Anarchism in Georgia (Georgian:ანარქიზმი საქართველოში,romanized:anarkizmi sakartveloshi) began to emerge during the late 19th century out of the Georgian national liberation movement and theRussian nihilist movement. It reached its apex during the1905 Russian Revolution, after a number of anarchists returned from exile to participate in revolutionary activities, such as in the newly-establishedGurian Republic.
Georgian anarchistsMikheil Tsereteli andVarlam Cherkezishvili played a major role in the development of anarchist ideas in the country, but unlikeEuropean andRussian anarchists,Georgians actively fought fornational liberation. This ideology against statehood was supported by those Georgian politicians who led the struggle for the liberation of the Georgian people and fought for nationalself-determination throughout their lives. As for the anarchist theory of the extinction of the state, the outcry againstcentralism and for thedecentralization of government was the ideal of all progressive-minded people in Georgia and the basis of the country's success. They fought for the autonomy of Georgia, and went even further: in the1910s they demanded full independence for the country. They defended the slogan of "equality of all nations" and they believed that only after achieving national independence could the nation take care of its social situation.
The Georgian anarchist movement was weakened duringWorld War I, as its Georgian members were working abroad. Following theRussian Revolution, anarchism was no longer a relevant political force. Georgian anarchists still uncompromisingly fought againstLeninism, condemning all forms of violence, including its expression as astate. In their view, only free people could achieve progress. They fought against thedictatorship of the proletariat brought by theRed Army invasion of Georgia.
Ascapitalism first spread to Georgia,social stratification began to increase along with the expansion of theworking class.[1] During the 19th century,national andclass consciousness spread throughout the country, leading to a rise in political organizations advocating fornationalist,liberal andsocialist ideas. The "First Group", led byIlia Chavchavadze, was one of the first Georgian nationalist groups to agitate againstRussification policies and advocate for the revival of theGeorgian language and the cultivation ofGeorgian culture. In 1869, this was succeeded by the more radical "Second Group", a liberal political group that engaged injournalism and involved itself in urban and economic life.[2] By 1892, the Second Group too was supplanted by the "Third Group", the country's firstsocial democratic organization, which later evolved into theSocial Democratic Party of Georgia - a branch of theRussian Social Democratic Labour Party. During the2nd Congress of the RSDLP, the party split into two factions: theBolsheviks, led byJoseph Stalin, and theMensheviks, led byNoe Zhordania. Nevertheless, both factions took on the position ofcosmopolitanism, which aligned them against the interests of the Georgian nationalists.[1]
Meanwhile, thenihilist movement was beginning to spread throughout theRussian Empire, attracting the attention of the Georgian socialistVarlam Cherkezishvili. AfterDmitry Karakozov's attempt to assassinateAlexander II,[3] Cherkezishvili was arrested and imprisoned for six months in thePeter and Paul Fortress.[4] Upon his release in 1867, Cherkezishvili established acooperative restaurant inPetrograd, where he metSergey Nechayev for the first time. By 1868, Cherkezishvili had become influenced by the anarchist ideas ofMikhail Bakunin that he had encountered in the newspaperNarodnoie Delo.[5] Due to his connections to Nechayev, Cherkezishvili was again arrested, this time being sentenced to exile inWestern Siberia.[4] He escaped his Siberian exile toSwitzerland, where he founded amutual aid fund and established the Russian languageObchtchina newspaper,[6] while also collaborating onPeter Kropotkin's magazineLe Révolté.[7] A number of other Georgian radicals had also gone abroad for their education, where many were first exposed to the ideas ofanarchism andlibertarian communism. In 1900, theGroup of Russian Anarchists Abroad was founded inGeneva by the Georgian anarchistGeorgy Gogelia, eventually being succeeded by theBread and Freedom organization, which was joined by Peter Kropotkin and Varlam Cherkezishvili.[8]
