Kakutsa Cholokashvili
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Kaikhosro Cholokashvili (Georgian: ქაიხოსრო ჩოლოყაშვილი) commonly known as Kakutsa (Georgian: ქაქუცა, a hypocorism of Kaikhosro;) (July 14, 1888 – June 27, 1930) is a national hero of Georgia who gained popularity as a guerilla leader against the Bolshevik Red Army during the Russian Civil War. His name is also spelled Kakoutsa Tcholokhachvili in a French manner.
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[edit] Early life and career
He was born into the prominent aristocratic family of Prince Ioseb Cholokashvili in the village Matani, Kakheti region (then part of the Russian Empire). The family of Cholokashvili had been playing an important role in the military and political life of Georgia. The 17th century clerical leader and diplomat Nikoloz Cholokashvili is one example. Kakutsa himself descended directly from Prince Bidzina Cholokashvili, a prominent leader of the 1654 uprising against the Persian rule and Christian martyr who is regarded as saint by the Georgian Orthodox Church.
After the graduation from the Tiflis Gymnasium of Nobility, Cholokashvili served as an officer in the Tver Dragoon Regiment of the Russian army. He married Nino Megvinetukhutsesi in 1913 and retired to his estate at Matani where he lived with his family until the World War I erupted in 1914.
He fought first against the Austro-Hungarian army and was severely wounded in 1914. After that, Prince Cholokashvili was transferred to the Caucasus Front as a commander of a rear unit. During the Turkish offensive, he gallantly defended the strategic fort of Eagle’s Nest and received serious wounds again. After the recovery, he was assigned to lead the Georgian Cavalry Legion, which served under General Nikolai Nikolayevich Baratov (Baratashvili) in Persia in 1915 and made a brilliant raid to Mesopotamia, where he joined the British expeditionary forces in 1916.
On May 26, 1918, Georgia declared independence and Colonel Cholokashvili joined the national army. He took part in all important campaigns of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG) from 1918 to 1921. He also served as Deputy Defence Minister of DRG in 1919.
[edit] Partisan leader
In February, 1921, Bolshevik Russia’s Red Army invaded Georgia. Georgians had to abandon their capital, Tiflis on February 25, 1921 and retreat to the west. In March, the Georgian government capitulated and left the country. However, Cholokashvili refused to flee and organized a small guerilla force ("The Conspirators of Georgia") to fight the Bolshevik regime in March 1922.
The first clash took place near the town of Signagi in June, 1922. In the summer of 1922, Cholokashvili and his supporters organized a peasant revolt in the mountainous region of Khevsureti. The Soviet troops burned several villages to the ground, but Cholokashvili managed to escape to neighboring Chechnya. He returned in November and attacked the Bolshevik forces again. His brother Svimon Cholokashvili was killed in one of the skirmishes. Cholokashvili’s family members were arrested and his father-in-law was later executed by the Soviets.
The most intense fighting erupted during the August Uprising in Georgia in 1924, the banner of which was entrusted to Cholokashvili. He took the town Manglisi in a surprise attack on August 29, but could not get reinforcement and moved to the eastern Georgian mountains where he seized control of Dusheti and crushed the Red Army units at Svimoniant-Khevi on September 3. Despite the uprising was generally unsuccessful and brutally suppressed, Cholokashvili refused to surrender and tried to organize, though vainly, sortie to Tbilisi on several occasions. He fought his last engagement at Khev-Grdzela in Kakheti in mid-September and could escape unbeaten despite being vastly outnumbered and shelled by the Red Army artillery. Eventually, the partisans’ forces exhausted and Cholokashvili had to flee to Turkey where he was joined by several emigrants and moved to France.
He lived a hard life in France and died of tuberculosis in 1930. Buried initially at the Cimetière de Saint-Ouen he was moved in a few years to the cemetery of Leuville-sur-Orge, a burial ground of the Georgian emigration to France.
[edit] Legacy
His name was banned throughout 70 years of the Soviet Union. His family and in-laws were either purged or subjected to intolerable pressure from the authorities forcing many of the Cholokashvili even to change their surnames.
With a new tide of national-liberation movement in the late 1980s, Kakutsa Cholokashvili remerged as a major symbol of Georgian patriotism and national resistance to the Soviet rule, his portraits seen elsewhere at protest manifestations. Public interest to his person increased especially after his most trusted friend and comrade in arms, Alexandre Sulkhanishvili, returned from emigration bringing Kakutsa’s famous banner of rebellion back to Georgia in 1990.
On November 20-21 2005, he was moved to another grave at the Mtatsminda Pantheon, Tbilisi. The burial was attended by all high-ranking officials and thousands of Georgians from various regions of Georgia. His portrait will soon grace the banknote in value of 200 Lari, the National Bank of Georgia decided. His name will also be given to a street in popular Vake district in Tbilisi.
[edit] Literature
- Guram Sharadze, Guram Gverdtziteli, editors. Kakutsa Cholokashvili; Tbilisi, 1989. (In Georgian)
