 Flag of DRG | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | March 18, 1921 |
| Dissolved | 1954 |
| Headquarters | Leuville-sur-Orge, France |
| Agency executive |
|
After the Soviet Russian Red Army invaded Georgia and the Bolsheviks conquered the country early in 1921, the Parliament of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG) decided that the Government should go into exile and continue to function as the National Government of Georgia (NGG).
After the war with the Soviets was irreversibly lost, the Constituent Assembly of Georgia, managed by Karlo Chkheidze, [1] at its last session in Batumi on 18 March 1921, decided on the exile of the Georgian Social Democratic (Menshevik) Party government, managed by Noe Zhordania. [2] On the same day, the members of the government, several deputies of the Constituent Assembly of Georgia, a few military officers and their families went aboard the ship Ernest Renan and sailed first to Istanbul, Turkey, and then to France, the government of which granted the Georgian émigrés political asylum.
Using Georgian state funds, the government bought a 5-hectare (12-acre) domain surrounding a small château in Leuville-sur-Orge, a town located near Paris. Leuville was declared an official residence of the government in exile. Although the émigrés experienced a permanent shortage of money, Zhordania's government maintained relations with the still popular Georgian Social Democratic (Menshevik) Party and other anti-Soviet organizations in Georgia, and thus constituted a nuisance to the Soviet authorities. The NGG encouraged and helped the Committee for Independence of Georgia, an inter-party bloc in Georgia, in its struggle against the Bolshevik regime, which culminated in the 1924 August Uprising. Prior to the revolt, Noe Khomeriki, [3] the Minister of Agriculture in exile, Benia Chkhikvishvili, [4] the former mayor of Tbilisi, and Valiko Jugheli, [5] the former commander of the People’s Guard, returned secretly to Georgia, but were arrested and executed soon thereafter by the Soviet secret police, the Cheka.
The NGG attempted to bring Georgian affairs to international attention on numerous occasions. Several memoranda urging assistance for the cause of Georgian independence were sent to the British, French, and Italian governments as well as to the League of Nations, which adopted two resolutions, in 1922 and 1924, endorsing Georgia's sovereignty. Generally, however, the world largely neglected the violent Soviet conquest of Georgia. On 27 March 1921, the exiled Georgian government issued an appeal from their temporary offices in Istanbul to "all socialist parties and workers' organizations" of the world, protesting against the invasion of Georgia. The appeal was unheeded, though. Beyond passionate editorials in some Western newspapers and pleas for action from such Georgian sympathizers as Sir Oliver Wardrop, the international response to the events in Georgia was subdued. [6]
The Georgian émigrés' hopes that the Great Powers intended to help had begun to subside. A loss was sustained by the Georgian émigrés when Karlo Chkheidze committed suicide [7] in 1926 and Noe Ramishvili, [8] the most energetic Georgian émigré politician and president of the first government of Democratic Republic of Georgia, was assassinated by a Bolshevik spy in 1930.
The Soviet intelligence managed to infiltrate the exiled government, due largely to Lavrentiy Beria's personal intelligence network, both before and after the Second World War.
With the emigration of Zhordania's government and the establishment of the Georgian SSR, the question of recognition was considered by the foreign states that had recognized de jure the independence of Georgia before the Soviet conquest. Some countries, particularly Liberia and Mexico, recognized the DRG when its government was already in exile, on 28 March 1921 and 12 May 1921, respectively. The NGG continued to be recognized for some time as "the legitimate Government of Georgia" by Belgium, the United Kingdom, France and Poland. [9] The NGG was able to maintain a legation in Paris until 1933 (chaired by Sosipatre Asatiani [10] ), when it was closed as a result of the Franco-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 29 November 1932. The NGG and its chief ally in Europe, the International Committee for Georgia, the president of which was Jean Martin, director of Journal de Genève, later began a campaign against the admission of the USSR into the League of Nations, which nevertheless occurred during September 1934, decreasing even more the effectiveness of the NGG. [11]
The Democratic Republic of Georgia was the first modern establishment of a republic of Georgia, which existed from May 1918 to February 1921. Recognized by all major European powers of the time, DRG was created in the wake of the Russian Revolution of 1917, which led to the collapse of the Russian Empire and allowed territories formerly under Russia's rule to assert independence. In contrast to Bolshevik Russia, DRG was governed by a moderate, multi-party political system led by the Georgian Social Democratic Party (Mensheviks).
