Page "August Uprising" Paragraph 3

The loyalty of the Georgian population to the new regime proved not easy to obtain.

Within the first three years of their rule, the Bolsheviks managed to recruit fewer than 10, 000 people into their party, while the Mensheviks still enjoyed significant popularity in Georgia, counting over 60, 000 members in their organizations.

The 1918 – 1921 independence, though short-lived, had played a crucial role in the national awakening of Georgia, winning a popular support to the ruling Menshevik party.

The forcible Sovietization and grievances over the ensuing border rearrangements in which Georgia lost sizeable portion of its pre-Soviet territories to Turkey ( see Treaty of Kars ), Azerbaijan SSR, Armenian SSR and Russia, fueled a widespread opposition to the new regime.

The new Bolshevik government, led by the Georgian Revkom ( Revolutionary Committee ), enjoyed so little support among the population that it faced the distinct prospect of insurrection and civil war.

The Bolsheviks had limited ties with the Georgian peasantry, which was overwhelmingly opposed to collectivization and dissatisfied over land shortages and other economic troubles.

The situation in the country was further aggravated by a famine prevailing in many areas and the summer 1921 outbreak of cholera which carried off thousands of victims.

The desperate shortage of food and the breakdown of medical services resulted in heavy mortality, Catholicos Patriarch Leonid being among the dead.

The highly politicized working class of Georgia, with its severe economic problems, was also hostile toward the new regime as were the national intelligentsia and nobility who had pledged their loyalty to the Menshevik republic.

A delayed transition from the Revkom ’ s rule to the Soviets ’ system, subordination of workers ’ organizations and trades unions to the Bolshevik party committees and Moscow ’ s centralizing policy created a discontent even among the multiethnic workers of Tiflis who were the most sympathetic towards Communist doctrines.