Reluctant terrorists? Transcaucasian social-cemocracy, 1901 – 1909

Abstract

This article discusses the development of Transcaucasian social-democratic terrorism from 1901 to 1909. For two reasons the ‘psychohistorical’ model emphasising the subjective and irrational aspects of terrorism has only limited value for the Transcaucasian case. First, the significance of the contextual factor is powerfully underscored by the phenomenon of workers' ‘economic terrorism’. It was not uncommon even, for workers to blackmail reluctant party organisations into supporting the killing of their enemies. Secondly, the social democrats were not driven by irrational urges but followed a rationally motivated and selective terrorist strategy. They attempted to limit or prevent workers' terrorism from below, the ‘anarchist’ potential of which they considered a threat to the organised mass struggle. They set their hopes on a division of labour, with a militant but mostly peaceful workers' movement and terrorism as the prerogative of the party.

Notes

¹Mayer (2002, pp. 6, 128, 137) makes the insightful observation that under the condition of a revolutionary breakdown of sovereignty the resulting all-out struggle between the contenders for power would typically result in something like a reversion to a political state of nature. Regardless of the ideological profiles of the fighting parties, there would occur a return to traditional vengeance, a ‘surge of founding violence mixed with wild vengefulness’ (Mayer 2002, p. 137). For a related argument see Nieburg (1969, pp. 82 – 100, 116 – 17).

²For definitions of terrorism close to the one used here, see Goodwin (2006) and B. Ganor, ‘Defining Terrorism: Is One Man's Terrorist Another Man's Freedom Fighter?’, available at: http://www.ict.org.il/var/119/17070-Def%20Terrorism%20by%20Dr.%20Boaz%20Ganor.pdf, accessed June 2007.

³See also Geifman (1993, pp. 6, 19).

⁴See also Geifman (1993, pp. 6, 19).

⁵For the most extensive analysis of these Russian social-democratic views on terrorism see Newell (1981). See also Geifman (1993, ch. 3) and Budnitskii (2000, ch. 5). For nineteenth-century social democracy and terrorism see Naimark (1983). On Russian social-democratic theory and practice of the ‘armed insurrection’ during the 1905 – 1907 revolution see Fischer (1967).

⁶Our knowledge of social-democratic terrorism in the Caucasian region remains quite fragmentary. What we know is composed from a variety of far from perfect source materials. It is nevertheless possible to construct a reasonably reliable image of the phenomenon, though important gaps and uncertainties remain. My research is partly based on memoirs of Georgian bolsheviks in the Stalin fond 558 and autobiographies of Georgian Old Bolsheviks in fond 124 of the Russian State Archive of Social-Political History (RGASPI). For a non-Georgian speaker this is a way of accessing Georgian materials. Department of Police fond 102 in the State Archive of the Russian Federation, GARF, contains informers' reports about the RSDWP as well as a great number of pamphlets and other documents translated from the Georgian into Russian. Nestan Charkviani and Simon Montefiore kindly provided me with a number of important Georgian language documents translated into English, for which I thank them. These documents are cited in the footnotes and reference list by their original Georgian titles.

⁷GARF, f. 102, op. 226, d. 5.52.A, t. 2, ll. 58 – 60, 72; GARF, f. 102, op. 230, d. 700, ll. 1, 4.

⁸Lelashvili Old Bolshevik autobiography (RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 1102, l. 5). See also Ostrovskii (2003, p. 602).

⁹RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 1102, ll. 5, 11, 15. See also Ostrovskii (2003, p. 602).

¹⁰1936 memoirs D. A. Vadachkoria (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 537). This is quoted in Montefiore (2007, pp. 75 – 76).

¹¹T. Gogiberidze, ‘Memoirs about Comrade Stalin’, Saqartvelos Prezidentis Arqivi (hereafter SPA) [Georgian Presidential Archive, GPA], f. 8, op. 2/1, d. 9: 384 – 88. Ostrovskii (2003, p. 602) has unconfirmed information about social-democratic activist A. Tsulukidze organising a terrorist group in Batumi in late 1901.

