Sovietization of Georgia
| Red Army invasion of the Democratic Republic of Georgia | ||||||||
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| Part of Russian Civil War and the Turkish War of Independence | ||||||||
 The Red Army in Tbilisi, Feb 25 1921 |
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| Belligerents | ||||||||
 Russian SFSR Armenian SSR Azerbaijan SSR
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 Democratic Republic of Georgia
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 Turkish Provisional Government
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| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
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Anatoliy Gekker Mikhail Velikanov Joseph Stalin Grigol Ordzhonikidze Filipp Makharadze
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Parmen Chichinadze, Giorgi Kvinitadze, Giorgi Mazniashvili, Valiko Jugheli
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Kâzım Karabekir
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| Strength | ||||||||
4,300 cavalry. 900 Ossetian irregulars. 196 artillery pieces. 1065 machine guns. 50 fighter aircraft. 7 armored trains. 4 tanks and over a dozen armored cars. |
11,000 Infantry. 4 armored trains. Several armored cars. |
Army of the Grand National Assembly: XV. Corps: (20,000 men) |
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| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
| 5,500 Red army soldiers killed and 2,500 captured. Unknown number of wounded. | 3,200 soldiers killed or captured. Unknown number of wounded. 3,800 - 5,000 civilians killed |
30 Turkish soldiers killed, 26 wounded, 46 missing | ||||||
11,000 Infantry.
400 mounted infantry.
Hundreds from the People's Guard of Georgia.
46 artillery pieces.
Several hundred machine guns.
A total of 56 fighter aircraft, including 25 Ansaldo SVA-10s and one Sopwith Camel.
The Red Army invasion of Georgia (15 February – 17 March 1921), also known as the Soviet–Georgian War or the Soviet invasion of Georgia, was a military campaign by the Soviet Russian (RSFSR) Red Army aimed at overthrowing the Social-Democratic (Menshevik) government of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG) and installing a Bolshevik regime in the country. The conflict was a result of expansionist policy by the Soviets, who aimed to control as much as possible of the lands which had been part of the former Russian Empire until the turbulent events of the First World War, as well as the revolutionary efforts of mostly Russian-based Georgian Bolsheviks, who did not have sufficient support in their native country to seize power without external intervention.
The independence of Georgia had been recognized by Soviet Russia in the Treaty of Moscow, signed on 7 May 1920, and the subsequent invasion of the country was not universally agreed upon in Moscow. It was largely engineered by two influential Georgian-born Soviet Russian officials, Stalin (Dzhugashvili) and Sergo (Ordzhonikidze), who on 14 February 1921 got the consent of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin to advance into Georgia, on the pretext of supporting "peasants and workers rebellion" in the country. Soviet forces took the Georgian capital Tbilisi (then known as Tiflis to most non-Georgian speakers) after heavy fighting and declared the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic on 25 February 1921. The rest of the country was overrun within three weeks, but it was not until September 1924 that Soviet rule was firmly established. Almost simultaneous occupation of a large portion of southwest Georgia by Turkey (February — March 1921) threatened to develop into a crisis between Moscow and Ankara, and led to significant territorial concessions by the Soviets to the Turkish National Government in the Treaty of Kars.
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