FROM THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF GALI DISTRICT (1921-1990)
Abstract
On February 16, 1921, when the Bolsheviks had not yet fully occupied Democtatic Republic of Georgia, the Georgian Revolutionary Committee declared Georgia a Socialist Soviet Republic and announced that “the brotherly nations of Adjara, Abkhazia, and Ossetia will determine their own fate”. Based on this, on March 26, the Abkhaz Revolutionary Committee addressed a letter to the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR and the Nationalities Commissar I. Stalin, stating that Abkhazia should be declared an independent Socialist Soviet Republic and join the RSFSR. On March 28, in Batumi, a meeting of the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) and the Central Committee of the Georgian Communist Party, along with Bolshevik representatives from Adjara and Abkhazia, was held. The meeting discussed the issue “regarding the structure of Soviet power and the Communist Party in Abkhazia” and decided that “until the Congress of Soviet Councils in Abkhazia, the issue of federation with the RSFSR or the Georgian SSR remains open, and Abkhazia is declared a Socialist Republic. The party organization will carry the name of the RCP(b)’s Caucasian Bureau in Abkhazia and will operate in accordance with the directives of the RCP(b) Central Committee’s Caucasian Bureau. The decrees of the Georgian Revolutionary Committee should serve as material for the Abkhaz Revolutionary Committee to ensure there is no contradiction between the actions of both revolutionary committees”. The practice of Soviet state-building at that time did not consider granting the status of a republic unless the population of the territorial unit exceeded one million. The population of Abkhazia at that time was about 200,000, and Abkhaz people made up only 17% of the population, but the Caucasian Bureau’s decision at the Batumi meeting satisfied the demand of the Abkhaz Bolsheviks. This idea was supported by the representative of the RSFSR in Georgia in 1920-1921, Major-General Pavel Sytin (1870-1938). Moreover, he also demanded a similar resolution for Samegrelo. In the General’s opinion, this would make it easier for the RSFSR to control the disintegrated Georgia.
As a result, on March 31, a formally “independent” state formation, the Abkhazian Socialist Soviet Republic (Abkh. SSR), was proclaimed in the northwestern part of Georgia occupied by Soviet troops, just outside Tbilisi. On May 21, the Georgian Revolutionary Committee recognized this fact. Our Abkhaz colleagues consider this to have been the “restoration” of Abkhazia’s “statehood”.
However, in reality, this was not the case. The Abkhaz SSR actually represented a fictitious “statehood,” which even the officials of the then Soviet establishment in Sokhumi (N. Lakoba, E. Eshba) did not take seriously and regarded as a temporary phenomenon[1]. Moreover, although Abkhaz historians (O. Bgazhba, S. Lakoba) considered Abkhazia’s “independence” to be a result of V. Lenin’s actions, it seems that Lenin had a radically different view on the matter compared to the Abkhaz historians. On July 23, 1921, at a meeting of responsible workers of Abkhazia, N. Lakoba himself spoke about the impossibility of Abkhazia’s annexation to Russia and the necessity of close ties with Georgia, considering the ethnographic and historical conditions. Interestingly, on November 24, 1921, the Caucasian Bureau of the RCP(b) transferred Abkhazia’s authority to the Georgian Communist Party, which was legally formalized in January 1922.
Everyone knew well that the Abkhaz “SSR” could not exist independently. Its political and economic potential was not sufficient to solve this task successfully. Therefore, it is clear that the approval of the governing officials of the Abkhaz SSR’s party and state structures took place in Tbilisi. Economic issues were also managed from there. In order to correct this absurd situation, and to maintain Abkhazia as an “independent” Soviet republic for some time, a compromise decision was made: on December 16, 1921, Tbilisi and Sokhumi signed an alliance agreement. In this way, Abkhazia soon joined the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (TSFSR).
Despite the fact that the Bolsheviks carried out their own administrative reforms in the South Caucasus (the creation of “Socialist Soviet Republics”), the Kremlin did not seriously regard the “independent” status of Abkhazia. An example of this is the words of Soviet military and political figure M. I. Lisovskiy (1887-1938), who was the responsible secretary of the Chelyabinsk Provincial Committee of the RCP(b) in 1922-1923, at the X Congress of the All-Russian Soviet of Soviets (December 23-27, 1922), where he mentioned the three Soviet republics of Transcaucasia and then referred to Abkhazia as a “republic-like” entity. Interestingly, this “Soviet Republic” was rightfully referred to as an “Autonomous Republic” in the first USSR Constitution.
Key Words: Soviet Georgia; Soviet Abkhazia; Gali District; Economic; Economic History.
[1] N. Lakoba himself referred to this “independence” as a temporary measure they needed at the time (Lakoba N., 1987: 176).