¹²16 January 1902: GARF, f. 102, op. 226, d. 5.52.A, t. 2, ll. 3 – 4.

¹³G. D. Rtveladze: RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 1646, l. 10. Possibly Stepan Shaumian was involved. See Ostrovskii (2003, p. 602) and Montefiore (2007, pp. 70, 342n).

¹⁴RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 1102, l. 5.

¹⁷See footnote 15.

¹⁵RGASPI, f. 71, op. 10, d. 176, l. 200 – 2. This source is a Russian translation of the four issues of brdzola published between September 1901 and December 1902.

¹⁶See footnote 15.

¹⁸G. F. Vardoiani, ‘Memuarebi [Memoirs]’ (SPA, f. 8, op. 2/1, d. 7, ll. 71 – 75).

¹⁹18 March 1902: GARF, f. 102, op. 226, d. 5.52.A, l. 9; 5 August 1902: GARF, f. 102, op. 230, d. 700, l. 7; August/September: GARF, f. 102, op. 230, d. 700, ll. 10, 19 – 21; 19 September 1902: GARF, f. 102, op. 230, d. 700, l. 32; 31 December 1903: GARF, f. 102, op. 232, d. 5.11.A, l. 8. See also: Jones (2005, p. 85).

²⁰GARF, f. 102, op. 230, d. 700, ll. 9 – 10. Included in these reports are four letters to railway employees carrying death threats. The one to the director of the railroads is signed TSDRP’’ (Tiflis Social-Democratic Workers Party) (GARF, f. 102, op. 230, d. 700, ll. 13 – 18).

²¹Tiflis gendarmerie report 24 March 1903 (GARF, f. 102, op. 226, d. 5.52.V, ll. 61 – 63).

²²GARF, f. 102, op. 232, d. 5.11.B, ll. 23 – 24.

²³Police reports 16 December 1904 (GARF, f. 102, op. 232, d. 5.11.B, ll. 30 – 31, 39, 55; 12 January 1905: GARF, f. 102, op. 232, d. 5.11.B, l. 86).

²⁴See also Senchakova (1975, pp. 57 – 58).

²⁵See also Senchakova (1975, p. 106). We find references to the actions of such groups scattered through the autobiographies of Old Bolsheviks. L. A. Morgipadze (1931) describes the unit of the legendary ‘Kamo’ that he became acquainted with in 1905 as a ‘group of terrorists’ (RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 1330, l. 6). V. D. Dzneladze was persuaded by Kamo to form a combat squad, fabricate bombs and plan ‘terrorist acts’ during 1905 (RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 589, ll. 5 – 6, 15). V. I. Areshidze recounts discussions of a ‘factional and terrorist character’ taking place in 1905 in his apartment, which served as headquarters of the combat squad of the seventh Tiflis district committee. The squad bombed a cossack unit (RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 75). In October 1905 the bolshevik Batumi Committee ordered its combat squad to kill three Black Hundred pogrom organisers (Chulok 1970, pp. 141 – 43, 146, 205). See also Senchakova (1975, pp. 151 – 52). K. Z. Tsintsadze, one of the commanders of the bolshevik‘revolutionary flying detachment’ in Chokhatauri district of Gori county describes himself as leader of a punishment squad (karatel'naya troika) (RGASPI, f. 124, op. 2, d. 77, l. 7). The Gori Committee combat squad was established to protect demonstrations. It engaged in military style battles with Black Hundred groups as well as in assassinations of Black Hundred activists and police spies (G. Elisabedashvili, ‘Memuarebi Rusetis Sotsial-Demokratiuli Mushata Partiis Goris Komitetis Shesakheb [Memoir RSDWP Gori Committee]’: Goris I. B. Stalinis Sakhelobis Sakhelmtsipo Sakhl-Muzeumis Pondi I.V. Stalin Gori State House—Museum Fund [GSSSSP], 3(3), d. 1955/147, ll. 1 – 4).

