Independence of Georgia

On the Sunday afternoon of 26 May 1918 the Transcaucasian Seim met for the last time in the former palace of the Viceroy of the Caucasus in Tiflis. At about three in the afternoon it resolved that, in view of the fundamental differences between the peoples of Transcaucasia on questions of war and peace, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic had ceased to exist, and it laid down its powers. Less than two hours later, in the same hall, the Georgian National Council adopted the act of independence and proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Georgia. The federation, which had declared independence on 22 April under Turkish compulsion, had lasted little more than a month. For the first time since its annexation by Russia at the beginning of the 19th century, Georgia became an independent state.

The federation at a crossroads

The break-up of the federation had been looming for weeks. After taking Batumi and Kars, the Turks at the Batumi conference, opened on 11 May, rejected the Brest terms and demanded further territory, including the Georgian districts of Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki. On 15 May, without waiting for the outcome of the talks, they took Alexandropol and advanced into Armenia, and a few days later demanded that the government in Tiflis hand over to them the whole railway line from Batumi through Tiflis to Baku. The federation’s three nations wanted different things. The Armenians had to fight for survival, and on 21 May they joined battle at Sardarabad. The Azerbaijanis saw the Turks as allies against the Bolsheviks who ruled Baku. The Georgians concluded that they could not stop the Turks on their own, and that the only force able to do so was Germany.

Germany had its own reasons for caring about Transcaucasia. It wanted the oil of Baku, the manganese from the mines at Chiatura and the railway linking the Black Sea with the Caspian, and it distrusted the ambitions of Enver Pasha, who was reaching for lands far beyond the borders fixed in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The German consul Friedrich-Werner von der Schulenburg was active in Tiflis, and General Otto von Lossow was in Batumi as the German observer at the conference. On 14 May the leader of the Georgian Mensheviks and chairman of the Georgian National Council, Noe Zhordania, went to Batumi to ask the Germans for help. He returned on 21 May convinced that Georgia could count on their protection. That same day the representatives of the three nations in the Seim concluded that the federation would not last long, and the next day the Georgians decided to declare independence. Zhordania and the diplomat Zurab Avalishvili prepared the text of the declaration. Lossow, however, replied on 24 May that he could negotiate only with Transcaucasia as a whole, and since the federation was breaking up, he had to leave for Berlin for instructions. According to Russian studies, on 24 and 25 May the leadership of the Georgian National Council accepted the German offer of protection. During the night of 25/26 May the Turks presented another ultimatum.

The Seim’s last session

At the session of the Seim on 26 May the Georgian Menshevik Irakli Tsereteli spoke twice. First he explained that Transcaucasia could not go on existing because it lacked unity, and national quarrels had led each nation to respond differently to the Turkish invasion. In his second speech he blamed the Azerbaijanis for failing to support the country’s defence, and declared that since the federation had collapsed, Georgia must declare itself independent. At three o’clock the Seim adopted the resolution dissolving the republic. Most of the deputies left the hall; only the Georgians remained, joined by the members of the Georgian National Council. The session of the Council, chaired by Zhordania, opened at 4.50 p.m. Zhordania read out the act of independence, and at 5.10 p.m. the Council adopted it unanimously.

The act recalled that Georgia had for centuries been an independent state, and that at the end of the 18th century it had of its own free will bound itself to Russia, which was to defend it against its enemies. The revolution, however, had shattered the Russian army, Transcaucasia had been left on its own, and under the influence of outside forces the union of its peoples had also fallen apart. Georgia therefore had to create its own state in order to avoid conquest. The act proclaimed that the Georgian nation was henceforth sovereign, and that Georgia was an independent democratic republic which would maintain permanent neutrality in international conflicts and wished for good relations with its neighbours. It guaranteed all citizens equal civil and political rights regardless of, among other things, nationality and sex, and all nations on Georgian territory free development. Until a Constituent Assembly was convened, power was to be exercised by the National Council, supplemented by representatives of the national minorities, and a provisional government responsible to it. That same day the Council appointed a government headed by the Menshevik Noe Ramishvili. Foreign affairs went to Akaki Chkhenkeli, until then prime minister of Transcaucasia.

Under German protection

The Georgians acted quickly. Chkhenkeli went to Poti, where on 28 May he signed a provisional agreement with Lossow. Germany recognised the new republic and took it under its protection, and in return obtained free use of Georgian railways and of ships in its ports, the right to occupy important points, circulation of German currency and a share in the exploitation of natural resources. In a secret letter Lossow promised help in obtaining international recognition and in preserving Georgia’s territorial integrity. The Turks were furious and threatened to march on Kutaisi and Poti, and in June there were even clashes with German-Georgian units, but the German umbrella saved Georgia from Turkish conquest. Two days after Georgia, Azerbaijan declared independence, and the Armenian National Council took power over Armenia. On 4 June in Batumi all three republics signed peace with the Ottoman Empire. In it Georgia ceded Batumi and the districts of Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki to the Turks. In June German battalions arrived from the Crimea.

German protection lasted only until the defeat of the Central Powers in the autumn of 1918. Independent Georgia nevertheless survived almost three years, until the Red Army invasion in February and March 1921. 26 May is today a public holiday in Georgia, Independence Day.