soviet invasion of Georgia, was a military campaign by the Russian Red Army aimed at overthrowing the Social-Democratic (Menshevik) government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG) and installing a Bolshevikregime in the country. The battle ended on 19 March with the port and most of the city in Georgian hands. The war ran from 7-12 August 2008 and ended after Russian President, Dmitri Mendelev, announced the cessation of his “peace enforcement” campaign in Georgia. (Credit: Cliff Volpe/Getty Images), Beyond diplomatic efforts and humanitarian aid, the international community did little to stop the conflict. The conflict pitted 70,000 Russian troops against Georgia’s army of about 10,000 soldiers and another 10,000 reservists. [17], Despite Moscow's military successes, the situation on the Caucasus front had become precarious. In early August 2008, after Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili sent troops into the rebellious province of South Ossetia, Russia came … Even the National Bank of Georgia had to suspend all electronic services from August 8–19. The independence of Georgia had been recognized by Russia in the Treaty of Moscow, signed on 7 May 1920, and the subsequent invasion of the country was not universally agreed upon in Moscow. The army was gradually disintegrating as it continued its retreat westward, offering sometimes fierce but largely unorganized resistance to the advancing Red Army troops. [31] Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks had already set up a Georgian Revolutionary Committee (Georgian Revkom) in Shulaveri, a body that would soon acquire the functions of a rival government. Needless to say, the “war” did not last long—it was over by August 12. The conflict was a result of expansionist policy by the Russians, who aimed to control as much as possible of the lands which had been part of the former Russian Empire[7][8] until the turbulent events of the First World War, as well as the revolutionary efforts of mostly Russian-based Georgian Bolsheviks, who did not have sufficient support in their native country to seize power without external intervention.[9][10]. Georgian border forces under General Stephen Akhmeteli were overwhelmed on the Khrami river. [18], Under strong public pressure, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR set up, on 2 June 1989, a special commission for investigation of legal aspects of the 1921 events. With Georgia on the verge of joining NATO, but not yet subject to the organization’s collective defense agreement, Russia saw an opportunity to rein in its neighbor and demonstrate its military strength in the region. An analysis of Russian and international law, as well as the review of how the “peace enforcement operation” was conducted by Russia in Georgia in August 2008, leads one to conclude that no international or domestic legal act can justify the Russian military invasion of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Georgia, or the recognition of the self-proclaimed independence of Georgian separatist regions by the Russian Federation. (CreditL Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images). 1921 - After the Red Army invasion, Georgia and Abkhazia are declared Soviet Socialist republics. From 18 to 20 February, the strategic heights of Kojori and Tabakhmela passed from hand to hand in heavy fighting. Sporadic fighting continued for several months as the Soviets secured the major cities and towns of eastern Georgia. “Georgia was clearly embarked on a process of trying to break out of Russia’s sphere of influence,” Galeotti says. We give warning that we are having to go without bread for want of transport and that we shall therefore not let you have a single locomotive or railway track. While the armoured trains laid down suppressing fire, tanks and infantry penetrated the Georgian positions on the Kojori heights. [6], Despite the Georgian government's emigration and the demobilization of the National Army, pockets of guerrilla resistance still remained in the mountains and some rural areas. Though Russia formally recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states after the war, few other countries have joined them in doing so. The ultimate decision was made at the 14 February meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party: The Central Committee is inclined to allow the 11th Army to give active support to the uprising in Georgia and to occupy Tiflis provided that international norms are observed, and on condition that all members of the Military Revolutionary Council of the Eleventh Army, after a thorough review of all information, guarantee success. [33] This pamphlet by Trotsky is perhaps the best known book justifying the invasion. Shortly after the Bolshevik revolt, the Armenian-based Red Army units quickly came to the aid of the insurrection, though without Moscow's formal approval. The Red Army intervention, according to the official Soviet version, was in response to a plea for help that followed an armed rebellion by Georgia's peasants and workers. Moscow’s Synchronized Themes and Techniques. Georgian forces managed to contain the disorders in some areas, but the preparations for a Soviet intervention were already being set in train. After Russia called a halt to its advance into Georgia, a cease-fire on August 12 ended the Russia-Georgia War. Georgian forces under General Giorgi Mazniashvili managed to push the Soviets back inflicting heavy losses; they quickly regrouped and tightened the circle around Tbilisi. Defense of Nationals Abroad: The Legitimacy of Russia's Invasion of Georgia What Is HeinOnline? For its part, Georgia was moving further West, even joining the U.S.