Sak'art'velos SSR sakhelmtsipo usisroebis komiteti [Georgian KGB] records

Title: Sak'art'velos SSR sakhelmtsipo ušišroebis komiteti [Georgian KGB] records

Date (inclusive): 1921-1952

Collection Number: 2012C55

Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives

Language of Material: In Georgian and Russian

Physical Description: 85 digital files (PDF) (85.0 digital_files)

Abstract: Correspondence, reports, and investigative and judicial files relating to secret police investigative activities and prosecutions in the Georgian S.S.R. Includes lists of persons tried and judicial proceedings in 1937-1938. Digital copies.

Creator: Soviet Union. Komitet gosudarstvennoĭ bezopasnosti

Creator: Sak'art'velos SSR sakhelmtsipo ušišroebis komiteti

Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Users must sign use agreement. The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2012.

[Identification of item] (Digital copy), [Record number], Sak'art'velos SSR sakhelmtsipo ušišroebis komiteti records, Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Šinagan sak'met'a saminstros arkivi, T'bilisi, Georgia.

The Archives department of the Georgian A.S.S.R was established in March 1921 by resolution of the Extraordinary Commission (ChK). The Georgian A.S.S.R. became a union republic in 1936, and at that time the Archives became a part of the People's Commissariat of State Security (NKGB) of the Georgian S.S.R. Later the NKGB became the Ministry of State Security (MGB), and in 1954 it became the Committee for State Security (KGB) of the Council of Ministers of the Georgian S.S.R.

The responsibilities of the Archives department included receiving and preserving incriminating materials about "enemies of the state" and other "dangerous elements" investigated by the state security institutions. From 1921 to 1991 the Archives accumulated more than 230,000 files stored in the cellar of the 10th department of the Committee of State Security (KGB). During the "Tbilisi War" -- the military coup d'etat of December 21, 1991 to January 6, 1992, against the first democratically elected President of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia -- the central building of the former KGB caught fire. As a result, 210,000 archival files (80% of the entire collection) were destroyed.

However, many important documents are still held in the Georgian KGB Archives, including those relating to the 1922-1924 guerrilla uprising against Soviet occupation, the 1991-1993 Georgian Civil War (Georgian-Ossetian and Georgian-Abkhazian conflicts and coup d'etat against Gamsakhurdia), the dissident movement, the March 1956 Tbilisi demonstrations against Khrushchev's de-Stalinization policy, and the "Mingrelian Affair" (a series of criminal cases fabricated in 1951-1952 accusing several members of the Communist Party of the Georgian S.S.R. of Mingrelian origin of collaboration with the Western powers).

The records of the Georgian KGB available at the Hoover Archives mostly relate to implementation of the death penalty (banned in 1947) or lesser terms of punishment in the Georgian S.S.R.

This collection relates to repressions in the Georgian S.S.R., especially to the 1937-1938 purges and the mass executions that took place during World War II. It contains lists of people executed; legal sentences; directives from the Chief of the NKVD of the Georgian S.S.R. to chiefs of NKVDs of autonomous republics and heads of prisons, military tribunals, and other institutions; memoranda; correspondence; and telegrams. Also included are "execution statements" confirming that death sentences were carried out, along with medical certifications of death. Execution statements were signed by officials present at the execution, including the chief of internal prison, commandant, and military procurator.

Files vary in length, with some exceeding 300 pages.