Giorgi Mazniashvili

Giorgi Ivanes dze Mazniashvili (6 April 1871 – 9 September 1937 ) was a Georgian general and one of the most prominent military figures in the Democratic Republic of Georgia. He is recognized as the National Hero of Georgia.

Early life and education Mazniashvili was born on 6 April 1871 in the village Sasireti, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire (present day Kaspi Municipality, Shida Kartli, Georgia). Having taken a proper military education, he was later promoted to colonel of the Russian army.

Career Wounded in the Russo-Japanese War, he was visited at a hospital by the Tsar Nicholas II, who awarded him Saint George's Cross and invited to the palace. He fought also on the battlefields of World War I, but returned to Georgia after the February Revolution in 1917. He formed two national divisions and secured the capital Tbilisi from the chaotically retreating and increasingly Bolshevik Russian soldiers.

In April 1918, on the basis of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Turks occupied Batumi, from where, in violation of the agreements, they continued their offensive into the Georgian province of Guria, reaching Ozurgeti. On 8 April, Mazniashvili with the Georgian army counterattacked and defeated the Turks at the Battle of Choloki.

In June 1918, he served as a governor general of Abkhazia and crushed there a pro-Bolshevik revolt; then he took Gagra, Sochi and Tuapse in the first phase of the Sochi conflict. After defeating Turks, Mazniashvili handed Batumi over to the Bolshevik regime of Georgia.

The newly established Soviet government of Georgia declared him outlaw, but later General Mazniashvili served in the Georgian Red Army and commanded a division. Soon, the division was disbanded due to the reduction of staff and Mazniashvili was appointed as an infantry inspector.

Legacy Mazniashvili is the author of the popular Soldier's Memoirs. In 2013, he was posthumously awarded the title and Order of the National Hero of Georgia.

Personal life

Ancestry According to historian Ucha Murghulia, Mazniashvili's father was Georgian officer of Russian Imperial Army Ivane Mazniashvili. However, according to other versions, attested by his stepchild's descendent Anouki Areshidze, Giorgi Mazniashvili's father was an ethnic Russian officer Ivan Maznev and his mother was an ethnic Georgian Kristine Glurjidze.