-led coalition fighting in the Iraq War in 2003. [21] Georgian independence was seen as a propaganda victory for exiled Russian Mensheviks in Europe; the Bolsheviks couldn't long tolerate a viable Menshevik state on their own doorstep.[7][22]. On 25 February, the triumphant Red Army entered Tbilisi. Perhaps the most lasting consequence of the Russia-Georgia War can be seen in what happened six years later, in Ukraine. © 2021 A&E Television Networks, LLC. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Moscow's aggressive reaction to its long-simmering tensions with the former Soviet republic signaled a newly assertive Russia. In the North Caucasus, Dagestani rebels continued to fight the Soviets. The result was a brutal war in 1990-92, which ended with an uneasy truce and a force of Georgians, Russians and South Ossetians keeping peace in the region. So…to a large extent, Georgia was left on its own.”. After Georgia arrested four Russian military officers for suspected espionage, Russia responded by closing Georgian businesses and deporting Georgian citizens. Pursuant to his national policy on the right of nations to self-determination, Lenin had initially rejected use of force, calling for extreme caution in order to ensure that Russian support would help but not dominate the Georgian revolution;[25] however, as victory in the Civil War drew ever closer, Moscow's actions became less restrained. Paul Roderick Gregory Contributor. When the Turkish authorities proclaimed the annexation of Batumi on 16 March the Georgian government was forced to make a choice. In early Soviet history writing, the Georgian episode was considered as a "revolutionary war" and is described in just this term in the first edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. The Question of Nationalities or "Autonomisation, Из истории взаимоотнашений Грузинской Демократическои республики с советской Россией и Антантой. On 8 March, the Georgian Revkom reluctantly proposed a coalition government, which the Mensheviks refused.[6]. Facing a difficult war with Poland, Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin ordered a start to negotiations with Georgia. Soviet military intervention was not universally agreed upon in Moscow, and there was considerable disagreement among the Bolshevik leaders on how to deal with their southern neighbor. On the same day, in Moscow, Lenin received the congratulations of his commissars – "The red banner blows over Tbilisi. This brought the Turkish army within a short distance of still Georgian-held Batumi, creating the circumstances for a possible armed clash as the Red Army's 18th Cavalry Division under Dmitry Zhloba approached the city. The cessation of Red Army operations against Poland, the defeat of the White Russian leader Wrangel, and the fall of the First Republic of Armenia provided a favorable situation to suppress the last independent nation in the Caucasus to resist Soviet control. (History of the Relations of the Democratic Republic of Georgia with Soviet Russia and the Entente of 1918-21), Soviet Georgia Demands Talks for Independence, Saakashvili Address on Russia’s Abkhazia, S. Ossetia Recognition, Georgia’s Statehood Under Danger, Resist Enemy Everywhere – Government Tells the Nation, Global Labor Notes / Russia invades – and the labour movement is silent, "Georgia: 25 February Declared 'Soviet Occupation Day, "25 February Declared Day of Soviet Occupation", La guerre soviéto-géorgienne et la soviétisation de la Géorgie (février-mars 1921), "Caucasian Boundaries. Despite relatively wide public support and some successful reforms, the Social Democratic leadership of Georgia failed to create a stable economy or build a strong, disciplined army capable of opposing an invasion. The People's Commissar of War, Leon Trotsky, strongly disagreed with what he described as a "premature intervention", explaining that the population should be able to carry out the revolution. Soviet historians considered the Red Army invasion of Georgia a part of the larger conflict which they referred to as "the Civil War and Foreign Intervention". In a secret supplement, Georgia promised to legalize the local Bolshevik party. The People's Commissar of Nationalities Affairs, Joseph Stalin, who by the end of the Civil War had gained a remarkable amount of bureaucratic power, took a particularly hard line with his native Georgia. The Georgian government and the Constituent Assembly evacuated to Kutaisi in western Georgia, which dealt the Georgian army a significant morale blow. Later, the term "revolutionary war" went out of fashion among Soviet writers, partly because it was not easy to distinguish from "aggression", in … [11] In April 1918 it joined with Armenia and Azerbaijan to form the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic, but left after one month and declared independence as the Democratic Republic of Georgia on May 26, followed the next day by both Armenia and Azerbaijan. For further details on the involvement of the Red Army armored trains in the Tiflis Operation, see Дроговоз И. Г. We require an immediate answer by direct line signed by all members of the Military Revolutionary Council of the Eleventh Army. The invasion of Georgia brought about serious controversies among the Bolsheviks themselves. Thirty-five percent of Georgia’s Internet networks suffered decreased functionality during the attacks, with the highest levels of online activity coinciding with the Russian invasion of South Ossetia on August 8, 9, and 10. Its failure and the ensuing wave of large-scale repressions orchestrated by the emerging Soviet security officer, Lavrentiy Beria, heavily demoralized the Georgian society and exterminated its most active pro-independence part. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. In response to the Russian invasion of Georgia, France, supported by the United States and its European allies, helped broker a ceasefire agreement. The decision, endorsed unanimously by the Parliament of Georgia instructs the government to organize various memorial events every February 25 and to fly the national flag half-mast to commemorate, as the decision puts it, the hundreds of thousands of victims of political repressions of the Communist occupational regime. Lenin also favored a policy of conciliation in Georgia, where a pro-Bolshevik revolt did not enjoy the popular backing claimed for it,[40] and the population was solidly anti-Bolshevik. The 2008 Georgian War was Russia’s first successful military action outside of its borders since the collapse of the Soviet Union. By Fred Kaplan. On 10 March Soviet forces entered Kutaisi, which had been abandoned, the Georgian leadership, army and People's Guard having evacuated to the key Black Sea port city of Batumi in southwest Georgia. After a bloody clash at Surami on 5 March 1921, the 11th Red Army also crossed the Likhi Range into the western part of the country. The operational centre of the Soviet military-political forces in the Caucasus was the Kavburo (or Caucasian Office) attached to the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party. [31] On 28 February, the French opened fire on the 31st Rifle Division of the 9th Red Army under V. Chernishev, but did not land troops. The Mensheviks entertained hopes of aid from a French naval squadron cruising in the Black Sea off the Georgian coast. Instability in Georgia is mounting. In exchange for Artvin, Ardahan, and Kars, Turkey abandoned its claims to Batumi, whose largely Muslim Georgian population was to be granted autonomy within the Georgian SSR. The conflict resulted in hundreds of casualties, displaced thousands of civilians from their homes, and marked the start of a devastating occupation of 20 percent of Georgia’s territory. A ceasefire in 1994 ended the worst fighting, but tensions continued to simmer in the two breakaway provinces, which remained technically part of Georgia. [30] When the Georgian government protested to the Soviet envoy in Tbilisi, Aron Sheinman, over the incidents, he denied any involvement and declared that the disturbances must be a spontaneous revolt by the Armenian communists. In Georgia, an intellectual resistance to the Bolshevik regime and occasional outbreaks of guerrilla warfare evolved into a major rebellion in August 1924. U.S. Embassy Statement on the Ten-Year Anniversary of the Russian Invasion of Georgia (August 7) Ten years ago today, Russia invaded the sovereign nation of Georgia. The Mensheviks, under fire from both sides, had to accede, and the Turkish force advanced into Georgia, occupying the frontier areas. The conflict was a result of expansionist policy by the Russians, who aimed to control as much as possible of the lands w… Bolshevik soldiers engaged in widespread looting. “No one was willing to go to war for Georgia,” Galeotti points out. I'm old enough to remember when the Russians(Soviets)invaded Czechoslovakia. The Russo-Georgian War, the August War, or for some simply the “five-day war,” was an important departure point in U.S.-Russian relations, and in European security. “In hindsight, one wonders, would Crimea and the Donbass wars have happened if the West had been more robust in its response to Georgia?”. [23] By that time, the British expeditionary corps had completely evacuated the Caucasus, and the West was reluctant to intervene in support of Georgia. Civil war erupted within Georgia, located to the south of Russia on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, when two provinces—South Ossetia in eastern Georgia, and Abkhazia, on the northwestern coast—sought to declare their own independence. Retreating westward, the Georgian commander General Tsulukidze blew up railway bridges and demolished roads in an effort to delay the enemy's advance. By 23 February, the railway bridges had been restored, and Soviet tanks and armoured trains joined in a renewed assault on the capital. [31] From that time, no major overt attempt was made to challenge Soviet authority in the country until a new generation of anti-Soviet movements emerged in 1956. (Drogovoz, IG) (2002). "[17] The Soviet leadership successfully exploited this situation and sent in its army to occupy Baku, the capital of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. It appears that these actions were condu… The first Soviet historian, who attempted, in 1988, to revise the hitherto commonly accepted interpretation of the Soviet-Georgian war, was a notable Georgian scholar, Akaki Surguladze, ironically the same historian whose 1982 monograph described the alleged Georgian worker revolt as a truly historical event. Sensing NATO expansion eastward, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin takes control of an ethnic enclave in neighboring Georgia. Long live Soviet Georgia!". The invasion came on the heels of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s now famous imperialist revival speech at the 2007 Munich Security Conference, where he launched into a long tirade against the West, enumerating Russia’s … Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili declared a ‘state of war’ as his troops