Regular Army of the Georgian Democratic Republic

Regular Army of the Democratic Republic of Georgia
საქართველოს დემოკრატიული რესპუბლიკის რეგულარული არმია
Founded	June 1918 (1918-06)
Disbanded	1921
Country	Democratic Republic of Georgia
Type	Army
Size	20,000–30,000 war time strength
Garrison/HQ	Tbilisi, Democratic Republic of Georgia
Engagements	Caucasus campaign Abkhazia conflict Sochi conflict Armeno-Georgian War Red Army invasion of Georgia
Commanders
Commander-in-Chief	Giorgi Kvinitadze Ilia Odishelidze
Notable commanders	Giorgi Kvinitadze Giorgi Mazniashvili Kote Abkhazi Ilia Odishelidze Aleksandre Andronikashvili Aleksandre Gedevanishvili Zakaria Mdivani Valerian Tevzadze Aleksandre Zakariadze Shalva Maglakelidze Taras Vashakidze Kirile Kutateladze Abel Makashvili Davit Artmeladze Ioseb Gedevanishvili Giorgi Tsulukidze

The Regular Army of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (Georgian: საქართველოს დემოკრატიული რესპუბლიკის რეგულარული არმია, romanized: sakartvelos demok'rat'iuli resp'ublik'is regularuli armia) was the military of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. It existed in parallel to the People's Guard of Georgia.

History

Background (1917–1918)

In response to the October Revolution of 1917 and the collapse of the Russian Provisional Government, the major Transcaucasian political organizations refused to recognize the new Bolshevik government. They established the Transcaucasian Commissariat, a coalition government composed of Azerbaijani Musavats, Armenian Dashnaks, and Georgian Social-Democrats. Initially conceived as a temporary administration pending the restoration of a legitimate Russian government, the Commissariat continued to regard Transcaucasia as part of Russia. However, amid the Russian Civil War and the Brest-Litovsk negotiations, it eventually moved toward independence, and the sovereign Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic was proclaimed in April 1918.

The Transcaucasian Commissariat inherited responsibility for the Caucasian Front of the First World War. The Russian Caucasian Army was exhausted and increasingly disorganized, with many of its soldiers sympathetic to the Bolsheviks and the army undergoing a process of spontaneous demobilization.

As the threat of an Ottoman invasion grew, the Transcaucasian government authorized the formation of national armed forces from the remnants of the Russian army to occupy abandoned positions along the front. The respective national councils and military commissariats of the Transcaucasian peoples were tasked with organizing these forces. However, the process was hampered by shortages of weapons and ammunition, political patronage at the expense of military professionalism, widespread Bolshevik sympathies among the soldiers, and low morale and discipline.

The Georgian Army Corps was formed from Georgian personnel serving in the Russian army on the Caucasus Front on 5 November 1917. The Transcaucasian Commissariat and the army command believed that national formations would be more effective in defending the region against the Ottomans than the other units on the front, which were increasingly influenced by revolutionary ideas and unwilling to continue fighting, leading to mass desertions. However, the national formations, including the Georgian Corps, were themselves affected by declining morale and discipline and proved largely incapable of sustained combat operations. The Georgian Corps comprised only about 10,300 men, making it smaller than a full division. In February 1918, Georgian regiments mutinied in Gori, Telavi, and Kutaisi, but the uprisings were suppressed by the Red Guard.

The Red Guard was a paramilitary organization of the Social Democratic Party of Georgia established in 1917 as the major political parties began forming their own armed forces amid the revolutionary upheavals. Initially known as the Workers' Red Guard, it carried out its first major operation on 12 December 1917, when it seized a district arms depot in Tiflis from pro-Bolshevik guards, thereby preventing a Bolshevik coup in Georgia. The Red Guard was subordinated to the Tiflis Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, a body dominated by Georgian Social Democrats. It consisted primarily of volunteers and had no formal officer corps.

