International Realignments Ë 117
by the Bolsheviks” and it was “supported by European powers hostile to the Soviet
Union, morally by Britain and France, politically and nancially by Poland.”⁴¹
Poland further subsidized the publication of numerous periodicals and other pub-
lications by respective national groups, including Ukrainians and Central Asians. Al-
though the Committee for the Independence of the Caucasus initially planned to pub-
lish its organ,Nezavisimyi Kavkaz(Le Caucase indépendant), in Istanbul in Russian,
it abandoned its intention under the pressure of Turkish authorities (which feared
complicating relations with Moscow). Instead, in the autumn of 1926 publication be-
gan in Paris of the journal titledProméthéein French under the editorship of Georges
Gvazava, a Georgian National Democrat. Allegedly, name of the monthly itself was
proposed by Haidar Bammat and the rst number composed in his at in Paris.⁴²Re-
sisting the opposition of some members and supported by its Polish sponsors, the
journal’s rst issue carried the subtitle “The National Defense of the Caucasus and
Ukraine.” From the spring of 1927, accepting the demands of the Azeris, it expanded
to include Central Asia, hence the addition of Turkestan to the subititle: “The National
Defense of the Caucasus, Ukraine, and Turkestan,” with Mustafa Chokai joining the
editorial sta as Turkestan’s representative.⁴³
To the extent that the Promethean movement depended on the support of foreign
powers, it returned their favor with intelligence on the Soviet Union useful to them.
The Eastern Section of Ekspozytura No. 2 (Bureau No. 2) of the Polish General (Chief)
Sta Second Department (charged with intelligence, counterintelligence, and diver-
sionary activity) was placed in charge of the Promethean movement and was headed
by Edmund Charaszkiewicz.⁴⁴Georgian military o cers in exile also served in the Pol-
ish army. In 1926 in Warsaw, a new academic Institute of the East (Instytut Wschodni)
was created, which was also closely linked to the Promethean movement.⁴⁵
In this regard, it is worth noting that since the time of the Civil War in Russia,
Poland and Japan had been closely cooperating in intelligence. Even though the po-
litical orientations of the two countries often diverged, they exchanged intelligence
about the Soviet Union because of the common interests they shared against their gi-
41 Timothy Snyder,Sketches from a Secret War: A Polish Artist’s Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005), 40. For more on this movement, see the monograph by
Sergiusz Mikulicz,Prometeizm w polityce II Rzeczypospolitej(Warsaw: Książka i Wiedza, 1971).
42 Mamoulia,Les combats indépendandistes des Caucasiens, 101 and Mamoulia, ed.,Kavkazskaia
Konfederatsiia, 15.
43 Mamoulia,Les combats indépendandistes des Caucasiens, 101–2, 373–74, and Mamoulia, ed.,
Kavkazskaia Konfederatsiia, 15–16, 69, 71–72. On Chokai, see Bakhyt Sadykova,Mustafa Tchokay dans
le mouvement prométhéen(Paris: L’Harmattan, 2007).
44 See Andrzej Grzywacz, Marcin Kwiecień, and Grzegorz Mazur, eds.,Zbiór dokumentów ppłk. Ed-
munda Charaszkiewicza(Kraków: Fundacja CDCN and Księg. Akademicka, 2000), 12–15.
45 See Ireneusz Piotr Maj,Działalność Instytutu Wschodniego w Warszawie 1926–1939(Warsaw: In-
stytut Studiów Politycznych PAN, 2007).