battled it out with Russian forces over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. The Red Army invasion of Georgia (15 February – 17 March 1921), also known as the Soviet–Georgian War[5] or the Soviet invasion of Georgia,[6] was a military campaign by the Russian Red Army aimed at overthrowing the Social-Democratic (Menshevik) government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG) and installing a Bolshevik regime in the country. In Kutaisi, Georgian Defense Minister Grigol Lordkipanidze and the Soviet plenipotentiary Avel Enukidze arranged an armistice on 17 March, and then, on 18 March, an agreement which allowed the Red Army to advance in force to Batumi. The United States began training 5,000 Georgian troops a few months later. On the night of 11–12 February 1921, at Ordzhonikidze's instigation, Bolsheviks attacked local Georgian military posts in the predominantly ethnic Armenian district of Lori and the nearby village of Shulaveri, near the Armenian and Azerbaijani borders. Georgian commanders planned to concentrate their forces at the town of Mtskheta, northwest of Tbilisi, and continue fighting on new lines of defense; the fall of the capital, however, had heavily demoralized the Georgian troops, and Mtskheta was abandoned. A Georgian woman holds her head as she walks past a bombed building on August 23, 2008 in Gori, Georgia. Home to different ethnic groups, the Ossetians and the Abkhazians, they had been autonomous earlier in the 20th century, after the Russian Revolution, and they wanted their autonomy back. (Soviet-Georgian war of 1921)", "ЮРИЙ ТРИФОНОВ:ВЕЛИКАЯ СИЛА НЕДОСКАЗАННОГО", "Glossary of Events: Georgian Affair-1921", Between Red and White: a study of some fundamental questions of revolution, with particular reference to Georgia (Social democracy and the wars of intervention), Georgia: A Social-Democratic Peasant Republic – Impressions And Observations, "Тифлисская операция 1921 (Tiflis Operation of 1921)", Крепости на колесах: История бронепоездов (Fortresses on wheels: History of armored trains), "V.I. Sakaashvili also attempted to crack down on separatism within Georgia, which brought the long-running conflict in South Ossetia into the forefront again. No armed engagements took place between the Turkish and Georgian forces. The newly established Communist government initially offered unexpectedly mild terms to their former opponents who still remained in the country. When the Georgian army moved to Lori to crush the revolt, Lenin finally gave in to the repeated requests of Stalin and Ordzhonikidze to allow the Red Army to invade Georgia, on the pretext of aiding an uprising. georgia and the NATo dilemma [54], According to a Russian statistician and Soviet-era. The Sovietization of the Caucasus appeared to Bolshevik leaders to be a task which would be easier to achieve while the Allied powers were preoccupied with the Turkish War of Independence;[17] furthermore, the Ankara-based Turkish national government of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had expressed its full commitment to close co-operation with Moscow, promising to compel "Georgia … and Azerbaijan … to enter into union with Soviet Russia … and … to undertake military operations against the expansionist Armenia. Russia swiftly responded by moving its troops to the border and conducting air strikes on Georgian positions in South Ossetia as well as Abkhazia. Joint statement of the Group of Friends of Georgia 10 years since the Russian military invasion of Georgia. Lessons from the Russo-Georgia War 10 Years Later. [53] The Georgian parliament voted in favor of the government's initiative. Georgian officials tonight claimed the country had been 'overrun' by Russian troops after a full-scale ground invasion. [6] On 8 March Turkish troops under Colonel Kizim-Bey took up defensive positions surrounding the city, leading to a crisis with Soviet Russia. [18], Despite the peace treaty, an eventual overthrow of the Menshevik-dominated government of Georgia was both intended and planned. [27] Later Trotsky would reconcile himself to the accomplished fact and even defend the invasion in a special pamphlet. Beyond passionate editorials in some Western newspapers and calls for action from such Georgian sympathizers as Sir Oliver Wardrop, the international response to the events in Georgia was silence.[43]. Most Georgian historians were not allowed to consult Spetskhran, special restricted access library collections and archival reserves that also covered the "unacceptable" events in Soviet history, particularly those that could be interpreted imperialist or contradicted a concept of a popular uprising against the Menshevik government. On 27 March 1921, the exiled Georgian leadership issued an appeal from their temporary offices in Constantinople to "all socialist parties and workers' organizations" of the world, protesting against the invasion of Georgia. A few years earlier Russia’s invasion of Georgia, despite my dire warnings, also took the world by surprise. [32] The latter was so upset by the news of the Central Committee decision and Ordzhonikidze's role in engineering it that on his return to Moscow he demanded, though fruitlessly, that a special party commission be set up to investigate the affair. Chaired by the Georgian Bolshevik Filipp Makharadze, the Revkom formally applied to Moscow for help. Image from The Great War taken in an Australian Advanced Dressing Station near Ypres in 1917. Since early 1920, local Bolsheviks were actively fomenting political unrest in Georgia, capitalizing on agrarian disturbances in rural areas and also on inter-ethnic tensions within the country. “And as far as Russia was concerned, this was an absolute priority. 