Establishment (1918)

Following the declaration of Georgian independence, debate over the organization of the Georgian armed forces based on the Georgian Army Corps intensified. The ruling Social Democratic Party of Georgia, reflecting its Marxist outlook, favored a Swiss-style militia system and regarded the Red Guard as a prototype for such a force. Nevertheless, given the complex political and military situation in the region, the Social Democrats also recognized the need for a strong regular army. They envisioned that the Red Guard and the regular army would eventually be integrated into a unified militia system. The military leadership, by contrast, advocated the establishment of a strong regular army and was willing to accept the continued existence of a separate Red Guard only if it operated in close coordination with the army. This position was supported by German military officials, a stance that was viewed with disfavor by the Social Democrats. The opposition National Democratic Party, including its prominent leader Davit Vachnadze, likewise advocated a unified army under a single commander that would bring together members of all social classes.

The Social Democrats feared the emergence of Bonapartism within the armed forces and a repetition of the Kornilov affair. They also suspected that the opposition National Democrats might ally with the German Empire to stage a coup against the government. Their distrust of the prospective regular army was further reinforced by the presence of Bolshevik sympathizers among the Georgian military personnel, who frequently organized mutinies. By contrast, the volunteer-based Red Guard was considered more politically reliable and had played a key role in suppressing Bolshevik uprisings. The Social Democrats therefore justified the Guard's continued existence primarily by emphasizing its role in countering internal threats.

Ultimately, Georgia came to have both a regular army and the Red Guard. The latter was soon renamed the People's Guard and was primarily responsible for maintaining internal security. In wartime, it was to be dissolved as a separate formation, with its members joining the army through their respective enlistment offices. The People's Guard was formally established as a state institution under a law enacted in July 1918. During peacetime, the Guard remained outside the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defence, unlike the regular army, and was subordinated to its own General Headquarters. In wartime, both the army and the People's Guard were to come under the authority of the Commander-in-Chief. Service in the People's Guard did not exempt its members from compulsory military service; consequently, upon mobilization, guardsmen were to be distributed among regular army units. The Guard was directly subordinate to the chairman of the government and maintained its own district headquarters. These district headquarters were elected by local guardsmen and required confirmation by the General Headquarters.

In June 1918, the government issued its first decree regulating the regular army and establishing its provisional organizational structure. The army was placed under the authority of the Ministry of Defence, with the deputy minister serving as its commander. The army had a General Staff and a Field Staff, the latter responsible for training and supply, while the former handled war planning, mobilization schemes, topography, and legislative matters. The Georgian Army Corps was reorganized as the Georgian Regular Army, and the corps commander was replaced by a Commander-in-Chief. The regular army was to be recruited through compulsory conscription. Conscripts were required to serve for two years in the army, followed by 18 years in the reserve and a further eight years in the militia. In contrast, the People's Guard remained a volunteer-based force.

Relations between the Regular Army and the People's Guard were characterized by persistent antagonism, while the existence of parallel military structures hindered effective coordination. Tensions occasionally escalated into armed clashes between guardsmen and regular army personnel. The People's Guard was generally treated as the more privileged of the two forces. Although it was formally required to come under the authority of the Commander-in-Chief during wartime, with guardsmen being incorporated into regular army units, in practice they often continued to operate as separate People's Guard formations and frequently disregarded the orders of the Commander-in-Chief.

The regular army had its own senior military chaplain, a position held by Anton Totibadze.

In August 1918, new legislation was enacted establishing the organizational structure of the regular army. Under the 1918 establishment, the army was to comprise two infantry divisions, a separate artillery brigade, a cavalry brigade, an engineering-technical force, and a coastal (border) force, with a total authorized strength of 41,260 personnel.

The army was to comprise the following formations:

• Infantry division: division headquarters, three infantry regiments, an artillery brigade, a separate cavalry squadron, and a sapper company — 11,178 men, 45/54 cannons, and 1,680 horses.
• Artillery brigade: brigade headquarters, a light artillery divizion consisting of three four-gun batteries, and two field heavy howitzer divizions, each consisting of three four-howitzer batteries (with two guns per battery in peacetime) — 2,146 men, 30/48 cannons, and 870 horses.
• Cavalry brigade: brigade headquarters; three cavalry regiments, each consisting of a regimental headquarters, three cavalry squadrons, a cavalry machine-gun squadron, a communications group, a cavalry sapper company, a training group, a repair group, and a bugler group; a reserve squadron; and a cavalry artillery battery — 3,437 men, four cannons, and 3,173 horses.
• Engineering-Technical Force: a Sapper Battalion, Technical Battalion, Special Motor Company, Armored Vehicle Company, and Aviation Squadron — 2,656 men, six armored vehicles, 11 cars, 35 trucks, six car-trucks, three car workshops, eight motorcycles, seven bicycles, and an unspecified number of aircraft.
• Coastal Guard: three detachments and a training detachment — 4,859 men and 1,146 horses.

