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[CAUCASAIAN REGIONAL COMMITTEE AGAINST THE INDEPENDENCE OF CAUCASIAN REPUBLICS] K trudyashchimsya massam vsego Kavkaza [i.e. To the Working Masses of the Entire Caucasus]

Item #2197

Baku: 1919. 16 pp. 20,8x14,5 cm. Wrappers. Loss of the spine, inventory numbers and library paper label on the front wrapper, tears, occasional foxing throughout, but otherwise in good condition.

Extremely rare. First and only edition. Text in Russian.
An urgent call for action from the Caucasian Regional Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks), encouraging the Caucasian working masses to rise against the newly formed republics of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
“The proletariat and peasantry of the Caucasus, due to the treacherous betrayal of the Georgian Mensheviks and the Right Socialist Revolutionaries on one side, and the nationalist, chauvinistic, and reactionary policies of the Dashnaks and Musavatists on the other, became prisoners of the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie and its lackeys.” (p. 8)
The Caucasian Regional Committee, established in Tbilisi in 1917, served as the leading body for communist organizations across the Caucasus and the southern Black Sea region. Focused on rallying support for Soviet power, the Committee actively distributed propaganda, held monthly plenums, and maintained secret communication with the Central Committee of the RCP (Bolsheviks) from Baku. As the Red Army advanced in late 1919, the Committee intensified its efforts, organizing mass protests in Tbilisi, Baku, and Yerevan, and attempting an armed uprising in Georgia (failed after being exposed to British forces). Eventually, Its agitation and organization efforts were crucial to the swift collapse of the Transcaucasian Republics. The Committee operated until 1920, when Kavbiuro, led by Sergo Ordzhonikidze and Sergei Kirov, took over.
The book was published in Baku in the summer of 1919, likely to align with the Committee's planned uprising in Georgia later that year. In the proclamation, the Committee accuses the Georgian Mensheviks, Armenian Dashnaks, and Azerbaijani Musavatists of betrayal, condemning their roles in the establishment of the Democratic Republics of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The text denounces the irony of foreign imperialism's influence on the region and the “occupation” of Transcaucasia by British forces. The authors also highlight the chauvinism of the Georgian Mensheviks and address the ongoing territorial disputes between Armenia and Georgia (Borchalo and Lori), Azerbaijan and Armenia (Nagorno-Karabakh, Zangezur, Nakchivan, etc.), and Ossetia and Georgia (South Ossetia). The proclamation concludes with the Committee's objectives: opposing Denikin, expelling the occupying forces from Transcaucasia, and uniting the working masses of the region.
Overall, historically important and extremely rare document from the history of the short-lived Georgian, Armenian, and Azerbaijani Democratic Republics.

Worldcat shows 1 copy of the edition at Stanford University.

Price: $1,250.00

Status: On Hold