Abstract:
General Odishelidze read his report “On reasons of defeat of Georgia” in
Constantinople in two parts. The first part of the report was read in December,
1921 and the second part – in March, 1922. Taking into consideration the
positions held by general Odishelidze during the period of the first republic of
Georgia, his report is obviously very interesting and significant.
The part of the report was published in 1935 in the newspaper “The
Caucasus” («Кавказ») (№ 6/18; 7-8/19-20; 9-10/21-22; 25-27). The little
fragment of the article that was considered by the editorial board to bear a
personal character was left out from the text published in the newspaper. The
report in the newspaper raised the great interest; consequently it was translated
by the journal “Klde” (Rock) into Georgian language and published (journal
“Klde”, Berlin, 1935, №16; №17-18; 1936 - №19; №22-23. The last part in the
journal was marked that the text would be continued though the journal did not
provide with the next parts of the text). In 2005 Guram Sharadze published the
material from the journal “Klde” in the VII volume of “History of Georgian
emigrant journalism” that was issued by him.
Mrs. Ana Cheishvili, our compatriot living in Paris, provided us with the
full version of Ilia Odishelidze’s report from her archive. Taking this opportunity,
we would like to express our gratitude for her kind support and help.
The report of general Odishelidze contains 76 pages printed in Russian;
pages 1-49 have been published, pages 50-76 still remain unpublished. In
unpublished part of the report general Odishelidze reviews the following issues:
his view about the rights and duties of the commander-in-chief (accordingly,
reader can learn the logic of his action before the war and during the first days
of war); the ten-paragraph decree sent to General Ioseb Gedevanishvili; the
outcomes of the inspection of the south-eastern front; conversation with Akaki
Chkhenkeli (this is significant as numerous Georgian political figures wrote
about disintegration of Georgian troops into small detachments in Lore region as decision of Odishelidze during his conversation with Chkhenkeli, though this
report outlines another circumstances); the situation during the first days of war;
the consequences of leaving Tbilisi etc.
The unpublished part of the report of General Ilia Odishelidze contains
very interesting and significant information about Russian-Georgian war of
1921.