At the turn of the 20th century, anarchist and socialist ideas were beginning to flourish in Georgia,[9] as a number of radical activists started to return from exile. In May 1902, theGurian Republic was proclaimed as the result of a peasants' uprising in theGuria region,[10] supported byMensheviks[11] as well associalist revolutionaries such asNestor Kalandarishvili. The situation culminated with the outbreak of the1905 Russian Revolution, during which many of the exiled anarchists returned to Georgia. It was at this time that a number of Georgian anarcho-communists, includingVarlam Cherkezishvili, collaborated in the establishment of theGeorgian Socialist-Federalist Revolutionary Party, which demanded the autonomy of Georgia within a Russian federation organized alongdemocratic socialist lines.[1] In thefirst legislative election, the Socialist-FederalistIosif Baratov won a seat in theState Duma.[12] In thesecond legislative election, the Socialist-Federalists were even able to win a majority of Georgian seats to the Duma.[13]
The return of Georgian anarchists from exile marked the apex of the anarchist movement in the country, spearheaded byGeorgy Gogelia,Mikheil Tsereteli andVarlam Cherkezishvili, who advocated for the implementation of alibertarian socialist system without the use of astate.[1] Inspired by the idea of federalism, Cherkezishvili established a "People's University" inTiflis, where lectures and classes were given inRussian,Georgian,Armenian andAzerbaijani.[6] According toMax Nettlau, "the administration of the People's University of Tbilisi was entirely in the hands of the workers and each nationality organized its own autonomous section, each month the sections meet to discuss general issues. Cherkezishvili's idea was to re-establish, in practice, solidarity among the nationalities which, a few months before, thanks to the instigations of the Russian government, had been severely shaken by theArmenian-Tartar massacres."[14]
During the revolutionary period, a number of anarchist newspapers also went into legal publication inTiflis. In May 1906, Georgy Gogelia edited the anarcho-communist newspaperGolos, which published seven daily issues in theGeorgian language before closing due to a lack of subscribers. He then went on to edit theNabat, which published fourteen twice-daily issues in the Georgian language before it was forcibly shut down by censors. In June 1906, Gogelia came together with Mikheil Tsereteli and Varlam Cherkezishvili to edit theWorker newspaper, which published 52 daily issues in the Georgian language up until September 1906, when publication was discontinued due to opposition by theSocial Democrats. Cherkezishvili then went on to edit theRace newspaper, which was also published legally in the Georgian language, but was accused of promotingGeorgian nationalism by orthodox anarchists. Anarcho-communists were also on the editorial staff ofPatara Gazeti and laterArrow, the Georgian language newspapers published by theGeorgian Socialist-Federalist Revolutionary Party, which were intended for distribution among the peasantry. Legal publication of anarchist newspapers largely ceased with theend of the Revolution in June 1907, as radical elements were driven underground.[15]
Georgian anarchists were once again forced into exile, where Varlam Cherkezishvili presented the "Petition of the Georgian People" to theHague Convention of 1907,[14] and collaborated in the establishment of theAnarchist Black Cross, designed to provide aid to anarchist political prisoners. With the outbreak ofWorld War I, Georgian anarchists were split by the issue of support for one side or the other. Cherkezishvili was among the signatories of theManifesto of the Sixteen, which advocated for anAllied victory over theCentral Powers.[16] Meanwhile, Mikheil Tsereteli established theCommittee of Independent Georgia, which aimed to establish Georgian independence from theRussian Empire through collaboration with the Central Powers. During theCaucasus campaign, the Georgian Committee attempted to recruit dissident Georgians to rebel against the Russian Empire, with Tsereteli even traveling to Georgia in secret in order to meet with the Menshevik leaderNoe Zhordania, but the Mensheviks still maintained their stance of neutrality. Nevertheless, the Committee succeeded in recruiting a number of dissidents to join theGeorgian Legion, which fought on the side of the Central Powers.[17]
