Georgia and European Federation
The Georgian Socialist-Federalist Revolutionary Party, the first political party in the history of Georgia, was founded in Geneva in 1904.
According to the party’s program, federalism was seen as a form of peaceful coexistence between nations. The founder and leader of the party, Archil Jorjadze, wrote in 1908: “It seems that in Europe the ground is being prepared for the establishment of a European federation and the development of European internationalism, but this does not at all mean the abolition of national formations but rather their connection.” Jorjadze linked the establishment of peace with the creation of a great European federation and sought Georgia’s place in it, but he believed that Russia stood between Georgia and Europe, that Russia was not ready for European federation, and therefore saw revolution as the way out.
In the conditions of censorship that existed in Tsarist Russia, it was impossible to speak out about these ideas. Therefore, in order to spread them and encourage European friends to join them, Archil Jorjadze and the co-founder of the political party, Giorgi Dekanozishvili, moved to Paris to conduct activities there. Between 1903 and 1905, they published the newspaper Georgia and the French-language La Géorgie. From Paris, La Georgie was smuggled into Georgia and distributed there, while “La Géorgie” in Europe served the purpose of raising awareness among the European public and attracting supporters. It published articles in support of Georgia by the French parliamentarian Antide Boyer, the Danish writer Georg Brandes, one of the founders of French anarchism and the famous geographer Élisée Reclus, among others.
In 1905, the Federalists purchased the ship Sirius in Holland, loaded it with weapons, appointed the Dutch anarchist Christian Cornelissen as its captain, and sent it to Georgia to organize an uprising.
The Socialist-Federalist Party came in second in the 1919 elections to the Constituent Assembly, following Georgia’s declaration of independence. In 1918-1919, one of the party’s founders, Giorgi Laskhishvili, served as Georgia’s Minister of Education.