Under the August 1918 law, the National Council was the supreme authority over the army and exercised its powers through the government and the Ministry of the Military. The Commander-in-Chief was to be appointed by the government during wartime and granted full operational authority. The General Headquarters of the Regular Army was established within the Ministry of the Military, while a Field Staff was to be formed in wartime.

Although Georgia had a manpower pool of approximately 164,000 men, which was expected to be fully mobilized in wartime, the regular army struggled to recruit sufficient personnel. Shortages of equipment, economic difficulties, logistical challenges, inexperienced and insufficiently diligent officers, low troop morale, and other factors restricted recruitment to approximately 9,000–12,000 men in peacetime and 20,000–30,000 through wartime mobilization. Moreover, the repeated mobilization and demobilization necessitated by the country's successive wars disrupted conscription and prevented the proper training of troops. By late September 1918, the regular army consisted of the 1st Division (2,333 men), 2nd Division (3,032 men), Army Artillery Brigade (600 men), Cavalry Brigade (993 men), Coastal Army (1,181 men), and Engineering-Technical Force (769 men). All formations were severely understrength, and the entire army had fewer personnel than a single full-strength division. By October, the army was short of approximately 60% of its authorized personnel and 80% of its horses.

The failure of the 1918 conscription campaign demonstrated that Georgia lacked the resources to maintain a large regular army. Moreover, Georgia relied heavily on the German Empire, which had an interest in maintaining a strong Georgian military presence. However, Germany's defeat in the First World War in November 1918 further complicated Georgia's strategic position and removed an important source of support. These developments prompted the government to reorganize the structure and personnel establishment of the permanent regular army.

1919–1921

In 1919, discussions began on reorganizing the armed forces. Aleksandre Gedevanishvili, the Deputy Minister of the Military, advocated using the People's Guard as the basis for the armed forces and merging the headquarters of the two formations into a single Military Collegium to improve coordination, while leaving the transition to a militia system for a later stage. He did not, however, oppose retaining the Regular Army and the People's Guard as separate formations. Voronovich, head of the People's Guard's Formation Department, proposed abolishing the regular army altogether and introducing compulsory military service in the People's Guard. General Kvinitadze, who was also asked to submit a proposal, took the opposite position, advocating the abolition of the People's Guard in favor of a strong regular army, the appointment of a military officer as Minister of the Military, and territorial-based mobilization. Ultimately, both formations were retained, and a commission comprising representatives of both the Regular Army and the People's Guard was established to consider their organization.

In July 1919, the army was reorganized and reduced to a peacetime strength of 16,950 personnel. It adopted a cadre system, under which the peacetime army consisted of three infantry brigades, an army artillery divizion, a cavalry regiment, a coastal (border) detachment, engineering-technical forces, and a military school. In wartime, the three infantry brigades were to be expanded into three divisions. The planned wartime strength of the army was 45,820 men, although this figure was classified. The peacetime structure of the army was as follows:

• Infantry brigade: brigade headquarters, four infantry battalions, and an artillery divizion consisting of three batteries — 3,330 men and 12 cannons.
• Army Artillery Divizion: divizion headquarters, a mountain battery, a light howitzer battery, and a heavy field artillery battery — 565 men and 12 cannons.
• Cavalry regiment: regimental headquarters, three squadrons, a cavalry machine-gun squadron, a communications company, a cavalry sapper squadron, a training company, and a non-commissioned company — 633 men.
• Coastal Guard: Coastal Guard Squad; detachments in Poti, Akhaltsikhe, Sokhumi, Dariali, Sighnaghi, and Borchalo; the Tbilisi Guards Battalion; and a flotilla — 3,116 men.
• Engineering-Technical Forces: Engineering-Technical Forces Headquarters, a Battalion of Demolition Workers, a separate motor team, an aviation team, an aviation school, and a radio-telegraph team — 1,240 personnel. The force had 69 vehicles, four of them armored, and 16 motorcycles; the number of aircraft was unspecified.

