Aleksandre MGHEBRISHVILI

After the 1917 revolution Georgia had been transitioned to a totally new reality. During the century of the occupation under the Treaty of Georgievsk, the Russian empire had preserved only one point of the agreement – which was the control of the borders and securing Georgia from the inner threats. After the revolution, the preservation of this point of the agreement had put Georgia in a difficult situation, in terms of the coming threats, on the one hand from Ottoman Empire (Turkey) and on the other hand from the Bolshevism movement derived from the North. Georgian nation, in whose consciousness the idea of the return of the independence had been actual and vital, had been in a situation, where they had to make important decisions related to the independence and statehood. However, the idea of reinstating the Georgian statehood was not unique, as the “Tergdaleuli’s”, the national-independence movement, which had been established in Paris in 1903, had established a national-revolutionarymovement “Sakartvelo” (Georgia). They had been the first to openly demand that Georgia had been granted national-territorial autonomy and furthermore, they had voiced this idea in Europe, by demanding independence of Georgia. Despite the fact that the Treaty of Georgievsk, in essence, had been an agreement between the allies, it had not been intended to stripe Georgia of its independence; however, right after the signature of the treat, it had become a weapon in the hands of the Russian empire and day-by-day had cost Georgian nation an independence and sovereignty.

Keywords: Occupation, Treaty of Georgievsk, Georgia-Ossetian ethnic struggle, Russian Empire.