There was kind of a Bolshevik Stalinist template for how you do this. Is that kind of literal repetition unusual?Ī: Not at all. Q: One of the things that struck me was the extraordinary repetition of history, the way Russia played Abkhazia and South Ossetia against the Georgians, signed a peace treaty and then attacked. But Stalin pulled off this invasion of Georgia, and he felt as a member of the Bolshevik party, a leader of the government, the obligation to defend it. According to the history, he wasn’t involved in planning the invasion of Georgia. He couldn’t stand the fact the Mensheviks were right they anticipated his anti-Stalinism…īut I’m not sure how much Trotsky believed what he was writing. I don’t think Trotsky had a particular antipathy to Georgia, I think he hated the Mensheviks. It was erased by Leon Trotsky and the Stalin regime. It wasn’t forgotten in a natural way that things get old, so we forget them. They were very famous individuals at that time. If you were a socialist in 1920 anywhere in the world - and certainly anywhere in Europe - you not only knew about Georgia, you probably knew the leaders of the Georgian Social Democratic Party. How was this forgotten?Ī: This “forgotten history” was actually very, very well-known at the time. Q: For three years Georgia had a peaceful and successful democratic socialist republic that ended in 1921 when Bolshevik Russia attacked. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. The Moscow Times had a chance to talk with Lee about Georgia’s short-lived, but successful experiment in democratic socialism, Russian foreign policy over the centuries, the reception of the book in Georgia and Russia - and why he hopes there will be some good fights about it. The highlight of the evening was a connection by Skype to talk with Redjeb Jordania, the 99-year-old son of the first leader of the Georgian Republic, Noe Jordania. At Memorial International, Lee discussed his book with Russian and Georgian scholars, many of whom knew virtually nothing about the history he reported. In January Eric Lee came to Moscow to present the Russian translation of his book, “The Experiment: Georgia’s Forgotten Revolution 1918-1921.” This followed the Georgian translation that was released the previous year. Eric Lee’s book illuminates a remarkable period in history.
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