Noe Zhordania was a Georgian journalist and Menshevik politician. He played an eminent role in the socialist revolutionary movement in the Russian Empire, and later chaired the government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia from July 24, 1918, until March 18, 1921, when the Bolshevik Russian Red Army invasion of Georgia forced him into exile to France. There Zhordania led the government-in-exile until his death in 1953.
Kaikhosro "Kakutsa" Cholokashvili was a Georgian military officer and a commander of an anti-Soviet guerrilla movement in Georgia. He is regarded as a national hero in Georgia.
The August Uprising was an unsuccessful insurrection against Soviet rule in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic from late August to early September 1924.
Leuville Cemetery is in the French town of Leuville-sur-Orge, 25 km south of Paris. The cemetery is a burial ground to many prominent Georgian political emigres who had left country after the Soviet invasion of Georgia of 1921. Among them are the members of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia in Exile.
Nikoloz Chkheidze commonly known as Karlo Chkheidze, was a Georgian politician. In the 1890s, he promoted the Social Democratic movement in Georgia. He became a key figure in the Russian Revolution as the Menshevik president of the Executive Committee of the Soviet of Petrograd. Later he served as president of the Transcaucasian Sejm, and he held office in the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. Later he became president of parliamentary assemblies of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, National Council, Constituent Assembly and Parliament.
Georgians in Poland form a small population, although their presence is attested since the early modern period.
Noe Besarionis dze Ramishvili was a Georgian politician and the president of the first government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. He was one of the leaders of the Menshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He was also known by his party noms de guerre: Pyotr, and Semyonov N.
Gaioz Devdariani was a prominent Georgian revolutionary, Soviet politician, member of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences and a victim of the Great Purge of 1937.
The Treaty of Moscow, signed between Soviet Russia (RSFSR) and the Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG) in Moscow on 7 May 1920, granted de jure recognition of Georgian independence in exchange for promising not to grant asylum on Georgian soil to troops of powers hostile to Bolshevik Russia.
The Social Democratic Party of Georgia, also known as the Georgian Menshevik Party, was a Georgian Marxist and social democratic political party. It was founded in the 1890s by Nikolay Chkheidze, Silibistro Jibladze, Egnate Ninoshvili, Noe Zhordania and others. It became the Georgian branch of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. After 1905, Georgian social democrats joined the Menshevik faction, except for some such as Joseph Stalin, Grigol Ordzhonikidze and Makharadze. Several leaders were elected to the Russian Duma from Kutais or Tifli: Nikolay Chkheidze, Akaki Chkhenkeli, Evgeni Gegechkori, Isidore Ramishvili, Irakly Tsereteli, and Noe Zhordania.
Valerian “Valiko” Jugheli' was a Georgian politician and military commander.
Beniamin "Benia" Chkhikvishvili was a Georgian politician who was involved in the Social Democratic movement in the early 20th century. An active member of the Menshevik party, he led the 1905 revolution in Guria, a Georgian province on the Black Sea. He became a de facto head of the peasant government, sometimes described by the contemporary observers as a "Gurian president" or even "Gurian king".
The Georgian–Ossetian conflict of 1918–1920 were a series of uprisings, which took place in the Ossetian-inhabited areas of what is now South Ossetia, a breakaway republic in Georgia, against the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic and then the Menshevik-dominated Democratic Republic of Georgia which claimed several thousand lives and left painful memories among the Georgian and Ossetian communities of the region.
The Committee for the Independence of Georgia or the Parity Committee was an underground anti-Soviet organization active in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic in the early 1920s. It is commonly known as "Damkom". The committee was responsible for the preparation and guidance of the abortive August Uprising of 1924.
The National Council of Georgia was the first delegated legislative body formed by Georgia's major political parties and social organizations on November 19, 1917, during the Russian Revolution. The Council presided over the declaration of independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia on May 26, 1918, and was renamed into the Parliament of Georgia on October 4, 1918. It was succeeded by the Constituent Assembly of Georgia, a legislative body elected through the nationwide general elections on February 14, 1919.
There were fewer than 2,000 ethnic Georgians in France from 1922 to 1939 but around 10,000 at the end of 2013. in 2017 more of 14,500 Georgians in France.
The Mensheviks were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903. The Mensheviks were led by Julius Martov and Pavel Axelrod.
Silibistro Jibladze (1859–1922) was a Georgian Social Democrat.