²⁶Bibineishvili (1931, pp. 86 – 87) remembers that one police chief agreed to become an informer for the Imeretian-Mingrelian Committee (under which Guria fell) if only he was ‘amnestied’ by the party. When this arrangement did not work committee member Bibineishvili ordered a ‘comrade-terrorist’ to resume the hunt on the man.

²⁷See also Arkomed (1924, pp. 70 – 72); Arsenidze (1963, p. 232). For bombing campaigns directed against the cossacks by the Tiflis mensheviks in 1905, see Jones (2005, pp. 180, 184, 186, 188), Geifman (1993, p. 99) and Makharadze (1927, pp. 227, 261 – 62).

²⁸Interview 25 July 1961 R. Arsenidze: Hoover Institution Archives [HIA], Collection B. Nicolaevsky [Nic.], Box 667, Folders 4 and 5, pp. 88 – 89; Uratadze (1968, p. 81).

²⁹HIA, Nic. Box 667, Folders 4 and 5, pp. 103 – 4.

³⁰Arsenidze interview, 24 July 1961 (HIA, Nic., Box 667, Folders 4 and 5, pp. 11 – 12).

²¹See Old Bolshevik autobiography of G. S. Vashadze (RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 328, ll. 5, 9); autobiography Bibineishvili (RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 181, l. 5); Talakvadze (1925, p. 138).

³²G. S. Vashadze (RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 328, l. 10); Vano Kiasashvili, ‘Personal Memoirs of the Activity of the Chiatura Bolshevik Fighting Squad in 1905’ (SPA, f. 8, op. 2/1, d. 25, ll. 261 – 62); Tsintsadze (1923, no. 2, p. 120; no. 3, pp. 68 – 69).

³³See Volobuev et al. (1996, pp. 132, 478 n); and 15 May 1905 police report (GARF, f. 102, op. 233, d. 5.11.A, ll. 20 – 22); Konferentsiya kavkazskikh (1905, pp. 2, 6).

³⁴GARF, f. 102, op. 233, d. 5.11.A., l. 54.

³⁵See also Stopani & Leman (1925, p. 18).

³⁶Police report 4 October 1906 (GARF, f. 102, op. 235, d. 25/56, ll. 8 – 9). See also Sidorov et al. (1963, p. 419).

³⁷The letter is attached in translation to a 21 October 1906 police report (GARF, f. 102, op. 234, d. 4.6, ll. 30 – 32). See also Tiflis police report 13 December 1906 (GARF, f. 102, op. 235, d. 25/56, ll. 34 – 35).

³⁸GARF, f. 102, op. 237, d. 5.61, l. 89.

³⁹K. I. Khomeriki formed a ‘group of terrorists’ for the second district committee in 1906. The group was ordered to kill two Black Hundred leaders (Autobiography 1931: RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 2048, l.6. T.A). Mgaloblishvili, who worked on the tram in Tiflis from 1906 to 1911 and became an organiser for the second district committee, notes in his 1931 autobiography that he worked as a ‘leader of terrorist acts’ (RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 1244, l.8).

⁴⁰D. G. Nasaridze, a Tiflis tram conductor from 1906 to 1908 and a member of the third district committee, killed a police spy on the tram and was probably involved in the murder of the director of the tram Levin. In 1907 he was ordered to form a ‘group of terrorists’ to kill another provocateur (1931 and undated autobiographies: RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 1366, ll. 7, 13 – 16).

⁴¹Vano Karapetov (Davakhetke) founded a ‘group of terrorists’ in 1906 under the fourth Tiflis district committee. A. G. Japaridze, who claimed to have been involved in over 60 ‘terrorist acts’ against Black Hundred activists, police and army officials and spies, worked for the group until late 1907. According to Karapetov, the Tiflis Committee ordered the murder of an okhrana officer (1934 autobiography A. G. Japaridze: RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 582, ll. 13 – 14, 21 – 22, 32); recommendations by Karapetov and others (RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 582, ll. 27 – 28, 32). B. T. Magaidze was part of the group. He killed many policemen and admits that he ‘became carried away by terror’. He also killed a provocateur in the sixth district: (RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 1236, l. 5). V. P. Sukhishvili, who committed ‘terrorist acts’ during 1906 – 1908 for the fourth district, was probably in the same group (RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 1885, ll. 4, 9 – 10).

