History of Batumi - War, Communism and Independence

War, Communism and Independence

Early in the 1900s, Batumi became a focus of Social Democratic agitation, leading to a mass strike at the Rothschild oil refinery in March 1902. Stalin arrived in late 1901 setting up base in Ali, the Persian tavern. He got a job at the Rothschild 's refinery.

1 January 1902 (Julian calendar ): Stalin made a speech to 30 party members shouting "We mustn't fear death! The sun is rising. Let's sacrifice our lives!"

4 January: Stalin set the refinery on fire, the workers put it out meaning they are due a bonus which is refused. Stalin got a printing press from Tiflis and called a strike.

17 February: the strikers win a 30% payrise.

26 February: 389 radical workers are sacked. Stalin calls a second strike.

7 March: strike leaders arrested.

8 March: Stalin leads demonstrations outside the police station demanding their release. The prisoners are moved to a transit prison. Governor general Smagin agrees to meet the demonstrators.

10 March: A mob tries to storm the prison but a renegade tips off the Cossacks and troops who fire on them though some prisoners escape. The events culminated in rioting in which the future Soviet leader Joseph Stalin played a role. The clashes with police left 15 dead, 54 wounded, and 500 in prison.

12 March: the dead workers are buried triggering a 7,000 strong demonstration surrounded by Cossacks and gendarmes who ban songs and speeches.

In 1910, the Russian authorities decided to dismantle the Mikhailovsky naval fortress at Batum. In the period of 1912-1913, a gunboat was stationed permanently to keep a check on arms smuggling. Although the project to dismantle the Batum fortifications had not been completed by the beginning of World War I in 1914, the port still remained vulnerable to the powerful Ottoman-German vessels SMS Breslau and Goeben, which shelled Batum, without much effect, on December 7 and 10, respectively. Further, Batum's docks lacked the repair shops necessary for supporting and servicing any considerable naval force. In January 1915, the Batum Naval Detachment was established to support the Russian ground opertions against Trebizond.

Unrest during World War I led to Turkey re-entering on February 12, 1918. On March 3, 1918, now Soviet Russia granted the Muslim population of Batum, Kars and Ardahan the right of self-determination under the Ottoman suzerainty. The Transcaucasian delegation attempted to reverse the clause on the Trabzon conference of March 14-April 5, 1918, but failed to achieve any results. On April 14, 1918, the Ottoman army annexed Batum. The two subsequent rounds of negotiations between Turkey and Transcaucasian republics were held from May 11 to May 26 and from May 31 to June 4, 1918. On June 4, 1918, Turkey forced the newly independent Democratic Republic of Georgia into surrendering Batum, Ardahan, Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki. Early in 1919, the British took over and appointed General Cook Collis as the governor of Batum. They also created the Batum council under the presidency of the Russian cadet P. Maslov. On April 14, 1919 the governor disbanded the council and left the city in July 1920, ceding the entire region to Georgia.

Batum was briefly occupied by Turkey, during the Soviet invasion of Georgia, in March 1921. On March 18, 1921, the city was recovered by the Georgian troops which then ceded its control to the arriving Soviets. Finally, in the treaty of Kars, Kemal Atatürk ceded Batum to the Bolsheviks, on the condition that it be granted autonomy, for the sake of the Muslims among Batumi's mixed population. Thus, it became the capital of the Adjar ASSR within the Georgian SSR. During the 1924 August Uprising in Georgia, Batumi remained relatively quiet. On August 31, 1924, the local cell of the anti-Soviet underground organization was destroyed; its leaders, including major general Giorgi Purtseladze (then the chief of staff of the Batum fortifications), were shot. During World War II, the city sent 12,258 soldiers in the Soviet army, and 4,728 never returned home.

When the USSR collapsed, Aslan Abashidze was appointed head of Adjara's governing council and subsequently held onto power throughout the unrest of the 1990s. Whilst other regions, such as Abkhazia, attempted to break away from the Georgian state, Adjara maintained an integral part of the Republic's territory. However due to a fragile security situation, Abashidze was able to exploit the central government's weaknesses and rule the area as a personal fiefdom. In May 2004 he fled the region to Russia as a result of mass protests sparked by the Rose Revolution in Tbilisi