Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

The republic refused to recognize the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (3 March 1918), was engaged in a struggle for control of Transcaucasia with the pro-Bolshevik Baku Commune (declared on 25 April 1918), and sought to resist Turkish occupation of the Transcaucasian regions promised to “Russia” by that treaty. Not having the forces available to mount a meaningful resistance, however, it was forced to enter into negotiations with the Central Powers at Batumi (24 May–8 June 1918), earlier negotiations at the Trabzon Peace Conference having been aborted. During these negotiations, differences arose between the Georgians, who looked to Germany for protection—indeed, Georgia would sign a separate agreement with the German mission in the Treaty of Poti (28 May 1918); the Armenians, who hoped for assistance from the western Allies; and the Azerbaijani Musavatists, who were more than willing to deal with Muslim Turkey. Consequently, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic collapsed after six weeks, with declarations of independence by Georgia (as the Democratic Republic of Georgia) on 26 May 1918, Azerbaijan (as the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic) on 27 May 1918, and Armenia (as the Armenian Democratic Republic) on 28 May 1918.

TRANSCAUCASIAN FEDERATION. See TRANSCAUCASIAN DEMOCRATIC FEDERATIVE REPUBLIC.

TRANSCAUCASIAN SEJM. This organ of state power in Transcaucasia was created at Tiflis, by the Transcaucasian Commissariat, on 23 February 1918. It had the aim of formalizing the separation of Transcaucasia from the collapsing Russian Empire. When the Transcaucasia Commissariat ceased to operate, from 26 March 1918 the Sejm became the main state organ in the region. Its membership consisted of those delegates elected to the All-Russian Constituent Assembly from Transcaucasia, as well as representatives of the chief regional political parties. Initially, there were 95 delegates, including 24 Mensheviks from the Georgian Social-Democratic Labor Party, 24 Armenian Dashnaks, and 30 Azeri members of Musavat. Its chairman, with the rights of president of an ephemeral Provisional Transcaucasian Republic, was the prominent Georgian Menshevik N. S. Chkheidze (former chairman of VTsIK, in 1917).

In March 1918, the Sejm duly signaled the separation of Transcaucasia from Russia and, on 22 April 1918, proclaimed the establishment of a Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. When, under a combination of internal and external pressures, the latter collapsed at the end of the following month, the Sejm declared its own dissolution on 26 May 1918. From it sprang the independent, separate–and often conflicting–Armenian Democratic Republic, Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, and Georgian Democratic Republic.

Transcaucasian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Initially established on 12 March 1922 as the Transcaucasian Federation (formally the Federative Union of Socialist Soviet Republics of Transcaucasia), this Soviet state entity, which united the Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Georgian Soviet Socialist Republics, was formally created at the First Transcaucasian Congress of Soviets at Baku, on 13 December 1922. Its capital was Tiflis (Tblisi). The first joint chairs of its governing Union Council were Nariman Narimanov (of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan), Polikarp Mdivani (of the Communist Party of Georgia), and Aleksandr Miasnikian (of the Communist Party of Armenia). The insistence of the Bolsheviks (led by J. V. Stalin, head of the People’s Commissiat for Nationalities of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) on this union flew in the face of local resistance and has been widely interpreted as a deliberate attempt by Moscow to play off the peoples of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan against each other, in order to reinforce central (i.e., Russian) control. It caused particular friction in Georgia, being in part responsible for the genesis of the Georgian affair of 1921–1922. The Transcaucasian SFSR joined the USSR on 31 December 1922 (under the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR), but was dissolved into its constituent parts on 5 December 1936.