⁴²Police report 15 September 1907 (GARF, f. 102, op. 237, d. 5.3, l. 100 – 1). See also Iskenderov (1958, p. 138). According to Stalin's Sochineniya (1946, p. 409), the meeting took place on 24 August.

⁴³Cited from two Rogov memoirs. For the first: Rogov (1927, pp. 126 – 28). The second, published in Katorga i Ssylka (1927, no. 6), I did not have available. See Budnitskii (2000, p. 322).

⁴⁴RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 658, ll. 39 – 41; RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 583, ll. 24 – 25.

⁴⁵I do not have formal records of this decision, but it was referred to by a Tiflis party collective in a conversation with representatives of social-democratic tramway workers in January 1909. See 13 January 1909 report by ‘Ulichnyi’ (GARF, f. 102, op. 239, d. 5.61.A(1), l. 3).

⁴⁶This appears from a 19 June 1908 proclamation of the Telavi organisation of the RSDWP. Referring to the decisions of the Fifth Party Congress, it noted the complete halt to all violent activities (GARF, f. 102, op. 238, d. 5.61, l. 35).

⁴⁷The pamphlet is attached to a police correspondence of 21 February 1908 (GARF, f. 102, op. 238, d. 5/3, l. 13).

⁴⁸GARF, f. 102, op. 238, d. 5/3, l. 26.

⁴⁹For this case see Tat'yana Vulich's account (HIA, Nic., Box 207, Folder 9, p. 6). Also Vulich's letter of 14 August 1949 (HIA, Nic., Box 207, Folder 9, p. 1). See also Boris Nicolaevsky's letter to Vulich 8 August 1949 (HIA, Nic., Box 207, Folder 15). In 1918 Martov referred to the affair in RGASPI, f. 558, op. 2, d. 42, l. 9.

⁵⁰Around the same time the above mentioned Rogov (1927, pp. 126 – 28) of the ‘Balakhany Commune’, who was held in the same prison, stabbed a fellow prisoner when ‘anarchist terrorists’ informed him that the latter was a traitor.

⁵¹For the so-called Leont'ev affair, see ‘Arkhivnye materialy o revolyutsionnoi deyatel'nosti I.V. Stalina za period 1908 – 1913 gg’, Krasnyi arkhiv, 2, 105, 1941, pp. 8 – 9; 1935 memoirs of S. Gafurov (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 658, l. 134); 1924 memoirs of S. Yakubov published in Zarya vostoka, 28 April 1924 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 658, ll. 446 – 48); Yakubov's 1935 memoirs (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 658, ll. 461 – 62; GARF, f. 102, op. 239, d. 5.3A, l. 48); report ‘Mikhail’ 28 September 1909 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 658, l. 59); report ‘Mikhail’ 7 October 1909 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 658, l. 66); report ‘Fikus’ 23 October 1909 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 658, l. 69); Ostrovskii (2003, pp. 317 – 18, 322 – 23).

⁵²This is according to 16 March 1910 ‘Dubrovin’ report quoted by Ostrovskii (2003, pp. 323 – 24). See also report ‘Fikus’ 15 March 1910 (GARF, f. 102, op. 240, d. 5.6B, l. 26).

⁵³Baku police correspondence 18 July 1908 (GARF, f. 102, op. 238, d. 5/3, l. 35).

⁵⁴Police correspondences 9 August and 9 September 1909 (GARF, f. 102, op. 239, d. 5.3A, ll. 25, 31).

⁵⁵The account of the bolshevik Baku Committee for July 1908 to February 1909 fails to mention ‘combat’ among the category of expenditures (GARF, f. 102, op. 239, d. 5.3, l. 19).

