Shalva Maglakelidze

Shalva Maglakelidze (also spelled as "Maghlakelidze"; ; 1893–1976) was a Georgian jurist, politician and military commander. A high-ranking official in briefly independent Georgia (1918–1921), he was one of the leaders of anti-Soviet movement of Georgian émigrés in Europe. During World War II Maglakelidze was a commander in the Wehrmacht's Georgische Legion. Abducted from West Germany by the Soviet security agents, he was allowed to reside, under police supervision, in his native Georgia where he practiced law and died in Tbilisi.

Early career

Maglakelidze received his early education in a Georgian gymnasium in Kutaisi, then part of the Russian Empire, and obtained a PhD in law from the Berlin University. He fought in the Russian ranks in World War I and supported the Georgian independence cause following the Russian Revolution of 1917. From 1917 to 1918, he served as a plenipotentiary for the Russian Provisional Government and then for the government of Georgia in the restive districts of Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkalaki, where he resisted local Muslim separatism. From 1919 to 1920, Maglakelidze was a governor general of the Georgian capital Tbilisi.

A Germanophile and monarchist, Maglakelidze was close to the German military representative in the Caucasus von Schulenburg. They both were suspicious of the Georgian Social-Democratic government and contemplated its replacement with the constitutional monarchy under the German prince Joachim.

Emigration Latvia The Soviet invasion of Georgia in 1921 forced Maglakelidze into exile to Europe where he emerged as one of the key figures in Georgian émigré movement against the Soviet regime. He settled in Riga, Latvia, where he coordinated Caucasian émigré groups in close contact with the exiled Georgian government. In January 1929 Maglakelidze, together with his fellow Georgian Giorgi Shvangiradze founded the Iveria society (Iveria is a poetic name for Georgia), which was soon joined by the Armenian émigrés, and in June it was renamed into the Caucasian Society. One of the main activities of the society was providing aid for destitute countrymen. In 1933, due to internal strife, the Georgian faction left the Society and established the Georgian Society of Latvia.

France and Germany

Maglakelidze moved to France in 1934 and finally established himself in Germany in 1938. He reestablished old contacts with Schulenburg. They both lobbied the Georgian émigré prince Irakli Bagration of Mukhrani, with close ties with the Italian political élite, for presidency of the Georgian National Committee in Berlin and saw him as a candidate for the Georgian throne which was to be restored under a German protectorate. Maglakelidze also supported the idea of Caucasian confederation provided that the North Caucasians and Azerbaijanis abandoned their pro-Turkish stance and Armenia adopted a "truly pro-Caucasian" policy. After brief imprisonment, he was allowed to return to Georgia. The Maglakelidze case was widely exploited by the Soviet propaganda as an example of the state's lenient treatment of a "re-defector" and in an effort to discredit the Caucasian political emigration. The official Soviet press carried the detailed "confession" of Maglakelidze in which he denounced the Caucasian émigré leaders as the United States and British intelligence agents and expressed his "sincere repentance for the crimes he had committed against the motherland".

Henceforth, Maglakelidze did not enjoy publicity. He was permitted to live and work as a lawyer in Tbilisi, under the watchful eyes of the Soviet secret police until his death in 1976.