Fr. 59.50

Allies Against Two Evils - Georgian POWs in WWII's "Bergmann" Units and the Quest to Liberate the Caucasus from Russian Imperialism

Inglese · Copertina rigida

Pubblicazione il 01.08.2023

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An eye-witness account of the Russian/European conflict at the heart of WWII, relevant today as war rages again along similar battle lines in Ukraine, Crimea and the Caucasus.
In a corner of 20th-century history almost unknown to the English-speaking public, anti-Stalinist Georgians and anti-Hitlerite Germans worked as an arm of the German Resistance, disavowing Hitler’s inhuman "East Policy" mandates and seeking to liberate Caucasian nations from Stalin. Allies Against Two Evils: Georgian P.O.W.s in WWII’s Bergmann Units and the Quest to Liberate the Caucasus from Russian Imperialism by exiled Georgian M.D. Givi Gabliani vividly recalls this time, the hopes of the Georgians who fought in World War II, their solidarity, their tribulations, their devotion to the Jewish people, and why they made the alliances they did.
Gabliani's memoir, written in English and published several years ago in Georgia, contrasts the vision of an ascendant Russian Empire and a decaying West with historical European-Georgian cooperation and the centuries-long quest of the Georgian people for self-determination.
The preface by Georgian-German scholar and former head of the Georgian National Library, Alexander Kartozia examines the legacy of Givi Gabliani and the Gabliani family from the highland province of Svaneti, keepers of 12th century artifacts from Georgia's Golden Age and leaders of the 1920s resistance insurgency against Soviet invasion.

Gabliani envisions a future Europe supporting a trans-Caucasian alliance with mixed races and religions living together equally in tolerance and prosperous harmony, as they had for millennia in Georgia. As a spokesman for the POWs, he coordinates with the Georgian exile government in occupied Paris and Berlin, finding a secret effort afoot in occupied France to save Georgian and other Eastern European Jews. Today, Gabliani's war memoir centers our attention on an active fault line. Across the great conflicts of the twentieth century that undergird and still define the region between Russia, with its imperialist ambitions, and the Black Sea, Georgia and the Georgian people appear as some of the most likely partners for international efforts toward peace.


