Editing August Uprising (section)

==Background==
The Red Army proclaimed Georgia a [[Soviet Socialist Republic]] on 25 February 1921, when they took control of [[Tiflis]] (Tbilisi), the capital of Georgia, and forced the Menshevik government into exile.

Loyalty of the Georgian population to the new regime did not come easily. Within the first three years of their rule, the Bolsheviks managed to recruit fewer than 10,000 people into their party, while the [[Georgian Social Democratic (Menshevik) Party]] still enjoyed significant popularity in Georgia, counting over 60,000 members in their organizations. The 1918–1921 independence, though short-lived, had played a crucial role in the national awakening of Georgia, winning a popular support to the ruling [[Georgian Social Democratic (Menshevik) Party]].<ref>[http://www.colisee.org/old/public/article/fiche/2495 (French) Mirian Méloua : "First Republic"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180204124130/https://www.colisee.org/old/public/article/fiche/2495 |date=4 February 2018 }}.</ref> The forcible [[Sovietization]] and grievances over the ensuing border rearrangements in which Georgia lost sizeable portion of its pre-Soviet territories to [[Turkey]] (see [[Treaty of Kars]]), [[Azerbaijan SSR]], [[Armenian SSR]], and Russia, fueled a widespread opposition to the new regime. The new Bolshevik government, led by the Georgian [[Revkom]] (Revolutionary Committee), enjoyed so little support among the population that it faced the distinct prospect of insurrection and civil war.<ref>Knight, p. 26.</ref> The Bolsheviks had limited ties with the Georgian peasantry, which was overwhelmingly opposed to [[collectivization]] and dissatisfied over land shortages and other economic troubles. The situation in the country was further aggravated by a [[famine]] prevailing in many areas and the summer 1921 outbreak of [[cholera]], which carried off thousands of victims. The desperate shortage of food and the breakdown of medical services resulted in heavy mortality, [[Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia|Catholicos Patriarch]] [[Patriarch Leonid of Georgia|Leonid]] being among the dead.<ref name="Lang238">Lang, p. 238.</ref> The highly politicized working class of Georgia, with its severe economic problems, was also hostile toward the new regime as were the national intelligentsia and nobility who had pledged their loyalty to the [[Democratic Republic of Georgia]]. A delayed transition from the Revkom's rule to the Soviets' system, subordination of workers' organizations and [[trades unions]] to the Bolshevik party committees and Moscow's centralizing policy created a discontent even among the multiethnic workers of Tiflis who were the most sympathetic towards Communist doctrines.<ref name="Lang238"/>

Public discontent within Georgian society indirectly reflected a bitter struggle among Bolsheviks about the way to achieve social and political transformation in Georgia. Hardliners led by [[Sergo Ordzhonikidze]], head of the [[Transcaucasia]]n Regional Committee (''Zakkraikom'') of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], and [[Joseph Stalin]], [[People's Commissariat for Nationalities|People's Commissar for Nationalities]] for the RSFSR and himself a Georgian, launched a series of measures aimed at the elimination of the last remnants of Georgia's self-rule. They were opposed by a group of Georgian Bolsheviks, described by their opponents as "national deviationists" and led by [[Filipp Makharadze]] and [[Budu Mdivani]], who advocated tolerance toward the Menshevik opposition, greater democracy within the party, a moderate approach toward land reform, and, above all, called for greater autonomy from Moscow and stubbornly opposed Stalin's project of uniting all the three Transcaucasian republics economically and politically. The crisis known as the "[[Georgian Affair]]" lasted throughout 1922 and ended with the hardliners' victory. As a result, Georgia merged with the [[Armenian SSR|Armenian]] and [[Azerbaijan SSR|Azerbaijan]] republics into the [[Transcaucasian SFSR]]—a heavy blow to Georgian national pride.

With the defeat of ''national deviationists'', the Bolsheviks became more assertive, and suppressed all kinds of opposition. Between April 1922 and October 1923, parties that still retained legal status were forced to announce their dissolution and declare official loyalty to the Soviet authorities. Those who continued to operate did so as underground organizations.<ref>Nodia and Scholtbach, p. 93</ref> The Soviets also persecuted the [[Georgian Orthodox Church]], closing or demolishing over 1,500 churches and monasteries.<ref>Surguladze, p. 253.</ref> They imprisoned a number of clerics, including Catholicos Patriarch [[Patriarch Ambrose of Georgia|Ambrose]] who was arrested and tried for having sent a letter of protest to the 1922 [[Genoa Conference]], in which he described the conditions under which Georgia was living since the Red Army invasion and begged for the "help of the civilized world".<ref name=autogenerated3>Lang, p. 241.</ref>