When World War I broke out, the fighting between Russia and Turkey took place in the Caucasus. The Georgians ‘hatred of the Russians was so great that they formed a brigade fighting on the Turks’ side. In February 1917, hunger and the czar’s war policy triggered a new revolution that blamed him. This time, too, the Caucasian people played a key role.
After the Bolshevik Revolution in October, power in the Caucasus fell into the hands of the Mensheviks. Under these circumstances, Stalin and a group of comrades left the Caucasus to join the Bolsheviks, led by Len residents. In April 1918, the Transcaucasian United Government of Tiflis decided to disengage from the Soviet Union. According to thesciencetutor, on May 26, 1918, Georgia declared itself independent, which Moscow recognized two years later.
In the period 1918-20, respectively. German, Turkish and English troops entered the country in an attempt to bring down its socialist government. In February 1921, the Red Army occupied the area and reintroduced Soviet power in Georgia. On February 25, 1921, the Socialist Soviet Republic of Georgia was proclaimed, which included the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia. In March, a peace agreement was signed between the Russian Federation and Turkey. Turkey relinquished Batumi and the northern part of Adzharia, which was incorporated as an autonomous republic in Georgia.
In March 1922, Georgia, Azerbadjan and Armenia were regrouped into the Transcaucasian Federation. A month later, the Autonomous Region of South Ossetia was established as part of Georgia. On December 5, 1936, the federation dissolved and Georgia became one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union.
Stalin became secretary general of the Soviet Union Communist Party (SUKP) in 1922, and after Lenin’s death he became the party’s chief commander and from 1928 the supreme leader of the Soviet Union. In 1924, the Red Army intervened to strike down a peasant revolt that had broken out against forced collectivization.
In the following years, the country benefited from the cultural and economic development the Union created. A number of other Georgians – besides Stalin – played a key role in the SUKP: Sergo Ordzhonikidzegv as Minister of Heavy Industry and Lavrenti Berija as Chief of the Secret Police (NKVD). Beria was executed shortly after Stalin’s death in 1953.
In 1953, Moscow appointed Edvard Shevardnadze as Chief of Georgia Police. Until then, he had been the leader of the Young Communists (Komsomol). Vasili Mzhavanadze continued as first secretary of the Communist Party of the Republic and was the country’s strong man. After extensive scams and corruption, Mzhavanadze was replaced in 1972 by Shevardnadze. From this point on, nationalism gained a flourish, manifested through demonstrations in favor of the Georgian language and acts of sabotage.
In 1978, the new constitution of the Soviet Union forced Russian into official language. It sparked new protests in Georgia, but Shevardnadze managed to get the step lifted. At the same time, he allowed the screening of an anti-Stalinist film that became the start of glasnost and perestroika.
Shevardnadze continued in the post of Communist Party’s first secretary and head of government in Georgia, until in 1985 he was taken to Moscow as Foreign Minister of the superpower. Following Mikhail Gorbachov’s takeover of power in the Soviet Union, Georgia movements and parties that demanded the country’s independence, which they believed had been lost as early as 1921 with the introduction of Soviet power. On April 9, 1989, Red Army units staged a demonstration in the capital, Tbilisi, demanding Georgia’s independence on the basis of ยง72 of the USSR Constitution. 19 people were killed during the army attack – most women and children.
