Joseph
Jughashvili (Stalin) and Batumi
Tengiz
Simashvili
Report
delivered on 1–2 September 2014
at the V International Scientific Conference,
organized by Shota Rustaveli State University
and the Niko Berdzenishvili Institute, Batumi
Joseph
Jughashvili (Stalin) and Batumi
“In
1938, on the occasion of Stalin’s 60th birthday, Bulgakov was invited to write
a play about Stalin. Bulgakov chose as his subject the early steps of Stalin’s
revolutionary activity and presented Stalin as a romantic young knight, a
fighter for ideals and freedom. However, Stalin rejected the play; it was never
published and was never staged.”
(M. Bulgakov, Batumi, Preface)
“Street
demonstrations are interesting because they quickly draw large masses of the
population into the movement, immediately publicize our demands, and create
fertile soil in which we can confidently sow the seeds of political freedom.”
J. Jughashvili, illegal newspaper Struggle (1901, No. 2–23)
At
the beginning of the 20th century, Batumi’s growing industrial potential was
based on the refining and export of Baku oil. Large oil-processing factories
owned by such famous entrepreneurs as Nobel, Mantashev, Rothschild, and others
were located here. In November 1901, Joseph Jughashvili, recently elected to
the Tiflis Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party, arrived
in Batumi from Tiflis and began working at Rothschild’s factory. Known among
his peers and comrades as “Soso,” Jughashvili simultaneously engaged in active
revolutionary activities. According to various sources, under Jughashvili’s
leadership, a new Social Democratic organization was established in Batumi. On
December 31, 1901, several hundred workers at Rothschild’s oil factory staged
unrest, and from January 31 to February 18, 1902, workers at Mantashev’s
factory went on strike. In both cases, the workers’ demands were met, and there
are certain opinions that it was precisely the newly arrived propagandist
“Soso” who directed these strikes and disturbances.
Contemporaries
of Jughashvili and Soviet historians attempted to portray him as an
unquestioned leader whose “wise” guidance enabled Batumi factory workers to win
concessions from the entrepreneurs, including wage increases and other
improvements.
Within
the framework of the international project The Secret History of Russia and
the Soviet Union, we have uncovered several previously unpublished
materials about Joseph Jughashvili (Stalin). Among them are two memoirs
preserved in the Party Archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The first
is by Ivane Jejelava, who described himself as an “old worker-Bolshevik since
1902.” His memoirs, written in 1933 and 1935, are: (1) “Memoirs about Comrade
Stalin” and (2) “My Memories of Comrade Stalin during the Revolutionary Baptism
of 1902” [MIA, f.8, inv.2, file 14, pp.176–190].
In
these, Jejelava recalls his encounters with the propagandist “Soso” in Batumi,
describing his appearance, clothing, and propaganda activities—almost with
affection and regret, as when he recalls seeing Soso dressed in an old chokha.
Particularly noteworthy is Jejelava’s account of the workers’ demonstration of
March 9, 1902, in Batumi. He identifies Jughashvili as the sole leader of this
demonstration: “We approached the barracks where the arrested workers were
held, and the masses, under the leadership of Comrade Koba, demanded their
release. But Officer Antadze gave the order to open fire on the unarmed
workers” [MIA, f.8, inv.2, file 14, p.179].
This
description differs from that of Vladimir Jibuti, author of the 1937 memoir
“Memoirs about the Great Stalin” [MIA, f.8, inv.2, file 14, pp.210–218], which
also contains valuable information about Jughashvili’s life and activities.
According to Jibuti, “Comrade Soso, at secret meetings, urged workers to stand
together and fight against the entrepreneurs and the authorities.” He names
“Comrade Soso” as the organizer of the first strike at Mantashev’s factory in
January 1902: “We went on strike, and after 10 days the factory administration
entered into negotiations with us. Comrade Soso advised us to add new demands
to our original ones—payment for lost workdays and a 30% wage increase. The
strike ended in victory for the workers.” Another contemporary recalls
Jughashvili saying: “They [the administration] are frightened and will pay.”
