The Gurian Republic[a] was an insurgent community that existed between 1902 and 1906 in the western Georgian region of Guria (known at the time as the Ozurget Uyezd) in the Russian Empire.

The revolt gained further traction through the efforts of Georgian social democrats, despite some reservations within their party over supporting a peasant movement, and grew further during the 1905 Russian Revolution.

During its existence, the Gurian Republic ignored Russian authority and established its own system of government, which consisted of assemblies of villagers meeting and discussing issues.

In the early 19th century it had been incorporated into the Russian Empire: the Principality of Guria was made a protectorate in 1810 and retained autonomy until 1829 when it was formally annexed.

[4] Until the Russo-Turkish War and the annexation of Adjara in 1878, Guria bordered the Ottoman Empire, and that legacy as a borderland was slow to dissipate: many residents remained armed, and bandits frequented the region.

With many Gurians unable to make a living from farming land, they instead became seasonal workers, travelling to Batumi and Poti, or other developing regions across Georgia.

Several leading Georgian Bolsheviks, the other main faction within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), were also Gurian, though the region overwhelmingly supported the Mensheviks.

[29] Uratadze sought the support of the RSDLP for the boycott, but they refused because of the overt religious elements of the meeting, such as swearing oaths on icons.

[35] The authorities responded by arresting over 300 people, and several, including Zhordania and fellow Menshevik leader Noe Khomeriki were exiled to Siberia; this only encouraged further participation.

They established a separate committee for "agricultural workers" that would focus on Guria, a term that attempted to reconcile Marxism with the peasant movement.

[37] All people were expected to contribute money or labour, and Villari reported that "one sometimes saw nobles, priests, peasants, and shopkeepers all manfully doing their turn of work.

[46] The decision to have two systems like this caused tension between the groups: the Social Democrats did not want to lose focus on their class struggles, while the peasants were angry at being excluded from the party.

[47] These factional differences, which also led to a split within the Georgian Social Democrats, had little impact on the Gurian Republic, with both Bolsheviks and Mensheviks at times being asked to participate in local debates.

[48][49] Starting in 1903 there had been a slow expansion of the ideals of the Gurian Republic outside its borders, and by August 1904 it had firmly taken hold in neighbouring Imereti, which had 600 "circles" of its own by the end of 1905; similar movements also arose in nearby Mingrelia.

[53] As Villari noted, the "corruption and inefficiency of the Russian courts of justice in Georgia was a byword among the people and constituted one of the chief grievances of the inhabitants, who constantly but fruitlessly demanded that they should be reformed."

This was considered a terrible sentence: one contemporary said that "everyone feared the boycott" as it meant "expulsion from social life, isolation from one's neighbourhood, [and] the people's enmity."

[40] Other methods were employed as well: Villari notes that in one case two peasants were convicted of adultery and forced to ride a donkey naked through the town while proclaiming their guilt and swearing to live a better life.

[58] Protests against Tsarist rule broke out across the Russian Empire, exacerbated by continual defeats during the Russo-Japanese War, and the situation in Guria became much more violent.

[51] The acting governor-general of the Caucasus, Yakov Malama [ru], notified the authorities in Saint Petersburg that "The situation in the Ozurgeti district and surrounding areas is assuming the character of a rebellion" and requested military assistance to handle it.

[64] Vorontsov-Dashkov was seen as a moderate and less reactionary than Alikhanov-Avarsky, and rather than use military force sent a sole representative, Sultan Krym-Girei, to tour Guria and hear local grievances.

[65] Krym-Girei was nonetheless able to take in several of the main issues facing the Gurian Republic, mainly political and economic demands, and was clear they wished to remain part of the Russian Empire; as historian David Marshall Lang wrote, the Gurians "merely desired to emerge from their colonial status and enjoy the same rights and privileges as the citizens of European Russia.

He did give four recommendations to Vorontsov-Dashkov: replacement of appointed elders by elected individuals; the restoration of libraries; allowing the return of those in administrative exile; and the removal of soldiers stationed in Guria.

[71] Tsar Nicholas II's announcement of the October Manifesto, a precursor to the Russian Empire's first Constitution that would grant freedom of speech, assembly, and the establishment of an elected legislative body, the Duma, lowered tensions again.

[62] The Manifesto was seen by the Caucasus administration as an endorsement of its liberal policies, and a confirmation that using force to re-integrate Guria would only lead to further destabilisation across the Empire.

[70] That month Vorontsov-Dashkov named Malama military governor of Tiflis, but quickly replaced him with Alikhanov-Avarsky, who he tasked with restoring order to the city by whatever means necessary.

[78] In response the Gurians moved east and blocked the Surami Pass, the lone railway link between western and eastern Georgia, and prepared for a military invasion.

[80] Alikhanov-Avarsky had his predecessor arrested immediately for his failure to resolve the crisis and sent to Tiflis, and began harsh reprisals in an attempt to restore order.

[90] Due to its location on the fringes of the Empire, both geographically and politically, the authorities were slow to respond and Guria was able to sustain the republic for several years.

"[94] Many of the leading figures of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, which existed from 1918 until 1921 and was led by Georgian Mensheviks, Lee notes, were Gurians who had earlier participated in the movement in Guria.

This helped solve the dilemma of utilising Marxism (which was traditionally oriented towards the working class) into a rural society (which encompassed much of the Russian Empire).