The report of the Chairman of the field headquarters of the Menshevik army A. Solukvadze to the main headquarters on the suppression of the uprising in the Khashur, Medzhvriskhevi, Mountain-Ossetian and other districts, the arrest of Znaur Aidarov and the disarmament of these districts.
The field headquarters began operations in Gori district on the 8th of November of this year, by which time a mounted division of the people's guard with a half-company of the 1st district guards arrived from Tiflis; but even in the first days of October, the atmosphere in Gori district was noticeably thickened, poisoned by the destructive work of Bolshevik agents. By the measures taken by the district administration, the work of Bolshevik agents in Gori was soon eliminated by the arrest of active leaders, which prevented the possibility of an anti-state demonstration in the city itself, but was defeated in Gori. Gori, the alien element of the Bolsheviks directed their destructive activities to the points of least resistance of their work, to the most backward and poorly organized areas of the Gori district, having found fertile ground for their adventurous conspiracies in Medzhriskhevi, Akhalkalaki, Aten, Khashur and the Mountain-Ossetian districts. In the above-mentioned areas, the weak state work of the existing local state and public organizations is especially sharply felt, due to the exceptional scarcity of local forces, conscious and prepared for public work, who migrated from the village to larger centers. This explains the weak working capacity of local organizations and their lack of authority among the masses of the population; the majority of the population has a very poor idea of local small district o units. The administration, which has not yet been fully strengthened, is being dissolved in a sea of overlords represented by members of small district units, far from coping with the enormous work in the regions.
In Khashur district, for example, to date there is absolutely no justice, despite the introduction of the institution of justices of the peace in the district
The agrarian reform is also weak in the regions, which creates the ground among the population for mistrust in implementing the land reform, that is, the Bolshevik agents are trying to deepen in this distrust mistrust to the existing agrarian reform among the population with all available measures. Unfortunately, in this destructive work, the agents of the Bolsheviks encounter very little resistance in the regions. In the Khashur district, on the contrary, representatives of zemstvo units and other public organizations and, as they say, even a headquarters, decided at the same time to petition the government to release the well-known criminal Arsen Lomidze, who served as a blunt weapon among the BolsheviksUnder such conditions, of course, it was difficult to prevent the storm of anarchy approaching the district. Naturally, the agents of the Bolsheviks, relying on the discontented dark mass of the population, taking into account the weakness of the authorities and local organizations, grouping criminals who escaped from prison into gangs (such as Ar. Lomidze, Tigishvili, Samkharadze .) decided on their adventurous plot of seizing power, which they easily managed to do in the Akhalkalaki, Aten, Mejvriskhevi and Roka districts. The Khashur district would also be seized by the adventurers if the detachment was late for at least one day. The action began on November 8 in the Akhalkalaki region, where the rebels arrested the police chief with police officers, members of a small zemstvo unit, an authorized representative of the Gori District Headquarters of the People’s Guard in the Akhalkalaki region. To restore order, a detachment was sent from parts of the Gori district horse militia with the assistance of the local guard, who scattered the gang of rebels and released all those arrested on the same day.
