Treaty of Moscow: recognition of Georgia, 1920

On 7 May 1920 Soviet Russia, by the Treaty of Moscow, unconditionally recognised Georgia’s independence — nine months before the Red Army invasion.

1920

The Treaty of Moscow was signed on 7 May 1920 in Moscow between the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR) and the Democratic Republic of Georgia. By Article 1, Soviet Russia unconditionally recognised the independence and sovereignty of the Georgian state.

Russia renounced all sovereign rights over the Georgian people and land (Art. 1), undertook not to interfere in Georgia's internal affairs (Art. 2), and recognised the Tiflis, Kutaisi and Batumi provinces with their districts as Georgian (Art. 4); Article 3 traced the border along the river Psou. The treaty was signed by Grigol Uratadze for Georgia and Lev Karakhan for the RSFSR.

Article 10 was contentious: Georgia undertook to free from punishment and prosecution all who had acted in favour of the RSFSR or the Communist Party. A supplementary (secret) agreement effectively legalised the activity of Bolshevik organisations, which Moscow later exploited.

Despite this recognition, in February 1921 the Red Army invaded Georgia; by March the republic had fallen and Sovietisation began. The treaty later became one of the legal-international arguments for Georgia's 1991 restoration of independence. The text is in the public domain.