Georgian Legion
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The Georgian Legion (German: Georgische Legion, Georgian: ქართული ლეგიონი, k’artuli legioni) was a name of the two different Georgian military formations within the German armies during the First and Second World Wars, respectively. Their established aim was the restoration of Georgia’s independence from Imperial Russia and then from the Soviet Union.
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[edit] The Georgian Legion (1914-1918)
The WW1-era Georgian Legion was formed by Georgian political émigrés and students with the support of the German Empire-based Committee of Independent Georgia in 1914 and joined the German Caucasian expedition. Some seven hundred strong, it was first commanded by Lieutenant Horst Schliephack, later succeeded by Count Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg, a former German vice-consul in Tiflis, who then served as a German liaison officer with the Ottoman 3rd Army. The highest-ranking Georgian officer of the Legion was Leo Kereselidze. Late in 1915, the Order of Queen Tamar was introduced for issue to the soldiers and officers of the Georgian Legion.
During the Russo-Turkish campaign of 1916-7, the Georgian Legion was stationed in the mountains east of Tirebolu, on the banks of the Harshit River not far from the Black Sea coast. The Legion was officially disbanded in April 1917, after relations between the German-backed Georgian Committee and the Ottoman government had become strained. The Legion’s personnel were incorporated into the National Army of the Democratic Republic of Georgia in 1918.[1]
[edit] The Georgian Legion (1941-1945)
During the WW2, the Wehrmacht’s ethnic Georgian Legion was formed from émigrés living in Western Europe after the 1921 Soviet invasion of Georgia, combined with Soviet prisoners of war of Georgian origin who were enlisted, while facing certain death from starvation, disease, forced labor and brutality in POW camps (see Ost battalions).
The legion was formed in December 1941. The Georgians trained in the western Ukraine and became operational in the autumn of 1942. At least 30,000 Georgians served in the Nazi armed forces. Serving in the 13 field battalions, each having 5 companies and up to 800-strong, of the Wehrmacht's Georgia Legion, Georgians were also found in the Wehrmacht's North Caucasian Legion and in other Caucasian ethnic legions. The Georgian military formations were commanded by Schalwa Maglakelidse, Michel-Fridon Zulukidse and other officers formerly serving to the Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-21).
This venture was largely hampered by the intervention of Alfred Rosenberg. Adolf Hitler himself was greatly suspicious of the Georgian and other Soviet battalions. The most active proponents of Nazi racism even wanted all Georgians sent to extermination camps as non-Aryans. Across Europe, especially in Italy and France, many Georgian soldiers of the Wehrmacht deserted and joined local Resistance Movements. Eventually, some of the ethnic Georgian units were disbanded and their officers repressed. Many Georgians under Nazi domination were saved only by the intervention of Alexander Nikuradze and some other Georgian scholars who were held in high esteem in Germany.[2] As a result of Hitler’s distrust the remaining Georgian battalions were later headquartered in the Netherlands. In April-May 1945, the Texel-based 822nd Georgian battalion staged the event that is sometimes described as Europe's last battlefield. This event is the relatively well-known Georgian Uprising of Texel against the Nazi commandership.
The inter-allied agreement concluded at the end of the war resulted in the forcible repatriation to Soviet Union of thousands of Georgians who had fought in the Georgian Legion, many of whom were shot or exiled to Siberia and Central Asia upon their return home.[3]
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Lang, David Marshall (1962), A Modern History of Georgia, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
