isaac-deutscher-the-prophet-armed-trotsky-1879-1921

474 THE PROPHET ARMED
Mensheviks had meekly submitted to the successive occupation
of their country by the Germans and then by the British, and had
severely suppressed the Georgian Bolsheviks. Nevertheless the
Soviet government had solemnly committed itself to respect
Georgia's independence, and it had recognized the Menshevik
government. The Politbureau hoped that Georgia would
eventually find the pull of the Soviet Caucasus irresistible, that
its Menshevik rulers would not be able to govern the country
in opposition to all its neighbours, and that the scene would
thus be set for their overthrow by native revolutionary forces.
Consequently, the Politburcau was inclined to wait patiently
until the experiment had run its course.
Trotsky was therefore greatly surprised when, in the middle
of February 1921, during an inspection in the Urals, he learned
that the Red Army had marched into Georgia. He was on the
point of leaving for Moscow to attend a session of the Central
Committee; and before his departure he got in touch with
Sklyansky and inquired who had issued the marching orders
and why. It turned out that the invasion was a bolt from the
blue to the Commander-in-Chief as well. Trotsky suspected
that the adventure had been irresponsibly staged behind the
back of the General Staff and of the Politbureau; and he intended
'to raise the matter in full session of the Central Committee'
and to bring to book the presumed adventurer.' But the
marching orders had been issued, with the Politbureau's
approval, by the Revolutionary \Var Council of the Caucasus,
on which Or