The 1919 project was drafted by Colonel Aleksandre Zakariadze.

In 1919, the process of building up the Georgian army continued with the involvement of Georgian generals and officers who had served in the Imperial Russian Army. Colonel Valerian Tevzadze translated Russian military regulations into Georgian, and the resulting texts were distributed among the troops.

On 30 May 1919, Georgia established a Military Council to inspect the armed forces and oversee their supply. It was intended to resolve disputes between the People's Guard and the regular army over these matters.

Among other reforms, the new laws established a military school for the training of officers and lieutenants of all ranks. Muslims and Doukhobors were exempted from military conscription. In November 1919, Abkhazians were likewise exempted from conscription.

In April 1920, amid the Red Army invasion of Azerbaijan, Georgia established the Defense Council of the Republic, tasked with strengthening the armed forces and overseeing war planning. The council operated until August, when it was dissolved, and was reconstituted in November, continuing to function until the country's loss of independence. It had no authority to interfere with the operational activities of the Commander-in-Chief.

The period of compulsory military service was reduced to one year and four months, followed by one year and eight months in the reserve. Service in the People's Guard was now legally equated with service in the regular army; however, in practice, the People's Guard continued to rely exclusively on volunteers and was never staffed with conscripts. The People's Guard continued to operate de facto independently during wartime, and this arrangement was to some extent formalized by law. In November 1920, the Defence Council issued a decree authorizing the Main Headquarters of the People's Guard to establish Field Staffs that would coordinate with front commanders, to whom People's Guard units were to be subordinated. In practice, the People's Guard units followed the directives of these Field Staffs.

On 25 June 1920, the army's authorized strength was slightly increased to 19,360 personnel. The Georgian-Muslim Cavalry Division, Georgian-Muslim Infantry Battalion, Georgian Legion, and Borchalo Azerbaijani Cavalry Company were incorporated into the army. The Georgian-Muslim units had been established by the political leadership to combat separatist rebels between January and April 1919, when Georgia faced revolts in the Akhaltsikhe and Ardahan districts, supported by the South-Western Caucasian Republic. Despite being designated a cavalry division, the unit was actually only battalion-sized, comprising cavalry and infantry squadrons and a machine-gun platoon, with 276 personnel.

In 1921, the Minister of the Military estimated the recruitable population at 151,180 men, although the army continued to suffer from a shortage of personnel.

Structure

Name	Location
1st Army Infantry Brigade	Kutaisi
2nd Army Infantry Brigade	Tbilisi
3rd Army Infantry Brigade	Gori
Army Artillery Brigade	Tbilisi
Army Cavalry Divizion	Tetritskaro
Sapper Battalion	Tbilisi
Coastal Guard detachments	Poti Akhaltsikhe Sokhumi Darial Gorge Sighnaghi Shulaveri
Tbilisi Guards Battalion	Tbilisi
Source:

Combat composition

• 1st Army Infantry Brigade (Headquarters: Kutaisi)
  • 1st Infantry Battalion (Kutaisi)
  • 2nd Infantry Battalion (Sokhumi)
  • 3rd Infantry Battalion (Poti)
  • 4th Infantry Battalion (Ozurgeti)
  • 1st Artillery Divizion (Kutaisi)
• 2nd Army Infantry Brigade (Headquarters: Tbilisi)
  • 5th Infantry Battalion (Tbilisi)
  • 6th Infantry Battalion (Telavi)
  • 7th Infantry Battalion (Tbilisi)
  • 8th Infantry Battalion (Dedoplistskaro)
  • 2nd Artillery Divizion (Mukhrovan-Gombori)
• 3rd Army Infantry Brigade (Headquarters: Gori)
  • 9th Infantry Battalion (Akhaltsikhe)
  • 10th Infantry Battalion (Gori)
  • 11th Infantry Battalion (Akhalkalaki)
  • 12th Infantry Battalion (Manglisi)
  • 3rd Artillery Divizion (Gori)
• Tbilisi Guards Battalion (Tbilisi)
• Army Artillery Brigade (Tbilisi)
• Army Cavalry Divizion (Tetritskaro)
• Sapper Battalion (Tbilisi)

