Soviet The Execution of Sandro Gvasalia

[Chuck In Oregon]

Sandro Ivanovich Gvasalia was 38 in the summer of 1923. He had been condemned to death and was being held in Senaki Prison in Georgia.

This first document is a June 27, 1923, decoded order from the Georgian Cheka (ChKG) in Tbilisi (Tiflis) for his execution.

The second document (next post) is dated July 2, 1923. It is a report from the ChKG to the Poti Politburo (Poti is an important Georgian Black Sea port and it was the equivalent of a regional capital) that Gvasalia had been executed. Note that it appears that Mr. Gvasalia was required to sign his own death warrant. Of course, I may have this confused, but that's the way I read this and it's what my notes say.

The folds and staple marks along the edges suggest that these documents came from Mr. Gvasalia's own file in the archives.

Mr. Gvasalia may well have been a criminal. However, it is possible, and even likely, that he was a former White Russian officer or sergeant. After Georgia capitulated in 1921, there was supposed to have been an amnesty for White soldiers. Well, that didn't exactly happen. What did happen was that most White officers and NCOs were rounded up and executed in and around 1923 and many of the ordinary enlisted men were exiled. The grandfather of a very close friend of mine was executed in this purge.

If this kind of document is offensive to this forum, I will be glad to pull it. Otherwise, Mr. Gvasalia's execution comes to light 82 years later, here at GMIC.

Chuck

[Chuck In Oregon]

... And here is the front side of the execution confirmation order.

[Chuck In Oregon]

... And here is the reverse.

[HuliganRS]

The sad truth of my ancestors.

Thanks for sharing this.

Rusty.

[Ed_Haynes]

Thanks for this - the reality of any civil war.

[Chuck In Oregon]

Like most of us here, my history readings have been replete with accounts of various and sundry atrocities, purges and holocausts great and small. However, I remember my very real shock when my close friend and counterpart in Georgia first told me the story of his family.

As I wrote previously, his grandfather was executed in 1923 for being a former White officer. His uncle was executed -- they still say liquidated -- for "harboring anti-Soviet thoughts". God forbid, and could you possibly make that up? His father was expelled from university and lost all of his party privileges for being a relative of an executed "enemy of the people".

There is not a doubt in my mind that I would not have survived those horrors.

Chuck

[Stogieman]

A very sad, but unfortunately quite brutal reality of the early Soviet system. Sad. very sad.

[Ed_Haynes]

Yes, when you conjoin an revolution and a civil war it gets nasty; lots of "loyalists" were killed by revolutionaries in the British North American colonies in the aftermath of 1776 (and vice versa).

[Stogieman]

Yes, I would agree... the early American History is also rife with all manner of brutal oppression of our fellow man. probably not a lot of "liquidation" orders hanging around and I think our ancesters were probably a little more forthright in expressing their displeasure...... can you just imagine a comparable document from Lexington in 1775?

Samuel Hardy has been found guilty of "anti-American thought". One does not hear a lot about some of this dirt... it is there, but one has to dig a bit. i remember my early texts spoke more along the lines of "Tar & Feathering" and Riding them out of town on a rail sort of activity

[Ed_Haynes]

Usually, it would have been lynching, not tar and feather, but less bureaucratic for sure.

[Vadim K]

Note that it appears that Mr. Gvasalia was required to sign his own death warrant. Of course, I may have this confused, but that's the way I read this and it's what my notes say.

No, Mr. Gvasalia has already been dead when this document was signed. The clerk has the same last name (makes you wonder what the clerk felt when signing this, dont it?) Ah, the joys of a totalitarian regime...

[Chuck In Oregon]

No, Mr. Gvasalia has already been dead when this document was signed. The clerk has the same last name (makes you wonder what the clerk felt when signing this, dont it?) Ah, the joys of a totalitarian regime...

* * * * *

Hello Vadim

Thank you for that. I was very puzzled by it and I tried to work out how that might have happened. I admit, the same-name answer never occurred to me.

Welcome to the forum. I'm looking forward to your contributions.

Chuck

[Ed_Haynes]

Welcome Vadim!!

Ed Haynes