Sommario

Preface to the Memoirs of Givi Gabliani

by Alexander Kartozia   vii   



Foreword by the author   1 

Leaving Georgia for Russia   5   

Entrance into World War II   33

A German P.O.W. Outside Prison Camp   36

Transfer to Germany   47

In the Bergmann Unit and Caucasus   77

Plot in Bergmann   112

To the Ukraine and Caucasus   131

Patriots and Defectors   146

In Crimea   171

Leaving Crimea for Germany; The Dresden Military School   188

The Georgian Liaison Staff—A Mission   204

In France and Holland   222

Report on the Three Bergmann Battalions   248

March–July 1944   264

Saving the Georgian Legionnaires   282

End of War   297

Displaced Persons   320

From Germany to America   335

Afterword by Gregory Gabliani   347

Appendices

Hans von Herwarth’s Introduction and Affidavit   353

The Brest-Litovsk Treaty   356 

German Georgian Friendship Speech upon German Withdrawal in WW I   359

The Red Army Offensive in November 1942   362

Grigol (Grisha) Alshibaja   363

Kale Salia and The Georgian Destiny   367

Alexandre Manvelishvili   369

Alexandre Nikuradze   372

General Giorgi Kvinitadze   376

The Plot in “Bergmann”   378

Documents from the Author’s Archive   385



Maps   412

Photographs   417



Supporting Literature   431


Index   435

Info autore










Dr. Givi Gabliani (1915¿2001) was a general surgeon who practiced medicine for over 35 years in Quincy, Illinois. Gabliani came to the United States in 1950 and remained here in exile due to the fact his father Egnate Gabliani, governor of the Svaneti mountain region, was a resistance leader and political prisoner killed in Stalin's purges in the 1930s. Gabliani wrote his memoir in the optimism of the early 1990s as the Soviet Union was collapsing, and it looks forward to a future world without a Russian oppressor in the Caucasus.
Alexander Kartozia, former Minister of Education of Georgia and director of the National Parliamentary Library, is a widely published scholar awarded with research prizes from Germany and Georgia. He received the "Order of Merit" from the Federal Republic of Germany in 2022. His research includes German-Georgian cultural exchange and Georgian culture, literature, and language.
Hans-Heinrich Herwarth von Bittenfeld, also known as Johann von Herwarth, was a German diplomat in Moscow who provided the Allies with information prior to and during the Second World War. He revealed the secret pre-war pact made between Hitler and Stalin on how to divide Central Europe and continued to advise Western powers not to give in to Hitler's territorial demands. In 1955, Herwarth became the first post-war ambassador from Germany to London.


Riassunto

An eye-witness account of the Russian/European conflict at the heart of WWII, relevant today as war rages again along similar battle lines in Ukraine, Crimea and the Caucasus.
In a corner of 20th-century history almost unknown to the English-speaking public, anti-Stalinist Georgians and anti-Hitlerite Germans worked as an arm of the German Resistance, disavowing Hitler’s inhuman "East Policy" mandates and seeking to liberate Caucasian nations from Stalin. Allies Against Two Evils: Georgian P.O.W.s in WWII’s Bergmann Units and the Quest to Liberate the Caucasus from Russian Imperialism by exiled Georgian M.D. Givi Gabliani vividly recalls this time, the hopes of the Georgians who fought in World War II, their solidarity, their tribulations, their devotion to the Jewish people, and why they made the alliances they did.
Gabliani's memoir, written in English and published several years ago in Georgia, contrasts the vision of an ascendant Russian Empire and a decaying West with historical European-Georgian cooperation and the centuries-long quest of the Georgian people for self-determination.
The preface by Georgian-German scholar and former head of the Georgian National Library, Alexander Kartozia examines the legacy of Givi Gabliani and the Gabliani family from the highland province of Svaneti, keepers of 12th century artifacts from Georgia's Golden Age and leaders of the 1920s resistance insurgency against Soviet invasion.

Gabliani envisions a future Europe supporting a trans-Caucasian alliance with mixed races and religions living together equally in tolerance and prosperous harmony, as they had for millennia in Georgia. As a spokesman for the POWs, he coordinates with the Georgian exile government in occupied Paris and Berlin, finding a secret effort afoot in occupied France to save Georgian and other Eastern European Jews. Today, Gabliani's war memoir centers our attention on an active fault line. Across the great conflicts of the twentieth century that undergird and still define the region between Russia, with its imperialist ambitions, and the Black Sea, Georgia and the Georgian people appear as some of the most likely partners for international efforts toward peace.

Prefazione

  • DRCs available through Edelweiss
  • ARCs available upon request
  • Outreach through networks of Georgian exiles 
  • Outreach through collection librarians at Harvard and Yale who were interested in acquiring Gabliani's archive before Tbilisi
  • Outreach to scholars of Soviet and Eastern European Studies. Expressed interest from Northwestern, Yale, and Harvard, among others.
  • National print campaign focusing on historical aspects: military; Russia and Ukraine; Russia and Crimea; the "German Resistance" within the Nazi party; Caucasus; and any past reviewers of David Nasaw's "The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War"
  • Dettagli sul prodotto

    Autori Givi Gabliani
    Con la collaborazione di Hans von Herwarth (Prefazione), Alexander Kartozia (Introduzione)
    Editore Ingram Publishers Services
     
    Lingue Inglese
    Formato Copertina rigida
    Pubblicazione 01.08.2023, ritardato
     
    EAN 9781954600249
    ISBN 978-1-954600-24-9
    Pagine 488
    Illustrazioni bw photos, maps, archival documents
    Categorie Saggistica > Storia > Altro
    Scienze sociali, diritto, economia > Scienze politiche > Politica e sua amministrazione

    BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Military, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Russian & Former Soviet Union

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