Establishment as leader Lakoba returned to Abkhazia in 1921, as part of its
conquest of Georgia. Along with Eshba and
Nikolai Akirtava, Lakoba was one of the signatories on a telegram to
Vladimir Lenin announcing the formation of the
Socialist Soviet Republic of Abkhazia (SSR Abkhazia) which was initially allowed to exist as a full
union republic. A
Revolutionary Committee (Revkom), formed and led by Eshba and Lakoba in preparation for the Bolshevik occupation, took control of Abkhazia. The Revkom resigned on 17 February 1922, and Lakoba was unanimously elected the Chairman of the
Council of People's Commissars, a body that was formed that day, thus effectively the head of Abkhazia. He would hold this post until 17 April 1930, when the council was abolished and replaced by a Presidium of the Central Executive Committee, though Lakoba would retain the top position.
Lakoba in power Long a friend of several leading Bolsheviks, including
Sergo Orjonikidze,
Sergei Kirov, and
Lev Kamenev, it was his relationship with Stalin that was most important to Lakoba's rise to power. Stalin was fond of Lakoba as they had much in common with each other: both were from the Caucasus, both grew up fatherless (Stalin's
father had moved away for work when Stalin was young), and they both attended the same seminary school. Stalin admired Lakoba's marksmanship, as well as his work during the Civil War. Familiar with Abkhazia from his revolutionary days, Stalin had a
dacha built in the region and vacationed there throughout the 1920s. He would joke, "I am Koba, and you are Lakoba" ("Я Коба, а ты Лакоба" in Russian; Koba was one of Stalin's pseudonyms as a revolutionary). Though the two possibly met during the Civil War, Lakoba and Stalin became properly acquainted at the
Thirteenth Party Congress in Moscow, held in May 1924. Lakoba used his relationship with Stalin to benefit both himself and Abkhazia. Aware that the Abkhaz would be marginalized within the
Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (Georgian SSR), he sought to keep Abkhazia as a full union republic. He ultimately had to concede to Abkhazia's status of "treaty republic" within Georgia, a status that was never fully clarified. Abkhazia, as a part of the Georgian SSR, then joined the
Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (a union of the Georgian,
Armenian, and
Azerbaijanian SSRs) when it was founded in 1922. Lakoba generally avoided going through Party channels, which would have meant dealing with reluctant officials in Georgia's capital
Tbilisi, and instead used his connections to go directly to Moscow. In recognition of his leadership, on 15 March 1935 Lakoba and Abkhazia were both awarded the
Order of Lenin, though the ceremony was pushed back until the next year in order to coincide with the fifteenth anniversary of the establishment of the Bolsheviks in Abkhazia. In December 1935, whilst in Moscow, Lakoba was given the
Order of the Red Banner in recognition of his efforts during the Civil War. As a leader, Lakoba proved to be very popular with the populace, which contrasted with other ethnic minority leaders across the Soviet Union, who were usually mistrusted by the locals and regarded as representatives of the state. He visited the villages of Abkhazia, and as Bgazhba wrote, "Lakoba wanted to be familiar with the living conditions of the peasants". In contrast to other Bolshevik leaders, Lakoba was quiet and elegant and avoided shouting to make his point. Other projects included building new roads and railways, the drainage of
wetlands as a preventive measure against
malaria, and increased forestry. Agriculture was also given prominence, particularly tobacco: by the 1930s Abkhazia supplied up to 52 percent of all tobacco exports from the USSR. Other agricultural products, including tea, wine, and citrus fruits—especially
tangerines—were produced in large quantities, making Abkhazia one of the most prosperous regions in the entire Soviet Union, and considerably richer than Georgia. The export of these products turned the region into "an island of prosperity in a war-ravaged Caucasus". Education was also a major issue for Lakoba, who oversaw the construction of many new schools throughout Abkhazia: aided by the
korenizatsiia policies that promoted local ethnic groups, many schools teaching in Abkhaz were opened in the 1920s, as well as schools in
Georgian,
Armenian, and
Greek. Lakoba was determined to maintain ethnic harmony in Abkhazia, a
demographically diverse region. The
ethnic Abkhaz only constituted roughly 25–30% of the population during the 1920s and 1930s, which included significant numbers of
Georgians,
Russians,
Armenians, and
Greeks. The implementation of
collectivization across the Soviet Union, which began in 1928, proved to be a major issue for both Abkhazia and Lakoba. Traditional Abkhaz agricultural practice had seen farming conducted by individual households, though assistance from other families and friends was frequent. The historian
Timothy K. Blauvelt has written that Lakoba tried to defer collectivization for the first two years by using a variety of excuses, such as "local conditions", "backwardness" of local agricultural methods, "primitive technology" and the lack of
kulaks in Abkhazia, although Blauvelt believes that it was Lakoba's relationship with Stalin together with the remote location of Abkhazia that delayed collectivization. Lakoba's refusal to introduce the policy led to further disputes between him and the Abkhaz Party, which was stopped by Stalin, who rebuked the Party for "not taking into consideration the specific particularities of the Abkhazian situation, imposing sometimes the policy of mechanically transferring Russian forms of socialist construction onto Abkhazian soil". The Abkhaz historian
Stanislav Lakoba has argued that once Stalin had firm control in Moscow he was no longer interested in leniency towards Lakoba or Abkhazia: in exchange for the relaxed introduction of collectivization, Lakoba had to acquiesce to Abkhazia losing its status as a "treaty republic." On 19 February 1931, Abkhazia was downgraded into an
Autonomous Republic, the
Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and so was placed more firmly under Georgian control. The move was unpopular in Abkhazia and saw large-scale public protests, the first in Abkhazia against the Soviet authorities.