[Edelman, 2013].
On
February 26, 1902, 389 of 900 workers at Rothschild’s factory were dismissed,
leading to protests and arrests. This provoked a new wave of unrest. Jibuti
claims that the events leading up to the March 9 demonstration of 1902 were
also directed by Jughashvili. According to him, it was “Soso” who convened a
committee meeting on March 7, after the arrests of workers, and proposed the plan
to free the detained Rothschild workers by force.
On
March 8, some of the workers gathered at the police headquarters were arrested
and taken to the barracks instead of being dispersed, as the authorities
apparently sought to avoid further escalation. According to Jibuti, the
governor even promised to release the remaining detainees the next day. But,
“that evening Comrade Soso convened a meeting and warned us that we were being
deceived and that without our intervention the workers would not be freed.”
After this speech, the workers decided to march to the barracks where some 400
detainees were being held. The soldiers opened fire, resulting in casualties:
seven workers were killed on the spot, five died later from their wounds, and
nineteen were injured.
This
event is significant because, on the one hand, it was the major demonstration
in Batumi led by Jughashvili—later Stalin; on the other, it shows how workers,
influenced by Jughashvili’s propaganda, provoked the soldiers, convinced that
the authorities, accustomed to making concessions, would not resort to force.
In his second memoir (1935), Jejelava even contradicts the Soviet
historiographical version, insisting that it was the workers who first threw
stones, provoking the soldiers to fire.
On
April 5, 1902, Jughashvili was arrested and imprisoned in Batumi. Over time, he
seems to have reconsidered his “Batumi” experience—he no longer led mass
demonstrations directly. Later he still advocated for greater “activation” of
workers and peasants, but his focus shifted. One memoirist, Niko Akhmeteli,
wrote in 1936: “Soso … favored armed uprising. All his life he dreamed of
capturing Tiflis. I remember well, he had obtained a map of the city and wanted
to take it by armed force.” [MIA, f.8, inv.2, file 2, p.310]
According
to newly uncovered documents from the Central Historical Archive of Georgia and
the MIA Archives, in January 1906 Jughashvili not only organized the activities
of “Red Detachments” in Tiflis Province but was also indirectly linked to
terrorist and expropriative acts carried out by the Bolsheviks—something Soviet
historiography preferred to remain silent about [Simashvili, 2013;
Vakhtangishvili, Simashvili, 2014].
Thus,
it is possible that Stalin’s ban on Bulgakov’s play Batumi was directly
related to his role in leading the March 9, 1902 workers’ demonstration, which
ended with the deaths of innocent workers and brought no real results—the
workers returned to work four months after the strike had begun [Edelman,
2013]. The year the play was written—1938—was precisely the period when the
“Great Leader” Stalin actively sought to erase what he deemed “unsuitable”
episodes from his biography, “correcting” the narrative of his revolutionary
path.
References
- Ministry of Internal Affairs
Archives, II Division (former Party Archives), Fund 8, Inventory 2, Part
I, File 14, pp.176–180.
- Ministry of Internal Affairs
Archives, II Division (former Party Archives), Fund 8, Inventory 2, Part
I, File 14, pp.210–218.
- Ministry of Internal Affairs
Archives, II Division (former Party Archives), Fund 8, Inventory 2, Part
I, File 2, p.310.
- Simashvili, T., “Gigla
Berbichashvili and Iliko Imerlishvili’s Connection with Stalin,” Archival
Bulletin of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, No.14, 2013.
- Vakhtangishvili, T.,
Simashvili, T., Joseph Jughashvili (Stalin) and Terror, European
Researcher, Sochi, 2014.
- Edelman, O., “Soso in Batumi,
1902,” Neprikosnovennyi zapas, No.90, 2013, pp.229–244.
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