Equipment

Main articles: List of equipment of the Defense Forces of Georgia and List of historical equipment of the Georgian Armed Forces

The Mosin–Nagant was the primary rifle of the Georgian infantry. The army also employed rifles of various origins, calibers, and ranges, including the Lebel, Gras, Berdan, Mannlicher, Arisaka, three-line Winchester, Mauser, and various models and modifications of the Krag–Jørgensen and Martini–Henry rifles. Officers were armed with Nagant M1895 revolvers, as well as Frontier Bulldog revolvers and Luger, M1911, and Mauser C96 pistols. The PM M1910 and Lewis gun were the primary machine guns of the Georgian army.

Georgia inherited a limited quantity of weapons from the stockpiles of the Russian Caucasian Army. As of July 1918, the Georgian regular army had 4,796 rifles and carbines, 223 machine guns, and more than 24 million cartridges in its arsenal. These included 2,812 Mosin–Nagant rifles (7.62 mm) with 2,037,880 cartridges; 147 Japanese Arisaka rifles (6.5 mm) with 3,686,900 cartridges; 218 Berdan rifles (10.75 mm) with 7,881,819 cartridges; 190 Swiss-Italian Vetterli rifles (10.35 mm) with 857,520 cartridges; 1,322,698 cartridges for French Lebel rifles (8 mm); and 7,464,041 cartridges for French Chauchat machine guns (8 mm). Since Georgia had no Chauchat machine guns, the army could use their cartridges in Lebel rifles, but not in its principal infantry rifle, the Mosin–Nagant. In addition to these rifles and ammunition, the Georgian army had 222 Lewis guns with 203,768 cartridges and one Colt machine gun with 8,000 cartridges. The number of rifles already in use by the Georgian army before independence is unknown. As of July 1918, however, the army is estimated to have had 9,045 Mosin–Nagant rifles in service. Although the number of cartridges already in use by the army at that time is likewise unknown, the available figures suggest that the army faced a serious shortage of ammunition, as well as a shortage of rifles for wartime mobilization and, to a lesser extent, machine guns.

The Georgian army's stockpiles were replenished through various means, including the purchase of weapons, the disarmament of the population, and the seizure of weaponry. Following the withdrawal of the Imperial German Army from the Caucasus, Germany transferred heavy machine guns, mortars, and vehicles to Georgia. Germany also sold Georgia 20,000 rifles and four million cartridges captured from the Imperial Russian Army, although by 1919 Georgia was unable to pay for them. The number of Lewis and Maxim guns in the stockpiles increased to 472, while the number of Mosin–Nagant rifles reached 22,812, with 6,037,880 cartridges. Between May 1918 and May 1919, 25,000 of the 30,000 rifles of various types held in Georgian stockpiles were issued to the Georgian army, while the remainder were issued to the Guard. Overall, the Georgian army is estimated to have possessed approximately 40,000 Mosin–Nagant rifles, along with considerably smaller numbers of other rifles and carbines.

Following the German handovers, the Georgian army had 472 machine guns in its stockpiles, while the number already in service with the army in 1918 is unknown. In 1919, 400 machine guns from the stockpiles were issued to the Georgian army.

In July 1920, according to Pavel Satin, the Soviet Russian military attaché to Georgia, the Georgian authorities disarmed White Army units that had fled to Georgia from the Red Army. The Georgian army seized all of their artillery pieces, two tanks, 1,600 horses, three armored and transport vehicles, 200 cartloads, 40 machine guns, two light automobiles, and up to 20,000 rifles. The French military attaché, however, reported different figures, stating that Georgia had seized only 7,000 rifles, 150 machine guns, 10 howitzers, two tanks, 21 trucks, six automobiles, 13 motorcycles, one radiotelegraph, hundreds of cartloads, and up to 3,000 horses.

In contrast to the shortage of rifles, Georgia maintained a relatively large stockpile of grenades, estimated at between 57,584 and 200,000. However, only about 3,000 were used in 1918, as troops lacked sufficient knowledge of how to use them.