Rivalry with Beria , 1930s Lakoba was also influential in the rise of
Lavrentiy Beria. It was on Lakoba's suggestion that Stalin first met Beria, an ethnic
Mingrelian who was born and raised in Abkhazia. Beria had served as the head of the
Georgian secret police since 1926, and in November 1931 with Lakoba's support he was named the Second Secretary of Transcaucasia, as well as
First Secretary of Georgia, and was promoted to First Secretary of Transcaucasia in October 1932. Lakoba supported Beria's rise because he felt that as a young native of Abkhazia, Beria would be obedient to Lakoba, whereas previous officials had not been. That Beria lacked any direct access to Stalin was also important, as it meant Lakoba could maintain his individually strong relationship with Stalin. Blauvelt has suggested that Lakoba wanted Beria in power to help quash accusations dating back to 1929 that maintained he was abusing his power: a report presented to the
Central Committee in 1930 exonerated Lakoba, due in the main to a lack of evidence and the intercession by Stalin. Beria's role as head of the Georgian
secret police allowed him to heavily influence any future investigations. Once in this position, Beria began to undermine Lakoba and to gain closer access to Stalin. Lakoba, who grew to despise Beria, sought to discredit him. At one point Lakoba told fellow Bolshevik
Sergo Ordzhonikidze that Beria once said that Ordzhonikidze "would have shot all the Georgians in Georgia if it was not for [Beria]" when he led the invasion of Georgia in 1921, and discussed the rumour that Beria had worked as a
double agent against the Bolsheviks in
Azerbaijan in 1920. The relationship between Beria and Lakoba deteriorated as each tried to become closer to Stalin, and Lakoba retained his close relationship. In 1933, Beria apparently staged an event to try and win the support of Stalin, who was staying at his dacha in
Gagra, in the north of Abkhazia. Stalin, Beria,
Klim Voroshilov and a few other passengers intended to go along the shore for a few hours. As they approached their destination for a picnic, near the town of
Pitsunda, three rifle shots landed in the water near the boat, coming from either the lighthouse or a border post. None of the shots were close, though Beria later recounted that he covered Stalin's body with his own. Initially Stalin joked about the incident, though he later sent someone to investigate, and received a letter from the border guard who apparently took the shots, asking for forgiveness and explaining he thought it was a foreign vessel. In response, Beria began a project to chronicle Stalin's entire time as a revolutionary in the Caucasus. Beginning in 1935, Stalin made overtures to Lakoba to move to Moscow and replace
Genrikh Yagoda as the head of the
NKVD, the Soviet secret police. Lakoba turned down the offer in December 1935, content to stay in Abkhazia. This outright refusal of such an offer only led to trouble for Lakoba, as it caused Stalin's goodwill to begin to dissipate. After Stalin repeated his offer in August 1936, only to be turned down again, a new law was implemented, "On the Correct Typeface Names of Settlements". This forced
toponyms across Abkhazia to change from Abkhaz or Russian language spelling rules to Georgian rules. The capital of Abkhazia, known in Russian as
Sukhum, now officially became Sukhumi. Lakoba, who had refused to issue
license plates in Abkhazia until they switched the location from "Georgia" to "Abkhazia," recognized that this was a deliberate move by Beria and Stalin to undermine him, and took caution. He began to lobby Stalin to transfer Abkhazia from Georgia into the nearby
Krasnodar Krai within Russia, but was rebuffed each time. On Lakoba's final visit to Moscow and Stalin, he brought the topic up one final time, and complained about Beria. == Death ==