Part 7

Independent Georgia and the Dashnaks

... Despite the proclamation of the Democratic Republic of Georgia and the de facto formation of an Armenian state, some Armenian political circles active in Georgia, including the Dashnaks, have taken a decidedly negative view of the restoration of Georgia's state independence. What is surprising is that they did not welcome the fact of the creation of an independent Armenian state with great enthusiasm.

 It is a fact that for them the achievement of full state independence of Armenia and the proclamation of a republic was connected with certain risks and dangers. At that time, some Dashnak leaders working in Georgia considered the restoration of Georgian independence as an anti-democratic act, while they considered the creation of cultural autonomy of Armenians within Georgia as a guarantee of stability for Armenians and an ideal way out of a difficult situation.

On this issue, in the 9 June 1918 issue of the newspaper "Georgia", we read:

"The District Assembly of the Dashnaktsutyun Party in Georgia heard G.K. Gazazyan on the independence and national-cultural autonomy of Georgia and concluded: "The independence of Georgia is the result of abnormally bad political conditions, which broke the front of the entire working people of Russia, shook the integrity of the working masses of the Caucasus and created a national Georgia. Considering this situation as anti-democratic, the Dashnaktsutyun party declares the independence of Georgia as a fact that has already happened.

 The District Assembly believes that it is impossible to restrict the rights and equality of any nation, especially a nation that is a minority within the borders of a state. The programme of the Armenian Dashnaktsutyun Party calls for the national-cultural autonomy of the national minority, and for this purpose the Assembly decided to

1. to take an active part in the government of Georgia as full citizens;

2. To demand that the rights of minorities be guaranteed;

3. To demand national extraterritorial autonomy (Georgia-Armenia) to meet national-cultural needs".

But the "great idea" of the Dashnak Party prevailed - the desire of individual organisations and party members remained "a voice crying in the wilderness...".

"The Caucasian Red Army."

... On the same day, the Baku Workers' Council was established under the chairmanship of Stefan Shaumyan, and all other parties and the National Council withdrew from current affairs. In such a situation, the Armenian National Council was the only representative body that enjoyed authority both in the Armenian community of Baku and in the military units.

From then on, the Armenian-Russian Dashnak-Bolshevik military unit under the Baku Bolshevik Commune was called the "Caucasian Red Army". Grigory Korganov, People's Commissar for Naval Affairs, was appointed commander of the army.

As a matter of fact, after the Russian expeditionary corps left Iran, the British units of the Mesopotamian Front began to enter these areas and in a short time occupied a significant part of the country. The vector of the British ultimate interests in Transcaucasia was directed towards Baku and Batumi:

"Even before the Germans left the Caucasus, the Dashnaks sent delegations to the British command, proposing to occupy Transcaucasia. Captain Kolmanyan, who was on a special mission to Baku, Enzel and Petrovsk in September 1918, wrote in his top- secret note to the Armenian foreign minister: "The initiative to invite the British actually came from the Armenians (Armenian National Council).

This is confirmed by one of the members of the National Council of Russians in Baku, the White Guard B. Baikov, in his memoirs published in the pages of the "Archive of the Russian Revolution" published in Berlin: "One of the members of the Armenian National Council with appropriate powers, S.A. Gazarov," Baikov wrote, "was sent to Enzeli together with General Dunsterville (Lionel Charles Dunsterville), commander of the British troops in Persia, to negotiate and invite him to Baku for the defence of the city.

The active negotiations of the Armenian Dashnaks with the British much earlier than the date mentioned above and the fact of their invitation to Baku are, incidentally, not denied by Armenian authors. The same Hrant Avetisyan writes: "In June 1918, the Armenian National Council sent M. Ter-Poghosyan and Sargis Araratyan to negotiate with the British".

Note that the Armenian Dashnaks, on behalf of the Armenian National Council and behind the back of the Bolsheviks, conducted separatist negotiations with the British on the occupation of Baku, although it was in June that the Russian Bolsheviks were most firmly in control in Baku. Here is another vivid example of the ideology and loyal partnership of the Armenian Dashnaks. Another metamorphosis of the Dashnaks was not hidden, and it is also a fact that the Baku Bolsheviks reacted with great indignation to the possibility of the formation of an Anglo-Dashnak military-political alliance. Alesha Japaridze: "I tell you: do not call the British, because you will destroy the Soviet government, cut Baku off from Russia and make an irreparable mistake.

In the end, the Bolshevik Commune of Baku was overthrown by the Armenian Dashnaks and the so-called "Dictatorship of the Central Caspian" was established there, already in alliance with the SRs.

This is an amazing development of incredible and seemingly illogical historical processes, which we try in vain to explain by the laws of dialectics and logic. Reasons and reality are simple, much simpler and more prosaic than it seems at first glance.

 Of course, at that moment, Colonel Bicherakhov (who commanded the Russian troops leaving Iran via Enzeli and Baku - ed.) was guided by opportunistic considerations. His transformation into an officer of the Red Army and one of the leaders of the Baku Bolshevik Revolution (just like General Andranik, or the famous Hnchak Amazasp, or the no less famous criminal Stefan Lalayev) is more a cruel joke of history than an objective reality.

 And the reality was simple - Colonel Lazar Bicherakhov rightly believed that at this stage the movement of his detachment to the North Caucasus would be impossible without cooperation with the Bolsheviks. While still in Enzeli, on 27 June 1918, he sent a message to the Bolshevik Committee in Baku declaring that "only Soviet power can save Russia".

Lazar Bicherakhov's appeal was quickly picked up by the Bolshevik newspapers in Baku. At the same time, Lazar's younger brother Georgi Bicherakhov was leading an anti-Soviet armed uprising of highlanders in the so-called "Terk Republic". In reality, Lazar Bicherakhov did not change his ideological vectors and, of course, remained a convinced Tsarist. These conclusions were confirmed by the further development of current events in the "Bolshevik Commune of Baku".

Bicherakhov's units were deployed along the city's defensive perimeter, but soon, in a critical situation, Colonel Bicherakhov withdrew his regiment from its fighting positions and moved it via Port Petrovsky (today's Makhachkala) to the North Caucasus, where it was reunited with his brother's troops. Such was the astonishing, unbelievable, diverse and apparently illogical explosion of ideological, political and military passions that took place in the Transcaucasian "Soviet oasis" throughout 1918.

From Archil Chachkhiani's book "The Armenian-Georgian War"

To be continued...