Giorgi Mazniashvili
This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2013) |
Giorgi Mazniashvili | |
---|---|
Native name | გიორგი მაზნიაშვილი |
Other name(s) | Giorgi Mazniev |
Born | Sasiresti, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire | 6 April 1870
Died | 16 December 1937 | (aged 67)
Allegiance | Russian Empire (1905–1917) Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918–1921) Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1921–1923) |
Years of service | 1905–1923 |
Rank | General |
Battles/wars | Russo-Japanese War World War I Sochi conflict Georgian–Armenian War Red Army invasion of Georgia |
Giorgi Mazniashvili (Georgian: გიორგი მაზნიაშვილი) (6 April, 1870 – 16 December, 1937) was a Georgian general and one of the most prominent military figures in the Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918–1921). During the service in the Russian army, he was also known by a Russian transliteration of his surname – Mazniev.
Life
Mazniashvili was born in 6 April, 1870 in the village Sasireti, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire (present day Kaspi Municipality, Shida Kartli, Georgia). Having taken a proper military education, he was later promoted to general of the Russian army. Wounded in the Russo-Japanese war (1904–1905), he was visited at a hospital by the Tsar Nicholas II, who awarded him St George’s Cross and invited the general to the palace. He fought also on the battlefields of World War I, but returned to Georgia after the February Revolution, 1917. He formed two national divisions and secured the capital Tbilisi from the chaotically retreating and increasingly Bolshevist Russian soldiers. In April 1918, he successfully defended the southwestern province Guria from the Ottoman offensive winning a victory on the Choloki River. In June 1918, he served as a governor general of Abkhazia and crushed there a pro-Bolshevik revolt; then he took Gagra, Sochi and Tuapse in the first phase of the Sochi conflict. From October to December 1918, he served as a governor general of Tbilisi. During the December Georgian-Armenian war 1918, he was appointed a commander-in-chief and successfully defended the Georgian borders from the troops of General Dro. In 1919 he served as a governor general of Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki and was moved, on October 6, 1920, as a commandant in Tbilisi. During the Soviet invasion of February 1921, he repulsed the Red Army from the Soghanlughi heights at the outskirts of Tbilisi. The war, however, was lost. Mazniashvili did not follow the country’s leaders in exile, but mobilized the remnants of the Georgian armed forces to recover the Black Sea city of Batumi from the Turkish occupation, March 1921. The newly established Soviet government of Georgia declared him outlaw, but later offered him a nominal post in the Red Army. In 1923, during the Red Terror, he was arrested and exiled to Persia whence he moved to France. In a few years, he was allowed to return and he lived in his native village Sasireti, far from political life. During the Great Purges, however, he was arrested and executed without a trial, 1937. In the 1950s, Mazniashvili's son, a World War II veteran of the Soviet army, submitted a request for a political rehabilitation of his father, but this was turned down by the authorities.[1][2]
Maznashvili is the author of the popular Soldier’s Memoirs. In 2013, he was posthumously awarded the title and Order of National Hero of Georgia.[3]
References
- ^ Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia (July 2008), The Archival Bulletin #2, pp. 10-15 Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Soldiers Memories (In Georgian)
- ^ "Mikheil Saakashvili – Georgia will not kneel, or lick the conqueror's boots". InterPressNews. 26 October 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
- 1872 births
- 1937 deaths
- People from Shida Kartli
- People from Tiflis Governorate
- Memoirists from Georgia (country)
- Generals from Georgia (country)
- Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic
- Great Purge victims from Georgia (country)
- People from Georgia (country) executed by the Soviet Union
- Russian military personnel of the Russo-Japanese War
- People of World War I from Georgia (country)
- National Heroes of Georgia
- Georgian emigrants to France