In terms of artillery, Georgia possessed 3-inch (76.2 mm) field guns of the 1900 and 1902 models, 3-inch (76.2 mm) mountain guns of the 1904 and 1909 models, 48-line (122 mm) howitzers of the 1904, 1905, and 1909 models, and 45-line (114 mm) British howitzers. As of July 1918, the stockpiles contained 156 artillery pieces: 115 3-inch (76.2 mm) 1909-model mountain guns, 12 3-inch field guns, six 48-line (122 mm) howitzers, and two 45-line (114 mm) howitzers. The stockpiles also contained 112,492 shells, although not all could be used because Georgia lacked some of the corresponding artillery pieces. Of the available ammunition, 42,029 shells were allocated to the 3-inch (76.2 mm) 1909-model mountain guns, equivalent to 365 shells per gun. By 1919, this stockpile had fallen to 33,023 shells, or 287 shells per gun. Each 48-line howitzer had 123 shells allocated to it. The shortage was less pronounced for the 3-inch field guns, for which 1,389 shells per gun were available in July 1918; this figure had declined to 865 by March 1919. The 45-line howitzers had 4,000 shells per gun in stock.

In addition, the stockpiles contained 99 9 mm grenade launchers with 94,906 shells and eight mortars with 230 shells. In 1920, Georgia also received two 6-line field howitzers and two mountain howitzers, although these were still insufficient to meet the wartime establishment of the army's units.

The Georgian armed forces had seven armored vehicles: one Garford-Putilov armoured car, four Austin armored cars, one Pierce-Arrow armored car, and one locally built armored Napier car. In addition, the People's Guard seized and operated two obsolete Mark V tanks abandoned by the Russian White Army. In 1918, the Regular Army's Armored Vehicle Company was authorized six armored vehicles. In 1919, it was reorganized as a Separate Vehicle Team and authorized four vehicles, with this number rising to six in wartime. The People's Guard likewise maintained its own Armored Vehicle Team. These establishment figures, however, did not correspond to the actual number of armored vehicles in service. The Regular Army in fact had only two armored vehicles. They were named "Homeland" (Austin) and "Georgia" (Napier, captured from the Red Army in 1919), while the People's Guard's vehicles were named "Guardsman", "Proletarian", "International", "Peasant", and "Struggle". The armored vehicles were supplied to the Georgian armed forces by the German Empire.

The People's Guard operated four armored trains, which were among the most powerful weapons of the Georgian armed forces. Each was equipped with three to four mountain guns and 14 to 25 machine guns. The Georgian armored trains were named "Republican", "Worker", "Victory or Death", and "Freedom Fortress". The trains were inherited from the First Caucasian Separate Railway Brigade of the Russian Railway Troops. Three of the four were lost during the Armeno-Georgian War, after which a new armored train was commissioned in March 1919. A third armored train, armed with two mountain guns and 10 machine guns, was constructed in early 1920. Construction of the fourth began in December 1920 under the leadership of Valodia Goguadze, commander of the People's Guard's Armored Train Squad.

Georgia inherited mostly obsolete and worn-out aircraft from the First World War. In 1920, the White Army handed over four Sopwith Camel F.1 fighters to Georgia while retreating from the Red Army. In the summer of that year, Georgia purchased ten SVA.10s from the Ansaldo plant in the Kingdom of Italy. The Georgian air force suffered from shortages of fuel and oil.

The Georgian navy consisted of only a few small Greenport boats and occasionally requisitioned civilian vessels for military purposes.

Sources

• Silakadze, Dimitri; Chkonia, Marine (2021). Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-1921) (PDF). Tbilisi: National Library of Georgia. ISBN 9789941977718.
• Silakadze, Dimitri (2023). საქართველოს დემოკრატიული რესპუბლიკის რეგულარული ჯარისა და სახალხო გვარდიის ორგანიზაცია და შეიარაღება (PDF). Tbilisi: National Library of Georgia.
• Anchabadze, George (December 2018). "Armed Forces of Georgian Democratic Republic in 1918–1921". School of Arts and Sciences (5). Latvijas Universitātes Žurnāls Vēsture: 100–116. doi:10.22364/lvzv.5.06.