Caucasian Regional Committee of the Rcp Bolshevik

the highest party body of the Caucasian region, founded at the First Congress of Bolshevik Organizations of the Caucasian Region, held in Tbilisi on Oct. 2–7 (15–20), 1917.

The Caucasian Regional Committee directed the Communist organizations of Transcaucasia, the Northern Caucasus, Dagestan, and the southern Black Sea coastal region. Its permanent location was in Tbilisi; from June 1918 to February 1919 it was located in Vladikavkaz. The committee had two bureaus, the Tiflis Bureau and the Baku Bureau. At various times it published official organs in Russian, Georgian, and Armenian, including Kavkazskii rabochii, Kavkazskaia pravda, Volna, Brdzola, and Banvori kriv. In 1918 and 1919 the committee held a congress of the party organizations of the RCP (Bolshevik) of the Northern Caucasus in Vladikavkaz (in January 1919) and conferences of the Communist organizations of Transcaucasia in Tbilisi (in November 1918) and in Baku (in May 1919). The Committee met in plenary session no less than once a month.

Under difficult conditions the Caucasian Regional Committee performed substantial political, organizational, and agitational and explanatory work in winning over the masses and creating a political army of the revolution for the victory of Soviet power in the Caucasus. It exposed the traitorous policies conducted against the interests of the people by the Georgian Mensheviks, Armenian Dashnaks, Azerbaijani Musavatists, and other con-ciliationist parties and bourgeois nationalists, and it educated the toiling masses in the spirit of proletarian internationalism and of close unity with the Russian proletariat. The committee maintained close contact and regular correspondence with the party’s Central Committee and with Lenin personally.

Among those who at various times were members of the committee were A. M. Akopian, N. N. Aladzhalova, 1.1. Anaskhin, A. N. Atabekov, A. A. Bekzadian, S. G. Buachidze, D. Kh. Buniatzade, N. F. Gikalo, L. D. Gogoberidze, M. D. Guseinov, P. A. Dzhaparidze, I. I. Dovlatov, V. E. Dumbadze, S. I. Kav-taradze, F. V. Kalandadze, S. I. Kas’ian, E. A. Kvantaliani, G. N. Korganov, D. S. Korkmasov, N. M. Kuznetsov, V. V. Lominadze, F. P. Makharadze, A. I. Mikoian, A. A. Mravian, A. M. Nazaretian, V. I. Naneishvili, M. A. Orakhelashvili, M. P. Orakhelashvili, M. S. Okudzhava, G. F. Sturua, G. G. Sultanov, M. G. Toroshelidze, S. I. Todriia, A. L. Tumanov, Iu. P. Figatner, K. M. Tsintsadze, M. G. Tskhakaia, G. Chkheidze, D. A. Shaverdov, S. G. Shaumian, B. P. Shebol-daev, and E. I. Eshba.

With the formation of the independent Communist parties of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, the committee terminated its activities on May 20, 1920, on the basis of the directives of the Central Committee of the RCP (Bolshevik).