⁵⁶22 February 1909 report ‘Ulichnyi’ (GARF, f. 102, op. 239, d. 5.61.A(1), l. 14). For three other decisions to kill people taken by district committees in February and April 1909 see (GARF, f. 102, op. 239, d. 5.61.A(1), ll. 12, 56).

⁵⁷4 February 1910 report by ‘Zaikin’ (GARF, f. 102, op. 240, d. 5.79B, l. 67). For Tiflis mensheviks responsible for ‘terrorist acts’ in the railroad craftshops, see 8 March 1910 report ‘Chernov’ (GARF, f. 102, op. 240, d. 5.79B, ll. 104 – 5).

⁵⁸In a ‘notification’ of the (bolshevik) Tiflis Committee of December 1909 we find an elaboration of the local party structure with its various departments, but there is no mention of a combat department (GARF, f. 102, op. 239, d. 5.61, l. 117). Most significantly, on 23 January 1910 agent ‘no. 24’ reported that the bolsheviks proposed ‘to organise themselves in the old way, i.e. to create combat squads’ (GARF, f. 102, op. 240, d. 5.79B, l. 41). This implies that at the time the squads no longer existed. On two Tiflis bolshevik killings of spies in 1909 see Old Bolshevik Khomeriki (RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 2048, l. 6).

⁵⁹GARF, f. 102, op. 239, d. 5.61.A(1), l. 20.

⁶⁰Police report 18 November 1906 (GARF, f. 102, op. 235, d. 25/56, l. 36).

⁶¹Police report 12 October 1906 (GARF, f. 102, op. 235, d. 25/56, ll. 12 – 13). See also: Sidorov et al. (1963, pp. 420 – 21).

⁶²Police report 30 November 1906, plus pamphlet (GARF, f. 102, op. 235, d. 25/56, l. 20 – 21). See also: Sidorov et al. (1963, pp. 422 – 23, 577n); police report 5 December 1906 (GARF, f. 102, op. 235, d. 25/56, l. 24).

⁶³Police report 21 December 1906 (GARF, f. 102, op. 234, d. 4.6, l. 65).

⁶⁴Police report 4 January 1907 (GARF, f. 102, op. 237, d. 5.61, l. 2).

⁶⁵Police report 12 December 1906 (GARF, f. 102, op. 235, d. 25/56, l. 30); 1 February 1907 (GARF, f. 102, op. 237, d. 5.61, l. 15).

⁶⁶Police report 23 February 1907 (GARF, f. 102, op. 237, d. 5.61, l. 21).

⁶⁷Police report 24 February 1907 (GARF, f. 102, op. 237, d. 5.61, l. 23).

⁶⁸Police report 26 February 1907 (GARF, f. 102, op. 237, d. 5.61, l. 24).

⁶⁹8 March 1907 police report (GARF, f. 102, op. 237, d. 5.61, l. 28). On 29 May the first district committee distributed a pamphlet in which it was denied that the ‘terrorist hooligan’ had been sentenced by a people's court (GARF, f. 102, op. 237, d. 5.61, l. 86).

⁷⁰Police report 21 May 1907 (GARF, f. 102, op. 237, d. 5.61, l. 61).

⁷¹GARF, f. 102, op. 237, d. 5.61, ll. 75 – 76.

⁷²Report ‘Master’ 6 February 1909 (GARF, f. 102, op. 239, d. 5.61.A(1), l. 10).

⁷³GARF, f. 102, op. 239, d. 5.61, l. 78.

⁷⁴19 March 1910 report ‘Paradnyi’ (GARF, f. 102, op. 240, d. 5.79B, l. 93). See also report ‘Dvoryanin’ 8 March 1910 (GARF, f. 102, op. 240, d. 5.79B, l. 92).

