Page:Karl Kautsky - Georgia - tr. Henry James Stenning (1921).pdf/96

 a conflict between the workers of Tiflis and the soldiers’ council there.

In Tiflis, like everywhere else in Russia, a workers' council had been formed, and Noe Jordania, afterwards President of the Republic, chosen as president. The whole power in Tiflis devolved on. the workers' council, when, after the Bolshevist coup d'état, the Russian armies dissolved, and came swarming over the Turkish border. Georgia, whose language they did not understand, appeared to the Russian soldiers as a foreign country. Naturally inclined to plunder, as is every army whose discipline has disappeared, they were all the more eager for plunder in a district where they felt they were foreigners. Moreover, as the soldiers were dominated by the spirit of Bolshevism, which at that time meant the complete surrender of the country to the hostile armies, they were not favourably disposed towards the Georgian Menshevists, who did not consider the senseless retreat from the by no means victorious Turks to be necessary, however much they were convinced of the need for an immediate armistice and peace. As a matter of fact, the Menshevist Transcaucasian Commissariat succeeded in concluding an armistice with the Turks on the 18th December.

At the beginning of December the disorganised masses of returning soldiers threatened the security of the population of Tiflis to the utmost. In order to protect the population, the Tiflis Workers' Council demanded arms for the workers' guard. These arms could be obtained only from the Arsenal, which was in the hands of the returned soldiers. The Menshevist Workers Council requested of the Bolshevist Soldiers' Council the delivery of weapons for arming the workers' guard. This the Soldiers' Council refused.

Thereupon, the Workers' Council decided to help themselves, and to capture the Arsenal. It was a hazardous enterprise. Only 225 armed men were at its disposal whereas the Tiflis garrison numbered 20,000 men. Nevertheless, the stroke was successful. In the