On November 9th, power was seized in the Mejvriskhevi district, where all representatives of public and state organizations were also arrested. To restore order, a detachment of 25 district police officers and a hundred people of the Gori district guards was sent to Mejvriskheyi. Faced with serious resistance from an armed gang of more than three hundred people and up to a thousand unarmed, it was necessary to send reinforcements by force of one company of National Guard with a platoon of artillery. On November 10, after a short skirmish, the gang was dispersed, and almost all the leaders of the uprising were captured, and several rebel people were wounded and killed. From our side only one police officer was injured. On November 11, to restore order in the Mejvriskhevi district, the entire detachment was transferred to the Khashur district, which was at the same risk of seizing power by Lomidze, and on the morning of 13 one hundred horse battalion was sent to the village of Khtsisi to disarm the population, but before reaching the village itself, on the banks of the Kura River, it was subjected to heavy shelling by a gang of 400 armed men (up to 1,000 unarmed). The exchange of fire continued until the next morning, when the infantry with the cavalry division, supported by artillery, entered the village of Khtsisi. The leader of the rebellion, Aidarov, and 100 people of the gang were arrested, many rebels were wounded and killed. From our side one national guard was wounded. After the liberation of the Khtsis society from the rebel bandits, the detachment proceeded to disarm the Khashur, Tomsk and Karelian districts, where a battalion of the lieutenant colonel Chkheidze was sent. On November 14, at 8 o’clock in the morning, the gang seized power in the Aten region, arresting all representatives of public and state organizations. On the same date, the Gori district mounted militia with half company of the Tiflis Guard was sent to the Aten region to restore order, and the mounted militia managed to overtake the rebels in the villages. Kvemo-Boshuri, where after a 2-hour shoot-out the gang was dispersed and the arrested representatives of state institutions were released, except for the authorized Gori District Headquarters of the People’s Guard in Aten District, Alexander Chikhladze, who died mortally wounded by bandits. During the exchange of fire, a policeman from the Gori district mounted police was seriously wounded. On the part of the rebel bandits, 4 unknown robbers were killed and many wounded. All the arrested rebel bandits were transferred to the military field court, which was organized on November 18 at the start of operations and which tried those guilty in the areas where the crime was committed. The latter circumstance played a major role in the sense of instilling a mass of strict responsibility before the law, so that order in the districts was quickly restored. Over the entire duration of the operation, 300 people were arrested, of which 9 people were executed, 28 people were sentenced to hard labor, 35 people were transferred to the administration and are held in administrative custody, and the rest were released. To restore order in all of the above areas, the detachment proceeded to disarm the population. One squadron of the horse battalion and the Gori guard were sent to disarm the Khashur, Tomsk and Akhalkalak regions; Battalion, Regular Army. Chkheidze — to the Karelian region, and to another detachment consisting of: one a cavalry battalion, a company of the Borjomi Guard, when the artillery was withdrawn, was entrusted disarmament of Borzhomi district with the Gujaret rural community.
By November 30, the disarmament of the aforementioned districts is over and all units are concentrated in the Tskhinval district for the disarmament of the Tskhinval and the Mountain -Ossetian regions. By December 4th, all of the units had already been concentrated in the Tskhinval region and, after disarming the latter, on December 6th a detachment was sent for. disarmament of the Mountain-Ossetian region. But since resistance was expected from the Mountain --Ossetian region, the entire detachment was divided into 4 parts to assist with all security measures in four directions:
1) A Tskhinvali company of the People’s Guard with a platoon of the equestrian division was sent along the basin of the Malaya Liyakhyv River:
2) Through the villages: Vanati, Ortevi, Gehry, Khvtse, a convoy consisting of the Kakheti battalion, fifty horse-drawn battalion was sent to the village of Rock
3) Through the villages of Kurta, Kekhvi, Didi-Gufta, a convoy consisting of the Gori Consolidated - People’s Guard Battalion, fifty horse-drawn battalion with one platoon of mountain batteries went to the village of Dzhava.
4) Through the Tsunar, Kornis; society to the village. Mkhelebi a column was sent to the Kemultek and Keshelty gorges as part of the regular unit sub-battalion. of Chkheidze at one platoon of the cavalry division.
By December 1, all units had completed the tasks assigned to them — disarming the districts entrusted to them, having not met with any resistance on the part of the population, if did not take into account the December 8th shelling of one half of the Gori battalion by the gang of 150-200 people in the area of the village of Tontobet —Raro, northwest of the village of Dzhava. Terrorism of the population was noticed in all rural societies of the Mountain-Ossetian district ... Unfortunately, the actions of one group of the Kakheti battalion, unworthy of guard honor, allowing small theft, on the one hand, and the mass destruction of poultry and small cattle, on the other, introduced a discord in the general harmony of the action of the remaining units. A special commission has been appointed by the field headquarters to deal with complaints received by the Kakheti battalion ...
Chairman of the field headquarters A. Salukvadze ,.
Secretary - Iluridze.
TsGAOOR and SS GSSR, f. 29, op I, d. 13, l. 1-z, Copy, typewritten.
1919 December 19.
From the book "The struggle of the working people of South Ossetia for Soviet power" (1917-1921). Documents and materials. Compiled by I.N. Tskhovrebov.