Following the collapse of relations between the Committee and theOttoman Empire, combined with the political amnesty brought on by theFebruary Revolution, the Georgian Legion was disbanded and Georgian dissidents (including anarchists) began to return from exile to the country, now under the control of theSpecial Transcaucasian Committee - led byVasily Kharlamov, a member of theConstitutional Democratic Party and a formerDon Cossack. Following theOctober Revolution, the Georgian Socialist-Federalists failed to win a single seat in thefirst election to theRussian Constituent Assembly, only gaining 0.93% of the vote in theTranscaucasus.[18][19] However, theBolshevik-controlledAll-Russian Central Executive Committee soon ordered the dissolution of the Assembly, convening in its place theThird All-Russian Congress of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants Deputies' Soviets, during which the Georgian BolshevikJoseph Stalin outlined the new Soviet policy onnationalities, providing a program of autonomy and federalism for non-Russian territories. TheCouncil of People's Commissars subsequently negotiated theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers, ceding territory inTranscaucasia to the Ottoman Empire. TheTranscaucasian Commissariat, led by the Georgian MenshevikNikolay Chkheidze, responded by declaring the independence of the South Caucasus from Russia - establishing theTranscaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. Due to the pressures of the renewed Ottoman offensive, the federative republic was short-lived, breaking up into theDemocratic Republics ofGeorgia,Armenia andAzerbaijan.[20]
With the Democratic Republic of Georgia being recognized by the Central Powers, theGerman Empire subsequently launched anexpedition into the Caucasus, in order to stabilize the new Georgian Republic in the face of aggression by the newRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. But after theTreaty of Versailles, German forces were replaced by theBritish Empire, which itself occupied Georgia.[21]
Although anarchism as a distinct movement had largely ceased to be a relevant political force in Georgia, a number of anarchists held key positions in the Democratic Republic, withMikheil Tsereteli becoming the first Georgian ambassador toSweden andNorway, before later teaching as a professor inTbilisi State University. In thefirst election to the newConstituent Assembly of Georgia, the Socialist-Federalists won 8 seats, one of which was held byVarlam Cherkezishvili.[22]
In February 1921, theRed Army launched aninvasion of Georgia which brought an end to the Democratic Republic, with theGeorgian Soviet Socialist Republic being established in its place. At its last session the Constituent Assembly voted to establish agovernment-in-exile before fleeing the country to Europe. Tsereteli emigrated toBelgium, where he became a teacher at theFree University of Brussels. Cherkezishvili returned toLondon, where he continued to agitate for Georgian independence and resistance to the newly-establishedSoviet Union.[14] The Soviet government was unpopular in Georgia and faced the prospect of an insurrection against its rule from its inception.[23] Even those members of the working class that were the most sympathetic towards Bolshevik ideology were opposed to the new government, due to the subordination of workers' organizations and trade unions to Bolshevik committees, as well as thecentralization of power inMoscow.[24] Aninternal conflict within the Georgian Bolsheviks over the question of national autonomy ended with the defeat of the "national deviationists" (led byFilipp Makharadze andPolikarp Mdivani) by the "hardliners" (led byJoseph Stalin andSergo Ordzhonikidze), who advocated for greater centralized rule of Georgia under theTranscaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. The Bolsheviks subsequently ordered the forcible dissolution of all opposition parties, in order to cement power in aone-party state.
Many of the opposition parties, including both theSocialist-Federalists and theMensheviks, continued to operate underground[25] - coming together to form theCommittee for the Independence of Georgia in order to organize resistance to Soviet rule. A number of dissident Georgians returned to the country clandestinely, in order to participate in a planned uprising against the Bolshevik government. Despite the arrest and execution of many of its leading members by theCheka,[26][27] the Committee went ahead with its plans and launched theAugust Uprising, which was quickly suppressed by the government forces.[28] In the "unprecedented"repression that followed, the last holdouts of opposition to the Bolshevik government were defeated,[29] bringing an end to any dissident socialist currents - including Menshevism, Socialist-Federalism and anarchism.
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