Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

SOVIET–GEORGIAN WAR. This conflict, between the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and the Democratic Republic of Georgia, lasted from 15 February to 17 March 1921. It resulted in the overthrow of the independent Georgian republic, which had been dominated by Mensheviks of the Georgian Social Democratic Labor Party, and the establishment of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was loyal to Moscow. The RSFSR had recognized the independence of Georgia in the Treaty of Moscow of 7 May 1920, but on 14 February 1921, influential Georgian Bolsheviks (notably J. V. Stalin and G. K. Ordzhonikidze) in the party’s Caucasian Bureau (Kavbiuro) obtained the agreement of V. I. Lenin and the party leadership to invade Georgia, ostensibly to assist a workers’ and peasants’ rebellion in the country (although Georgian Mensheviks claimed that discontent in the country had been artificially stimulated by Moscow).

Having established Soviet rule in Azerbaijan in April 1920, Ordzhonikidze had moved immediately to invade Georgia, but Soviet forces were repulsed, and a Communist rising in Tiflis was suppressed by the People’s Guard. Subsequently, preoccupied with the defeat of the Russian Army of P. N. Wrangel and with the escalation of the Soviet–Polish War, Soviet attention temporarily shifted from Transcaucasia. Also, some leading Bolsheviks, notably L. D. Trotsky and K. B. Radek, argued that the invasion of Georgia would be premature. With Wrangel defeated and a treaty arranged with Poland, however, by early 1921 Moscow was ready to act. Another factor was that by this time all Allied forces had withdrawn from Transcaucasia, making their intervention to save Georgia less likely. Having engineered Communist uprisings in the Armenian-populated region of Lori, among the Ossetians of northeast Georgia, and elsewhere, on 16 February 1921 Red Army forces, mustering 50,000 men, entered Georgia from Azerbaijan and Armenia, through the Daryal and Mamisoni passes in the north and along the Black Sea coast. After heavy fighting, the 11th Red Army entered Tiflis on 25 February 1921, and the Georgian SSR was proclaimed (the 35,000-strong Georgian army, under Generals Giorgi Mazniashvili and Giorgi Kvinitadze, having withdrawn to Kutaisi, in the west). Soviet forces, joined by Abkhazian peasant militias, then moved against the remnants of the Georgian army, capturing Gagra (1 March 1921), Sukhumi (4 March 1921), Kutaisi (10 March 1921), Poti (14 March 1921), and other centers, as the Georgian army fell apart.

During this conflict, Turkey took the opportunity to demand the evacuation by Georgia of the formerly Ottoman provinces of Ardahan and Artvin; in late February, it moved troops toward the still Georgian-held city of Batumi. Hoping to benefit from a Turkish–Soviet conflict, on 7 March 1921, members of the Georgian government reached an agreement with the local Turkish commander, Musa Kâzım Karabekir, that allowed Turkish forces into Batumi, while the civil administration of the city remained in Georgian hands. On 16 March 1921, however, the Turks proclaimed the annexation of Batumi, forcing the Georgians to make a choice. Realizing that earlier hopes of assistance from the Allies were forlorn (on 16 March 1921 the Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement was signed) and that Moscow had no intention of going to war with Turkey (on the same day, a treaty of friendship, the Treaty of Moscow, was signed between Turkey and the RSFSR), and wishing to preserve Batumi for Georgia, on 17 March 1921, the Georgian defense minister, Grigol Lordkipanidze, agreed to an armistice at Kutaisi with the Soviet delegate, Avel Enukidze.