⁷⁵‘Paradnyi’ 12 March 1910 (GARF, f. 102, op. 240, d. 5.79B, l. 94). For two more death verdicts imposed on spies by social-democratic workers, see informers’ reports 23 February and 3 March 1910 (GARF, f. 102, op. 240, d. 5.79B, ll. 78 – 79, 91).

⁷⁶RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, d. 1366, l. 14, 16.

⁷⁷Report ‘Ulichnyi’ 13 January 1909 (GARF, f. 102, op. 239, d. 5.61.A(1), ll. 3 – 4). See also: report ‘Motor’, 23 January 1909 (GARF, f. 102, op. 239, d. 5.61.A(1), l. 7). In early March 1909 a social-democratic tram ticket-collector was reported as possibly involved in an attempt on the life of director of the tramway Alibegov: Agent report 4 March 1909 (GARF, f. 102, op. 239, d. 5.61.A(1), l. 31); Report agent ‘no. 12’, 23 January 1910 (GARF, f. 102, op. 240, d. 5.79B, l. 40).

⁷⁸4 November 1909 report agent ‘no. 25’ (GARF, f. 102, op. 239, d. 5.61.A(1), l. 213).

⁷⁹1 December 1909 (GARF, f. 102, op. 239, d. 5.61.A(1), l. 217).

⁸⁰RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 658, ll. 129 – 30, 134.

⁸¹Undated memoirs (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 658, l. 431). See also RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 577, l. 4.

⁸² Bakinskii proletarii, no. 4, 15 May 1980, pp. 2 – 3.

⁸³See for the conference also Alliluev documents: RGASPI, f. 558, op. 4, d. 661, l. 352.

⁸⁴ Gudok, 53, 13 February 1909, p. 1.

⁸⁵ Gudok, 52, 6 February 1909, pp. 7ff; no. 53, 13 February 1909, p. 1.

⁸⁶See the report of July Baku party conference in Bakinskii proletarii, 6, 1 August 1909, p. 4. See also ‘Who killed Borisov?’, article by the Baku Committee in Sotsial-demokrat, 7 – 8, 8(21) August 1909: RGASPI, f. 71, op. 10, d. 20, ll. 221 – 24.

⁸⁷For Brower's discussion of the ‘deeply divided’ migrant city, see Brower (1986, 1990, pp. 202 – 27, quotation p. 227). On the traditional ‘honour and shame’ society and its violent aspects, see Suny (1991) and Rieber (2001, 2005). See also Baberowski (2003b, pp. 21 – 24) on the transfer of violent village traditions to the city. The tradition of collective fist fights mentioned prominently by Brower was alive in early twentieth-century Georgia; see Davrichewy (1979, ch. 12). The literature highlighting and analysing the patterns of segregation and fragmentation in Tiflis and Baku is extensive. See Suny (1975, pp. 319 – 20; 1986), Altstadt-Mirhadi (1986), Parsons (1987, pp. 335 – 38), Suny (1989, pp. 116 – 18, 144, 154), Swietochowski (1995, pp. 20 – 21, 37 – 40), Suny (1999), Baberowski (2003a, pp. 45 – 47, 61 – 68, 77ff), Baberowski (2003b, pp. 21 – 23) and Jones (2005, pp. 16, 19 – 21, 77, 84 – 86, 89, 171).

⁸⁸In a historically important observation Jones (2005, pp. 158, 283) notes the trailblazing character of the Georgian social-democratic movement, providing as it did ‘the first prototype of the peasant-based national liberationist movements’ organised by leaders like Cabral and Nyerere. But the Transcaucasian social democrats were also trailblazers of the revolutionary-terrorist wing of the twentieth-century ‘liberation movements’. Attempting to locally seize power through fear and by creating gradually expanding vacuums, they pioneered strategies later followed by communist groups such as the Indian ‘Naxalites’, the Peruvian Sendero Luminoso and the Colombian FARC.

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Erik van Ree

My research in Moscow was made possible through a grant by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). I wish to thank Max Bader, Marcel van der Linden and Ian Thatcher for their valuable comments on an earlier draft of this article.