1802–1946", Georgia: A Social-Democratic Peasant Republic - Impressions And Observations, Between Red and White: A Study of Some Fundamental Questions of Revolution, with Particular Reference to Georgia, Scytho-Cimmerian invasions of the Caucasus, Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar's sack of Tbilisi, Sino-Russian border conflicts (1652–1689), Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940), Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Red_Army_invasion_of_Georgia&oldid=998472494, Articles with Turkish-language sources (tr), Articles needing additional references from February 2018, All articles needing additional references, Articles with French-language sources (fr), Articles with Russian-language sources (ru), Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 5 January 2021, at 15:00. [18], The 1980s wave of Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost ("openness") policy refuted an old Soviet version of the 1921–1924 events. The wounded soldier in the lower left of the photo has a dazed, thousand-yard stare – a frequent symptom of “shell-shock”. There several similarities between Russia’s 2008 invasion of Georgia and its 2012 invasion of Ukraine and one main difference. “Russia has launched a full scale military invasion,” Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said today in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital. Within a week, from 29 August to 5 September 1924, 12,578 people, chiefly nobles and intellectuals, were executed[44] and over 20,000 exiled to Siberia. Simultaneously, a treaty of friendship was signed in Moscow between Soviet Russia and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, whereby Ardahan and Artvin were awarded to Turkey, which renounced its claims to Batumi. In early Soviet history writing, the Georgian episode was considered as a "revolutionary war" and is described in just this term in the first edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopaedia. August 7, 2018. For many Bolsheviks, self-determination was increasingly seen as "a diplomatic game which has to be played in certain cases". This statement is made on behalf of Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States of America. The Georgian army put up a stubborn fight in defense of the approaches to the capital, which they held for a week in the face of overwhelming Red Army superiority. Learning Russia’s strategic communications themes and techniques is indispensable to countering them. largely based upon extensive studies conducted in the "Georgian Archive" of Houghton Library. [34][35], At dawn on 16 February the main body of 11th Red Army troops under Anatoliy Gekker crossed into Georgia and started the Tiflis Operation[36] aimed at capturing the capital. France had never considered sending an expeditionary force, and the United Kingdom had ordered the Royal Navy not to intervene; furthermore, on 16 March the British and Soviet governments signed a trade agreement, in which Prime Minister Lloyd George effectively promised to refrain from anti-Soviet activities in all territories of the former Russian Empire. Russia would repeat this pattern in Crimea in 2014. Former Soviet states, even if … [26], The decision to support the invasion was not unanimous. With the United States, Great Britain and NATO calling for a ceasefire, the conflict continued for five days, as Russia quickly took control of Tskhinvali and rolled its tanks and troops through Ossetia into Georgia, stopping only about 30 miles from Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. [19][20] With its well-established diplomatic ties to several European nations, and its control of strategic transit routes from the Black Sea to the Caspian, Georgia was viewed by the Soviet leadership as "an advance post of the Entente". There is no possible justification for these attacks. Later, the term "revolutionary war" went out of fashion among Soviet writers, partly because it was not easy to distinguish from "aggression", in the Soviets' own definition of that word. [12][13] Georgia engaged in small conflicts with its neighbouring states as it attempted to establish its borders, though was able to maintain independence and de facto international recognition throughout the Russian Civil War, including being recognized by Soviet Russia in the Treaty of Moscow.[14]. That same fact-finding report concluded that though Georgia had initiated the war, Russia had provoked its neighbor over a long period and overreacted to that initial artillery attack. Disturbances also erupted in the town of Dusheti and among Ossetians in northeast Georgia who resented the Georgian government's refusal to grant them autonomy. He emphasized the "tremendous importance of devising an acceptable compromise for a bloc" with the Mensheviks. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Georgia’s always-tense relationship with its northern neighbor worsened in late 2006, when Sakaashvili’s government accused Putin, who was Russia’s prime minister at the time, of supporting the separatist cause. The treaty established the existing borders between the two nations de jure and also obliged Georgia to surrender all third-party elements considered hostile by Moscow. Russia and its new president, Vladimir Putin (first elected in 2000), bitterly resented the loss of this buffer zone between Moscow and the West. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! 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