Georgian Emigration in Poland - Georgians in The Polish Military Service

Georgians in The Polish Military Service

Immediately after the fall of the DRG, Noe Zhordania, the head of the Georgian government-in-exile, addressed the friendly nations, particularly France, Greece and Poland, to help in maintaining the professional military cadres. The government of Poland promptly responded, and from 1922 to 1924, hundreds of Georgian Junkers and officers, recommended by Zhordania’s government, were accepted in the Polish military schools. Several professional officers of the former DRG attended military training courses at the Polish army centers. Although not obligated to do so, virtually all of them were subsequently enrolled in the Polish army as contract officers. In the subsequent decade, the total number of Georgian military servicemen reached 1,000.

At the outbreak of the World War II, most of the Georgian officers took part in the 1939 Defensive War, and several of them commanded their own regiments composed of Polish soldiers. The most notable officers were:

• Zakaria Bakradze, generał dywizji, deputy commander of Polish 15th Infantry Division.
• Aleksandre Chkheidze, generał brygady, deputy commander of Polish 16th Infantry Division.
• Ivane Kazbegi, generał brygady.
• Aleksandre Koniashvili, generał brygady.
• Kirile Kutateladze, generał brygady.
• Aleksandre Zakariadze, generał brygady.
• Viktor Lomidze, the commander of ORP Gryf.
• Jerzy Tumaniszwili, captain of the navy, who was awarded Virtuti Militari.
• Valerian Tevzadze, podpułkownik, the commander of the northern sector of the Polish defences during the siege of Warsaw.
• Mikheil Kvaliashvili, major, the commander of a cavalry battalion within the 15th Uhlans Regiment.

Several Georgian officers were captured by the Soviet forces during the 1939 campaign. General Chkheidze, Major Mamaladze, Captain Skhirtladze and Captain Rusiashvili were killed during the infamous Katyn Massacre, from 1940 to 1941. Many others spent several years in the gulag camps.

During the occupation of Poland, the Germans reorganized the Warsaw-based Committee of Georgia and placed it under their tight control. The occupation administration encouraged the Georgian soldiers in the Polish service to join the Georgian Legion of the Wehrmacht. Some of them responded to the Nazi request, but subsequently joined the Polish resistance movement. The notable Georgian Orthodox priest and Professor Grigol Peradze of Warsaw University ended his life in the Auschwitz concentration camp (1942), when he deliberately entered a gas-chamber instead of a Jewish prisoner who had a large family.

John Malchase David Shalikashvili, general of the United States Army who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1993 to 1997, was born in Warsaw, Poland where his father also served in the army.

After the war, most Georgians either left for Western Europe or were deported to the Soviet camps though some of them (e.g., General V. Tevzadze) remained in the Polish anti-Communist underground for several decades.