Soviet invasion of Georgia
| Soviet invasion of Georgia | |||||||||
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| Part of the Southern Front of the Russian Civil War, the Eastern Front of the Turkish War of Independence, and military occupations by the Soviet Union | |||||||||
The Red Army in Tbilisi, 25 February 1921 | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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Soviet Russia Soviet Armenia Soviet Azerbaijan Co-belligerent: Ankara Government | Georgia | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Joseph Stalin Mikhail Velikanov Anatoly Gekker Sergo Ordzhonikidze Filipp Makharadze Kâzım Karabekir |
Parmen Chichinadze Giorgi Kvinitadze Giorgi Mazniashvili Valiko Jugheli | ||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
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| Strength | |||||||||
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40,000 infantry 4,300 cavalry 196 artillery pieces 1,065 machine guns 50 fighter aircraft 7 armoured trains 4 tanks 24+ armoured cars 20,000 |
11,000 infantry 400 mounted infantry hundreds from the People's Guard of Georgia 46 artillery pieces several hundred machine guns 56 fighter aircraft (including 25 Ansaldo SVA-10s and one Sopwith Camel.) 4 armoured trains several armoured cars | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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Soviet: 5,500 killed 2,500 captured Unknown number wounded Turkish: 30 killed 26 wounded 46 missing |
3,200 killed or captured Unknown number wounded 3,800–5,000 civilians killed | ||||||||
The Soviet invasion of Georgia (12 February – 17 March 1921), also known as the Georgian–Soviet War or the Red Army invasion of Georgia, was a military campaign by the Russian Soviet Red Army aimed at overthrowing the Social Democratic (Menshevik) government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG) and installing a Bolshevik regime (Communist Party of Georgia) in the country. The conflict was a result of expansionist policy by the Bolsheviks, who aimed to control as much as possible of the lands which had been part of the former Russian Empire until the turbulent events of the First World War, as well as the revolutionary efforts of mostly Russian-based Georgian Bolsheviks, who did not have sufficient support in their native country to seize power without external intervention.
The independence of Georgia had been recognized by Soviet Russia in the Treaty of Moscow, signed on 7 May 1920, and the subsequent invasion of the country was not universally agreed upon in Moscow. It was largely engineered by two influential Georgian-born Soviet officials, Joseph Stalin and Sergo Ordzhonikidze, who on 14 February 1921 received the consent of Russian leader Vladimir Lenin to advance into Georgia, on the pretext of supporting the alleged "peasants' and workers' rebellion" in the country. Russian forces took the Georgian capital Tbilisi (then known as Tiflis to most non-Georgian speakers) after heavy fighting and declared the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic on 25 February 1921. The rest of the country was overrun within three weeks, but it was not until September 1924 that Soviet rule was firmly established. Almost simultaneous occupation of a large portion of southwest Georgia by Turkey (February–March 1921) threatened to develop into a crisis between Moscow and Ankara, and led to significant territorial concessions by the Soviets to the Turkish National Government in the Treaty of Kars.