Georgia and the International Treaties of 1918–1921 by Andersen Andrew (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 373 Throughout his study, Lorman returns time and again to a key and significant term, namely, ‘ambiguity’, in describing the objectives and platforms of the SLS movement and party, especially after 1918. Lorman identifies two factors which held the party together: the cult of the leader Hlinka, and an ambiguous ideology which could reach both supporters of autonomy within the Czechoslovak state or dissolution of the republic (pp. 179–85). Finally in chapter six, Lorman thoughtfully and carefully dissects the question of clerical fascism and the fascistic policies of the SLS, again using the ambiguity of platform versus the actions of individual leaders who were oriented in that direction. These voices placed the party ‘on a path to fascism even though it never reached that destination’ (p. 188). The diversity of sources and the balanced analysis makes this work an interesting and valuable contribution to the study of Slovak history. Department of History Susan Mikula Benedictine University, Lisle, IL Andersen, Andrew. Georgia and the International Treaties of 1918–1921. Asteroid Publishing Inc., Toronto, 2018. 472 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Appendix. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. $86.95 (paperback). History can often become political, while politics can be driven by historical perceptions. This is true especially with both modern and contemporary histories, which are open to manipulation by political regimes which, in their turn, can instrumentalize history for manipulating their people. The history of the Caucasus has become a highly contested and debated topic both across the region and in Putin’s Russia. For example, on 16 July 2019, Putin lectured journalists on the historic legitimacy of Abkhazia and South Ossetia having been forcibly torn away from Georgia (https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=Z6kLp8FktlY), and on 16 February 2020 the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Nikol Pashinyan and Ilham Aliyev, met for the first time ever at a public debate at the Security Conference in Munich, where they shocked the audience by debating remote historical facts for over 30 of the 45 minutes of the discussion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_ VXEhG6hmQ). The political use and abuse of the history of the Caucasus has caused considerable confusion, making it hard for the general public, and even experienced scholars to distinguish between truth and politicized propaganda. Against this background, Andrew Andersen’s book, Georgia and the International Treaties of 1918–1921, is refreshing, providing a concise, well- SEER, 99, 2, APRIL 2021 374 documented and visual overview of three decisive years in the history of the South Caucasus in general, and of Georgia in particular. This short period of Georgian independence, as well as that of her two South Caucasian neighbours, Armenia and Azerbaijan, has been largely understudied, if not ignored and forgotten by Western scholars and politicians, despite the fact that the three current nations of the South Caucasus are not only the heirs of their recent past but also its hostages, keeping in mind that they still face many similar challenges to which they respond very much in the same way as they did a century ago. Andrew Andersen’s book presents the original texts of eleven key treaties that shaped the political map of the region, from the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of 3 March 1918 to the Treaty of Kars of 13 October 1921, and which were to determine the very existence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG). Based on both the treaties themselves and the political and military events that preceded the conclusion of each of them, Andersen, in cooperation with his colleague, George Partskhaladze, has created fifty-three high-quality full-colour maps that cover not only the subtle local entanglements of the Transcaucasian republics, but also global geopolitical considerations, the economic life of the region and demographical developments. Andersen’s book can therefore claim to be the first atlas of the DRG. In his commentary, Andersen smoothly navigates from one treaty to the next, assembling the pieces of a complex puzzle of Transcaucasian geopolitics between 1918 and 1921, setting his narrative against the historical and geographical backdrops to the numerous conflicts which the treaties were intended to resolve. In the first half of the book, he critically, but at the same time...