Committee for the Independence of Georgia

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The Committee for the Independent Georgia (also Georgian Committee , Georgian დამოუკიდებელი საქართველოს კომიტეტი) was a political association in Germany . It was founded in 1914 by Georgian emigrants and students after the beginning of World War I and financed by the German Reich. Its aim was to eliminate Russian rule and restore Georgia's independence under the protection of Germany.

The chairman of the committee was initially Petre Surguladze, later Micheil Tsereteli . The members included Prince Georgi Matschabeli, Leo Kereselidze , Giorgi Kereselidze and the Islamic Georgian-Ottoman Bey Meliton Kartsiwadze. The committee was financed by the Foreign Office's Message Center for the Orient and the German General Staff, and had offices in Austria-Hungary and in the Ottoman Empire . During the fighting in the Caucasus , the committee moved its headquarters to Samsun , Turkey , and later moved to Giresun .

In 1915 the committee was involved in the establishment of the Georgian Legion and provided its highest Georgian officer, Major General Leo Kereselidze. In 1916 it was to play a central role in Operation M , a revolution in Georgia against Russia. Georgi Matschabeli and four other emissaries of the committee were dropped off by German submarines on the east coast of the Black Sea on June 26 of the same year in order to form combat groups, carry out acts of sabotage and form an opposition to Russia. The company failed. It was not possible to organize acts of sabotage or to recruit combat groups.

After the February Revolution of 1917 , a representative of the committee traveled with Lenin in a sealed train to Petrograd , from there to Georgia. Micheil Tsereteli and four other Georgians were shipped to Georgia in a submarine on October 3, 1917. There they established contacts with political parties and campaigned in vain for a turn against Russia. The Menshevik Social Democratic party leader and later Georgian Prime Minister Noe Schordania refused to take sides against Russia as a political suicide.

As the war progressed, tensions with the Ottoman government increased. After the founding of the Democratic Republic of Georgia in May 1918, various members of the committee returned home. After the occupation of the country by the Red Army in February 1921, they had to emigrate again. Tsereteli and Kereselidze became co-founders of the resistance organization Georgian Committee White Georg in Germany in 1924 .

literature

  • David Marshall Lang: A Modern History of Georgia . Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1962
  • Ronald Grigor Suny: The Making of the Georgian Nation , Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1994, ISBN 0-253-20915-3
  • Klaus Thörner: German Caucasus Imperialism . In: Against the Zeitgeist: Analyzes of Colonialism, Capitalism and Imperialism . Library and information system of the University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg 1996, pp. 119–156, (Online, PDF, 0.224 MB)
  • M. Sioridze: The Committee for the Independence of Georgia (1914-1918) . Adjara Publishing House, Batumi 1998 (in Georgian)
  • K. Salia: The Committee of Independent Georgia during World War II . In: Bedi Kartlisa (1962) 39, Paris (in Georgian)
  • G. Shaorispireli: A Brief History of the Committee for the Independence of Georgia . In: Sakartvelo (1944) 110, Berlin (in Georgian)